Convoy battles
Most successful Convoy Attacks by a U-boat
The Most successful convoy attacks by a single U-boat.
This listing does not attempt to weigh in the relative strength of the convoy escorts.
These are number of ships sunk or total loss from each convoy.
| Convoy | Boat | Commander | Ships | GRT | Date of battle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HX-72 | U-100 | Kptlt. Joachim Schepke | 7 | 50,340 | 21 Sep - 22 Sep 1940 |
| 2 | TS-37 | U-515 | Kptlt. Werner Henke | 7 | 43,255 | 30 Apr - 1 May 1943 |
| 3 | OB-216 | U-138 | Oblt. Wolfgang Lüth | 4 | 34,644 | 20 Sep - 21 Sep 1940 |
| 4 | HX-112 | U-99 | KrvKpt. Otto Kretschmer | 5 | 34,505 | 16 Mar 1941 |
| 5 | UGF-1 | U-130 | KrvKpt. Ernst Kals | 3 | 34,407 | 12 Nov 1942 |
| 6 | SC-118 | U-402 | Kptlt. Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner | 6 | 32,446 | 7 Feb - 8 Feb 1943 |
| 7 | SC-104 | U-221 | Oblt. Hans-Hartwig Trojer | 16 | 30,492 | 13 Oct - 14 Oct 1942 |
| 8 | OB-188 | U-34 | Kptlt. Wilhelm Rollmann | 4 | 29,320 | 26 Jul - 27 Jul 1940 |
| 9 | SL-68 | U-105 | Kptlt. Georg Schewe | 5 | 27,890 | 18 Mar - 21 Mar 1941 |
| 10 | SC-7 | U-99 | Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer | 6 | 27,396 | 18 Oct - 19 Oct 1940 |
| 11 | HX-121 | U-96 | Kptlt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock | 3 | 27,305 | 28 Apr 1941 |
| 12 | OB-293 | U-99 | KrvKpt. Otto Kretschmer | 2 | 27,206 | 7 Mar 1941 |
| 13 | PA-69 | U-510 | Oblt. Alfred Eick | 3 | 26,536 | 22 Feb 1944 |
| 14 | HX-92 | U-96 | Kptlt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock | 4 | 26,111 | 11 Dec - 12 Dec 1940 |
| 15 | TAG-18 | U-160 | Kptlt. Georg Lassen | 4 | 25,855 | 3 Nov 1942 |
| 16 | DN-21 | U-160 | Kptlt. Georg Lassen | 4 | 25,852 | 3 Mar - 4 Mar 1943 |
| 17 | PQ-17 | U-255 | Kptlt. Reinhart Reche | 4 | 25,544 | 6 Jul - 13 Jul 1942 |
| 18 | HX-212 | U-624 | Oblt. Ulrich Graf von Soden-Fraunhofen | 5 | 25,540 | 29 Oct 1942 |
| 19 | MKF-1Y | U-155 | Kptlt. Adolf Cornelius Piening | 2 | 25,064 | 15 Nov 1942 |
| 20 | HX-90 | U-99 | Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer | 2 | 24,778 | 2 Dec - 3 Dec 1940 |
Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer in his U-99 appears 4 times on this listing of most successful convoy attacks by a single boat. Most of his sinkings were from convoy's unlike some who mostly hunted ships sailing on their own.
Henke's (U-515), Kals's (U-130), Lassen's (U-160) and Piening's (U-155) attacks in their larger and less agile type IX boats in late 1942 early 1943 are very impressive. Trojer (U-221) has seemingly impossibly high figure of 16 but that includes several landing craft carried on a larger ship.
Convoy attacks after 1942
These are number of ships sunk or total loss from each convoy.
| Convoy | Boat | Commander | Ships | GRT | Date of battle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TS-37 | U-515 | Kptlt. Werner Henke | 7 | 43,255 | 30 Apr - 1 May 1943 |
| 2 | SC-118 | U-402 | Kptlt. Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner | 6 | 32,446 | 7 Feb - 8 Feb 1943 |
| 3 | PA-69 | U-510 | Oblt. Alfred Eick | 3 | 26,536 | 22 Feb 1944 |
| 4 | DN-21 | U-160 | Kptlt. Georg Lassen | 4 | 25,852 | 3 Mar - 4 Mar 1943 |
| 5 | TB-1 | U-124 | Kptlt. Johann Mohr | 4 | 23,567 | 9 Jan 1943 |
| 6 | SNF-17 | U-371 | Kptlt. Waldemar Mehl | 2 | 23,189 | 17 Mar 1944 |
| 7 | ON-202 | U-238 | Oblt. Horst Hepp | 4 | 23,048 | 20 Sep - 23 Sep 1943 |
| 8 | BX-141 | U-1232 | Kpt. Kurt Dobratz | 3 | 22,940 | 14 Jan 1945 |
| 9 | SC-122 | U-338 | Kptlt. Manfred Kinzel | 4 | 21,927 | 17 Mar 1943 |
| 10 | ECM-17 | U-984 | Oblt. Heinz Sieder | 3 | 21,550 | 29 Jun 1944 |
| 11 | BT-18 | U-185 | Kptlt. August Maus | 3 | 21,413 | 7 Jul 1943 |
| 12 | HX-229 | U-91 | Kptlt. Heinz Walkerling | 3 | 21,205 | 17 Mar 1943 |
| 13 | BT-6 | U-510 | KrvKpt. Karl Neitzel | 3 | 18,240 | 9 Mar 1943 |
| 14 | OS-44 | U-107 | Kptlt. Harald Gelhaus | 4 | 17,376 | 13 Mar 1943 |
| 15 | TJ-1 | U-510 | Oblt. Alfred Eick | 2 | 17,224 | 8 Jul 1943 |
| 16 | HX-305 | U-482 | Kptlt. Hartmut Graf von Matuschka, Freiherr von Toppolczan und Spaetgen | 2 | 17,048 | 8 Sep 1944 |
| 17 | TM-1 | U-522 | Kptlt. Herbert Schneider | 2 | 16,867 | 9 Jan 1943 |
| 18 | ET-16 | U-596 | Kptlt. Gunter Jahn | 2 | 16,684 | 30 Mar 1943 |
| 19 | HX-224 | U-456 | Kptlt. Max-Martin Teichert | 2 | 16,633 | 2 Feb - 3 Feb 1943 |
| 20 | XK-2 | U-130 | Oblt. Siegfried Keller | 4 | 16,359 | 5 Mar 1943 |
Kurt Dobrat's (U-1232) patrol in Jan 1945 was really impressive and probably the most successful for all of 1945. He sank or destroyed 4 ships and damaged another before being damaged in battle and successfully made it back home.
Related content
See our page on the most successful patrols of the war. Many of the missions seen above are of course included there.