Freiherr Siegfried von Forstner
Korvettenkapitän (Crew 30)
| Successes 14 ships sunk, total tonnage 70,434 GRT 1 auxiliary warship sunk, total tonnage 602 GRT 3 ships damaged, total tonnage 28,682 GRT |
| Born | 19 Sep 1910 | Hannover | |
| Died | 13 Oct 1943 | (33) | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-59 | 11 Nov 1940 | 16 Apr 1941 | No war patrols |
| U-402 | 21 May 1941 | 13 Oct 1943 (+) | 8 patrols (349 days) |
 In the wardroom of U-402, cruising at 100 feet, Siegfried Frhr. von Forstner celebrates the news of his Knights Cross decoration. |
Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner began his naval career in April 1930. Later he served for more than two years on the light cruiser Nürnberg, including six patrols during the first year of the war. In April 1940 he transferred to the U-boat force. After the usual training he served on U-99 under Kptlt. Kretschmer for one patrol as Kommandantenschüler (Commander-in-training) (Busch & Röll, 1999).
After a few months on the training boat U-59, in April 1941he commissioned U-402, a Type VIIC boat (Busch & Röll, 1999). He operated mostly against convoys in the North Atlantic and became one of the most successful commanders in 1943.
U-402 was sunk on 13 October, 1943 by an aircraft from US escort carrier USS Card and was lost with all hands (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.
Patrol info for Siegfried von Forstner
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
| 1. | U-402 | 26 Oct 1941 | Kiel | 9 Dec 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 1, | 45 days | |
| 2. | U-402 | 11 Jan 1942 | St. Nazaire | 11 Feb 1942 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 2, | 32 days | |
| 3. | U-402 | 26 Mar 1942 | St. Nazaire | 20 May 1942 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 3, | 56 days | |
| 4. | U-402 | 16 Jun 1942 | St. Nazaire | 5 Aug 1942 | La Pallice | Patrol 4, | 51 days | |
| 5. | U-402 | 4 Oct 1942 | La Pallice | 20 Nov 1942 | La Pallice | Patrol 5, | 48 days | |
| 6. | U-402 | 14 Jan 1943 | La Pallice | 23 Feb 1943 | La Pallice | Patrol 6, | 41 days | |
| 7. | U-402 | 21 Apr 1943 | La Pallice | 26 May 1943 | La Pallice | Patrol 7, | 36 days | |
| 8. | U-402 | 4 Sep 1943 | La Pallice | 13 Oct 1943 | Sunk | Patrol 8, | 40 days | |
| 8 patrols, 349 days at sea | ||||||||
Ships hit by Siegfried von Forstner
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.
Media links
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