Gustav-Adolf Mugler
Korvettenkapitän (Crew 31)
| Successes 5 ships sunk, total tonnage 22,815 GRT 2 ships sunk, total tonnage 2,073 GRT 1 ship damaged, total tonnage 8,096 GRT |
| Born | 10 Oct 1912 | Danzig-Langfuhr | |
| Died | 5 Feb 1940 | (27) | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations |
U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-41 | 22 Apr 1939 | 5 Feb 1940 (+) | 3 patrols (71 days) |
Gustav-Adolf Mugler joined the Reichsmarine in 1931. He served as a Watch officer (WO) on the U-30 (Kptlt. Hans Cohausz) in 1937 (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Gustav-Adolf Mugler commissioned the new type IX boat U-41 on 22 April 1939. He brought his U-41 out for the initial wave of German U-boats in preparing for possible war with England when he left Wilhelmshaven on 19 Aug 1939 (Busch & Röll, 1997). He arrived back almost a month later having sunk two small Finnish ships on the return route.
His second patrol with U-41 was from Wilhelmshaven to the Bay of Biscay. He sank 4 ships, including the large neutral Norwegian motor tanker Arne Kjøde on 12 Nov 1939 (Rohwer, 1998). On 16 Nov the boat was hunted by British escorts from convoy SL 7 for 20 hours before managing to escape. On two occasions during this patrol Mugler took survivors from sunken ship on board the boat (7 from Cresswell and 11 from Darino).
Mugler and his entire crew of 49 men died when U-41 was sunk on 5 Feb 1940 by the British destroyer HMS Antelope south of Ireland (Niestlé, 1998).
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.
Patrol info for Gustav-Adolf Mugler
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
| 1. | U-41 | 19 Aug 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 17 Sep 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol 1, | 30 days | |
| 2. | U-41 | 7 Nov 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 7 Dec 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol 2, | 31 days | |
| 3. | U-41 | 23 Jan 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 24 Jan 1940 | Helgoland | 2 days | ||
| 4. | U-41 | 27 Jan 1940 | Helgoland | 5 Feb 1940 | Sunk | Patrol 3, | 10 days | |
| 3 patrols, 71 days at sea | ||||||||
Ships hit by Gustav-Adolf Mugler
| Date | U-boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sep 1939 | U-41 |  | Vega (c.) | 974 |  | fi | |
| 16 Sep 1939 | U-41 | | Suomen Poika (c.) | 1,099 | | fi | |
| 12 Nov 1939 | U-41 | Cresswell | 275 |  | br | ||
| 12 Nov 1939 | U-41 | Arne Kjøde | 11,019 |  | nw | ||
| 19 Nov 1939 | U-41 | | Darino | 1,351 | | br | |
| 21 Nov 1939 | U-41 | Les Barges II | 296 |  | fr | ||
| 5 Feb 1940 | U-41 | | Ceronia (d.) | 8,096 |  | nl | |
| 5 Feb 1940 | U-41 | | Beaverburn | 9,874 | | br | OA-84 |
| 32,984 | |||||||
7 ships sunk (24,888 tons) and 1 ship damaged (8,096 tons). Legend | |||||||
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.