U-boat Crew Casualties

1939

U-53, 17 Sep 1939
Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous fired on the boat and forced her to dive. Some gunners who were left topside perished. Later that day HMS Courageous was sunk by U-29.

U-25, 5 Nov 1939
A man was lost overboard in the Bay of Biscay. [Bootsmaat Wilhelm Lützeler]

Total numer of losses:
1 men in 2 incidents
(1 dead and 0 wounded)


1940

U-43, 31 Mar 1940
U-43 lost a man overboard in the Atlantic. [I WO Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Wilhelm Behrens]

U-57, 3 Sep 1940
The boat sank after an accidental collision with the Norwegian steamer SS Rona, taking six of her crew with her. She was raised shortly afterwards and put into service as a training boat. [Obermaschinenmaat Bernhard Henz, Maschinengefreiter Kurt Kopf, Matrosengefreiter Hermann Schneider, Funkobergefreiter Kurt Sparschuh,Matrosenobergefreiter Franz Tatzreiter]

U-47, 5 Sep 1940
The boat lost a man overboard during while the deck gun was being fired. [MtrOGfr Heinrich Mantyk]

U-46, 27 Sep 1940
The boat lost two men during an unintentional dive.[Oberbootsmaat Heinrich Schenk, Matrosenobergefreiter Wilhelm Reh]

U-46, 25 Oct 1940
Three Hudson bombers from RAF Squadron 228 attacked U-46. One man wounded who died the following day. [Matrosengefreiter Plaep]

U-28, 10 Nov 1940
On U-28, Maschinengefreiter Sachse was severely scalded.

Total numer of losses:
12 men in 6 incidents
(11 dead and 1 wounded)


1941

U-97, 3 Mar 1941
A man was lost overboard in the Bay of Biscay. [Bootsmaat Artur Mei]

U-110, 23 Mar 1941
The 105mm deck gun exploded, wounding three men.

U-105, 5 May 1941
The 105mm gun exploded during firing, wounding six men.

U-93, 7 May 1941
Three men were wounded in an accident with the machinegun.

U-101, 4 Jun 1941
Mid Atlantic: one of the gun crew was lost overboard. [Matrosenobergefreiter Horst Jackl]

U-404, 3 Sep 1941
A crew member was washed overboard off Cape Arkona during transfer from Kiel to Danzig and searched in vain by the U-boat for two hours until darkness set in. Matrosengefreiter Walter Skau drowned, his body was later washed ashore and buried at Copenhagen.

U-205, 30 Sep 1941
Fähnrich zur See Fritz Säger took his own life.

U-331, 10 Oct 1941
The boat fought a gun duel with 3 British landing craft off Sidi Barrani and damaged HMS TLC-18 (A 18), but was itself slightly damaged. Two men of the gun crew were wounded, one of them mortally. [Bootsmann Hans Gerstenich]

U-106, 23 Oct 1941
A tragic event occurred in heavy weather. When the replacement watch opened the conning tower hatch they found that all four men of the previous watch had been lost overboard. [Oberleutnant zur See Werner Grüneberg, Fähnrich zur See Herbert von Bruchhausen, Oberbootsmannmaat Karl Heemann, Matrose Ewald Brühl]

U-97, 24 Oct 1941
The IIWO of U-97 was badly injured in an accident on board, forcing the boat to return to base.

U-372, 23 Nov 1941
During stormy weather, a lookout was badly injured on U-372.

U-562, 6 Dec 1941
4 men from the boat were injured in an accident while reloading torpedoes.

U-201, 13 Dec 1941
An explosion in Brest (France) harbor killed 1 man, Maschinenobergefreiter Josef Zander.

U-160, 14 Dec 1941
U-160 lost 7 men dead and one wounded in a fire at Danzig during the boat´s working up exercises. [Maschinenmaat Melchior Schwipp, Matrosengefreiter August Männel, Matrosengefreiter Heinrich Meckenstock]

U-657, 14 Dec 1941
Oblt. Hans-Jürgen Radke of U-657 was killed in a fire on the submarine depot ship Black Prince on 14 Dec. 1941. 28 men died. The boat was undergoing trials at the time.

U-375, 16 Dec 1941
18.19 hrs, Mediterranean: An unidentified flying boat dropped seven depth charges on U-375 after the boat crash-dived. No damage.

U-701, 31 Dec 1941
An officer was washed overboard from the U-701, being the last casualty of the year. [Leutnant zur See Bernhard Weinitschke]

U-584, 31 Dec 1941
A lookout broke his arm during heavy weather in the Arctic.

Total numer of losses:
42 men in 18 incidents
(19 dead and 23 wounded)


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