German submarine U-168

German submarine U-168 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. Her keel was laid down on March 15, 1941 by the Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG in Bremen as 'werk' 707. She was launched on March 5 1942 and commissioned on September 10, with Kapitänleutnant Helmuth Pich in command.

Career
U-168 conducted four patrols, sinking three ships totalling 8,008 tons and damaging one other grossing 9,804 tons.

1st patrol
U-168's first patrol commenced with her departure from Kiel on 3 March 1943. Her route took her through the Kattegat and Skaggerak, along the coast of Norway, through the 'gap' between Iceland and the Faroe Islands and into the Atlantic Ocean south and southwest of Greenland. She arrived at Lorient in occupied France on 18 May.

2nd patrol
The boat then moved into the Indian Ocean, sinking the British steam merchant ship SS Haiching 80 mi west southwest of Bombay (now Mumbai), on October 2 1943.

She was unsuccessfully attacked by a Catalina flying boat of No. 413 Squadron RCAF on 3 November. Four 250lb depth charges were dropped.

The patrol terminated in Penang, Malaya (now Malaysia) on 11 November.

3rd patrol
The submarine began her third and what would turn out to be her most successful patrol when she departed Penang on 7 February 1944. She fired three torpedoes at the British salvage vessel HMS Salviking south of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on the 14th. One of the projectiles malfunctioned, but the other two were sufficiently destructive to send the ship to the bottom.

The following day she sank a Greek ship, the Epaminondas C. Embiricos about 130 mi north of Addu Atoll in the Maldives. The Master and the Chief Engineer were both taken prisoner and handed over to the Japanese. The former's captivity prevented disciplinary action being taken over why he had ordered the ship to be abandoned despite a lack of damage and why the vessel was stationary for two hours, despite standing orders to the contrary.

U-168 also damaged the Norwegian Fenris with her last torpedo on the 21st west of the Maldives, but had no ammunition left for her deck gun to finish the ship off which continued to Bombay under her own power. The boat returned to Batavia (now Jakarta) on 24 March.

4th patrol and loss
The submarine left Batavia on October 5 1944. In the early hours of the 6th, while in the Java Sea, U-168 was hit by a torpedo from the Dutch submarine HrMs Zwaardvisch. The attack killed twenty-three men, with a further twenty-seven being captured.