German submarine U-333 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 11 March 1940 at the Nordseewerke yard at Emden, launched on 14 June 1941, and commissioned on 25 August 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Peter-Erich Cremer. After training with the 5th U-boat Flotilla at Kiel, on 1 January 1942 U-333 was transferred to the 3rd U-boat Flotilla based at La Pallice for front-line service. The U-boat made 12 combat patrols in the next three years, and sank seven merchant ships totalling , damaged another of 8,327 GRT, and also engaged and damaged the . U-333 was sunk in the English Channel by British warships using a Squid on 31 July 1944. U-333 bore the "three little fishes" emblem on its conning tower. Design German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-333 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 AEG GU 460/8–27 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-333 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 First patrol U-333 sailed from Kiel on 27 December 1941, through the North Sea, and into the Atlantic. On 1 January 1942 the U-boat was attacked by an unidentified enemy aircraft, but was not damaged. U-333 then joined the wolfpack 'Ziethen' on 17 January 1942, and at 20:45 on 22 January, attacked the 3,429 GRT Greek merchant ship Vassilios A. Polemis, a straggler from Convoy ON 53. The ship, hit amidships by a single torpedo, broke in two and sank within ten minutes. The U-boat