German submarine U-399

German submarine U-399 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

She carried out one patrol. She sank one ship and caused another to be declared a total loss.

She was sunk in the English Channel in March 1945.

Service history
The submarine was laid down on 12 November 1942 at the Howaldtswerke (yard) at Kiel as 'werk' 31, launched on 4 December 1943 and commissioned on 22 January 1944 under the command of Oberleutnant Kurt van Meteren.

She served with the 5th U-boat Flotilla from 22 January 1944 and the 11th flotilla from 1 February 1945.

The boat's first patrol was preceded by the short journey from Kiel in Germany to Horten (south of Oslo), arriving at the Norwegian port on 28 January 1945.

Patrol and loss
U-399 departed Horten on 6 February 1945. On 21 March, she torpedoed the Liberty ship James Eagan Layne "about twelve miles off Plymouth". The ship was beached at nearby Whitesand Bay but settled on the bottom; at high water, only her masts and funnel showed. She was declared a total loss.

The boat sank the Dutch-registered Pacific on 26 March 1945. This ship had taken part in Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk evacuation, in 1940.

U-399 was sunk later on the same day by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Duckworth.

Forty-six men died in U-399; there was one survivor.