German submarine U-168 was a Type IXC/40

German Type IX submarine

The Type IX U-boat was designed by Germany in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern United States in an attempt to disrupt the stream of troops and supplies bound for...

 U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 of the German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

 built for service during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.
Her keel was laid down on March 15, 1941 by the Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG

Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG

Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft was a cooperation of eight German shipyards in the period 1926 to 1945...

 in Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

. She was commissioned on September 10, 1942, with Kapitänleutnant Helmut Pich in command.

Career

U-168 conducted four patrols around the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

, sinking three ships totalling 8,008 tons and damaging one other grossing 9,804 tons.

On October 2, 1943 she sank the British steam merchant ship SS Haiching off the western coast of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

On February 14, 1944, the boat fired three torpedoes, and sank the British salvage vessel HMS Salviking south of India. The next day, U-168 attacked and sank the Greek merchant ship Epaminondas C. Embiricos 150 miles northwest of Addu Atoll

Addu Atoll

Addu City is a city in Maldives consisting of the inhabited islands of the southernmost atoll of the archipelago....

, taking two officers prisoner. On the 21st, U-168 attacked a Norwegian merchant vessel, the Fenris. She used up her last torpedo, failing to claim a victory, as the damaged ship continued to Bombay under her own power.

Fate

In the early hours of October 6, 1944 while in the Java Sea

Java Sea

The Java Sea is a large shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf. It was formed as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Java Sea lies between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south; Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east...

, U-168 was hit by a torpedo from the Dutch submarine HrMs Zwaardvisch. The attack killed twenty-three men, with a further twenty-seven being captured.