List of all U-boats

U-548

Type

IXC/40

 
Ordered5 Jun 1941
Laid down4 Sep 1942 Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg (werk 369)
Launched14 Apr 1943
Commissioned30 Jun 1943Oblt. Eberhard Zimmermann
Commanders
30 Jun 1943 - 8 Feb 1945  Kptlt. Eberhard Zimmermann
Aug, 1944 - Nov, 1944  Kptlt. Günther Pfeffer
9 Feb 1945 - 19 Apr 1945  Oblt. Erich Krempl
Career
4 patrols
30 Jun 1943-31 Mar 1944  4. Flottille (training)
1 Apr 1944-30 Sep 1944  2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Oct 1944-19 Apr 1945  33. Flottille (front boat)
Successes1 warship sunk, total tonnage 1,445 tons
Fate

Sunk on 19 April, 1945 in the North Atlantic south-east of Halifax, in position 42.19N, 61.45W by depth charges from the American destroyer escorts USS Reuben James and USS Buckley. 58 dead (all hands lost). (Axel Niestlé, January 1990).

See the 1 ships hit by U-548 - View the 4 war patrols

Previously recorded fate

  • Sunk 30 April, 1945 east of Cape Hatteras, USA, in position 36.34N, 74.00W, by depth charges from the US patrol frigate USS Natchez and the destroyer escorts Coffman, Bostwick and Thomas. (Postwar assessment)
    Notes. This attack probably resulted in the loss U-879.

Attacks on this boat

3 May 1944
A strange incident in which a Liberator aircraft illuminated HMS Hargood (K 582) at night while hunting for a German U-boat east of Conception Bay, Newfoundland. U-548, sensing they were the intended target fired at the aircraft which wrongly assumed the destroyer escort had done so and aborted the attack. The U-boat went unnoticed by the Allies. (Sources: Blair, vol 2, page 562)

6 May 1944
After having sunk the Canadian frigate Valleyfield other Allied escorts (after finally figuring out what happened) turn to hunt for the boat but again she escapes. (Sources: Blair, vol 2, page 562)

2 recorded attacks on this boat.

Schnorchel-fitted U-boat
This boat was fitted with a Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus and sailed equipped with it in August 1944 but it was of course installed prior to that date. Read more about the Schnorchel and see list of fitted boats.

Men lost from the boat

30 Aug 1944
One man was missing after crash diving. [Mechanikergefreiter (A) Walter Heise]

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



Hitler's U-boat War

Blair, Clay


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Books dealing with this subject include

German U-Boat Losses During World War II. Niestle, Axel, 1998.
Hitler's U-boat War. Blair, Clay, 1996.
Hitler's U-boat War, Vol II. Blair, Clay, 1998.
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 1. Wynn, Kenneth, 1998.
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 2. Wynn, Kenneth, 1998.