The Type VIIC U-boat was the workhorse of the German underwater force, with 568 produced from 1940 to 1945. The Type VIIC was an effective fighting machine and was seen almost everywhere U-boats operated, although its range of only 8500 nautical miles was not as great as that of the larger Type IX (11,000 nautical miles), severely limiting the time it could spend in the far reaches of the western and southern Atlantic without refueling from a tender or U-boat tanker. The VIIC came into service near the beginning of the war and was still the most numerous type in service when Allied anti-submarine efforts finally defeated the U-boat campaign in late 1943 and 1944.
