German submarine U-344 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
She was a member of two wolfpacks.
She was on her third patrol when she was sunk by a British aircraft on 22 August 1944.
She sank one warship.
German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-344 had a displacement of 769t when at the surface and 871t while submerged. She had a total length of 67.1m (220.1feet), a pressure hull length of 50.5m (165.7feet), a beam of 6.2m (20.3feet), a height of 9.6m (31.5feet), and a draught of 4.74m (15.55feet). The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of NaNPS for use while surfaced, two AEG GU 460/8–27 double-acting electric motors producing a total of 750PS for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two 1.23abbr=onNaNabbr=on propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to .
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . U-344 was fitted with five 53.30NaN0 torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one 8.82NaN2 SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and two twin 2sp=usNaNsp=us C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.
The submarine was laid down on 7 May 1942 at the Nordseewerke yard at Emden as yard number 216, launched on 29 January 1943 and commissioned on 26 March under the command of Kapitänleutnant Ulrich Pietsch.
U-344 served with the 8th U-boat Flotilla, for training and the 3rd flotilla for operations from 1 April 1944. She was reassigned to the 11th flotilla on 1 June 1944.
U-344 had sailed from Kiel in Germany to Flekkefjord (west of Kristiansand) and then Bergen in Norway in April and May 1944, but her first patrol began when she departed Bergen on 20 May and followed the Norwegian coastline. She arrived at Narvik on the 27th.
Her second foray involved criss-crossing the Norwegian Sea. At one point she passed east of Jan Mayen Island. She arrived at Bogenbucht (west of Narvik) on 8 July 1944.
Having departed Bogenbucht on 3 August 1944, she sank the British sloop in the Barents Sea on the 21st. Of 226 crew, nine men survived the icy water. The next day, a British Fairey Swordfish of 825 Naval Air Squadron from, dropped a pattern of depth charges on the U-boat, sinking her. Fifty men died in the sinking; there were no survivors.[1]
U-344 was thought to have been sunk on 24 August 1944 in the Barents Sea off the North Cape by British warships: i.e. the sloops and, the frigate and the destroyer Keppel. was the victim.
U-344 took part in two wolfpacks, namely: