Unterseeboot 85 (1941)

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U-85
Type		VIIB
Yard Number		Flender 281
Commission Date		7 June 1941
Construction yard		Flender-Werke, Lübeck
Commanders
7 June 1941	14 April 1942	Oblt. Eberhard Greger

Successes
Type of Ship Sunk	Number of Ships Sunk	Gross Registered Tonnage
Commercial Vessels	3	15,060
Military Vessels	-	-

Unterseeboot 85 or U-85 was a German World War II Type VIIB submarine commissioned on 7 June 1941. U-85 was assigned to 3. Unterseebootflottille (U-Boat Flotilla) on 7 June 1941 and completed four patrols with the flotilla. U-85 sunk three ships totalling 15,060 Gross Registered Tonnage. U-85 was sunk with all hands on deck on 14 April 1942 off the United States coast near Cape Hatteras by gunfire from the destroyer USS Roper. U-85 was the first German U-boat loss of Operation Drumbeat (Paukenschlag), Germany’s U-boat offensive off the eastern seaboard of the United States in 1942.

The hatch of the U-85 is on display in the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse visitor center, and the sub itself still serves as an attraction for divers.^[1] The Enigma machine was illegally recovered from the wreck by private divers and in 2003 the German government agreed to allow the machine to be displayed at the Atlantic Graveyard Museum, in Hatteras, North Carolina. ^[2]