Wilhelm Franken

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 35)

Successes
3 ships sunk, total tonnage 11,347 GRT
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 1,540 tons
2 ships damaged, total tonnage 17,565 GRT

Born	11 Sep 1914		Schildesche, Bielefeld
Died	13 Jan 1945	(30)	Kiel (fire on barracks ship Daressalam)

Kptlt. Wilhelm Franken

Ranks

5 Apr 1935		Offiziersanwärter
25 Sep 1935		Seekadett
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 Apr 1942		Kapitänleutnant
1 Jan 1945		Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

14 Apr 1940		Iron Cross 2nd Class
15 Oct 1941		U-boat War Badge 1939
28 Jan 1942		Iron Cross 1st Class
30 Apr 1943		Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-565	17 Mar 1942	7 Oct 1943	10 patrols (269 days)

Wilhelm Franken began his naval career in April 1935. After the outbreak of war he served as a gunnery officer in the Danube flotilla and then for a year on the battleship Scharnhorst. In October 1940 he transferred to the U-boat force (Busch & Röll, 1999). Following Baubelehrung (U-boat construction familiarization) of U-331 he served as her IWO (1st Watch Officer) under Kptlt. Tiesenhausen for three patrols, on the last participating in the sinking of the British battleship HMS Barham on 25 Nov 1941 (Rohwer, 1998).

He left the boat in January 1942 and after a Kommandantenschüler (Commander-in-training) course at 24th (Training) Flotilla in Memel, in March took over command of the type VIIC U-565. On his sixth patrol, operating in the Mediterranean, he sank the British destroyer HMS Partridge (1,540 tons) on 18 Dec 1942 (Rohwer, 1998).

Kptlt. Wilhelm Franken left the boat in October 1943 to become a staff officer at BdU org (U-boat Command) under Admiral Friedeburg.

Fire aboard the barracks ship Daressalam
On 13 Jan. 1945 a fire broke out on the naval Wohnschiffes (accommodation ship) Daressalam in Kiel harbour. Three U-boat commanders died In the fire: Oblt. Georg von Bitter and the Knights Cross winners KrvKpt. Wilhelm Franken and Kptlt. Siegfried Lüdden (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

Patrol info for Wilhelm Franken

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-565	11 Apr 1942	La Spezia	30 Apr 1942	Salamis	Patrol 1,	20 days
2.	U-565	7 May 1942	Salamis	10 Jun 1942	La Spezia	Patrol 2,	35 days
3.	U-565	9 Jul 1942	La Spezia	4 Aug 1942	Salamis	Patrol 3,	27 days
4.	U-565	16 Aug 1942	Salamis	25 Aug 1942	Salamis	Patrol 4,	10 days
5.	U-565	31 Aug 1942	Salamis	4 Sep 1942	La Spezia		5 days
6.	U-565	25 Oct 1942	La Spezia	13 Nov 1942	La Spezia	Patrol 5,	20 days
7.	U-565	23 Nov 1942	La Spezia	1 Jan 1943	La Spezia	Patrol 6,	40 days
8.	U-565	14 Feb 1943	La Spezia	5 Mar 1943	La Spezia	Patrol 7,	20 days
9.	U-565	8 Apr 1943	La Spezia	12 May 1943	La Spezia	Patrol 8,	35 days
10.	U-565	17 Jun 1943	La Spezia	23 Jul 1943	Toulon	Patrol 9,	37 days
11.	U-565	7 Sep 1943	Toulon	1 Oct 1943	Toulon	Patrol 10,	25 days
10 patrols, 269 days at sea

Ships hit by Wilhelm Franken

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
23 Apr 1942	U-565	Kirkland	1,361	br	TA-36
18 Dec 1942	U-565	HMS Partridge (G 30)	1,540	br

24 Feb 1943	U-565	Nathanael Greene (d.)	7,176	am	MKS-8
27 Feb 1943	U-565	Seminole (d.)	10,389	br	TE-16
20 Apr 1943	U-565	Michigan	5,594	am	UGS-7
20 Apr 1943	U-565	Sidi-Bel-Abbès	4,392	fr	UGS-7
			30,452
4 ships sunk (12,887 tons) and 2 ships damaged (17,565 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. (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.