U-1229 was ordered on 14 October 1941 from
Deutsche Werft AG Weser in
Hamburg-Finkenwerder under the
yard number 392. Her keel was
laid down on 2 March 1943 and was
launched on 22 October 1943. About three months later she was
commissioned into service under the command of
Kapitänleutnant Arnim Zinke (Crew 31) in the
31st U-boat Flotilla on 13 January 1944. After completing training and work-up for deployment,
U-1229 was transferred to the
10th U-boat Flotilla for front-line service on 1 August 1944. The U-boat left
Kiel on 13 July 1944 for the first and only war patrol operating unsuccessfully against Allied shipping in the North Atlantic and off the coast of Canada. A special mission to infiltrate an
Abwehr agent into the
United States failed, when
U-1229 was spotted south of
Newfoundland by a
Radar-equipped aircraft from and subsequently attacked by several more aircraft over a period of two hours. Having been heavily damaged in the initial air attack,
U-1229 attempted to escape under water but was forced to surface again as poisonous fumes started to develop from the damaged battery sections. While the crew was abandoning ship, the U-boat was strafed by several aircraft resulting in the death of numerous crew members, including Zinke. In total 18 crew members died while 41 survivors were picked up by a US destroyer after seven hours in the water. One of the survivors was the experienced German intelligence agent Oskar Mantel. ==References==