This is alist of World War IIU-boat commanders. Only sunk merchant ships are counted in the totals; warships and damaged ships are not.
Submariners suffered the highest casualty rate in theGerman military: 75%. Commanders killed in action are indicated by a † after their name.
 |
| Name | Patrols | Ships sunk | Tonnage sunk (tons) | Notes | Picture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ernst Bauer | 5 | 25 | 118,560 | Bauer (1914–1988) was given command ofU-126 in March 1941. In October 1944, he became commander of the training unit27th U-boat Flotilla, and during the last month of war he was transferred to the26th U-boat Flotilla. Bauer rejoined theBundesmarine in 1956 and held several staff positions before retiring in 1972.[1] | |
| Heinrich Bleichrodt | 8 | 24 | 151,260 | Bleichrodt (1909–1977) was given command ofU-48 in 1940, sailing on two patrols and sinking 15 ships totalling 79,295 GRT, including theSS City of Benares – an unmarked evacuation transport. After briefly commandingU-67, in June 1941 Bleichrodt took command ofU-109. He carried out six patrols, sinking 13 ships for a total of some 80,000 tons. Bleichrodt then served in a training post with the27th U-boat Flotilla and in the 2nd ULD ("2nd U-boat Training Division") as tactical instructor. In July 1944 he was appointed commander of the22nd U-boat Flotilla.[2] |  |
| Carl Emmermann | 5 | 26 | 152,080 | Emmermann (1915–1990) took command ofU-172 in November 1941. He became the commander of the6th U-boat Flotilla in November 1943, and in August 1944 became the chief of theErprobungsgruppe Typ XXIII ("Type XXIII Testing Group"). In March–April 1945, Emmermann was commander ofU-3037, and in April–May 1945 he commanded the31st U-boat Flotilla in Hamburg. In the final days of the war, he took part in infantry duty around Hamburg as commander ofMarine-Battalion Emmermann.[3] |  |
| Engelbert Endrass † | 10 | 22 | 118,528 | Endrass (1911–1941) was 1WO (1st Watch Officer [1. Wachoffizier], second-in-command of a U-boat) ofU-47 whenGünther Prien took her intoScapa Flow and sankHMS Royal Oak. In May 1940, he took command ofU-46, and in eight patrols sank 21 ships, before taking overU-567 in October 1941. He sank only one more ship. He was killed on 21 December 1941, whenU-567 was sunk with all hands by depth charges from the BritishsloopHMS Deptford andcorvetteHMS Samphire, northeast of theAzores.[4] |  |
| Ulrich Folkers † | 5 | 17 | 82,873 | Folkers (1915–1943) first served as 1WO onU-37 underNicolai Clausen. In November 1941, he took command ofU-125. Folkers was killed along with his crew whenU-125 was sunk on 6 May 1943 by British destroyers.[5] | |
| Fritz Frauenheim | 9 | 18 | 78,248 | Frauenheim (1912–1969) served for more than a year as 1WO ofU-25, before taking command ofU-21 in October 1939. He went on five patrols and sank five ships. In November, he badly damaged the cruiserHMS Belfast after laying mines in theFirth of Forth. In March 1940, he commissionedU-101 and in four patrols sank 12 more ships, bringing his total to 19 ships sunk and two damaged. In December 1940, he became an instructor in the 2nd Training Division, then in September 1941 took command of the23rd U-boat Flotilla in the Mediterranean. He commanded the29th U-boat Flotilla from May 1942, then from February 1944 served on the staff of theAdmiral derKleinkampfverbände ("Admiral of Small Combat Units").[6] | |
| Harald Gelhaus | 10 | 19 | 100,373 | Gelhaus (1915–1997) commandedU-143 andU-107, sailing in ten patrols between March 1941 and June 1943. He then joined the staff of theOKM, the Naval High Command. From February 1944, he was a training officer in the22nd and27th U-boat Flotillas. He spent the final months of the war in staff positions, the last one being in Naval High Command North.[7] | |
| Robert Gysae | 8 | 25 | 146,815 | Gysae (1911–1989) commandedU-98 andU-177. In January 1944, he became commander of training unit25th U-boat Flotilla. In April 1945, during the last month of the war, Gysae commanded theMarinepanzerjagd-Regiment 1, a naval anti-tank regiment. After the war, he served in theDeutscher Minenräumdienst ("German Mine Sweeping Administration") for more than two years. In 1956, he rejoined theBundesmarine, retiring in 1970 with the rank ofFlottillenadmiral.[8] | |
