Wilhelm Franken
Korvettenkapitän (Crew 35)
| Successes 3 ships sunk for a total of 11.347 GRT 1 warship sunk for a total of 1.540 tons 2 ships damaged for a total of 17.565 GRT |
| Born | 11 Sep, 1914 | Schildesche, Bielefeld |
| Died | 13 Jan, 1945 | Kiel |
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Ranks
Decorations
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Personal information
Wilhelm Franken began his naval career in April 1935. He served as gunnery officer in the Danube flotilla and for a year on the battleship Scharnhorst. In October 1940 he transferred to the U-boat force. His first three patrols he served as IWO on U-331 under Kptlt. Tiesenhausen, where he took part in the sinking of HMS Barham.
He left the boat in January 1942 and in March took over U-565. On his sixth patrol, only operating in the Mediterranean, he sank the British destroyer HMS Partridge (1,540 tons).
Kptlt. Wilhelm Franken left the boat in October 1943 and became a staff member of the BdU org under Admiral Friedeburg. Unfortunately he was killed during a fire aboard the living-quarters ship Daressalam on 13 January, 1945 in Kiel, suffering the same fate as Korvkpt. Siegfried Lüdden.
Patrol info
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | |||||
| 1. | U-565 | 11 Apr, 1942 | La Spezia | 30 Apr, 1942 | Salamis | Patrol | 20 days |
| 2. | U-565 | 7 May, 1942 | Salamis | 10 Jun, 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol | 35 days |
| 3. | U-565 | 9 Jul, 1942 | La Spezia | 4 Aug, 1942 | Salamis | Patrol | 27 days |
| 4. | U-565 | 16 Aug, 1942 | Salamis | 25 Aug, 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol | 10 days |
| 5. | U-565 | 31 Aug, 1942 | La Spezia | 4 Sep, 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol | 5 days |
| 6. | U-565 | 25 Oct, 1942 | La Spezia | 13 Nov, 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol | 20 days |
| 7. | U-565 | 23 Nov, 1942 | La Spezia | 1 Jan, 1943 | La Spezia | Patrol | 40 days |
| 8. | U-565 | 14 Feb, 1943 | La Spezia | 5 Mar, 1943 | La Spezia | Patrol | 20 days |
| 9. | U-565 | 8 Apr, 1943 | La Spezia | 12 May, 1943 | La Spezia | Patrol | 35 days |
| 10. | U-565 | 17 Jun, 1943 | La Spezia | 23 Jul, 1943 | Toulon | Patrol | 37 days |
| 11. | U-565 | 7 Sep, 1943 | Toulon | 1 Oct, 1943 | Toulon | Patrol | 25 days |
Ships hit by Wilhelm Franken
| Date | Boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | Fate * | |
| 23 Apr, 1942 | U-565 | Kirkland | 1.361 |  | br | TA-36 | |
| 18 Dec, 1942 | U-565 | HMS Partridge (G 30) | 1.540 | | br | ||
| 24 Feb, 1943 | U-565 | Nathanael Greene | 7.176 |  | am | MKS-8 | damaged |
| 27 Feb, 1943 | U-565 | Seminole | 10.389 | | br | TE-16 | damaged |
| 20 Apr, 1943 | U-565 | Michigan | 5.594 | | am | UGS-7 | |
| 20 Apr, 1943 | U-565 | Sidi-Bel-Abbès | 4.392 |  | fr | UGS-7 | |
| 30.452 | |||||||
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk. | |||||||
Decorations and ranks information is in many cases not complete. If you can help on any of those missing that would be great.