German submarine U-346

U-Boat Infobox
type=VIIC
fieldpost number=
yard number=
order date=
keel=October 28, 1942
launch=May 24, 1943
commission=July 7, 1943
yard=Nordse Werk, Emden
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=Start Date
enddate=End Date
assigned unit=Assigned Unit
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=No Patrols
enddate=
assigned unit=8th FlotillaU_Boat Command
startdate=June, 1943
enddate=September, 1943
name=Kptlt. Arno Leisten
U_Boat Sink
type=Type of Ship Sunk
total=Number of Ships Sunk
tonnage=Gross Registered Tonnage
U_Boat Sink
type=Commercial Vessels
total=None
tonnage=0
U_Boat Sink
type=Military Vessels
total=None
tonnage=0

"Unterseeboot 346" or "U-346" was an German submarine or U-boat, which was the victim of a tragic accident before it ever went to sea. The ship was a Type VIIC U-boat which was built in 1943 for operations during the Second Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War.

On the 20 September 1943, as the boat was undergoing diving trials in Danzig Bay in the Baltic Sea, an unknown mechanical fault occurred, sending the boat into a crash dive from which it never recovered, descending to the bottom of the bay, where it and its crew remain to this day. 37 people died on the "U-346", but unfortunately for the Kriegsmarine, the personnel aboard the boat were not regular U-boat crew, but a combination of the ship's officers (who were all killed), and dockyard experts on submarine operating systems (six of whom escaped the wreck), whose loss was far more severe than the loss of the boat or of its crew, had they been aboard.

References

* Sharpe, Peter, "U-Boat Fact File", Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
* [http://www.uboat.net/boats/u346.htm "U-346" webpage at uboat.net] See Also: List of U-boats