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The most important thing for the U-boat force was the success of its boats. Since the war was a "tonnage war" designed to sink more ships than the Allies could replace the size and number of ships sunk is the most important factor in determining success.

Below are two tables; the most successful patrols in terms of tonnage sunk or damaged and also listed by most succesful patrols in tons hit per day. A great number of ships sunk during a long war patrol is less valuable than the same number of ships sunk in much shorter patrol.

These numbers only count ships sunk. They do include warships. Please click on "View" for each patrol for full information.

	U-boat	Type	Commander	Departure	End of patrol	Days	Ships hit	Tons	Tons a day
1.	U-107	IXB	Kptlt. Günter Hessler	29 Mar 1941	2 Jul 1941	95	14	86,699	913	View
2.	U-105	IXB	Kptlt. Georg Schewe	22 Feb 1941	13 Jun 1941	111	12	71,450	644	View
3.	U-103	IXB	KrvKpt. Viktor Schütze	1 Apr 1941	12 Jul 1941	102	13	65,172	639	View
4.	U-159	IXC	Kptlt. Helmut Friedrich Witte	24 Aug 1942	5 Jan 1943	134	11	63,730	476	View
5.	U-158	IXC	Kptlt. Erwin Rostin *	4 May 1942	30 Jun 1942	57	12	62,536	1,097	View
6.	U-99	VIIB	Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer *	22 Feb 1941	17 Mar 1941	23	7	61,711	2,683	View
7.	U-172	IXC	Kptlt. Carl Emmermann	19 Aug 1942	27 Dec 1942	130	8	60,048	462	View
8.	U-515	IXC	Kptlt. Werner Henke	21 Feb 1943	24 Jun 1943	123	10	58,456	475	View
9.	U-181	IXD2	Kptlt. Wolfgang Lüth	12 Sep 1942	18 Jan 1943	128	12	58,381	456	View
10.	U-68	IXC	KrvKpt. Karl-Friedrich Merten	20 Aug 1942	6 Dec 1942	108	9	56,330	522	View
11.	U-502	IXC	Kptlt. Jürgen von Rosenstiel *	22 Apr 1942	6 Jul 1942	75	9	54,045	721	View
12.	U-124	IXB	Kptlt. Georg-Wilhelm Schulz	23 Feb 1941	1 May 1941	67	11	53,297	795	View
13.	U-130	IXC	KrvKpt. Ernst Kals	4 Jul 1942	12 Sep 1942	70	7	51,528	736	View
14.	U-47	VIIB	Kptlt. Günther Prien	3 Jun 1940	6 Jul 1940	33	8	51,189	1,551	View
15.	U-68	IXC	KrvKpt. Karl-Friedrich Merten	14 May 1942	10 Jul 1942	57	7	50,774	891	View
16.	U-123	IXB	Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen	23 Dec 1941	9 Feb 1942	48	9	50,766	1,058	View
17.	U-159	IXC	Kptlt. Helmut Friedrich Witte	14 May 1942	13 Jul 1942	60	11	50,505	842	View
18.	U-100	VIIB	Kptlt. Joachim Schepke	11 Sep 1940	25 Sep 1940	14	7	50,340	3,596	View
19.	U-508	IXC	Kptlt. Georg Staats	17 Oct 1942	6 Jan 1943	81	9	50,265	621	View
20.	U-177	IXD2	Kptlt. Robert Gysae	17 Sep 1942	22 Jan 1943	127	8	49,371	389	View
21.	U-66	IXC	Kptlt. Friedrich Markworth	23 Jun 1942	29 Sep 1942	98	9	49,274	503	View
22.	U-65	IXB	Kptlt. Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen	15 Oct 1940	10 Jan 1941	87	8	47,794	549	View
23.	U-38	IX	Kptlt. Heinrich Liebe	9 Apr 1941	24 Jun 1941	76	8	47,279	622	View
24.	U-162	IXC	FrgKpt. Jürgen Wattenberg	7 Apr 1942	8 Jun 1942	62	9	47,181	761	View
25.	U-178	IXD2	Kpt. Hans Ibbeken	8 Sep 1942	10 Jan 1943	124	6	47,097	380	View
26.	U-125	IXC	Kptlt. Ulrich Folkers	4 Apr 1942	13 Jun 1942	70	9	47,055	672	View
27.	U-106	IXB	Oblt. Jürgen Oesten	26 Feb 1941	17 Jun 1941	111	8	46,488	419	View
28.	U-552	VIIC	Kptlt. Erich Topp	7 Mar 1942	27 Apr 1942	51	7	45,731	897	View
29.	U-96	VIIC	Kptlt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock	30 Jan 1941	28 Feb 1941	29	7	45,391	1,565	View
30.	U-181	IXD2	Kptlt. Wolfgang Lüth	23 Mar 1943	14 Oct 1943	205	10	45,331	221	View
31.	U-160	IXC	Kptlt. Georg Lassen	6 Jan 1943	10 May 1943	124	7	45,205	365	View
						2,680	282	1,670,419	623

Legend
* The U-boat was lost during this patrol.

