The Men - The Commander listing

Klaus Bargsten

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)

Successes
3 ships sunk for a total of 19.551 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk for a total of 750 GRT
1 warship sunk for a total of 1.870 tons

Born	31 Oct, 1911	Bad Oldesloe
Died	13 Aug, 2000

Kptlt. Klaus Bargsten

Ranks

3 Apr, 1936	Offiziersanwärter
1 Jul, 1936	Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan, 1938	Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr, 1938	Leutnant zur See
1 Oct, 1939	Oberleutnant zur See
1 Aug, 1942	Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

23 Jul, 1940	Iron Cross 2nd Class
10 Aug, 1940	U-boat War Badge 1939
25 Sep, 1940	Iron Cross 1st Class
30 Apr, 1943	Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-563	27 Mar, 1941	-	15 Mar, 1942	2 patrols (71 days)
U-521	3 Jun, 1942	-	2 Jun, 1943	3 patrols (172 days)

Personal information

Klaus Bargsten began his naval career in April 1936. Previous to this he had been in the merchant navy. He joined the U-boat force in April 1939. After a short time on U-6, he transferred to U-99 and accompanied the boat on all her successful patrols except the last one under Kptlt. Otto Kretschmer.

He left U-99 in January 1941 and in March commissioned U-563. On his second patrol he sank the British destroyer HMS Cossack (1,960 tons). After the third patrol he left the boat and three months later commissioned U-521. This boat was sunk on 2 June, 1943 by the US sub chaser PC 565 100 nautical miles east of Cape Hatteras. Kptlt. Bargsten was the only survivor and spent more than three years in Allied captivity.

Patrol info

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-563	10 Jul, 1941	Kiel	10 Jul, 1941	Helsingör		1 days
2.	U-563	27 Jul, 1941	Helsingör	28 Jul, 1941	Bergen		2 days
3.	U-563	31 Jul, 1941	Bergen	10 Sep, 1941	Brest	Patrol	42 days
4.	U-563	4 Oct, 1941	Brest	1 Nov, 1941	Brest	Patrol	29 days
5.	U-563	29 Nov, 1941	Brest	3 Dec, 1941	Lorient		5 days
6.	U-563	21 Jan, 1942	Lorient	3 Feb, 1942	Bergen		14 days
7.	U-563	7 Feb, 1942	Bergen	11 Feb, 1942	Hamburg		5 days
8.	U-521	3 Oct, 1942	Kiel	4 Oct, 1942	Kristiansand		2 days
9.	U-521	6 Oct, 1942	Kristiansand	8 Dec, 1942	Lorient	Patrol	64 days
10.	U-521	7 Jan, 1943	Lorient	26 Mar, 1943	Lorient	Patrol	79 days
11.	U-521	5 May, 1943	Lorient	2 Jun, 1943	Sunk	Patrol	29 days

Ships hit by Klaus Bargsten

Date	Boat	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy	Fate *
24 Oct, 1941	U-563	HMS Cossack (G 03)	1.870		br	HG-75

2 Nov, 1942	U-521	Hartington	5.496		br	SC-107
3 Nov, 1942	U-521	Hahira	6.855		am	SC-107

8 Feb, 1943	U-521	HMS Bredon (T 223)	750		br	Gibr-2
18 Mar, 1943	U-521	Molly Pitcher	7.200		am	UGS-6
			22.171
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk.