To echo what Sailor Steve said - IIRC it's generally acknowledged that Buccheim combined experiences and impressions from more than one u-boat patrol into a book that fictionalizes just one...which did lead to some anachronisms, since he's drawing on events that took place over the entire course of the war and not just late 1941.
I've also read that the designations given to the u-boats in the book were to keep people from thinking that he was talking about a specific known boat and its commander and crew, especially since much of the book is drawn from real-life experiences but some is fictional. If he had used the numerical designations it might give away exactly who he was talking about (if he was relating a real event) or make people think that something fictional or partly so was a real event involving a known boat and crew when it might not be.
Given the reaction that the book got from some of the surviving u-boat men when it was published, it's probably a good thing that he didn't use the real designations/names of boats and their commanders, lol.
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