German submarine U-354

German submarine U-354 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

She carried out 11 patrols before being sunk in the Barents Sea by British warships in 1944.

She sank one ship and one warship, damaged a commercial vessel and caused a warship to be declared a total loss.

Service history
The submarine was laid down on 15 April 1940 at the Flensburger Schiffsbau yard at Flensburg as 'werk' 473, launched on 10 January 1942 and commissioned on 22 April under the command of Kapitänleutnant Karl-Heinz Herbschleb.

U-354 served with the 5th U-boat Flotilla, for training and then with the 1st flotilla for operations from 1 October 1942. She came under the command of the 11th flotilla on 15 October and was reassigned to the 13th flotilla on 1 June 1943; she stayed with that organization until her sinking.

U-348 made short trips from Kiel in Germany to Bergen and Skjomenfjord in Norway between April and October 1942.

1st and 2nd patrols
Her first patrol began with her departure from Skjomenfjord on 29 October 1942. On 4 November she sank the William Clark off Jan Mayen Island. This ship had already possibly been damaged by bombs from Ju 88 aircraft. A crewman was lost overboard on the 11th. The boat put into Narvik on the 30th.

The submarine's second foray over Christmas and New year's Eve took her from Narvik, as far as Bear Island and back to Narvik.

3rd and 4th patrols
U-354's third patrol was marred by the suicide of Maschinenmaat Helmut Ricther on 12 March 1943.

Her fourth sortie took the boat north of Bear Island; she returned to Narvik on 12 June 1943.

5th patrol
It was during this patrol that she attacked and damaged the Soviet Petrovskij in the eastern Kara Sea on 27 August 1943.

6th patrol
This patrol was split in two: the first part, which was rather brief, was over 22 and 23 October 1943. The second part was longer; between 25 October and 6 December. The boat finished up in Hammerfest in the far north of Norway.

7th, 8th and 9th patrols
U-354 continued to patrol northern waters, without success.

10th patrol
By now moored in Bogenbucht (west of Narvik), the next sally was also divided in two. The boat sailed west of Svalbad and Zemlya Frantsa-Josifa, (Franz Josef Land), but targets continued to elude her.

11th patrol and loss
U-354 sank HMS Bickerton with a torpedo intended as a 'coup de grǎce' for the escort carrier HMS Nabob (which was subsequently declared to be a total loss), northwest of the North Cape on 22 August 1944.

The U-boat was sunk on 24 August by the British sloops HMS Mermaid and Peacock, the frigate Loch Dunvegan and the destroyer Keppel.

Previously recorded fate
U-354 was originally thought to have been sunk by a Fairey Swordfish of No. 825 Naval Air Squadron from the escort carrier HMS Vindex on 22 August 1944. This was U-344.