The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of 2,800 to 3,200 metric horsepower (2,060 to 2,350 kW; 2,760 to 3,160 shp) for use while surfaced, two AEG GU 460/8–27 double-acting electric motors producing a total of 750 metric horsepower (550 kW; 740 shp) for use while submerged.

On 11 December, U-96 made contact with the scattered convoy HX 92 and attacked the British passenger ship Rotorua of 10,890 GRT, sinking her with a single torpedo launched at 15:12 in position 58°56′N 11°20′W / 58.933°N 11.333°W / 58.933; -11.333.

In the early hours of 12 December, U-96 attacked the Swedish steamer Stureholm of 4,575 GRT, sinking her with a single torpedo launched at 01:56 in position 57°50′N 8°40′W / 57.833°N 8.667°W / 57.833; -8.667.

[5] Two and a half hours later the un-escorted Belgian Macedonier was sighted and attacked with a single torpedo, which hit amidships, sinking her within 10 minutes in position 57°52′N 8°42′W / 57.867°N 8.700°W / 57.867; -8.700.

After six rounds from her deck gun which resulted in three hits, U-96 abandoned the attack on the armed merchantman due to bad weather.

U-96, which had lost contact during the night, remained in the general area, encountering a British battleship and her escorts, but could not attack.

She returned to the waters west of Scotland, where she attacked the British SS Oropesa of 14,118 GRT early in the morning of 16 January.

The U-boat attacked shortly after 15:00 with a single torpedo, which hit Clea amidships, snapping her in half and setting the wreck on fire.

[16] Black Osprey's crew of 36 abandoned ship in heavy weather, however, only eleven survivors were picked up two days later.

On 21 February a Focke Wulf "Condor" of I./KG 40 attacked and damaged a straggler from convoy OB 287, the 6,999 GRT Scottish Standard, killing five of her crew.

[17] Following the second explosion, HMS Montgomery pursued the U-boat for five hours, dropping 37 depth charges without causing serious damage.

On 23 February 1941, U-96 made contact with convoy OB 288, and proceeded to attack in conjunction with U-69, U-73, U-95, and U-107 as well as the Italian submarine Michele Bianchi.

Six hours later, U-96 launched a second torpedo at the wreck, that had been abandoned by the crew, which included the commodore of OB 288, Rear Admiral R.A.A.

[22] After escaping the attack of an escort, HMS Churchill, U-96 made for port in St. Nazaire, France, where she arrived after 30 days at sea on 28 February, having sunk seven ships for a total of 45,391 GRT.

On 16 April, the U-boat made contact with convoy OB 309 and was immediately attacked by an escort, HMS Rockingham, resulting in some damage to the boat.

[26] The third ship sunk that day, the British steamship Port Hardy of 8,897 GRT, was hit accidentally when the third torpedo missed its target.

[27] Before the torpedo hit, U-96 was forced to submerge, as an escort, the Flower-class corvette HMS Gladiolus arrived on the scene.

[29] Early on 19 May, the British steamship Empire Ridge of 2,922 GRT, crossed U-96's path 90 nautical miles (170 km; 100 mi) west of Bloody Foreland (Ireland).

The boat was about 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) north of the Azores on 5 July 1941 when she found the survey vessel HMS Challenger leading an armed merchant cruiser (AMC) HMS Cathay and SS Anselm, a cargo and passenger liner of 5,954 GRT that had been converted into a troop ship.

[35] On 27 October, U-96 left for her seventh patrol with journalist Lothar-Günther Buchheim aboard and joined group Stoßtrupp three days later.

However, late on 30 November the U-boat was spotted by a Fairey Swordfish of 812 Naval Air Squadron and heavily damaged by two bombs dropped by the aircraft.

On the way she encountered the Spanish SS Cabo de Hornos, which returned from South America, after delivering a group of Jewish refugees to the Dutch colony of Curaçao, when Brazil denied them entry.

The submarine's final victory this time out came on 9 March when she sank Tyr about 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) from Halifax.

Crossing the Atlantic for the last time, she then came back to the eastern side and after transferring a sick crew-member to U-163 on 3 January 1943, arrived at Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on 8 February.

From his experiences, he wrote a short story, "Die Eichenlaubfahrt" (The Oak-Leaves Patrol) and a 1973 novel which was to become an international best-seller, Das Boot (The Boat), followed in 1976 by U-Boot-Krieg (U-boat War), a nonfiction chronicle of the voyage.

In 1981 Wolfgang Petersen created the critically acclaimed film Das Boot based on Buchheim's novel of the same name with several alterations to the plot and characters.

Both the novel and the film had a much darker ending than in reality, where the U-boat returns to port only to be destroyed during an air raid with many of her crew killed or wounded.

The same replica of U-96 was used in Steven Spielberg's 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, but has the number U-26, which in reality was a Type IA U-boat.

[citation needed] In 2019, Deep Water Studio released the video game UBOAT in early access.

U-96 is also featured as one of the five playable submarines in the video game Wolfpack released by Usurpator AP into early access in 2019.