Overview
German submarine U‑238 was a Type VIIC U‑boat of Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine that served during the Second World War. Type VIIC boats were the work‑horse of the German submarine fleet, built in large numbers between 1940 and 1945.
Design and construction
- Class: Type VIIC
- Builder: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, Germany
- Yard number: 638
- Laid down: 7 March 1941
- Launched: 23 March 1942
- Commissioned: 19 May 1942
Service history
U‑238 entered service with the 6th U‑boat Flotilla for training and later operated with the 1st U‑boat Flotilla on combat patrols in the Atlantic Ocean.
Operational record
The exact number of patrols, ships sunk, and total gross register tonnage (GRT) credited to U‑238 are not uniformly documented in the publicly available reference works. Reliable sources such as the online database uboat.net confirm that U‑238 carried out combat patrols and achieved at least one successful attack on Allied shipping, but precise figures vary among sources. Consequently, the article does not present definitive statistics for the raiding history.
Fate
U‑238 was lost during the war; however, the circumstances of her sinking (date, location, and attacking forces) are not consistently reported across the major encyclopedic references. Some accounts indicate that she was sunk by Allied anti‑submarine forces in the North Atlantic in 1943, but the exact details remain uncertain.
Summary
- Type: VIIC submarine
- Builder: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
- Commissioned: 19 May 1942
- Operational role: Atlantic patrols, sinking of Allied merchant shipping (exact tonnage not conclusively established)
- Loss: Sunk in the Atlantic during World War II; precise details are not uniformly documented.
Notes on source material
The information presented above is drawn from established naval reference works and the specialized U‑boat database maintained by the Naval History and Heritage Command and uboat.net. Where the historical record shows gaps or conflicting data, the article explicitly notes the insufficiency rather than conjecture.
For further research, consult primary war diaries (KTBs) of the 1st U‑boat Flotilla, the Bundesarchiv‑Marine records, and the uboat.net entry for U‑238.
