Operation Deadlight

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 30. Chapters: German submarine U-1022, German submarine U-1061, German submarine U-1230, German submarine U-155 (1941), German submarine U-218, German submarine U-2321, German submarine U-2322, German submarine U-2324, German submarine U-2511, German submarine U-255, German submarine U-293, German submarine U-294, German submarine U-295, German submarine U-298, German submarine U-299, German submarine U-312, German submarine U-313, German submarine U-328, German submarine U-363, German submarine U-427, German submarine U-481, German submarine U-539, German submarine U-716, German submarine U-760, German submarine U-778, German submarine U-883, German submarine U-978. Excerpt: German submarine U-255 was a Type VIIC U-boat that served in the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 21 December 1940 at the Bremer Vulkan yard at Bremen-Vegesack, launched on 8 October 1941 and commissioned on 29 November 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Reinhart Reche. One of the most successful U-boats to operate in Arctic waters, she operated from Norway during 1942-1943, and then from France in 1944-1945, sailing on 15 combat patrols, sinking ten merchant ships totalling 47,640 GRT and damaging another of 7,191 GRT enough for it to be written off as a total loss. She also sank the 1,200 GRT Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Leopold (DE-319). At the end of the war U-255 surrendered to the British, and was sunk during Operation Deadlight on 13 December 1945. U-255 was ordered by the Kriegsmarine on 23 September 1939 and laid down more than a year later on 21 December 1940 at the Bremer Vulkan yard at Bremen-Vegesack as Werk 20. U-255 was launched 8 October 1941, and commissioned on 29 November that same year with Kapitänleutnant Reinhart Reche in command. U-255 carried 5 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (four located in the bow, one in the stern) and had one C35 88mm/L45 deck gun with 220 rounds. She could also carry 14 G7e torpedoes or 26 TMA mines and had a crew of 44-52 men. After a period of training with the 8th U-boat Flotilla, based at Königsberg in the Baltic Sea, U-255 was transferred to the 11th U-boat Flotilla, based at Bergen, Norway, for front-line service on 1 July 1942. On 15 June 1942, U-255 sailed from Kiel, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Reinhart Reche, arriving at Narvik on the 20th. She then departed on her first patrol on 23 June, sailing into the Barents Sea, north of Russia. She made her first kill on 6 July, sinking the 7,191 ton American Liberty ship John Witherspoon about 20 miles off Novaya Zemlya. The ship, en-route from Baltimore to Arkhangelsk with 8,575 tons of ammunition and tan