German submarine U - 625 U - 625 was a Type VIIC U - boat of the German " Kriegsmarine " during World War II . The submarine was laid down on 28 July 1941 at the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg , launched on 15 April 1942 , and commissioned on 4 June 1942 under the command of " Oberleutnant zur See " Hans Benker . After training with " 8th U - boat Flotilla " , " U - 625 " was transferred to " 3rd U - boat Flotilla " for front - line service on 1 October 1942 . She was soon transferred again , to " 11th U - boat Flotilla " on 1 November 1942 , then again to " 13th U - boat Flotilla " on 1 June 1943 , and finally to " 1st U - boat Flotilla " on 1 November 1943 . " U - 625 " completed nine patrols , torpedoed three merchant ships , and sank two auxiliary warships with mines . The U - boat was sunk with all hands on 10 March 1944 off the west coast of Ireland by depth charges dropped from a Canadian Sunderland . Service history . 1st patrol . " U - 625 " left Kiel on 1 October 1942 and sailed to Skjomen fjord , before commencing her first war patrol on 4 November . She sailed north to the waters south and east of Spitsbergen , where she sank three ships . Her first victim was the 5 , 445 ton British merchant ship " Chulmleigh " . On 5 November the unescorted vessel had been bombed and damaged by a German Ju 88 aircraft of II . / KG 30 ( based at Banak , North Cape ) and had beached at South Cape , Spitsbergen . The following day , 6 November , at 15 : 58 , " U - 625 " torpedoed the stranded vessel and then wrecked her with gunfire . The crew abandoned ship and landed on an isolated part of the island . They were not rescued until 4 January , by men from the garrison at Barentsburg . Only the master , three crewmen and nine gunners survived , while 36 crewmen members and nine gunners were lost , many to frostbite . At 22 : 24 the same day , 6 November , she torpedoed and sank the unescorted 7 , 455 ton British merchant ship " Empire Sky " south of Spitsbergen . The master and 40 crew members were lost . On 23 November , at 00 : 56 , " U - 625 " torpedoed the 5 , 851 ton British merchant ship " Goolistan " of Convoy QP - 15 , west of Bear Island . The U - boat hit the ship with another torpedo at 01 : 18 , and she sank at 01 : 45 . The master and 41 crewmen were lost . " U - 625 " arrived at Narvik on 29 November 1942 after 26 days at sea . 2nd to 5th patrols . " U - 625 " ' s next four patrols in the waters north of Norway , between December 1942 and June 1943 , were uneventful , and she had no successes . 6th patrol . " U - 625 " sailed from Trondheim on 12 July 1943 , and headed north and then east into Soviet waters . On 20 July she laid mines in the Yugorsky Strait . On 25 July at 01 : 40 , the 557 ton Soviet naval trawler " T - 904 " ( No . 58 ) struck a mine , which exploded under the boiler room , and sank the ship within two minutes . Ten of her crew of 45 were lost . The U - boat arrived in Narvik on 27 July after a 16 day patrol . 7th patrol . The U - boat returned to the Kara Sea to lay more mines , sailing from Hammerfest on 7 August , and returning to Narvik on the 20th . At 18 : 07 on 25 August the 572 ton Soviet Navy salvage vessel " ASO - 1 Shkval " , struck two mines laid by " U - 625 " in the Yugorsky Strait and sank immediately . Only five of her crew of 52 survived . 8th and 9th patrols . Her next patrol from Trondheim , and lasting from 4 – 8 November , was uneventful . " U - 625 " departed Trondheim again on 15 November 1943 and headed out into the northern Atlantic , south of Greenland . Having no success , she finally set a course for Brest , France . At 21 : 38 on 2 January 1944 , in the Bay of Biscay , the U - boat was attacked by a Leigh light equipped British Liberator bomber from No . 224 Squadron RAF . " U - 625 " opened fire with her AA guns and scored a hit , wounding the aircraft ' s radio operator . The U - boat then began to crash - dive . The commander " Kptlt . " Hans Benker cancelled the order so that he and a crewman could recover the Naxos wire , but the boat continued to dive and Benker and the crewman were killed . The U - boat arrived at Brest on 6 January . 10th patrol . The U - boat , now under the command of " Oblt . " Siegfried Straub , left Brest on 29 February 1944 on her tenth and final patrol . On 10 March , west of Ireland , in position , she was sunk by depth charge s from a Canadian Sunderland patrol bomber EK591 " 2U " from No . 422 Squadron RCAF . All 53 hands were lost . " The crew of the Canadian amphibious plane , the Sunderland , reported that it had sunk a German U - boat off the west coast of Ireland and that the crew were swimming around in the water . Pictures of the attack & sinking of U - 625 , and of some of the crew that escaped in liferafts ( not all ) , were taken by the cameras aboard the Sunderland . The plane circled a few times and headed back to its home base . None of the submarine crew survived ; before having a chance to be rescued , they were lost in high seas . Those pictures hung in the office of Sir Winston Churchill for a period during the war ; it was the only confirmed proof of a U - boat " kill " by a Canadian coastal squadron during WWII . U - 625 was one of 543 German ships that went lost together with its entire crew " ( Neitzel & Welzer 2012 : 261 , with two photos on p . 262 of U - 625 being attacked and about half of the crew clustered together in the water in one - man rafts . ) Source : Neitzel , Sonke & Welzer , Harald 2012 Soldaten - On Fighting , Killing , and Dying : The Secret World War II Transcripts of German POWs . Translated from the German by Jefferson Chase . Scribe : Melbourne .