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Born	11 Oct 1915		Berlin-Charlottenburg
Died	16 Dec 1941	(26)	Mediterranean

Ranks 8 Apr 1934 Offiziersanwärter 1 Jul 1935 Fähnrich zur See 1 Jan 1937 Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1937 Leutnant zur See 1 Apr 1939 Oberleutnant zur See 1 Oct 1941 Kapitänleutnant 1 Dec 1941 Korvettenkapitän Decorations

Ottokar Arnold Paulssen joined the German Navy (Reichsmarine) in 1934. He served as the First Watch officer (1WO) on the U-26 (Klaus Ewerth) from April 1939 to Jan 1940. During this time he went out on 2 patrols with the boat during which the boat sank 4 ships.

From Jan to June 1940 he served as Watch officer and did his Commander sea training on the "duck" U-18 (Ernst Mengersen). The boat sank one small ship on the first of two patrols Paulssen went out on.

On 8 June 1940 Paulssen was given command of the "duck" U-20 then serving as a school boat. He would command this boat until 5 Jan 1941 when he began his U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) for the larger attack boats at Hamburg.

On 13 Feb 1941 Oblt. Ottokar Paulssen commissioned the new type VIIC boat U-557. He commanded the boat on 2 patrols in the Atlantic sinking 5 ships during 93 days at sea.

Herbert Werner, author of the famous book Iron Coffins, served as a Watch Officer on Paulssen's U-557 for the first 2 patrols but then left to serve as First Watch Officer (1WO) on the U-230.

The Mediterranean

For his third patrol with the U-557 Paulssen was sent to the Mediterranean. He successfully passed through the heavily guarded Straits of Gibraltar on 26 Nov 1941 having left Lorient, France 7 days earlier (Busch and Röll, 1997). He made his new base at Messina with the 29th flotilla.

Paulssen was rather successful with his boat, having sunk 6 merchant ships for almost 32,000 GRT and sinking the British light cruiser HMS Galatea on 15 Dec 1941. He would be lost the day after his last success.

Kptlt. Paulssen was lost with his entire crew, 43 men, when the boat was sunk at 2144hrs on 16 Dec, 1941 in the Mediterranean west of Crete, in position 35.31N, 23.19E, after accidental ramming by the Italian torpedo boat Orione (Niestle, 1998). The Germans sent out patrols to search for survivors the next day after correctly guessing the Orione, herself barely surviving the ramming, had rammed the friendly U-557 but no survivors were found (Blair, 1996).

Sources

Blair, C. (1996). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunters, 1939-1942.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1998). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Niestle, 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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