Incidents Leading To Sinking
On 5 May 1945, for unknown reasons, the captain of U-534 ignored the surrender order and set course for Norway instead. To this day, mystery still surrounds U-534's refusal to surrender, although numerous theories exist. What seems to be established fact is that U-534 was sailing on the surface of the Kattegat, together with three other U-boats, when British Liberator aircraft attacked. The crew managed to shoot one bomber down, and nine depth charges from the bombing runs missed, but then the boat received a direct hit. U-534 began to take on water as a result of the damage to her aft section by the engine rooms, and sank north-east of Anholt. The shot-down B-24 must have come down nearby, all crew on board the plane were lost.
U-534 had a crew of 52 men, all of whom escaped and 49 survived. Five were trapped in the torpedo room as she began to sink but escaped through the torpedo loading hatch once the boat had settled on the sea bed. One of these crewmen, 17-year old radio operator Josef Neudorfer, failed to breathe out as he was surfacing from depth and died from damage to his lungs. The other two deaths were caused by exposure.
One plausible explanation for U-534's refusal to surrender lies in the discovery of three experimental T11 torpedoes found in the aft section of the vessel. Only 38 of this type were built, and they were unique in that they had acoustic homing systems which were developed as a countermeasure to the British Foxer decoy system.
The vessel's commander, Kapitänleutnant Herbert Nollau, committed suicide in 1968.
Read more about this topic: German Submarine U-534
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