Type: X-B
Built by: Germania Werft (Kiel)
Launched: 16 January 1943
Commissioned: 27 March 1943
Feldpost Nr: M50753
Sunk: 28 October 1943
Sunk by: USN A/C of VC1 flying USS BLOCK ISLAND
Location sunk: off Newfoundland
Position sunk: 48º 53’N x 33º 30’W (56 men lost)

U-220 in the Krupp Shipyards, Kiel

The only Skipper of U-220 was Oberleutnant z.S. Bruno Barber who was lost with the boat. He had previously commanded U-58.

Indienstellung (Commissioning) of U-220

U-220 was attached to the 12th U-Bootflottille based in Bordeaux and had but one patrol. She laid a mine barrage off St. John’s, Newfoundland, assisted U-488 and then refueled two Frontboots but was destroyed shortly thereafter.

Two ships ran onto mines laid by U-220 and lost on 19 October.

First to be sunk was the 3,721 ton British steamer SS PENOLVER and immediately thereafter DELISLE.

The 3,478 ton American steamer SS DELISLE was an old ship, built in 1919. She was owned by A. H. Bull and Co. and was operated by WSA. Under command of Master William Clendanial, she was armed with one 3 inch deck gun and two .30 cal. machine guns. She was carrying 3,000 tons of zinc concentrate, machinery, vehicles and asphalt.

Oblt. Barber Assumes Command of U-220

SS DELISLE was part of Convoy WB.65, a small convoy with only seven ships and two Canadian corvettes. When PENOLVER struck the mine some 15 miles to sea, laid by U-220, DELISLE requested and received permission to pick up survivors. DELISLE was hove to and the crew was amidships throwing lines to the men in the water when she contacted another mine laid by U-220.

The explosion was tremendous, blasting the bow skywards. The foremast immediately collapsed and ship rolled violently several times before coming to rest on an even keel. The bow was totally gone - the same for the wheelhouse and the after gun platform.

All seven officers, twenty-five men, seven Armed Guards and three survivors from PENOLVER abandoned ship without orders. They got into two lifeboats and two rafts. All the men from the American ship survived and were picked up by the trawler HMS MISCOU (T-277). The ship sank in forty minutes.

U-220 was lost a short time later.