| Reinhard Hardegen | 5 | 22 | 115,656 | Hardegen (1913–2018) took command ofU-147 in 1940 for a single patrol, thenU-123 for another four patrols in 1941. In mid-1942, he became an instructor in the27th U-boat Flotilla, and from March 1943 served as chief of the torpedo school atMürwik. Hardegen served for few months in theTorpedowaffenamt ("Torpedo Weapon Department") before becoming Battalion Commander inMarine Infanterie Regiment 6 from February 1945, taking part in the fighting around Bremen. He was the last surviving "Ace of the Deep", dying on 9 June 2018 at the age of 105.[9] |  |
| Werner Hartenstein † | 5 | 19 | 97,489 | Hartenstein (1908–1943) commissionedU-156 in September 1941. On his second patrol, he attacked the refinery atAruba with gunfire. On the fourth patrol, he was involved in theLaconia Incident. On his fifth patrol, on 8 March 1943, Hartenstein and his crew were killed whenU-156 was sunk by depth charges dropped from a United States NavyPBY Catalina, east of the island ofBarbados.[10] | |
| Werner Hartmann | 4 | 26 | 115,337 | Hartmann (1902–1963) was commander of bothU-37 and the2nd U-boat Flotilla from January–May 1940, but this proved inefficient, andBdU decided to direct the U-boats from land. After three patrols, Hartmann moved to the BdU staff. In November 1940, he became commander of2. Unterseeboots-Lehr-Division ("2nd U-boat Training Division"), and a year later took command of the27th U-boat Flotilla. In November 1942, he took command ofU-198 for a patrol to the Indian Ocean lasting 200 days, the third-longest patrol ever undertaken, and sank seven ships totalling 36,778 GRT. In 1944, Hartmann becameFdU Mittelmeer ("Commander of U-boats in the Mediterranean"). After the war, he served several years in theBundesmarine.[11] | |
| Werner Henke | 7 | 24 | 155,714 | Henke (1909–1944) took command ofU-515 in February 1942.U-515 was sunk byUnited States Navy aircraft and destroyers north ofMadeira. Henke was taken to a secret interrogation centre known only asP. O. Box 1142 inFort Hunt, Virginia, where his interrogator threatened to send him to England to face war crime charges if he did not cooperate. On 15 June 1944, Henke ran to the fence surrounding the interrogation centre and began to climb over. He ignored a guard's order to stop, and was shot and killed.[12] |  |
| Günter Hessler | 3 | 21 | 118,822 | Hessler (1909–1968) commissionedU-107 in 1940, and on his first patrol sank four ships for a total of 18,514 tons. He became famous for his second patrol – the most successful of the entire war – sinking 14 ships for a total of 86,699 tons. His third patrol accounted for another three ships for a total of 13,641 tons. Hessler then transferred to theBdU to serve on the staff of hisfather-in-lawKarl Dönitz. After the war, he testified at theNuremberg trials. In 1947, Hessler was commissioned by the BritishRoyal Navy to writeThe U-Boat War in the Atlantic. Assisted by Alfred Hoschatt, former BdU staff officer and commander ofU-378, he completed the three-volume work in 1951.[13] | |
| Ulrich Heyse | 5 | 12 | 83,639 | (1906–1970) sailed on a single patrol onU-37 asKommandantenschüler ("Commander-in-training"), before he commissionedU-128 in December 1941. He was an instructor from 1943, before taking command of the32nd U-boat Flotilla in March 1945.[14] | |
| Hans Jenisch | 6 | 17 | 110,139 | Jenisch (1913–1982) took command ofU-32 in early 1940. He sank 17 ships, including the 42,348 tonRMS Empress of Britain, the largest ship sunk by a U-boat. Jenisch was taken prisoner in October 1940 whenU-32 was sunk north-west of Ireland by two British destroyers. In 1956, he joined theBundesmarine, holding mainly staff positions, but also commanding thefrigateHipper for a few months.[15] | |
