Built at
DeSchiMAG, Bremen, and
commissioned by
Kptlt. Werner Hartenstein, the boat was assigned in September 1941 to the
4th U-boat Flotilla for training. She conducted her first patrol from that same month, during which her crew trained, and at the end of which she arrived at her operations base in
Lorient, France, in December 1941. From that moment, she was assigned to the
2. Unterseebootsflottille based at that port; from where all her operational patrols departed. During the three patrols completed in 1942,
U-156 sank 19 ships for a total of ; in addition, three ships were damaged for a total of and one warship was damaged for a total of 1,190 tons.
Aruba attack During its second patrol,
U-156 participated in
Operation Neuland, which intended to disrupt traffic in the Caribbean; and included an attack on the oil
refinery at
Aruba island, ordered by captain Hartenstein. At the beginning of the attack on the
Lago Oil and Transport Company San Nicolaas refinery, the
deck gun exploded because the cap or
tampion in the muzzle of the gun, which prevented water from entering the barrel, was not removed before firing. This accident saved what was at the time the world's largest refinery. As a result of the accident,
Matrosengefreiter (equivalent to
Able Seaman or Leading Seaman) Heinrich Bussinger was killed, and Gunnery Officer Dietrich von dem Borne lost his right leg in the explosion. He was taken below and the boat submerged and left the waters off the coast of Aruba. Von dem Borne was put ashore on the island of
Martinique for medical treatment and survived the war. The stop at Martinique, at the time part of
Vichy France contributed to the worsening of diplomatic relations between the US and Vichy France.
Laconia incident On 12 September 1942,
U-156 hit the British troopship on the starboard side with a torpedo. The troopship, carrying 463 officers and crew, 80
civilians, 286
British Army soldiers, 1,793 Italian
prisoners of war, and 103
Polish soldiers (guards) off the coast of
West Africa, was hit by a second torpedo on Number Two hold and sank. After realising that the passengers were primarily
POWs and civilians the U-boat started rescue operations while flying the
Red Cross flag. A U.S. Army Air Corps bomber flying out of a secret South Atlantic airbase on
Ascension Island attacked the U-boat. The U-boat abandoned the rescue effort and left the survivors to drift to Africa. Over half the survivors died. This incident led to German Admiral
Karl Dönitz issuing the
Laconia Order on 17 September 1942, which forbade submarine commanders from rescuing survivors from torpedoed ships.
Fate During her fifth patrol, in which she sank no shipping and made no attacks,
U-156 was attacked twice. As a result of the second attack, on 8 March 1943, she was sunk approximately east of the island of
Barbados, in position , by a US
PBY Catalina aircraft from
VP-53. The aircraft dropped four Mark 44
Torpex-filled depth charges at 13:15 from an altitude of to which straddled the submarine. Two were observed to hit the water to starboard and just aft of
U-156, lifting it and breaking it in two, followed by an explosion. At least eleven survivors were seen swimming in the water. Two rubber rafts and rations were dropped, and five men were seen to reach one of the rafts. was dispatched from Trinidad to rescue the survivors, but without success; the search was abandoned on 12 March 1943. ==Patrols==