German submarine U-1226

German submarine U-1226) was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

The U-boat, built for service in the Battle of the Atlantic, was completed in Hamburg in November 1943, and placed under the command of Oberleutnant zur See August-Wilhem Claussen, whose brother Emil had been killed on board GERMAN SUBMARINE U-469 the previous year. She underwent working up cruises in the Baltic Sea before embarking on her only operational patrol from Horten in Norway during September 1944.

Service history
This patrol was uneventful for the first three weeks during the Atlantic crossing as she deliberately avoided the highly-effective allied countermeasures. The last contact with the boat was on 23 October 1944 reporting trouble with its Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus after which nothing more was heard from her. It is possible she was sunk in an unrecorded encounter with an Allied ship or aircraft, or more likely she suffered some unknown catastrophic accident which claimed the boat and all its crew.

Whatever the cause, she was given up for lost in mid-November. Her remains were claimed to have been found east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1993 however, this identification is unlikely. The vessels last radio contact instructed the submarine to maintain its faulty Schnorkel in the upright position and return to base, giving U-1226's position as 605 km south of Iceland at 56°N, -20°W.