Kptlt. Joachim Schepke's patrol with his U-100 from 11 - 25 Sep 1940 was truly outstanding as he needed only 3 hours to sink these seven ships - he also only spent 14 days at sea, the shortest patrol on this list.

This list is dominated by the larger ocean-going type IX boats as they tended to patrol more distant areas and were loaded with more torpedoes than the smaller type VII boats we see more on the table below. Many of the patrols were to South African or American waters, taking long time to reach their areas but often offered plentiful hunting opportunities.

	U-boat	Type	Commander	Departure	End of patrol	Days	Ships hit	Tons	Tons a day
1.	U-32	VIIA	Oblt. Hans Jenisch *	24 Oct 1940	30 Oct 1940	6	1	42,348	7,058	View
2.	U-99	VIIB	Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer	30 Oct 1940	8 Nov 1940	9	4	42,407	4,712	View
3.	U-45	VIIB	Kptlt. Alexander Gelhaar *	9 Oct 1939	14 Oct 1939	5	2	19,313	3,863	View
4.	U-100	VIIB	Kptlt. Joachim Schepke	11 Sep 1940	25 Sep 1940	14	7	50,340	3,596	View
5.	U-47	VIIB	Kptlt. Günther Prien	8 Oct 1939	17 Oct 1939	9	1	29,150	3,239	View
6.	U-99	VIIB	Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer	13 Oct 1940	22 Oct 1940	9	6	27,396	3,044	View
7.	U-99	VIIB	Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer	25 Jul 1940	5 Aug 1940	11	4	32,345	2,940	View
8.	U-34	VIIA	Kptlt. Wilhelm Rollmann	23 Jul 1940	3 Aug 1940	11	5	29,990	2,726	View
9.	U-99	VIIB	Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer *	22 Feb 1941	17 Mar 1941	23	7	61,711	2,683	View
10.	U-99	VIIB	Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer	27 Nov 1940	12 Dec 1940	15	4	34,291	2,286	View
11.	U-47	VIIB	Kptlt. Günther Prien	14 Oct 1940	23 Oct 1940	9	4	20,124	2,236	View
12.	U-96	VIIC	Kptlt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock	9 Jan 1941	22 Jan 1941	13	2	29,054	2,235	View
13.	U-138	IID	Oblt. Wolfgang Lüth	10 Sep 1940	26 Sep 1940	16	4	34,644	2,165	View
14.	U-57	IIC	Oblt. Erich Topp	15 Jul 1940	20 Jul 1940	5	2	10,612	2,122	View
15.	U-48	VIIB	Kptlt. Heinrich Bleichrodt	8 Sep 1940	25 Sep 1940	17	7	34,418	2,025	View
16.	U-32	VIIA	Oblt. Hans Jenisch	18 Sep 1940	6 Oct 1940	18	7	35,782	1,988	View
17.	U-48	VIIB	Kptlt. Heinrich Bleichrodt	5 Oct 1940	27 Oct 1940	22	7	43,106	1,959	View
18.	U-558	VIIC	Kptlt. Günther Krech	11 Oct 1941	25 Oct 1941	14	4	26,988	1,928	View
19.	U-37	IX	Kptlt. Victor Oehrn	17 Aug 1940	30 Aug 1940	13	7	24,409	1,878	View
20.	U-123	IXB	Kptlt. Karl-Heinz Moehle	14 Nov 1940	28 Nov 1940	14	5	25,676	1,834	View
						253	90	654,104	2,585

Legend
* The U-boat was lost during this patrol.

Otto Kretschmer's achievements can clearly be seen on this list. He took his U-99 out on 8 patrols and 5 of those are on the top 10 best patrols by tons sunk per day! Jenish's score of a single 42,348 ton ship during a 6-day patrol is also impossible to beat.

This list is dominated by the smaller type VII boats as they tended to have shorter patrols and carried much fewer torpedoes than the larger type IX boats.