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Born	3 Feb 1917		Mirschkowitz, Silesia
Died	2 May 1997	(80)

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

Hubert Nordheimer joined the Kriegsmarine in 1936. He served as Cadet training officer on the light cruiser Emden from Dec 1939 to Sept 1940. He then went through U-boat training until March 1941. From April to May 1941 he was assigned to the U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) for the new type VIIC boat U-206 under construction at Kiel (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Upon commission of U-206 by Oblt. Herbert Opitz on 17 May 1941 Nordheimer served as its First Watch Officer (1WO) until the following October (Busch & Röll, 1999). During this time he went out on two patrols in the North Atlantic with the U-206 during which they sank 3 ships for 4,208 tons.

3 Officers probably sharing a good story. From left to right; Oblt. Ernst Witendorff, then WO Burchard and finally Kptlt. Hubert Nordheimer.

Nordheimer went through further training from Oct to Dec 1941 and then served as a Training Officer with the 2 ULD at Gotenhafen until Dec 1942 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

In Dec 1942 Nordheimer was assigned to another U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) course, this time to prepare him for his own command of the new Type VIIC boat U-237. He commissioned the boat on 30 Jan 1943 and then began working up boat and men in the Baltic (Busch & Röll, 1999). The boat was sunk during an American bombing raid on Kiel on 14 May 1943 (Niestlé, 1998). Nordheimer and his men were assigned to another boat, him commissioning the new U-990 on 28 July 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Nordheimer sailed with the U-990 on 4 patrols from Jan to May 1944, all in the Arctic against the Russia convoys (Busch & Röll, 1997).

The British destroyer HMS Mahratta sunk by U-990 (Nordheimer) on 24 Feb 1944.

Rescue of survivors from fellow boat and eventual loss

On 24 May 1944 the U-476 (Oblt. Otto Niethmann) suffered a crippling damage from a British Catalina aircraft (Sqdn 210/V) and the boat was scuttled (Niestlé, 1998). Nordheimer in his U-990 rescued 21 of the men while 34 went down with the boat (Blair, 1998).

The men from U-476 brought no luck to the U-990 as it was sunk the next day by another aircraft, this time a British Liberator (Sqdn 59/S). 20 men from U-990 died in the sinking but 33 survived (Niestlé, 1998).

The German outpost boat V 5901 rescued 51 men from the sinking U-990, including 18 from the U-476 (3 died on the U-990). Nordheimer survived the sinking, as did the commander of U-476 Niethmann. Both were sent to Germany to command the new type XXI boats (Blair, 1998).

From July to Oct 1944 Nordheimer went through another U-boat familiarization program, this time for the revolutionary new type XXI Elektro boats. He then commissioned the U-2512 on 10 Oct 1944 and began training in the Baltic. The war ended before the boat was ready for combat patrol. Nordheimer scuttled his boat on 3 May 1945 at Eckernförde (Niestlé, 1998).

Sources

Blair, C. (1998). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunted, 1942-1945.
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.

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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