Wreck of U-336 | Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, submarine

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, submarine

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Unterseeboot 336 was a Type VIIC U-Boat laid down in March 1941 at the Emden Nordseewerke Shipyard and commissioned into Kriegsmarine service in February 1942. Assigned to the 5th Unterseebootflottille at Kiel for training for the first nine months of her service life, U-336 and her crew departed on their maiden War Patrol to the North Atlantic in late November 1942.

Returning to their new homeport of Brest 42 days later, U-336 and her crew celebrated a successful patrol and notched her first 4,919 kill on a Belgian tanker as they prepared for their second War Patrol in the pursuit of Allied merchant shipping. Unfortunately for U-336, her second and third patrols brought no further success for her crews efforts in a combined 112 days at sea and operations with over a dozen wolfpacks. A shift in homeport from Brest to Lorient for an overhaul in August brought the U-336 and her crew renewed hope for more luck on her future patrols and after standing out of Lorient on September 14th to begin her 5th patrol she linked up with Wolfpack Rossbach operating in the Denmark Strait and resumed her hunt for Allied shipping.

Running surfaced on the morning of October 4th while hunting for Allied convoys, lookouts aboard U-336 were likely battling the likely rough and cold seas of their operating area when their vessel was spotted by a pair of Royal Air Force Hudson aircraft on anti-submarine patrol. Likely going unnoticed as they closed in on the German U-Boat due to the rough seas, the two aircraft were eventually spotted by crewmen aboard the U-336 and the Submarine was quickly rigged for a crash-dive to escape her attackers. Still on the surface but making a hasty descent when the Hudson’s came into range of their wing-mounted unguided rockets, the U-336 was struck by several well-aimed volleys of British rocket fire, many of which managed to penetrate her hull to detonate aboard the ship.

Still in mid-crash-dive as the two aircraft roared over her position, crews aboard U-336 not killed or injured by the rocket attack likely raced to contain the considerable amount of water entering her rear spaces as the Submarine slipped beneath her surface, but it’s likely the combination of her laden ballast tanks and catastrophic flooding were too much for the U-336 to bear. Leaving only a trail of oil in her wake, U-336 and her crew of 50 men entered an uncontrollable dive and were lost at this position on October 4th, 1943.

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