 The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.The submarine was laid down on 23 May 1941 at the Danziger Werft at Danzig (now Gdansk) as yard number 126, launched on 19 December 1942 and commissioned on 21 April 1943 under the command of "Kapitänleutnant" Heinz Bentzien.She served with the 8th U-boat Flotilla from 21 April 1943 for training and the 9th flotilla from 1 November for operations.