page_title: German submarine U-534
section_title: Incidents leading to sinking
hierarchical_section_title: German submarine U-534 / Incidents leading to sinking
caption_attribution_description: The German U-boat U 534 a type IXC/40 submarine commanded by Kapitanleutnant Herbert Nollau, ploughs through the water attempting to evade the attack of a Consolidated Liberator "G" of 86 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command. U 534 was earlier attacked by another Liberator which it shot down with no survivors. The submarine was sunk east of Anholt Island, Denmark, after being attacked by Liberator "G" with a total of ten depth charges. This action, for which the captain, Warrant Officer J.D. Nicol, RAF, was awarded a DFC, occurred in a 24 hour period in which five German U-boats were sunk. U534's sinking resulted in three dead and 49 survivors from its crew. They were rescued by lifeboats from a lightship in the vicinity. On 5 May 1945, for unknown reasons, the captain of U 534 ignored the order to surrender, issued to all U-boats by Admiral Dönitz, and set course for Norway instead. To this day, mystery still surrounds U-534's refusal to surrender. U 534 was raised in 1993 and is on display at Birkenhead, near Liverpool (UK).
context_page_description: German submarine U-534 is a Type IXC/40 U-boat of Germany's Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. She was built in 1942 in Hamburg-Finkenwerder by Deutsche Werft AG as yard number 352. She was launched on 23 September 1942 and commissioned on 23 December with Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Nollau in command.
  The U-534 is one of only four German World War II submarines in preserved condition remaining in the world, another being the IXC boat U-505 in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. U-534 was used mainly for training duties, and during her service she sank no other ships. A Royal Air Force bomber sank her on 5 May 1945 in the Kattegat 20 kilometres northeast of the Danish island of Anholt. U-534 was salvaged in 1993 and since February 2009 has been on display in Birkenhead, England, as part of the U-boat Story.
context_section_description: On 5 May 1945, the U-534 was 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) north of the 56th parallel, and Nollau decided to form a convoy with two Type XXI U-boats, the U-3523 and U-3503, and continue sailing north on the surface of the Kattegat sea in an area too shallow for crash diving, when two British RAF Liberator aircraft attacked (G/86 George from Tain and E/547 Edward from Leuchars). 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 by a depth charge from G/86. The 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 Liberator crashed 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) away, and all on board the plane were lost.
  The U-534 had aboard a crew of 52 men; all escaped the sub, and 49 survived to be rescued. Five were trapped in the torpedo room as she began to sink, but they managed to escape through the torpedo loading hatch once the boat had settled on the sea bed. They planned their escape the way that they had been trained, exiting through the forward torpedo hatch once the U-534 had settled on the seabed and swimming to the surface from a depth of 67 metres (220 ft). One of them, 17-year-old radio operator, Josef Neudorfer, failed to exhale as he was surfacing and died from damage to his lungs. The two others (including their Argentine radio operator) died of exposure while in the water.
caption: U-534 under attack by an RAF Liberator, from 86 Squadron
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