Absolutely!
Perhaps anecdotal, but from
http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-162INT.htm comes this quote:
Quote:
USE OF KIEL CANAL
Heretofore it has been considered the general practice of U-boats setting out on their first cruise to proceed from Kiel through the Great Belt, the Kattegat, and the Skagerrak into Norwegian waters of the North Sea and thence into the Atlantic. From prisoners' statements and other sources, however, it appears that U-162 and a number of other U-boats sailing from Kiel in the winter of 1941-1942 returned through the Kaiser-Wilhelm Canal to Brünsbüttel, making an overnight stop there and entering the North Sea the following day. These boats then proceeded across the North Sea into the Atlantic without stopping at a Norwegian port.
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There's many examples of u-boats travelling the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal (as it was called then), particularly "new" boats which travelled from Hamburg to Kiel via the Kanal for acceptance trials.
Then of course, who could forget U-47's trip to Scapa.
