| abstract | - German submarine U-215 was a Type VIID mine-laying U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II. It was one of six U-boats of its kind, equipped with special vertical tubes that launched the mines. Its keel was laid down 15 November 1940 by Germaniawerft in Kiel as 'werk' 647. It was launched on 9 October 1941 and commissioned on 22 November with Kapitänleutnant Fritz Hoeckner in command. U-215 was sunk in the summer of 1942 by British warship HMS Le Tiger while on a mission to lay mines in Boston Harbor after attacking and sinking the U.S. liberty ship Alexander Macomb, part of an allied convoy. The wreck was not discovered until 2004. She now lays 270 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic, 150 miles off the coast of New England and south of Nova Scotia, just across international waters into Canadian territory. 4 of her 5 vertical tubes are still sealed, her hatches are still sealed, and she is (presumably) still airtight with the remains of 49 German sailors entombed within.
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