German submarine U-953

U-953 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

The submarine was laid down on 10 February 1942 in the Blohm & Voss yard at Hamburg, launched on 28 October 1942, and commissioned on 17 December 1942 under the command of Oberleutnant Karl-Heinz Marbach.

After training with the 5th U-boat Flotilla at Kiel, U-953 was transferred to the 3rd U-boat Flotilla based at La Pallice (in southwestern France), for front-line service on 1 June 1943. She sailed on ten war patrols, but sank only one ship of. Transferred to the 33rd U-boat Flotilla on 15 October 1944, she surrendered at Trondheim in Norway in May 1945.

1st patrol
U-953 first sailed from Kiel on 13 May 1943, and out into the mid-Atlantic. She had no successes, and on 9 July was attacked by an aircraft, which killed one crewman and wounded two others. The U-boat arrived at La Pallice on 22 July after 71 days on patrol.

2nd and 3rd patrols
U-953's second Atlantic patrol from 2 October to 17 November 1943 was uneventful, but her next, which began on 26 December 1943 and took her to the waters off North Africa, was. On 11 January 1944 the U-boat fired a T-5 homing torpedo at a corvette, missed, and was then hunted for the next 13 hours by escort ships equipped with depth charges and hedgehogs. About 4 February the U-boat approached Convoy ON 222, but was attacked by an unknown Allied aircraft.

4th-6th patrols
After being fitted with a Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus, the U-boat's next three patrols from March to June 1944 were short, from 3 to 13 days and uneventful.

7th patrol
U-953 made her first and only kill on a patrol that began on 24 June 1944. She sailed from Brest into the English Channel and at 08:00 on 5 July fired a spread of two torpedoes, and then another at 08.05, sinking the 1,927 ton British merchant ship Glendinning, part of convoy ETC-27. Two crewmen and two gunners were lost.

8th-10th patrols
Under her new commander, Oblt. Herbert A. Werner, who had been due to stay in Festung (Fortress) Brest and fight on the ground, U-953 sailed from the French port with a composite crew from U-415 and U-953 on 23 August 1944. This mixing was due to a number of the latter boat's crew being on leave in Germany and being unable to return after the invasion of Normandy and the subsequent Allied advance. It had taken two attempts at leaving, due to the chaotic situation in the port and the British anti-submarine forces waiting outside. The submarine arrived at La Pallice on the 28th with no torpedoes and about twice the normal complement, but left again on 7 September following incomplete repairs. Failure of one engine and the non-operation of the Schnorchel were just two of the mechanical problems she encountered as the boat sailed around the British Isles to Bergen in Norway, arriving there on 11 October. She sailed to Germany for overhaul at the end of the month; first to Kiel, then Lübeck; returning to Bergen on the surface (due to more defects), in February 1945. She left Bergen for her final patrol around the southwest English coast on 17 February, but had to return when it was discovered that the torpedo tube outer doors would not open fully. She arrived in Bergen on 7 April, before heading to Trondheim for repars, arriving on 14 April 1945.

Fate
Three weeks after the German surrender, on 29 May 1945, the boat was transferred to England and used by the Royal Navy for trials. U-953 was finally broken up in 1950.