Rolf Struckmeier

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 35)

Successes
4 ships sunk, total tonnage 35,539 GRT
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 291 tons (lost aboard transport ships)

Born

27 Jul 1916

Obernkirchen, Schaumburg

Ranks

5 Apr 1935		Offiziersanwärter
25 Sep 1935		Seekadett
1 Apr 1936		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1938		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1938		Leutnant zur See
1 Oct 1939		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Nov 1942		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

1940		Iron Cross 2nd Class
1940		Minesweeper War Badge
2 Oct 1941		U-boat War Badge 1939
26 Sep 1942		Iron Cross 1st Class
1 Feb 1943		Fleet War Badge
17 Dec 1943		German Cross in Gold
1944		U-boat Front Clasp
1944		War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-608	5 Feb 1942	12 Jan 1944	5 patrols (289 days)

Rolf Struckmeier joined the Kriegsmarine in 1935. He was a range-finder officer on the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper from Sept 1939 to April 1940 when he joined the 1st Torpedo boat flotilla.

Struckmeier joined the U-boat force and began his training in Oct 1940. In March 1941 he commenced U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) at Germaniawerft, Kiel in preparation for his duty as First Watch Officer on the new U-205 from May to Dec 1941. He went on 3 patrols on U-205, 79 days at sea in total. The third patrol was in the Mediterranean, passing the Straits of Gibraltar on 11 Nov 1941 (Busch and Röll, 1997).

Oblt. Rolf Struckmeier started a second Baubelehrung in Dec 1941 in preparation for his own command. He commissioned the new type VIIC boat U-608 on 5 Feb 1942 and spent the next few months working her and her crew up in the Baltic. He commanded U-608 on five patrols, spending almost 300 days at sea before leaving the boat in Jan 1944. He sank five ships with a total tonnage of almost 36,000 GRT.

After leaving U-608 he was a training officer with the 20th (Training) Flotilla until Oct 1944, when he was transferred to 26th (Training) Flotilla and then the 27th (Training) Flotilla until the war's end.

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1998). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).

Patrol info for Rolf Struckmeier

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-608	20 Aug 1942	Kiel	24 Sep 1942	St. Nazaire	Patrol 1,	36 days
2.	U-608	20 Oct 1942	St. Nazaire	9 Dec 1942	St. Nazaire	Patrol 2,	51 days
3.	U-608	20 Jan 1943	St. Nazaire	29 Mar 1943	Bordeaux	Patrol 3,	69 days
4.	U-608	8 May 1943	Bordeaux	18 Jul 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 4,	72 days
5.	U-608	23 Sep 1943	St. Nazaire	25 Sep 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 5,	3 days
6.	U-608	2 Oct 1943	St. Nazaire	28 Nov 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 5,	58 days
5 patrols, 289 days at sea

Ships hit by Rolf Struckmeier

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
12 Sep 1942	U-608	Hektoria	13,797	br	ON-127
12 Sep 1942	U-608	Empire Moonbeam	6,849	br	ON-127
16 Nov 1942	U-608	Irish Pine	5,621	ir

8 Feb 1943	U-608	Daghild	9,272	nw	SC-118
8 Feb 1943	U-608	HMS LCT-2335 [Trans.]	291	br	SC-118
			35,830
5 ships sunk (35,830 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. [Trans.] indicates the vessel was lost while being transported on another vessel.

About ranks and decorations
Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.

Special thanks to Fernando Almeida for data on ranks and decorations.