German Submarine U-238 - War Patrols

War Patrols

U-238's first patrol was conducted from Trondheim in Norway as part of the 1st U-boat Flotilla, and entailed the submarine exiting the North Sea via the Denmark Strait and operating against Allied shipping in the so-called "air cover gap" in the Central Atlantic, where Allied aircraft had insufficient range to effectively operate against German U-boats. This first patrol was by far the most successful, as on 20 September 1943, she attacked a large convoy, sinking one 7,000-ton cargo ship and damaging another. This was followed by three more victims on 23 September, when two Norwegian ships and a British freighter were sunk from the same convoy.

U-238's second patrol was less successful. Two weeks after leaving Brest, France, she was attacked by a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber from the escort carrier USS Bogue (CVE-9), 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 9 February, she was caught by 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 on board by the sloops, HMS Kite, Magpie and Starling.