German submarine U-518

She left Kiel on 26 September 1942, by-passed the British Isles via the gap between Iceland and the Faeroe Islands and crossed the Atlantic. She entered Conception Bay, Newfoundland and near Bell Island sank the Free French PLM 27 and the Canadian Rose Castle on 2 November. A week later, on 9 November, she put a German spy named Werner von Janowski ashore at New Carlisle, Quebec.[6]

Moving out into the Atlantic proper, she attacked other ships, such as the British Empire Sailor on the 21st and the American Caddo on the 23rd. With these and other successes behind her, she moved to her new home base, Lorient in occupied France, arriving on 15 December 1942.

Leaving Lorient on 11 January 1943, she sailed to the eastern Brazilian coast and on 14 February 1943 came under attack from unidentified Allied aircraft; she sustained minimal damage Between 18 February and 25 March, she sank another four ships. On the return journey, she passed through the Cape Verde Islands, west of the Canary Islands and east of the Azores, arriving back at Lorient on 27 April 1943 after a patrol lasting 107 days.

Her third sortie was marked by a depth charge and strafing attack on 27 June 1943 by a Sunderland flying boat of No. 201 Squadron RAF. The damage incurred was serious enough to warrant her return which was hampered by another attack by a Sunderland, this time from No. 10 Squadron RAAF on 30 June in the Bay of Biscay. This incident caused no further damage, but the aircraft's rear gunner was mortally wounded. The boat docked in Bordeaux on 3 July.

She spent fifteen weeks on patrol which included a presence in the Gulf of Mexico, between 18 August and 1 December 1943, with no results.

Another long patrol saw the boat in the Caribbean where she torpedoed the Panamanian Valera. The ship broke in two before sinking. The submarine had departed Lorient on 23 January 1944 and returned there on 10 July.

She was on non-active patrol afterwards. Traveling from port to port, lasting from 4 to 10 July 1944, with no results.

By now, the Allies were besieging the Atlantic ports on the landward side; the boat departed Lorient for the last time on 15 July 1944. Allied escort ships attacked a submarine in mid-ocean, probably U-518, on 9 August. She next turned up, on the eastern US coast, where she damaged the American George Ade. She then withdrew to Kristiansand in Norway, arriving on 24 October 1944.

She was on non-active patrol again afterwards. Both of these voyages from 25 to 28 October 1944 and 5 to 10 March 1945 were between ports and produced no results.

Her last foray began when she departed Kristiansand on 12 March 1945. She was sunk northwest of the Azores on 22 April by hedgehog rounds from USS Carter and USS Neal A. Scott. There were no survivors.

U-518 took part in two wolfpacks, namely:

• Panther (7 – 11 October 1942)
• Seewolf (14 – 22 April 1945)