German submarine U-995 was a German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 Type VIIC/41 U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 of the Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

. She was laid down on 25 November 1942 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany, and commissioned on 16 September 1943 with Oberleutnant Walter Köhntopp in command.

Commanders:

• 16 September 1943 to 9 October 1944 Kapitänleutnant Walter Köhntopp
• 10 October 1944 to 8 May 1945 Oberleutnant
  Oberleutnant
  Oberleutnant is a junior officer rank in the militaries of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In the German Army, it dates from the early 19th century. Translated as "Senior Lieutenant", the rank is typically bestowed upon commissioned officers after five to six years of active duty...
  
   Hans-Georg Hess
  Hans-Georg Hess
  Hans-Georg Hess was a German U-boat commander of the Second World War. He commanded a single U-boat from September 1944 until the end of the war, and sank five ships for a total of 2,298 GRT, and caused another to be declared a total loss for 7,176 GRT...
  
   Knight's Cross

During the war U-995 conducted 9 patrols:

• 16 September 1943 to 31 May 1944 5th Flotilla (training)
• 1 June 1944 to 28 February 1945 13th Flotilla (front boat)
• 1 March 1945 to 8 May 1945 14th Flotilla (front boat)

List of ships sunk by U-995:

• Three ships sunk for
• One auxiliary warship sunk for
• One warship sunk for 105 tons
• One ship a total loss for

At the end of the war on 8 May 1945 she was stricken at Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. She was surrendered to the British and then transferred to Norwegian ownership in October 1948. In December 1952 U995 became the Norwegian submarine Kaura and in 1965 she was stricken by the Royal Norwegian Navy

Royal Norwegian Navy

The Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Defence Force responsible for naval operations. , the RNoN consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 5 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection vessel, 4 support...

. She then was sold for the symbolic price of one Deutsche Mark to Germany where she became a museum ship

Museum ship

A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...

 at Laboe Naval Memorial

Laboe Naval Memorial

The Laboe Naval Memorial is a memorial located in Laboe, near Kiel, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Started in 1927 and completed in 1936, the monument originally memorialized the World War I war dead of the Kaiserliche Marine, with the Kriegsmarine dead of World War II being added after 1945...

 in October 1971.

Other surviving U-boats

• U-505
• U-534
• U-2540

Links

• Documentary about U995