Rolf-Birger Wahlen

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)


Successes
2 ships sunk, total tonnage 443 GRT
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 35 tons
1 auxiliary warship damaged, total tonnage 1,005 GRT
1 warship damaged, total tonnage 56 tons

Born  28 Jul 1915 Altona, Elbe
Died  10 May 1998(82)Hamburg, Germany


Great photo of Rolf Birger Wahlen

Ranks

3 Apr 1936 Offiziersanwärter
10 Sep 1936 Seekadett
1 May 1937 Fähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1938 Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1939 Leutnant zur See
1 Oct 1940 Oberleutnant zur See
1 Oct 1943 Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

  Iron Cross 2nd Class
  Iron Cross 1st Class
14 Jul 1944 German Cross in Gold

U-boat Commands

U-boatFromTo
U-23 27 Mar 1942 26 Aug 1942   No war patrols 
U-23 3 Jun 1943 19 Jun 1944   6 patrols (159 days) 
U-2514 17 Oct 1944 8 Apr 1945   No war patrols 
U-2541 20 Apr 1945 5 May 1945   No war patrols 

Crew of 1936

Rolf-Birger Wahlen was one of the Kriegsmarine's famous Olympia Crew. This Crew chose the Olympic rings as their symbol (the 1936 Olympic games were held in Berlin). It was the largest Crew, and produced more U-boat commanders than any other – of the 164 who 'graduated', 140 took command during the war.

Patrol info for Rolf-Birger Wahlen

 U-boat Departure Arrival  
1. U-23 27 Jun 1943  Konstanza  16 Jul 1943  Sevastopol  Patrol 1,20 days
2. U-23 18 Jul 1943  Sevastopol  19 Jul 1943  Konstanza  Patrol 1,2 days
3. U-23 10 Aug 1943  Konstanza  9 Sep 1943  Konstanza  Patrol 2,31 days
4. U-23 10 Oct 1943  Konstanza  11 Nov 1943  Konstanza  Patrol 3,33 days
5. U-23 14 Dec 1943  Konstanza  7 Jan 1944  Konstanza  Patrol 4,25 days
6. U-23 30 Mar 1944  Konstanza  24 Apr 1944  Konstanza  Patrol 5,26 days
7. U-23 17 May 1944  Konstanza  7 Jun 1944  Konstanza  Patrol 6,22 days
6 patrols, 159 days at sea

Ships hit by Rolf-Birger Wahlen

Date U-boat Name of ship Tons Nat. Convoy
24 Aug 1943U-23 Shkval35sj
15 Oct 1943U-23 TSC-486 Sovetskaja Rossija (d.)1,005sj
23 Oct 1943U-23 Tanais372sj
 
5 Apr 1944U-23 SKA-099 (d.)56sj
29 May 1944U-23 Smelyj71sj
 1,539

3 ships sunk (478 tons) and 2 ships damaged (1,061 tons).

Legend
(d.) means the ship was damaged.


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.

Media links


U-Boat Attack Logs

Daniel Morgan and Bruce Taylor


amazon.co.uk
(£ 38.25)


German U-boat Commanders of World War II

Busch, Rainer and Röll, Hans-Joachim

Listing of all U-boat commanders


As an Amazon Associate uboat.net earns a commission from qualifying purchases.