| Ernst Kals | 5 | 20 | 145,656 | Kals (1905–1979) took command ofU-130 in June 1941. On 12 November 1942, during theNaval Battle of Casablanca he attacked the heavily guarded transport ships inFedala Roads in Morocco, sinking three large troop ships for a total of 34,507 tons in five minutes. From January 1943 to the end of the war, he commanded the2nd U-boat Flotilla.[16] | |
| Günther Krech | 10 | 19 | 100,771 | Krech (1914–2000) commissionedU-558 in February 1941, and sailed on ten patrols, mostly in the Atlantic and the Caribbean.U-558 was sunk by US aircraft on 20 July 1943 in theBay of Biscay. Only five men – Krech, the engineering officer, and three men of the gun crew – survived.[17] | |
| Otto Kretschmer | 16 | 46 | 273,043 | Kretschmer (1912–1998) was the most successful of the World War II Aces of the Deep. As commander ofU-35,U-23 andU-99 he sank 47 merchant ships in a remarkably short period of time, before being captured in March 1941 and spending the rest of the war in theBowmanville POW camp,Canada. After the war, he rejoined theBundesmarine, and became the Chief of Staff of the NATO CommandCOMNAVBALTAP in May 1965. He retired in September 1970 with a rank ofFlottillenadmiral. During his time as a U-boat commander, he was given the nickname "The Tonnage King" because of his high GRT record.[18] |  |
| Herbert Kuppisch † | 14 | 16 | 82,108 | Kuppisch (1909–1943) first commandedU-58, sailing on eight patrols between September 1939 and June 1940, and sinking four ships, including the Britishboom defence vessel HMSAstronomer. From August 1940, in command ofU-94, he sailed on a further five patrols, and sank another 12 ships. From August 1941, he served on the staff of theBdU, before spending six months at theOKM. He finally returned to U-boats in July 1943, taking command ofU-847. On 27 August 1943, only 30 days into her first patrolU-847 was sunk by aircraft fromUSS Card. There were no survivors.[19] |  |
| Georg Lassen | 4 | 26 | 156,082 | Lassen (1915–2012) took command ofU-160 and sailed on four combat patrols in 1942–43, sinking a remarkable average of 39,020 GRT per patrol. In June 1943 Lassen was appointed tactical instructor and commander of the "Offiziers-kompanie" in1. U-boot-Lehr-Division, a training unit for future U-boat commanders.[20] | |
| Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock | 10 | 25 | 179,125 | Lehmann-Willenbrock (1911–1986) commanded theU-8,U-5 andU-96. In May 1942, he took command of the9th U-boat Flotilla, transferring to the11th U-boat Flotilla in December 1944. After spending a year in captivity after theGerman surrender, he served as captain on merchant ships, and from 1964 commanded the German nuclear-powered freighterOtto Hahn. Willenbrock acted as advisor to the filmDas Boot, based on an account of one of his own war patrols inU-96.[21] |  |
| Fritz-Julius Lemp † | 10 | 20 | 96,639 | Lemp (1913–1941) commandedU-30 andU-110. His first attack, on 3 September 1939, only two days after the British declaration of war, was the most controversial. Lemp sank what he thought was anarmed merchant cruiser, but was in fact the passenger linerSS Athenia; 112 of her passengers died. The sinking resulted in bad publicity throughout the English-speaking world, while the German High Command systematically attempted to cover up this error. Not until January 1946, during the Nuremberg Trials, did Admiral Dönitz finally admit thatAthenia had been torpedoed byU-30. Lemp was killed in May 1941 whenU-110, on her second patrol, was captured east ofCape Farewell, Greenland, by the BritishdestroyersHMS Bulldog andHMSBroadway.[22] |  |
| Heinrich Liebe | 9 | 34 | 187,267 | Liebe (1908–1997) commandedU-38 between 1938 and 1941, sinking 34 ships for a total of 187,267 GRT. In 1941 Liebe was assigned to the staff ofOberkommando der Marine, and from August 1944 was on the staff of theBdU. After the war, Liebe returned to his hometown in theSoviet sector. As he refused to train Soviet submariners, he was allowed only a series of menial occupations.[23] |  |
