Concept

German submarine U-331

Summary
German submarine U-331 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II, famous for sinking the battleship HMS Barham. The submarine was laid down on 26 January 1940 at the Nordseewerke yard at Emden, launched on 20 December 1940, and commissioned on 31 March 1941 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Tiesenhausen. She was tracked by the RAF and crippled before being destroyed by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm on 17 November 1942 with the loss of most of her crew. German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-331 had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two AEG GU 460/8–27 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to . The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . U-331 was fitted with five torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and a C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty. U-331s first patrol took her from Kiel in Germany on 2 July 1941, out into the mid-Atlantic, before arriving at Lorient in France on 19 August. She sailed from Lorient on 24 September and headed into the Mediterranean Sea. There on 10 October she engaged three British tank landing craft off Sidi Barrani, Egypt. After missing with a torpedo, she engaged with her deck gun, slightly damaging HMS TLC-18 (A 18), before breaking off the attack after being hit by 40 mm shells, which wounded two men (one fatally) and damaged the conning tower.
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