German submarine U-238

U-Boat Infobox
type=VIIC
fieldpost number=
yard number=
order date=
keel=April 21, 1942
launch=January 7, 1943
commission=February 20, 1943
yard=Germaniawerft, Kiel
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=Start Date
enddate=End Date
assigned unit=Assigned Unit
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=No Patrols
enddate=
assigned unit=5th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=September 5, 1943
enddate=October 8, 1943
assigned unit=1st FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=November 11, 1943
enddate=December 12, 1944
assigned unit=1st FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=January 27,1944
enddate=February 9, 1944
assigned unit=1st FlotillaU_Boat Command
startdate=February, 1943
enddate=February, 1944
name=Kptlt. Horst Hepp
U_Boat Sink
type=Type of Ship Sunk
total=Number of Ships Sunk
tonnage=Gross Registered Tonnage
U_Boat Sink
type=Commercial Vessels
total=4
tonnage=23,048
U_Boat Sink
type=Military Vessels
total=None
tonnage=0

"U-238" was a German Type VIIC submarine of the Kriegsmarine built for service in the Second World War. She was built during 1942 by Germaniawerft of Kiel, and she was commissioned February 20, 1943, with "Oberleutnant zur See" Horst Hepp in command. Hepp commanded her for her entire career, receiving a promotion to "Kapitänleutnant" in the process.

She was a successful if short lived boat, sinking four freighters and damaging another during her operations against Allied convoys in the Second Battle of the Atlantic. She had the misfortune, however, of serving at the turning point of the war, when allied countermeasures were taking a heavy toll on the U-boat force. She conducted three war patrols, beginning in September 1943, following her warm up trials in the Baltic Sea.

War Patrols

The first patrol of the "U-238" was conducted from Trondheim in Norway as part of the 1st U-flotilla, and entailed the submarine exiting the North Sea via the Denmark Strait and operating against Allied shipping in the supposed "air cover gap" in the Central Atlantic, where Allied aircraft were unable to effectively operate against German U-boats. This first patrol was by far the most successful of "U-238"'s patrols, as on the 20 September, it attacked a large convoy, sinking one 7,000-ton cargo ship and damaging another. This was followed by three more victims on the 23 September, when two Norwegian ships and a British freighter were sunk from the same convoy.

The "U-238"'s second patrol was less successful, as two weeks after leaving Brest, France she was attacked by Avenger aircraft from the escort carrier USS "Bogue", whose rockets killed two crew and wounded five more, prompting the submarine to return to Brest with severe damage which put it out of service for a month. It was during this patrol that the submarine captured two British Royal Air Force personnel, whose Vickers Wellington bomber had been shot down by "U-764".

"U-238"'s third and last patrol began in January 1944, and lasted a fruitless month, until on the 9 February, when she was caught by the convoy escorts of Convoy SL.147 and Convoy MKS.38, 270 miles off Cape Clear. She counter attacked unsuccessfully and was sunk with all 50 hands by the sloops HMS "Magpie", HMS "Starling" and HMS "Kite".

Raiding career

References

* Sharpe, Peter, "U-Boat Fact File", Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
* [http://www.uboat.net/boats/u238.htm U-boat.net webpage for "U-238"]

See Also: List of U-boats