Diving on the wreck site
Diving on this wreck requires permission from the Maritime Office in Gdynia.
The Wreck lies on it’s keel, slightly tilted to the starboard. The depth on the bottom is 51 meters and the shallowest point on the wreck is 44 meters. The hull is intact. Above the wooden deck made out of flooring strips, there is a conning tower with a round antenna, which was used to track radio signals, and two periscopes: observational and combat ones. Unfortunately, both of them are incomplete – their upper parts were torn from the wreck. At the bow there are two rudder blades, used to change depth and direction, and two propellers. In front of the conning tower, the deck is collapsed and the inner lining of the hull is visible. Most likely it is the place, where U-768 collided with another U-boot, U-745, leading to U-768 sinking. Going further to the bow, divers can examine the wooden deck above the hull. The bow is intact, towering above the seabed. There are a lot of fishing nets on the wreck, mostly in the central part of the submarine.
Story
U-768, type VIIC, was built in the Kriegsmarinewerft (KMW) shipyard in Wilhelmshaven as order number 151 from 15.08.1940. The keel was laid on 22.08.1943 and the submarine was launched on 07.03.1943. The vessel entered service on 14.10.1943 roku in 31 U-boot flotilla under OL Johann Buttjer’s command. From then the vessel was used for training purposes. On the evening of 20.11.1943, during a training mission in Gdańsk Bay (operational square AO 9824) she collided with identical submarine U-745 (under von Troth’s command). As a result of this collision, U-768 sank without any casualties. The submarine’s crew was rescued by the submarine, which caused a collision, and U-396.
The wreck was found on 29.10.2011 by Wojciech Jechna, owner of the dive center Bałtycka Baza Nurkowa LITORAL.
Technical Specifications
Type: Type VIIC Submarine
Displacement: 1070 t
Length: 67,10 m
Width: 6,20 m
Draught: 4,74 m
Propulsion: 4 supercharged diesel engines 3200 PS (2354 kW; 3156 shp) on the surface, 2 double-acting electric motors 750 PS (552 kW; 740 shp) submerged
Speed: 17,7 knots on surface, 7,66 knots submerged
Range: 13 700 nm on the surface maintaining a speed of10 knots, 125 nm submerged maintaining a speed of 4 knots
Test depth: 220 m (721 feet 9 inches)
Crew: 4 officers, 40–56 sailors
Armaments:
-5 × 53,3 cm (21 inches) torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow, one at the stern)
-14 × torpedoes
-1 × 8,8 cm naval gun (220 rounds)
-1 × 3,7 cm flak cannon Flak M42
-2 × twin 2 cm anti-aircraft guns C/30
Text: Kamil Stankiewicz
Translation: Bartosz Słaboń
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