Theodor Petersen
Oberleutnant zur See
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| Born | 14 Jan 1914 | Flensburg |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-612 | 31 May 1943 | 20 Feb 1944 | No war patrols |
| U-874 | 8 Apr 1944 | 8 May 1945 | No war patrols |
Theodor Petersen, possibly someone elevated from the enlisted ranks to officer status during the war, did not belong to Crew 34 as is often claimed. He may have been belatedly attached to the Crew for mere administrative purposes by the Navy’s personnel office, but he did neither share the common training experience of the Crew’s regular members nor did he participate in any Crew events, such as reunions after the war. Regular Crew 34 members would not have claimed him as one of their own, nor would he have claimed to be one of them (Rust, 2009).
Petersen served under Wolfgang Luth for some 3 years including U-181's first Southern oceans cruise. In late 1941 he was still an enlisted man, albeit Third Watch Officer on U-43. In October 1942 he was a Leutnant zur See, the rank shown in his "Crossing the Equator" certificate reproduced in Jordan Vause's excellent book 'U boat Ace, the story of Wolfgang Luth'. He left U-181 in January 1943. Petersen was a major source of information for Vause's book and quoted often in its text.
Sources
Rust, E. (2009) E-mail correspondence. Author of Naval Officers under Hitler.
Ships hit by Theodor Petersen
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