German submarine U-501

German submarine U-501 was a Type IXC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 12 February 1940 at the Deutsche Werft yard in Hamburg, launched on 25 January 1941 and commissioned on 30 April 1941 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Hugo Förster. The boat served with 2nd U-boat Flotilla until she was sunk on 10 September 1941.

Service history
U-501 departed from Kiel on 2 July 1941 and sailed to Trondheim in Norway via Horten also in Norway, by 15 July. From there she sailed on her first and only war patrol on 7 August 1941, heading out into the waters around Iceland. She sank the 2,000 ton Norwegian merchant ship Einvik, a straggler from Convoy SC-41 on 5 September, about 450 miles south-west of Iceland, with a torpedo and gunfire. The ship's distress signals were received and an aircraft sent to search for her, but it found nothing and reported that there were probably no survivors. In fact all 23 crew members were in two lifeboats heading for Iceland, which they reached on 12 and 13 September.

Sinking
Five days later, on the night of 10 September, U-501 was taking part in a mass attack on Allied Convoy SC 42 in the Denmark Strait south of Tasiilaq, Greenland, in position 62.83333°N, -37.83333°W, when she was detected by the Canadian Flower class corvette HMCS Chambly (K116) with sonar, and damaged with depth charges. U-501's captain - Hugo Förster - decided to scuttle the U-boat. On the surface, she was spotted by the corvette HMCS Moosejaw (K164), which attempted to ram her. However, U-501 turned at the last moment so that the two vessels were running parallel, only feet apart. For unknown reasons, Hugo Förster surrendered himself and abandoned his command by leaping from the submarine's bridge to the deck of the Moosejaw.

The Mooosejaw veered away and the U-boat's first watch officer took command; he continued with the scuttling. A nine-man party from the Chambly got on board the U-501 in an attempt to seize secret papers, but the submarine sank under their feet. One Canadian sailor and eleven Germans died. The remaining thirty-five crewmen were taken prisoner.

This was the first U-boat kill by the Royal Canadian Navy during the Battle of the Atlantic.