The Men - The Commander listing

Jürgen Oesten

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 33)

Successes
18 ships sunk for a total of 100,007 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk for a total of 1,737 GRT
3 ships damaged for a total of 20,568 GRT
1 warship damaged for a total of 31,100 tons

Born

24 Oct 1913

Berlin-Grunewald

Kptlt. Jürgen Oesten

Ranks

1 Jul 1934	Fähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1936	Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1936	Leutnant zur See
1 Jun 1938	Oberleutnant zur See
1 Mar 1941	Kapitänleutnant
1 Dec 1944	Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

6 Jun 1939	Spanish Cross
3 Dec 1939	Iron Cross 2nd Class
27 Feb 1940	Iron Cross 1st Class
26 Mar 1941	Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-61	12 Aug 1939	28 Jul 1940	9 patrols (147 days)
U-106	24 Sep 1940	19 Oct 1941	3 patrols (182 days)
U-861	2 Sep 1943	8 May 1945	2 patrols (252 days)

Personal information

Jürgen Oesten on patrol. The uniform is slightly contrary to regulations.

Jürgen Oesten began his naval career in April 1933. After the usual training he spent more than a year on the great ships Admiral Graf Spee and Karlsruhe. In May 1937 he transferred to the U-boat arm, and thus received a solid pre-war training. In October 1937 he became a watch officer on U-20.

On 12 August, 1939 he commissioned U-61. The boat was on its first patrol, after two months of training, during the last days of October 1939. As a result of a few mine-laying patrols Oblt. Jürgen Oesten sank six ships for a total of 20,754 tons.

After his eighth patrol he left the boat and one month later commissioned the larger Type IXB boat U-106.

Jürgen Oesten

During her maiden patrol from Germany to her new base at Lorient, U-106 sank two ships for a total of 13,640 tons. Oesten won the Knights Cross on her second patrol in African waters, where he sank eight ships for a total of 44,820 tons. His attack on one vessel during the battle against convoy SL-68 was unintended but effective: he fired at the shadow of a recognized merchant ship in bad light conditions and did not realize that the torpedo hit and damaged the the British battleship HMS Malaya.

Kptlt. Oesten left U-106 in October 1941 and became the commander of the 9th Flotilla in Brest (France).

In March 1942 Jürgen Oesten became U-Boot-Admiralstabsoffizier with the Admiral Nordmeer and directed the U-boat war in Arctic waters. In July 1943 he left Norway and on 2 September, 1943 commissioned the Type IX D2 boat U-861.

Korvkpt. Jürgen Oesten in Trondheim in
April 1945 with the commander of the
13th Flotilla Fregkpt. Rolf Rüggeberg

U-861 left Kiel on 20 April, 1944 as a so-called Monsun-boat because her destination was to be the Far East. But at first the boat operated in Brazilian waters, sinking two ships. The boat found her next victim south of Madagascar, and before she reached Penang on 23 September, 1944 she sank a ship near the Somalian coast. The boat had spent five months at sea.

U-861 left Soerabaya (Indonesia) on 15 January, 1945 with a load of vital goods and only equipped with two torpedoes for self-defense. During the return journey the boat struck an iceberg south of Greenland, but Oesten, through good luck and seamanship, reached Trondheim, Norway on 19 April, 1945 with only five barrels of fuel remaining in the tanks.

Patrol info for Jürgen Oesten

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-61	24 Oct 1939	Kiel	14 Nov 1939	Kiel	Patrol 1,	22 days
2.	U-61	28 Nov 1939	Kiel	3 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 2,	6 days
3.	U-61	7 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	18 Dec 1939	Kiel	Patrol 3,	12 days
4.	U-61	15 Jan 1940	Kiel	30 Jan 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 4,	16 days
5.	U-61	12 Feb 1940	Wilhelmshaven	27 Feb 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 5,	16 days
6.	U-61	29 Feb 1940	Wilhelmshaven	1 Mar 1940	Kiel	Patrol 6,	2 days
7.	U-61	11 Apr 1940	Kiel	7 May 1940	Kiel	Patrol 7,	27 days
8.	U-61	6 Jun 1940	Kiel	1 Jul 1940	Bergen	Patrol 8,	26 days
9.	U-61	6 Jul 1940	Bergen	25 Jul 1940	Kiel	Patrol 9,	20 days
10.	U-106	4 Jan 1941	Kiel	10 Feb 1941	Lorient	Patrol 10,	38 days
11.	U-106	26 Feb 1941	Lorient	17 Jun 1941	Lorient	Patrol 11,	112 days
12.	U-106	11 Aug 1941	Lorient	11 Sep 1941	Lorient	Patrol 12,	32 days
13.	U-861	20 Apr 1944	Kiel	23 Sep 1944	Penang	Patrol 13,	157 days
14.	U-861	1 Nov 1944	Penang	2 Nov 1944	Singapur		2 days
15.	U-861	3 Nov 1944	Singapur	5 Nov 1944	Soerabaja		3 days
16.	U-861	15 Jan 1945	Soerabaja	19 Apr 1945	Trondheim	Patrol 14,	95 days
14 patrols, 581 days at sea

Ships hit by Jürgen Oesten

Date	Boat	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy	Fate *
22 Dec, 1939	U-61	Gryfevale [Mine]	4,434		br		damaged

22 Jan, 1940	U-61	Sydfold	2,434		nw
18 Feb, 1940	U-61	El Sonador	1,406		pa
18 Feb, 1940	U-61	Sangstad	4,297		nw
10 Jul, 1940	U-61	Alwaki	4,533		nl	OA-179
16 Jul, 1940	U-61	Scottish Minstrel	6,998		br	HX-55

17 Jan, 1941	U-106	Zealandic	10,578		br
29 Jan, 1941	U-106	Sesostris	2,962		ag	SC-19
11 Mar, 1941	U-106	Memnon	7,506		br
16 Mar, 1941	U-106	Almkerk	6,810		nl
17 Mar, 1941	U-106	Andalusian	3,082		br	SL-68
17 Mar, 1941	U-106	Tapanoeli	7,034		nl	SL-68
20 Mar, 1941	U-106	HMS Malaya (01)	31,100		br	SL-68	damaged
20 Mar, 1941	U-106	Meerkerk	7,995		nl	SL-68	damaged
24 Mar, 1941	U-106	Eastlea	4,267		br
30 May, 1941	U-106	Silveryew	6,373		br
31 May, 1941	U-106	Clan Macdougall	6,843		br
6 Jun, 1941	U-106	Sacramento Valley	4,573		br	OB-324

20 Jul, 1944	U-861	Vital de Oliveira	1,737		bz
24 Jul, 1944	U-861	William Gaston	7,177		am
20 Aug, 1944	U-861	Berwickshire	7,464		br	DN-68
20 Aug, 1944	U-861	Daronia	8,139		br	DN-68	damaged
5 Sep, 1944	U-861	Ioannis Fafalios	5,670		gr
			153,412
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk. [Mine] indicates the vessel was hit by a mine.