Kaiser, Hans-Dietrich Dieter ('U-2338')

Date of birth:: October 6th, 1921 (Schwarzkollm, Schlesien/Silesia, Germany)
Date of death:: May 4th, 1945 (Samsøe Belt, Little Belt straight, Denmark)
Buried on:: German Submarines Memorial
Nationality:: German

Biography

IV/1940
01.04.1940: Rekrut, entered the Kriegsmarine
04.1940-06.1942: Lehrgänge and U-Boots-Ausbildung
01.01.1941: promoted to Matrosengefreiter und Reserve-Unteroffizieranwärter
01.12.1941: promoted to Bootsmannmaat
01.02.1942: promoted to Bootsmann
01.04.1942: promoted to Bootsmann der Reserve
07.1942-.09.1943: Leutnant zur See der Reserve, 2. Wach Offizier 'U 267'
01.10.1942: promoted to Leutnant zur See der Reserve
09.1943-07.1944: 1. Wach Offizier 'U 267'
01.03.1944: promoted to Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve
07.1944-09.1944: Kommandanten-Lehrgang
09.1944-08.10.1944: Baubelehrung 'U 2338' Typ XXIII - 8. Kriegsschiffbaulehrabteilung - Hamburg
09.10.1944: Indienststellung 'U 2338'
09.10.1944-04.05.1945: Kommandant 'U 2338'
09.10.1944-04.05.1945: 'U 2338' as Ausbildungsboot - 32. U-Flottille
03.05.1945: 'U 2338' departed from Kiel to Flensburg
04.05.1945: 'U 2338' departed from Flensburg to Norway
04.05.1945: KIA in the Baltic See near Samsö Belt north east from Fredericia at the exit of the Little Belt straight - Denmark when 'U 2338' was sunk around 15h30 by 22 British Bristol Beaufighter aircrafts - 55.34N. 09.49E.
During this air attack, 'U 2338' was hit by several rocket bombs and sank after an explosion with a flame, 12 died and 2 seriously injured were rescued out of 14 men
The 2 survivors : Torpedo-gefreiter Walter Specht and Bootsmaat Wilhelm Murach, both WIA
The lowering of U2338, a testimony from Torpedo-gefreiter Walter Specht in 1998:
Kl. 16.35 - 4 hours before the BBC's Danish-language news broadcast announced that the German troops in the Netherlands, North-West Germany and Denmark had surrendered, 3 German submarines of type XXIII were attacked off Fredericia in Denmark, by 22 aircraft of the type Beaufighter X from RAF Coastal Command escorted by 26 Mustang fighter jets, which had started from the Helmond air base in the Netherlands.
One of the submarines, U2338 - was sunk, while the other two submarines managed to dive with minor damage.
12 crew members died during the attack, while two survived.
One of the survivors; Torpedo-gefreiter Walter Specht visited in 1998 Fredericia where he told the following eyewitness account of the attack.
Early in the morning of 4. May, U2338, as I was enlisted, sailed in company with two other submarines; U2351 and U2365 in surface sailing from Flensburg up through the Little Belt towards Norway.
While sailing, we kept a sharp eye out for planes. We had no anti-aircraft guns and were therefore defenseless against airstrikes. As we passed under the Old Little Belt Bridge, people were standing up on the bridge waving to us and we waved back. After passing Strib lighthouse, we set course for Æbelø in a mined route. Chief Officer Werner Raschger and I had the bridge guard. The chief mate kept looking forward and I kept looking aft.
Suddenly, Werner Raschger shouted Fly-Alarm down to the submarine commander, Hans-Dietrich Kaiser, who was in the command room, and immediately asked him to show up on the bridge. But before he reached the submarine tower, we were attacked by low-flying planes. We made an alarm dive while projectiles from the planes hit us.
I was hit in one end bale and flung over and fell on my head down through the submarine tower, where I landed next to the hatch down to the command section. For a moment I was gone, but quickly came to myself again and crawled down the ladder and got the hatch closed.
U2338 was hit by several projectiles and armor-piercing rockets that pierced the pressure hull, so we quickly sank to a depth of 25 meters and lay down on the seabed.
We were shaken by the sudden attack and panic arose among several of the surviving crew members. The water started to rise so we crawled up into the command section. Here we stood 8 men in a circle. Hans-Dietrich Kaiser decided that we should try to escape the submarine by making a free ascent through the submarine tower.
To open the tower hatch, the atmospheric pressure inside the submarine first had to be equalized with the surrounding water pressure, by filling the command section we were in with water.
Everyone put on a Tauchretter (respirator), which was a life jacket, connected to an oxygen bottle with a hose and a mouthpiece, as well as a diver's goggles and nose clip.
Hans-Dietrich Kaiser divided us in the order we were to leave U-2338. The cold from the rising sea water began to be felt in the body. Shortly before the command center was filled with water, everyone put on the diving goggles and the nose clip and the mouthpiece in their mouths. With cold fingers, I groped for the valve of the oxygen bottle, which I got opened, and began to breathe through the ascent apparatus. When the water reached all the way up under the ceiling, the emergency lighting went out and it became completely dark in the submarine.
One of the crew members began to panic. I kept saying to myself; "I want to survive" "I want to survive", and I managed to stay calm.
When Hans-Dietrich Kaiser opened the tower hatch, there was a hiss while the pressure was slowly equalized, but because the pressure was greater inside the submarine, the tower hatch suddenly slammed open, and Hans-Dietrich Kaiser was pushed up through the submarine tower and disappeared.
I was the next in line. As the air pressure had now been equalized, I had to swim up through the tower. My binoculars, which I had hanging around my neck, hung tight and I started to panic.
I got free of the tower, and slowly began to swim up to the surface. The closer I got to the surface, the brighter it got, and eventually I could see the blue sky. Shortly after, I broke through the sea surface, spat out the mouthpiece, and took a deep breath of atmospheric air. I had survived.
I looked around but could not spot Hans-Dietrich Kaiser. Shortly after, I started swimming towards land but gave up quickly due to hypothermia and blood loss. I only vaguely remember that I was picked up by a guard ship and sailed into Fredericia, where I was transferred to a German hospital, where I was operated on in the evening without anesthesia.
The next day, I asked the staff if there were any other survivors of the submarine crew and was told that in addition to me, only one other crew member had been rescued; bootsmaat Wilhelm Murach, who had been brought to the hospital in an unconscious state, with 2nd and 3rd degree burns, and a double-sided pneumonia after the stay in the cold water.
The remaining 6 men from the submarine crew perished during the ascent and are today buried in Christians Church in Fredericia:
Olt Hans- Dietrich Kaiser
Masch.Mt Johann Arnold
Mas.Gfr. Heinz Burmeister
Funk.Mt. Walter Janke
OStrm. Werner Raschger
OMsch. Walter Tenser
The 6 men from the submarine crew who went down with U-2338 during the air attack:
Masch.Mt Hans Block
Mas.Gfr. Franz Greiner
Lt Gereon Herrmann
Mas.Gfr. Müller
Olt.Ing. Otto Schimmel
Funk.Gfr. Eilert Schmidt