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German U-Boats Crews and Commanders https://www.facebook.com/German-U-Boats-Crews-and-Commanders-426482717522002/ World War Two German U-Boats Wolfpack in the Atlantic During the war the U-boats sank about 2,779 ships for a total of about 14,000,000 tons GRT. This figure is roughly 70% of all allied shipping losses in all theatres of the war and to all hostile action. The most successful year was 1942 when over 6,000,000 tons of shipping were sunk in the Atlantic. U-Boot Lied Run Silent Run Deep U-boat, German U-boot, abbreviation of Unterseeboot, (“undersea boat”), a German submarine. The destruction of enemy shipping by German U-boats was a spectacular feature of both World Wars I and II. World War II In World War II Germany built 1,162 U-boats, of which 785 were destroyed and the remainder surrendered (or were scuttled to avoid surrender) at the capitulation. Of the 632 U-boats sunk at sea, Allied surface ships and shore-based aircraft accounted for the great majority (246 and 245 respectively). Run Silent Run Deep Worldwar2 War U-BOAT Submarine Engine Kriegsmarine WW2 WWII Military German Navy DasBoot Germany Axis VIIC Weapons Torpedo Krupp Wehrmacht Third Reich Hitler U47 U99 U143 U552 U373 Wolf packs Erich Topp Ace Otto Kretschmer Prien Unterseeboot Deutschland Wolfgang Lüth Heinrich Liebe Otto Kretschmer, 1912 – 1998 (Fregattenkapitan) Sank 44 ships, 262,203 grt Commanded: U23, U-99 Highest scoring ace, Otto Kretschmer, or the “tonnage king” caused more destruction on the high seas than any other submarine commander to this date. An aggressive commander, his strategy was to attack at night, on the surface and under cover of darkness. His last patrol scored him ten ships, before he was captured. After the war, Kretschmer became a rear admiral in the Federal German Navy and Chief of Staff of the NATO command. Gunther Prien, 1908 – 1941 (Korvettenkapitan) Sank 33 ships, 197,218 grt Commanded: U-47The Bull of Scapa Flow, he became a celebrity skipper after sinking the British battleship HMS Royal Oak in the heavily defended port of Scapa Flow. He won accolades not only from within Germany, but Churchill himself wrote about his outstanding feat of arms. Quick tempered and staunch, his loss in 1941 caused the nation to mourn. It was not entirely clear how his boat was sunk, as reports suggest he was either depth charged by a British destroyer, or fell victim to one of his own mines. Erich Topp, 1914 – 2005 (Fregattenkapitan) Sank 35 ships, 192,601 grt Commanded: U-57, U-552, U-2513 Commander of the famed "Red Devil" boat, Erich Topp in U-552 scored most of its successes on the Atlantic and American coast. He was also one of the only two commanders to have taken a Type XXI into combat. After the war, he built a successful architectural career before rejoining the Navy in 1958. He had also served as a Military Committee member of the NATO forces . Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, 1911 – 1986 (Fregattenkapitan) Sank 25 ships, 183,223 grt Commanded: U-5, U-96 Herbert Schultze, Heinrich Bleichrodt, Joachim Schepke, Carl Emmermann,Johannes Mohr,Reinhardt Hardegen,Gunther Hessler,Klaus Scholtz,Fritz-Julius Lemp,Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Tiesenhausen,Peter Erich Cremer,Albrecht Brandi,Werner Hartenstein