List of all U-boats

U-167

Type

IXC/40

 
Ordered15 Aug 1940
Laid down12 Mar 1941 Deutsche Schiff und Maschinenbau AG, Bremen (werk 706)
Launched5 Mar 1942
Commissioned4 Jul 1942Kptlt. Kurt Neubert
Commanders
4 Jul 1942 - 8 Feb 1943  Kptlt. Kurt Neubert
8 Jan 1943 - 16 Jan 1943  Ltn. Günter Zahnow
5 Feb 1943 - 6 Apr 1943  KrvKpt. Kurt Sturm
Career
2 patrols
4 Jul 1942-30 Nov 1942  4. Flottille (training)
1 Dec 1942-6 Apr 1943  10. Flottille (active service)
Successes1 ship sunk, total tonnage 5,449 GRT
1 ship damaged, total tonnage 7,200 GRT
Fate

Scuttled on 6 April 1943 in the North Atlantic off Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, in position 27.47N, 15.00W, after being badly damaged by depth charges from two British Hudson aircraft (233 Sqn RAF/L & W) on 5 April. 50 survivors (no casualties).

Post war information (see more post-war boats):
Raised in 1951 and transferred to Spain. Used commercially for filming etc. Broken up.

Loss position

See the 2 ships hit by U-167 - View the 2 war patrols

Wolfpack operations

U-167 operated with the following Wolfpacks during its career:
   Falke (28 Dec 1942 - 8 Jan 1943)
   Unverzagt (12 Mar 1943 - 19 Mar 1943)
   Seeräuber (25 Mar 1943 - 30 Mar 1943)

General notes on this boat

6 Apr 1943. Air attacks by two British Hudson aircraft on 5 April 1943 left U-167 with severe damage and the 1WO, Lt. Zahnow, injured. Her commander, FregKapt. Sturm, decided to scuttle the boat in the bay of Las Burras, Gran Canaria. Local fishermen helped bring the crew ashore, where they were temporarily held on the German merchant ship Corrientes, which had been interned in the Canaries for several years.

Amazing escape
A few days later the entire crew of 52 were taken aboard U-455, a Type VIIC boat (a VIIC crew typically numbered 48, so overcrowding must have been severe), for their return to service in France. Once at sea most of the U-167 men were transferred to U-154, U-159 and U-518, arriving in Lorient and St. Nazaire in late April.

On 16 June 1943 Fregkpt. Sturm and his original crew from U-167 took command of the newly-commissioned U-547, beginning their first patrol in active service again on 1 January 1944.

Men lost from the boat

8 Jan 1943
The first man lost from a U-boat in 1943 was during a storm when one man was washed overboard while saving the I WO. Also the commander was wounded and so the boat was brought back to base with the IWO in command on 16 Jan. [Obersteuermann Walter Schliephake]

  Related: For more info on such losses see - Men lost from U-boats -

U-boat Emblems

We have 1 emblem entry for this boat. See the emblem page for this boat or view emblems individually below.


3 x Black Cat

Media links


Battle Beneath the Waves

Stern, Robert C.


U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 1

Wynn, Kenneth


German U-Boat Losses During World War II

Niestle, Axel


Hitler's U-boat War, Vol II

Blair, Clay


Hitler's U-boat War

Blair, Clay

There was another U-167 in World War One
That boat was launched from its shipyard on 28 Sep 1918 and commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 18 Apr 1919. The Naval war in WWI was brought to an end with the Armistice signed on 11 Nov, 1918. Read about SM U 167 during WWI.




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