Unterseeboot 656

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U-656
Type		VIIC
Yard Number		805
Ordered		9 October 1939
Launch Date		8 July 1941
Commission Date		17 September 1941
Construction yard		Howaldtswerke, Hamburg
Patrols
Start Date	End Date	Assigned Unit
No Patrols	Training boat	5. Unterseebootflottille
15 January 1942	28 January 1942	1. Unterseebootflottille
4 February 1942	1 March 1942	1. Unterseebootflottille

Commanders
August, 1941	1 March 1942	Kptlt. Ernst Kröning

Successes
Type of Ship Sunk	Number of Ships Sunk	Gross Registered Tonnage
Commercial Vessels	-	-
Military Vessels	-	-

Unterseeboot 656, also U-656, was a German World War II Type VIIC submarine. Her creation was ordered on 9 October 1939, and the keel was laid on 4 September 1940. Construction on U-656 was carried out by Hamburg company Howaldtswerke in Yard 805. She was launched on 8 July 1941 and commissioned on 17 September 1941.

U-656 went into service initially with 5. Unterseebootflottille (U-Boat Flotilla) for training from September 1941 until December 1941. She moved into operational service with 1. Unterseebootflottille on 1 January 1942, and was commanded by Ernst Kröning.

U-656 made two patrols, but did not sink any ships. Her first patrol lasted almost two weeks: after departing Kiel on 15 January 1942, she put in at Brest, France on 28 January. The submarine departed Brest on 4 February 1942, but never completed her second patrol. On 1 March 1942, while in the North Atlantic Ocean south of Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada, she was sunk with all hands by depth charges dropped by a United States Navy Lockheed Hudson of patrol squadron VP-82, making U-656 the first U-boat to be sunk by the U.S. Navy in World War II.