| Wolfgang Lüth | 16 | 46 | 225,204 | Lüth (1913–1945) was given command ofU-9 in December 1939, going on to commandU-13,U-138,U-43 andU-181, and sinking 46 merchant ships for a total 225,204 tons in 15 patrols, including one of 205 days, the second longest of the war. In January 1944 Lüth took command of the22nd U-boat Flotilla, before being appointed commander of theNaval Academy Mürwik in July. Lüth was mistakenly shot and killed by a German sentry on 13 May 1945.[24] |  |
| Karl-Friedrich Merten | 5 | 27 | 170,151 | Merten (1905–1993) commandedU-68 on five patrols in 1941–42. He commanded the26th U-boat Flotilla in early 1943, and this and other training appointments curtailed his operational career.[25] | |
| Karl-Heinz Moehle | 10 | 21 | 92,086 | Moehle (1910-1996) commissionedU-20 in October 1937, and in six wartime patrols, sank eight ships. In May 1940, he commissionedU-123 and in four patrols, sank another 16. From June 1941 Moehle commanded both the5th U-boat Flotilla and the U-boat base atKiel. In June 1945, he was arrested and later tried for passing on theLaconia Order. Sentenced to five years imprisonment, he was released in November 1949.[26] | |
| Johann Mohr † | 6 | 27 | 129,976 | Mohr (1916–1943) assumed command ofU-124 in September 1941, sinking four ships of Convoy ONS 92 on the night of 12 May 1942, totalling 21,784 tons. Mohr was killed whenU-124 was sunk with all hands on 2 April 1943 west ofPorto, Portugal, by the BritishcorvetteHMS Stonecrop and thesloopHMS Black Swan.[27] | |
| Rolf Mützelburg | 8 | 19 | 81,961 | Mützelburg (1913–1942) served aboardU-100 underJoachim Schepke before commissioningU-203 in February 1941. In eight patrols, he sank 19 ships and damaged three more. On 11 September 1942, during his eighth patrol, Mützelburg was killed in a freak accident; diving off the conning tower into the sea southwest of the Azores, he struck the hull when the U-boat suddenly lurched in the swell.[28] | .jpg) |
| Victor Oehrn | 4 | 23 | 103,760 | Oehrn (1907–1997) became commander ofU-14 in January 1936, patrolling during theCivil War in July–September 1936. In August 1939, he joined the staff ofBdU. In May 1940, Oehrn took command ofU-37 in order to restore trust in theG7e/T2 torpedo, which had performed abysmally, often detonating prematurely or not at all. In four patrols he sank 23 ships for a total of 103,760 GRT before returning to the staff in August. From November 1941, Oehrn served on the Mediterranean U-boat staff, but during a mission toNorth Africa in July 1942, he was severely wounded and captured by the British. He was released in aprisoner exchange in October 1943 and returned to Germany. Oehrn spent the remainder of the war serving in several staff positions.[29] | |
| Jürgen Oesten | 13 | 19 | 101,744 | Oesten (1913–2010) commandedU-61, sinking five ships on nine patrols, before commandingU-106 on three patrols and sinking another ten ships. In October 1941, he became commander of the9th U-boat Flotilla, based inBrest, France. In March 1942, Oesten joined the staff ofFdU Nordmeer, directing the U-boat war in Arctic waters, but returned to U-boat duty in September 1943, sailingU-861 toPenang to join theMonsun Gruppe, and sinking another four ships.U-861 leftSoerabaya,Dutch East Indies, in January 1945 and reachedTrondheim, Norway, in April, just before theGerman surrender.[30] Oesten was the technical advisor for the 2005submarine simulatorSilent Hunter III.[31] | |
| Adolf Piening | 9 | 25 | 126,664 | Piening (1910–1984) took command ofU-155 in June 1941. From March 1944 Piening was the commander of the7th U-boat Flotilla. Piening's last patrol was in April 1945, laying mines offSaint-Nazaire inU-255. In 1956, he rejoined theBundesmarine, serving for 13 years.[32] | |
| Fritz Poske | 4 | 16 | 85,299 | Poske (1904–1984) commissionedU-504 in July 1941, despite not having been either a 1WO ("second-in-command") or aKommandantenschüler ("commander-in-training"). In January 1943, he became the commander of the 1st ULD (1. Unterseeboots-Lehr-Division), and in the last months of the war was chief of the Special Staff for Marine Infantry. In 1951, he rejoined theSeegrenzschutz, which later became theBundesmarine, retiring in 1963 with the rank ofKapitän zur See.[33] | |
