German submarine U-470 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine built for service in the Second World War. She was a very short-lived vessel, being commissioned in the months following the turning point of the Atlantic campaign and thus into a time in which many U-boats were being lost. The demise of U-470 was especially notable as she was sunk with two of her sisters in a brief melée in the waters of the Western Approaches. Design German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-470 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 Siemens-Schuckert GU 343/38–8 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-470 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 one twin C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty. Service history Built by the Deutsche Werke shipyards in Kiel, U-470 took a long time to complete, not being ready for initial working-up operations until a year after her construction began. She was given to Oberleutnant zur See Günther-Paul Grave, a highly experienced submarine officer, who led her through her training and mechanical trials and readied the boat for her active career, a difficult six month process. War Patrol U-470s only war patrol was an unlucky affair. After a difficult passage round the British Isles, U-470 received orders to join and to form a wolfpack to attack Convoy ON 206 in the Western Approaches to the English Channel. On 16 October, just 18 days after she left Bergen in Norway, a patrolling aircraft spotted U-470 on the surface. A total of three British Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers from 59 and 120