German submarine U-348

German submarine U-348 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

She carried out six patrols but sank no ships.

She was sunk near Hamburg by US bombs.

Service history
The submarine was laid down on 17 November 1942 at the Nordseewerke yard at Emden as 'werk' 220, launched on 26 June 1943 and commissioned on 10 August under the command of Oberleutnant Hans-Norbert Schunck*.

U-348 served with the 8th U-boat Flotilla, for training and then with the 9th flotilla for operations from 1 April 1944. She came back under the command of the 8th flotilla on 12 July and was reassigned to the 5th flotilla on 16 February 1945; she stayed with that organization until her destruction on 30 March.

U-348 made short trips from Kiel in Germany to Stavanger, Kristiansand and Bergen in Norway in April 1944.

1st, 2nd 3rd patrols
Her first patrol began with her departure from Bergen on 23 April 1944. The detonation of a landmine near Stavanger on 6 May killed one man and wounded another. She returned to Bergen on the 15th.

The submarine's second foray was uneventful.

U-348's third patrol was preceded by more short trips, this time between Trondheim, Kiel and Reval, (now Tallinn in northern Estonia).

4th, 5th and 6th patrols
The boat's fourth sortie was divided into three parts in July and August 1944, but kept to the Ostsee (Baltic).

Patrol number five was sub-divided into four. It included departures from Helsinki in Finland and Reval and arrivals at Mösholm and Libau (now Liepāja in western Latvia).

Her sixth patrol from Danzig (now Gdansk in modern Poland) terminated in Swinemünde (now known as Świnoujście, also in Poland).

Fate
She moved from Swinemünde to Hamburg in February 1945. On 30 March she was destroyed by US bombs during an air-raid.

* Oberleutnant Hans-Joachim Förster served from June to August 1943 as Baubelehrungs (familiarization) commander in the last days before the boat was commissioned.