German submarine U-303

German submarine U-303 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She saw service in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, and sank one freighter of 5,000 tons in her three short and uneventful war patrols. Built in 1941 and 1942 at Lübeck, U-303 was a Type VIIC U-boat, capable of lengthy ocean patrols and of operating in distant environments.

1st patrol
U-303 departed Kiel under the command of Kapitänleutnant Karl-Franz Heine on New Year's Day 1942, arriving at Lorient in France after a two and a half month passage. The spring of 1943 was the turning point for the Battle of the Atlantic, targets were getting harder to come by for German units. U-303 was no exception, managing to sink only one ship, the 4,959 ton American vessel SS Expositor, on 23 February.

2nd patrol
Her second patrol was uneventful and very brief, simply a fourteen day journey between Lorient and La Spezia in Italy, although it did involve passing through the heavily defended Strait of Gibraltar. She was to join a new flotilla operating in the Mediterranean Sea.

3rd patrol
From La Spezia U-303 moved to Toulon in occupied France, from where she was to operate against British shipping aiding in operations following the evacuation of Tunisia. On her first attempt to do this, on 21 May 1943, she exited Toulon harbour on the surface and ran straight into the British submarine HMS Sickle (P224), which torpedoed the U-boat before escaping. U-303 began to settle and list, and Heine ordered an immediate evacuation into life rafts which eventually carried the surviving crew to the French coast ten miles away. Ten sailors were less lucky, having been killed in the torpedo impact, and went down with their U-boat in position 42.83333°N, 6°W.