U-boat combat losses 1939-1945
1939 9
1940 24
1941 34
1942 86
1943 237
1944 238
1945 123
Total U-boats lost 751 (as you can see it gets ugly very fast for the uboat commander past 1943).
In addition some approx 400 uboats of varying types and conditions were destroyed or scuttled at the end of the war either by the Germans in Operation Regenbogen or the Allies in Operation Deadlight which accounts for the 1149 total Uboats in the Kriegsmarine. However many of those were older training boats , boats that had not yet made it to combat etc. etc. Iron Coffins and a few other historical account books indicate that by the end of the war very close to 100% of the operational combat effective Uboats had been destroyed in combat.
Interestingly in Iron Coffins if you piece together his account of his personal tonnage sunk from 1943 onwards he basically sinks nothing and is almost destroyed a number of times, many patrols he was forced back to port without having been able to even fire a single shot.
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