German submarine U-331 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 26 January 1940 at the Nordseewerke yard at Emden, launched on 20 December 1940, and commissioned on 31 March 1941 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Freiherr Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen. She would ultimately be tracked by the RAF and crippled before being destroyed by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm in late 1942 with the loss of most of her crew.