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Born	12 Mar 1918		Kairien, Memel
Died	10 Apr 1944	(26)	north-west of Madeira

Ranks 3 Apr 1937 Offiziersanwärter 1 May 1938 Fähnrich zur See 1 Jul 1939 Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Aug 1939 Leutnant zur See 1 Sep 1941 Oberleutnant zur See 1 Jul 1944 Kapitänleutnant (posthumous) Decorations   Iron Cross 2nd Class   Iron Cross 1st Class 21 Jan 1944 German Cross in Gold

Albert Lauzemis joined the Kriegsmarine in 1937. He went through U-boat training and U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) from Jun 1940 to Feb 1941. He trained for the type IXC boats and on commissioning of U-68 by KrvKpt. Karl-Friedrich Merten he became its Second Watch Officer (2WO). Lauzemis sailed on the boat for 2 patrols as 2WO and then for the third patrol as the First Watch Officer (1WO). He served on the boat until April 1942 (Busch & Röll, 1999). During Lauzemis' stint on the U-68 Merten sank 11 ships for over 63,000 tons.

Lauzemis went through U-boat Commander training with the 24th Flotilla in May 1942 and on 18 May he was given command of the small "duck" school boat U-139. He only served there for 6 weeks before taking command of the much larger type IX U-37 on 1 July 1942 (Busch & Röll, 1999). The hugely successful boat was by that time a school boat in the Baltic.

Oblt. Albert Lauzemis left the U-37 on 3 Jan 1943 and on the 21st took command of the U-68, his old boat (Busch & Röll, 1999). He left for his first war patrol as commander on 7 May 1943, heading for the Caribbean (Busch & Röll, 1997).

On the second patrol with the U-68 the outbound boat was attacked on 14 June 1943 having left base at Lorient only 2 days earlier. Lauzemis, the 2WO and another man were wounded and one lost overboard. The 1WO, Scherraus, brought the boat back to base. Lauzemis spent 6 weeks in hospital and was relieved of command during his recovery (Busch & Röll, 1999).

During his 5 patrols, 228 days at sea, Lauzemis sank 6 ships for almost 28,000 tons (Rohwer, 1998).

On 30 July Albert Lauzemis was again in command of his U-68 and took the boat out again on 14 Aug 1943. The boat was sunk on 10 Apr 1944 north-west of Madeira, Portugal, in position 33.24N, 18.59W, by depth charges and rockets from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft of the US escort carrier USS Guadalcanal (VC-58). 56 dead and 1 survivor (Niestlé, 1998). Lauzemis died on his boat.

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).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

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.

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