
Heinrich Liebe
Fregattenkapitän (Crew 27)
| Successes 34 ships sunk for a total of 187.267 GRT 1 ship damaged for a total of 3.670 GRT |
| Born | 29 Jan, 1908 | Gotha |
| Died | 27 Jul, 1997 |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-2 | 1 Oct, 1936 | - | 31 Jan, 1938 | No war patrols |
| U-38 | 24 Oct, 1938 | - | 22 Jul, 1941 | 9 patrols (333 days) |
Personal information

Kptlt. Heinrich Liebe after a patrol.
Heinrich Liebe began his naval career in April 1927. Starting in 1931 he served on the line ship Schleswig- Holstein, then transferred in September 1935 to the newly formed U-boat force.
He was one of the few commanders with a long and solid pre-war U-boat experience. In October 1938 he commissioned U-38 and made a total of nine patrols with this boat. On his last patrol he sank eight ships for a total of 47,279 tons in the waters off Freetown, Africa. During this patrol he received the Oak Leaves cluster to the Knights Cross.
In July 1941 he left U-38 and served for three years a staff member in the OKM (Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine, German Navy High Command).
From August 1944 to the end of the war he served on the staff of the BdU (2. SKL, BdU op).
Patrol info
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | |||||
| 1. | U-38 | 19 Aug, 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 18 Sep, 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol | 31 days |
| 2. | U-38 | 14 Nov, 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 16 Dec, 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol | 33 days |
| 3. | U-38 | 26 Feb, 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 5 Apr, 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol | 40 days |
| 4. | U-38 | 8 Apr, 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 27 Apr, 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol | 20 days |
| 5. | U-38 | 6 Jun, 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 2 Jul, 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol | 27 days |
| 6. | U-38 | 1 Aug, 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 3 Sep, 1940 | Lorient | Patrol | 34 days |
| 7. | U-38 | 25 Sep, 1940 | Lorient | 24 Oct, 1940 | Lorient | Patrol | 30 days |
| 8. | U-38 | 18 Dec, 1940 | Lorient | 22 Jan, 1941 | Lorient | Patrol | 36 days |
| 9. | U-38 | 9 Apr, 1941 | Lorient | 29 Jun, 1941 | Lorient | Patrol | 82 days |
Ships hit by Heinrich Liebe
| Date | Boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | Fate * | |
| 6 Sep, 1939 | U-38 | Manaar | 7.242 | | br | ||
| 11 Sep, 1939 | U-38 | Inverliffey | 9.456 | | br | ||
| 7 Dec, 1939 | U-38 | Thomas Walton | 4.460 | | br | ||
| 11 Dec, 1939 | U-38 | Garoufalia | 4.708 | | gr | ||
| 13 Dec, 1939 | U-38 | Deptford | 4.101 | | br | ||
| 9 Mar, 1940 | U-38 | Leukos | 216 | | ir | ||
| 17 Mar, 1940 | U-38 | Argentina | 5.375 | | da | ||
| 21 Mar, 1940 | U-38 | Algier | 1.654 | | da | ||
| 21 Mar, 1940 | U-38 | Christiansborg | 3.270 | | da | ||
| 26 Mar, 1940 | U-38 | Cometa | 3.794 | | nw | ||
| 2 Apr, 1940 | U-38 | Signe | 1.540 | | fi | HN-23A | |
| 14 Jun, 1940 | U-38 | Mount Myrto | 5.403 | | gr | ||
| 15 Jun, 1940 | U-38 | Erik Boye | 2.238 | | ca | HX-47 | |
| 15 Jun, 1940 | U-38 | Italia | 9.973 | | nw | HX-47 | |
| 20 Jun, 1940 | U-38 | Tilia Gorthon | 1.776 | | sw | ||
| 21 Jun, 1940 | U-38 | Luxembourg | 5.809 | | be | ||
| 22 Jun, 1940 | U-38 | Neion | 5.154 | | gr | ||
| 7 Aug, 1940 | U-38 | Mohamed Ali El-Kebir | 7.527 | | br | ||
| 11 Aug, 1940 | U-38 | Llanfair | 4.966 | | br | SL-41 | |
| 31 Aug, 1940 | U-38 | Har Zion | 2.508 | | br | OB-205 | |
| 1 Oct, 1940 | U-38 | Highland Patriot | 14.172 | | br | ||
| 17 Oct, 1940 | U-38 | Aenos | 3.554 | | gr | SC-7 | |
| 18 Oct, 1940 | U-38 | Carsbreck | 3.670 | | br | SC-7 | damaged |
| 19 Oct, 1940 | U-38 | Bilderdijk | 6.856 | | nl | HX-79 | |
| 19 Oct, 1940 | U-38 | Matheran | 7.653 | | br | HX-79 | |
| 27 Dec, 1940 | U-38 | Waiotira | 12.823 | | br | ||
| 31 Dec, 1940 | U-38 | Valparaiso | 3.760 | | sw | HX-97 | |
| 4 May, 1941 | U-38 | Japan | 5.230 | | sw | OB-310 | |
| 5 May, 1941 | U-38 | Queen Maud | 4.976 | | br | OB-309 | |
| 23 May, 1941 | U-38 | Berhala | 6.622 | | nl | OB-318 | |
| 24 May, 1941 | U-38 | Vulcain | 4.362 | | br | OB-318 | |
| 29 May, 1941 | U-38 | Tabaristan | 6.251 | | br | ||
| 30 May, 1941 | U-38 | Empire Protector | 6.181 | | br | ||
| 31 May, 1941 | U-38 | Rinda | 6.029 | | nw | ||
| 8 Jun, 1941 | U-38 | Kingston Hill | 7.628 | | br | ||
| 190.937 | |||||||
* 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.


