German submarine U-703
Korvettenkapitän Hans Cohausz, Commander 11th U-Boat Flotilla, greets Kapitänleutnant Heinz Bielfeld, commander of U-703, on the submarine's gangway, at Bergen, Norway. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Nazi Germany | |
| Name | U-703 |
| Ordered | 9 October 1939 |
| Builder | HC Stülcken & Sohn, Hamburg |
| Yard number | 762 |
| Laid down | 9 August 1940 |
| Launched | 18 July 1941 |
| Commissioned | 16 October 1941 |
| Fate | Missing since 16 September 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Type VIIC submarine |
| Displacement | |
| Length |
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| Beam |
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| Height | 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in) |
| Draught | 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in) |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed |
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| Range | |
| Test depth |
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| Complement | 4 officers, 40–56 enlisted |
| Armament |
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| Service record | |
| Part of: |
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| Identification codes: | M 25 617 |
| Commanders: |
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| Operations: |
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| Victories: | |
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German submarine U-703 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine deployed during the Second World War against allied shipping in the Arctic Ocean. She was a successful boat, which had a far longer service life than most other U-boats, primarily due to the restricted zone of operations in which she fought. Her main mission during the war was to target the Arctic Convoys which carried supplies to the Soviet Union from Britain. At this she was quite successful in her three years of raiding until her presumed demise in 1944.
U-703 was built at Hamburg in Northern Germany on the North Sea. She was completed in the autumn of 1941, and given to the experienced Kapitänleutnant Heinz Bielfeld to command. He took her on her working-up period in which the boat was tested and the crew trained in the Baltic Sea and around the German held coastlines, before being dispatched to Narvik in Norway for her first war patrol in April 1942.