German submarine U-1226

<th colspan="2" >Service record

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German submarine U-1226 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.

The U-boat, built for service in the Battle of the Atlantic, was completed in Hamburg in November 1943, and placed under the command of Oberleutnant zur See August-Wilhelm Claussen (Crew X/37), whose brother Emil had been killed on board Template:GS the previous year. She underwent working up cruises in the Baltic Sea before embarking on her only operational patrol from Horten Naval Base in Norway during September 1944.

Design

German Type IXC/40 submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IXCs. U-1226 had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged.Template:Sfn The U-boat had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged four-stroke, nine-cylinder diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Siemens-Schuckert 2 GU 345/34 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to .Template:Sfn

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of .Template:Sfn When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . U-1226 was fitted with six torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and two at the stern), 22 torpedoes, one SK C/32 naval gun, 180 rounds, and a Flak M42 as well as two twin C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The boat had a complement of forty-eight.Template:Sfn

Service history

This patrol was uneventful for the first three weeks during the Atlantic crossing as she deliberately avoided the highly-effective allied countermeasures. The last contact with the boat was on 23 October 1944 reporting trouble with its Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus after which nothing more was heard from her. It is possible she was sunk in an unrecorded encounter with an Allied ship or aircraft, or more likely she suffered some unknown catastrophic accident which claimed the boat and all its crew.

Whatever the cause, she was given up for lost in mid-November. Her remains were claimed to have been found east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1993 however, this identification is unlikely. The vessel's last radio contact instructed the submarine to maintain its faulty snorkel in the upright position and return to base, giving U-1226Template:'s position as south of Iceland at .