| Günther Prien † | 10 | 30 | 162,769 | Prien (1908–1941) was given command ofU-47 in December 1938. His most famous exploit was infiltrating the BritishHome Fleet's base atScapa Flow in October 1939 and sinking the battleshipHMS Royal Oak, which won him theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the first U-boat commander so honored. Prien was lost whenU-47 went missing on 7 March 1941 during an attack onConvoy OB 293 south ofIceland. He was given the nickname "The Ace of Aces".[34] |  |
| Wilhelm Rollmann † | 8 | 22 | 101,519 | Rollmann (1907–1943) took command ofU-34 in October 1938. After seven successful patrols, Rollmann became an instructor in2. Unterseeboots-Lehr-Division ("2nd U-boat Training Division"). He commissionedU-848 in February 1943, sailing on one patrol on 1 August 1943 and sinking one ship of 4,573 tons. Rollmann and his crew were killed on 5 November 1943 whenU-848 was sunk by US aircraft south-west ofAscension in the mid-Atlantic.[35] | |
| Jürgen von Rosenstiel † | 4 | 14 | 78,843 | Rosenstiel (1912–1942) commandedU-502. On his fourth patrol, on 5 July 1942U-502 was sunk by a BritishWellington bomber in theBay of Biscay. All of the crew were killed.[36] | |
| Erwin Rostin † | 2 | 17 | 101,321 | Rostin (1907–1942) sailed on his first war patrol as commander ofU-158 in February 1942, and sank four ships for a total of 29,234 tons off the US east coast. His second patrol began in May 1942 and was one of the most successful patrols of the war, with 12 ships sunk for a total of 62,536 tons. Rostin and his crew were killed on 30 June 1942 whenU-158 was sunk by a United States NavyMariner bomber.[37] | |
| Joachim Schepke † | 14 | 36 | 153,677 | Schepke (1912–1941) took command ofU-3 in 1938, sailed on five combat patrols, and sank two ships. From January to April 1940 he commandedU-19, sinking another nine ships. After a brief spell serving in a staff position, Schepke took command ofU-100 in which he sank another 25 ships. On 17 March 1941, while attackingConvoy HX 112U-100 was forced to the surface bydepth charges fromHMS Walker andHMS Vanoc, detected on radar, and consequently rammed byVanoc. Schepke and 37 crewmen were killed; only six were rescued.[38] | .jpg) |
| Georg Schewe | 10 | 16 | 85,779 | Schewe (1909–1990) commandedU-60 from July 1939, but in six patrols sank only one ship. He did better inU-105, which he commissioned in August 1940, and in four patrols sank a further 15 ships, 12 of them in a single patrol. In February 1942, he joined the staff ofFdU Mittelmeer ("Commander-in-Chief of U-boats in the Mediterranean"), remaining there until briefly taking command of33rd U-boat Flotilla in September 1944. He served on theOKM ("Naval High Command") from October 1944.[39] | |
| Adalbert Schnee | 12 | 23 | 95,889 | Schnee (1913–1982) commandedU-6,U-60,U-201 in 11 patrols, sinking 21 merchant ships totalling 90,189 tons, and damaging three others. He also sank two British auxiliary warships,Springbank andLaertes. After serving on theBdU staff from October 1942, Schnee took command of theType XXIU-2511, in September 1944, sailing on only a single short patrol between 3 and 6 May 1945 before surrendering.[40] | |
| Klaus Scholtz | 8 | 25 | 128,190 | Scholtz (1908–1987) commandedU-108 from October 1940. In October 1942, he formed and took command of the12th U-boat Flotilla atBordeaux. In August 1944, he attempted to lead his men back to Germany on foot, but they were captured by American forces, and he spent the next 18 months in captivity. Scholtz served in theBundesgrenzschutz-See ("Federal Border Guard") from 1953 to 1956, then transferred to theBundesmarine, serving as commander of several naval bases, includingKiel,Cuxhaven, andWilhelmshaven.[41] | |
| Herbert Schultze | 9 | 26 | 169,709 | Schultze (1909–1987) commissionedU-48 in 1939. He took command of the3rd U-boat Flotilla in July 1941, then joined the staff ofMarinegruppe Nord in March 1942. In December 1942 he was assigned to the staff of AdmiralKarl Dönitz. In March 1944 he was assigned toNaval Academy Mürwik, where he remained until the end of the war. In 1956 Schultze joined theBundesmarine and served in a series of staff positions until 1968.[42] |  |
