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Born	27 Sep 1906		Grimnitz
Died	14 Aug 1984	(77)

Ranks 1 Apr 1944 Fregattenkapitän Decorations

Hans Pauckstadt joined the Reichsmarine in 1926. He studied at the Anti-Submarine School from Oct 1935 to Jan 1936 when he took command of the small U-18 on 4 Jan 1935. On 20 Nov 1936 U-18 was sunk in collision with T 156, 8 died but 12 survived, among them the Commander Hans Pauckstadt (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Kptlt. Pauckstadt then took command of the U-12 on 1 Dec 1936 until 1 Oct 1937 when he joined the 6th flotilla until Feb 1938. On 15 Feb 1938 Pauckstadt took command of the larger Ocean going boats U-30 and U-34 until 17 Aug 1938. He then briefly joined U-boat command staff before again taking command of the U-34 on 5 Sept 1938.

On 28 Oct 1938 Kptlt. Hans Pauckstadt left the U-34 and began a long series of staff postions, including two stints on the School ship Gorch Fock in 1938 and 1939. From Aug 1939 to Sept 1941 he worked on FdU staff (U-boat Command). in this capacity he was commander in deputize for the U-516, relieving the ill Wiebe, from 11 - 27 1942 while the boat was undergoing trials and work-up in the Baltic (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Hans Pauckstadt was acting Commander of the 5th U-boat Flotilla during Sep to Nov 1942 when he began his U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) in preparation for his own Command of a new boat. On 10 Dec 1942 he commissioned the large type IXC/40 boat U-193 at Bremen (Busch & Röll, 1999). Spending the next 5 months training in the Baltic KrvKpt. Pauckstadt then took the boat out from Kiel on 11 May 1943, heading for Bergen, Norway. From there he left for his first war patrol on 22 May 1943. The patrol was into the North Atlantic and then to the east coast of Northern Africa. U-193 arrived to its new base at Bordeaux, France after 63 days at sea on 23 July 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1997).

On 12 Oct 1943 KrvKpt. Hans Pauckstadt left La Pallice, France for his second patrol. This time they headed to the Gulf of Mexico. On 3 Dec having reached the Gulf Pauckstadt sank his only ship, the large American tanker Touchet (10,172 tons) (Rohwer, 1998). While homebound in the Bay of Biscay on 9 Feb 1944 the boat was severely damaged by an Allied aircraft and sought shelter in the neutral Spanish port of El Ferrel. From there the boat left 10 days later for France - reaching base at Lorient 4 days later (Busch & Röll, 1997).

The recently promoted Fregattenkapitän Hans Pauckstadt took command of the 8th Flotilla (a training flotilla) in May 1944. He led the training unit until Feb 1945 when he took command of the 1. UAA, another training unit, a post he held until the German surrender (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).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

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