German submarine U-481

U-481 left Kiel on 19 June 1944 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Klaus Andersen, and sailed to Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia) via Helsinki.[2] She departed Reval on her first war patrol on 5 July and sailed east into the Gulf of Finland to Soviet waters. On 30 July she attacked a group of Soviet Navy coastal minesweepers with torpedoes, sinking two (KT-804 and KT-807) and damaging another (KT-806). On the same day the U-boat was attacked while in Narva Bay by two Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik aircraft from the 35th Assault Air Regiment (35. ShAP), and managed to damage one enough to force the pilot to ditch his aircraft. The U-boat arrived back at Reval on 4 August.[4]

U-481 sailed again from Reval on 10 August 1944, and patrolled Soviet waters with no success, before arriving at Königsberg in East Prussia, on 21 August.[5]

Departing Königsberg on 16 September 1944, the U-boat patrolled the Baltic,[2] and on 15 October sank three small Finnish Galeas sailing barges (Dan, Endla and Maria) off Osmussaar, Estonia, with shell-fire, before arriving at Danzig (now Gdansk) on 26 October.[6]

U-481 sailed from Danzig on 2 November 1944, returning to the Gulf of Finland,[2] and on 9 November off Cape Pakri she torpedoed and shelled the Soviet 1,000 GRT barge 112600, sinking her.[7] On 28 November she sank the Soviet 108 tons coastal minesweeper T-387 in the same area.[8] The U-boat returned to Danzig on 22 December.

After returning to Kiel to be fitted with a 'schnorchel' in February 1945,[1] the U-boat sailed for Horten Naval Base in Norway, making her final patrol along the Norwegian coast from 7 April to 4 May, finally arriving at Narvik only a few days before the German surrender. On 12 May all U-boats in the Narvik area were ordered by the Allies to sail to Skjomenfjord to avoid conflicts with the Norwegians. On 15 May four ships; the fleet tender Grille with the staff of FdU Norwegen on board, the fleet oiler Kärnten, and the depot ships Huascaran and Stella Polaris, and fifteen U-boats including U-481, sailed for Trondheim, but were intercepted after two days by the Royal Navy's 9th Escort Group and officially capitulated. The ships were allowed to proceed to Trondheim, but all the U-boats were escorted to Loch Eriboll, Scotland, arriving on 19 May. Later transferred to Loch Ryan, U-481 was sunk at position in 56°11′N 10°00′W as part of "Operation Deadlight" on 30 November 1945.[1]