| Georg-Wilhelm Schulz | 8 | 19 | 89,886 | Schulz (1906–1986) commandedU-10 from January 1939, sailing on two short combat patrols in late 1939. On his first patrol commandingU-64 in April 1940, his submarine was sunk off Norway. He had more luck withU-124, sailing on five patrols and sinking 19 ships and damaging one. He then commanded the6th U-boat Flotilla. From October 1943, he served on the staff of theFdU Ausbildungsflottillen ("Commander of Training Flotillas"), and as leader of theErprobungsgruppe U-Boote ("U-boat Testing Group"). In April–May 1945, he was briefly the commander of25th U-boat Flotilla.[43] | |
| Viktor Schütze | 7 | 35 | 180,073 | Schütze (1906–1950) commandedU-25 andU-103, sinking 35 merchant ships totalling 180,073 tons, before being appointed commander of the2nd U-boat Flotilla in August 1941. He became theFdU Ausbildungsflottillen ("Commander of the Training Flotillas") in theBaltic Sea in March 1943.[44] |  |
| Reinhard Suhren | 6 | 18 | 95,544 | Suhren (1916-1984) spent a year as I. WO onU-48 underHerbert Schultze,Hans-Rudolf Rösing andHeinrich Bleichrodt, firing torpedoes during surfaced attacks, accounting for 200,000 tons of shipping. He then took command ofU-564 in April 1941. In six patrols he sank 18 ships for a total of 95,544 GRT, damaged four, and sank the British corvetteHMS Zinnia. In October 1942, he became an instructor in the 2nd U-boat Training Division, and later served in the27th U-boat Flotilla. Suhren then served asFdU Nordwegen ("Commander-in-Chief of U-boats in Norwegian waters") and from September 1944 theFdU Nordmeer ("C-in-C of U-boats North Sea").[45] | |
| Erich Topp | 13 | 35 | 197,460 | Topp (1914–2005) commandedU-57 andU-552 in 1940–41. He commanded the tactical training unit27th U-boat Flotilla from late 1942, and served briefly as commander of theType XXIElektrobooteU-3010 andU-2513 just before the end of the war. He rejoined theBundesmarine in 1956, reaching the rank ofKonteradmiral before retiring in 1969.[46] |  |
| Jürgen Wattenberg | 3 | 14 | 82,027 | Wattenberg (1900–1995) served aboard the pocket battleshipAdmiral Graf Spee during theBattle of the River Plate, but escaped from internment in Uruguay and returned to Germany in May 1940. He joined the U-boat branch in October 1940, and was one of the oldest U-boat commanders when he commissionedU-162 in September 1941.U-162 was sunk during its third patrol, and Wattenberg was held as a POW in the United States until finally released in early 1946.[47] | |
| Werner Winter | 6 | 15 | 79,302 | Winter (1912–1972) served onU-22 for several months, finally taking command in October 1937, and in late 1939 made two brief and unsuccessful combat patrols. From November 1939, he was attached to the BdU Operations staff, but in July 1941 took command ofU-103 fromViktor Schütze. From July 1942, he commanded the1st U-boat Flotilla, based atBrest, France. He was captured by Allied forces in August 1944. After the war, he served in theBundesmarine, retiring in March 1970.[48] | |
| Hans Witt | 3 | 19 | 100,773 | Witt (1909–1980) took command ofU-161 in 1941 as part of a training flotilla, before transferring to command ofU-129 in 1942. Witt sailed on three successful patrols in the western Atlantic and the Caribbean in 1942–43, sinking 19 ships for a total of 100,773 GRT. After a year on theBdU staff, he returned to active duty in 1945 inU-3524, one of the newType XXIElektroboote, but sailed on no combat patrols.[49] | |
| Helmut Witte | 4 | 23 | 119,554 | Witte (1915–2005) commissionedU-159 in October 1941. From June 1943, he served in several staff positions.[50] | .jpg) |
| Robert-Richard Zapp | 5 | 16 | 106,200 | Zapp (1904–1964) served on one patrol inU-46 underEngelbert Endrass, before taking command ofU-66 in January 1941. He became commander of the3rd U-boat Flotilla in June 1942. The flotilla was disbanded in October 1944, and he then commandedMarine Regiment Zapp, defending the U-boat base, until May 1945.[51] |  |