 She was completed in the autumn of 1941, and given to the experienced "Kapitänleutnant" Heinz Bielfeld to command.He took her on her working-up period in which the boat was tested and the crew trained in the Baltic Sea and around the German held coastlines, before being dispatched to Narvik in Norway for her first war patrol in April 1942.German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines.