German submarine U-402 was a Type VIIC 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...

 built for 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 It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine.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...

 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...

.

U-402 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Siegfried von Forstner

Siegfried von Forstner

Korvettenkapitän Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner was a German U-boat commander during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

 carried out eight combat patrols sinking 14 merchantmen and one warship during the Second World War. U-402 also damaged three other ships. For his numerous successes, von Forstner received the Iron Cross

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...

.

No ships were sunk during the first patrol from 26 October 1941 to 9 December 1941. On the second patrol U-402 damaged the 12,000-ton troopship off the Bay of Biscay on 16 January 1942, but the damaged troopship was able to make repairs in the Azores.

U-402 sank the 4,753 ton on 2 February 1942 en route to the Atlantic coast of the United States on its third patrol and then sank the 5300-ton Russian tanker Ashkabad and its escort, the 1000-ton converted yacht USS Cythera (PY-26)

USS Cythera (PY-26)

The USS Cythera was a US Navy patrol yacht, originally laid down as the civilian yacht Agawa, that saw service in the Atlantic during both World War I and World War II.-World War I:...

 off Cape Hatteras on 2 May 1942. During the fourth patrol, U-402 was depth charged by patrol bombers off Cape Hatteras in mid-July and suffered a battery explosion. U-402 limped back to France on 5 August 1942.

U-402 torpedoed five ships from convoy SC-107

Convoy SC-107

Convoy SC-107 was the 107th of the numbered series of World War II Slow Convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island to Liverpool...

 on its fifth patrol, seven ships from convoy SC-118 on its sixth patrol, and two ships from convoy SC-129 on its seventh patrol. U-402 was depth charged and damaged by the corvette HMS Gentian

HMS Gentian (K90)

HMS Gentian was a Royal Navy Flower-class corvette that served in the Battle of the Atlantic, during World War II.One of the first batch of wartime corvettes laid down, she served most of the time in the Western Approaches, escorting convoys across the North Atlantic with Escort Group B2 and was...

 following the successful submerged daylight attack on convoy SC-129.

U-402 shot down an attacking bomber over the Bay of Biscay following departure for its eighth patrol on 4 September 1943. U-402 was sunk on 13 October 1943 by a Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo

Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo

The Mark 24 Mine was a US air-dropped passive acoustic homing anti-submarine torpedo used during the Second World War against German and Japanese submarines. It entered service in March 1943 and continued in service with the US Navy until 1948...

 dropped by TBF Avenger

TBF Avenger

The Grumman TBF Avenger was a torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air or naval arms around the world....

 aircraft from USS Card (CVE-11)

USS Card (CVE-11)

USS Card was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier. Her hull was laid down on 27 October 1941 as a C-3 cargo ship but it was acquired from the Maritime Commission while under construction and was converted into an escort carrier.She was launched as AVG 11 on 27 February 1942 by Seattle-Tacoma...

.