Allied Warships
Check out our new extensive section on all the Allied Warships during WWII in all theatres of the war.Over 21,000 ships
In the following table I attempt to list all U-boat losses by type of loss. There are some duplications in the listing (i.e. boats being paid off and then either scuttled or surrendered) but this as accurate as I can make it right now. This is based on the very latest research and will probably not match older sources.
| Ships | 264 | Includes a few losses to merchant ships |
| Aircraft | 250 | Includes all ship-based aircraft |
| Aircraft & ships * | 37 | |
| Missing | 46 | See U-boats missing in Action |
| Air raids on ports | 43 | Check out this page. |
| Mines | 35 | |
| Captured | 3 | U-110, U-505 and U-570 |
| Scuttled | 238 | Read about Operation Regenbogen |
| Surrendered | 155 | Most scuttled in Operation Deadlight |
| Paid Off | 37 | Usually battered or "tired" boats |
| Accidents | 25 | Losses to accidents or "friendly fire" |
| Other (+) | 7 | |
| Total | 1,154 | (1,149 individual boats) |
* This does not indicate aircraft carriers, all those victories are in the "Aircraft" category. This means co-operation between aircraft (most often land-based) and escort vessels.
+ These include the 4 boats taken over by Japan in the Far East at the time of the German surrender (U-181, U-195, U-219 and U-862). This figure also includes the 2 boats U-573 and U-760 interned during the war in Spain. Finally it includes the only boat that was lost to land-based artillery, U-78 sunk by Soviet guns.
What about the missing boats?
The boats listed as missing were lost to aircraft, ships, mines and accidents. Hopefully further research will lessen this number (it has actually increased in the last years as many former claims were judged to be against something else than U-boats).