First, second and third patrols The boat's first patrol was brief and passed without incident. For her second sortie, she departed
Kiel on 5 September 1939, but went no further than the
Kattegat. Her third effort was as far as the waters separating
Orkney and
Shetland, but success continued to elude her.
Fourth and fifth patrols It was more of the same for her fourth and fifth patrols, although her activity was centred more in the southern
North Sea.
Sixth and seventh patrols The submarine's luck changed for the better on her sixth foray, when she sank the
Miranda about northwest of
Peterhead in Scotland on 20 January 1940. Sally number seven began with the boat's departure from
Wilhelmshaven on 8 February 1940. On the 14th, she attacked the
Gretafield southeast of
Noss Head. The burnt-out ship, which had been abandoned, drifted ashore at
Dunbeath in Caithness. She broke in two and was declared a total loss.
U-57 was one of six U-boats that took part in
Operation Nordmark; carrying out reconnaissance in the area of the Orkney and Shetland Islands for a subsequently unsuccessful sortie by the German
capital ships
Scharnhorst,
Gneisenau and
Admiral Hipper between 18 and 20 February 1940.
Eighth and ninth patrols On her eighth patrol, also executed in the vicinity of Orkney, she sank the
Daghestan east of
Copinsay, Orkney, on 25 March 1940. Patrol number nine saw the boat sweeping the area of the North Sea off the English/Scottish borders, Orkney and Shetland and all points east, with no result.
Tenth patrol U-57 had moved to
Bergen in Norway; , a British submarine, fired three
torpedoes at the U-boat in the entrance to Kors fjord on 15 July 1940: they missed. On the 17th, she sank the
O.A. Brodin northwest of
Noup Head in the Orkney Islands. She also successfully attacked the
Manipur northwest of
Cape Wrath, (on the northern Scottish mainland). Her next victim was the
Atos which went to the bottom in three minutes about north of
Malin Head (in Ireland) on 3 August. She then docked at the recently captured port of
Lorient on the French Atlantic coast on 7 August.
11th patrol Although her base had changed, the boat's area of operations had not. She damaged the
Havildar northeast of Malin Head on 24 August 1940 and sank the
Cumberland but was unsuccessfully attacked by British warships the next day. As sort of a farewell gift, she sank the
Pecten in the evening of the 25th; the ship went down in 90 seconds.
Training duties Returning to Germany, she was relegated to duties as a training boat and sank after a collision with the Norwegian ship
Rona at
Brunsbüttel (northwest of
Hamburg) on 3 September 1940 with the loss of six of her 25 crew members. She was raised, repaired and returned to service in January 1941. With the end of the war in sight, she was
scuttled on 3 May 1945 at Kiel. ==Summary of raiding history==