German submarine U-571 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany for service during World War II. U-571 conducted eleven war patrols, sinking five ships totalling , and damaging one other for 11,394 GRT. On 28 January 1944 she was attacked by an Australian-crewed Sunderland aircraft from No. 461 Squadron RAAF west of Ireland and was destroyed by depth charges. All hands were lost. The fictional 2000 U.S. war film U-571 has no relation to this U-boat, but is very loosely based on the British capture of and her Enigma and cipher keys. Design German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-571 had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to . The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . U-571 was fitted with five torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and a C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty. Service history Her keel was laid down on 8 June 1940 by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg. She was commissioned on 22 May 1941 with Kapitänleutnant Helmut Möhlmann in command. Under his command U-571 had nine successful patrols in the Arctic and in the North and Central Atlantic. In August and September 1941, U-571 operated against Allied and Soviet forces, damaging the Soviet passenger vessel Marija Uljanova on 26 August. In 1942, U-571 operated off the east coast of the United States, sinking the British cargo ship on 29 March, the Norwegian tanker M/T Koll on 6 April off Cape Hatteras, and the American freighter Margaret on April 14 after the ship left San Juan, Puerto Rico. Although U-571’s log mentions