U-371

Type

8 ships sunk, total tonnage 51,401 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk, total tonnage 545 GRT
2 warships sunk, total tonnage 2,286 tons
4 ships damaged, total tonnage 28,072 GRT
2 warships damaged, total tonnage 2,500 tons
2 ships a total loss, total tonnage 13,341 GRT

Fate

Sunk at 0409hrs on 4 May, 1944 in the Mediterranean north of Constantine, in position 37.49N, 05.39E, by depth charges from the US destroyer escorts USS Pride and USS Joseph E. Campbell, the French destroyer escort Sénégalais and the British escort destroyer HMS Blankney. 3 dead and 49 survivors.

See the 19 ships hit by U-371 - View the 19 war patrols

Swamp
This boat was unlucky enough to be the first victim to an allied sub-hunting tactic in the Mediterranean known as Swamp. This tactic simply called for the area of a known or suspected U-boat to be packed with surface escorts and patrol aircraft. They would then systematically and continually search the area and force the U-boat to remain submerged until its batteries ran out or try to escape at night on the surface. Either was almost hopeless.

The Hunt
U-371 was spotted recharging her batteries on the surface off Djidjelli on the Algerian coast on the night of 2/3 May 1944 and was immediately detected and the area was swamped with 6 escorts and 3 aircraft squadrons. They hunted the boat until the early morning of May 4 when Oblt. Fenski had to surface the boat and save his crew. He had managed to fight back and torpedoed and damaged the US destroyer escort USS Menges and the French destroyer escort Sénégalais before calling it quits.

Wolfpack operations

U-371 operated with the following Wolfpacks during its career:
Kurfürst (17 Jun 1941 - 20 Jun 1941)
Goeben (16 Sep 1941 - 24 Sep 1941)

Attacks on this boat

30 Jun 1941
At 12.30 hours, the inbound boat was attacked by a Blenheim (1404 Met Flt RAF/G, pilot FltLt D.F. Wykeham-Martin, RAFVR) in the Bay of Biscay. The aircraft surprised U-371 because they misidentified it as German Ju88 and dropped two 250lb A/S bombs and one 250lb GP bomb in a dive bomb attack from astern, the bombs detonating 30 yards on the starboard bow. The U-boat then immediately dived and was attacked from the port beam with another GP bomb, which detonated over the bows but she escaped without damage. (Sources: KTB U-371/ADM 199-1781)

30 Jun 1941
At 17.05 hours, the inbound boat was attacked by a Beaufort (217 Sqn RAF/R) on A/S sweep in the Bay of Biscay. The aircraft (misidentified as Sunderland) tried to surprise U-371 by a dive bomb attack out of the sun, but she managed to crash-dive in time and the two 250lb A/S bombs detonated about 40 feet ahead of the bow. The aircraft turned around and dropped four depth charges ahead of the swirl, but the U-boat was already passing a depth of 40 meters and escaped without damage. (Sources: KTB U-371/ADM 199-1781)

7 May 1942
The boat was depth charged by two sub chasers. and was so heavily damaged that she had to return to base.

7 Jan 1943
At 12.04 hours, U-371 attacked three M/S trawlers off Algiers and sank HMS Jura. The other two armed trawlers, HMS Ruskholm and HMS Stronsay, then dropped 24 depth charges in five attacks until losing contact at 12.31 hours. The boat was not damaged by the attacks. (Sources: ADM 199/1321)

4 recorded attacks on this boat.

Men lost from U-boats

Unlike many other U-boats, which during their service lost men due to accidents and various other causes, U-371 did not suffer any casualties (we know of) until the time of her loss.