Selected Book
Bismarck
A Minute by Minute Account of the Final Hours of Germany's Greatest Battleship
Zetterling, Niklas
Allied Warships
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Walter Forstmann
Kapitänleutnant (Crew 4/00)
| Successes 148 ships sunk for a total of 390,792 GRT 1 warship sunk for a total of 810 tons 7 ships damaged for a total of 30,552 GRT 1 ship taken as prize for a total of 798 GRT |
| Born: | 9 Mar 1883 | Essen-Werden |
| Dead: | 2 Nov 1973 | Essen |
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Notes
Walter Forstmann became a Seekadett in 1900 when entering the Kaiserliche Marine. The same year he received the Rettungsmedaille.
Forstmann became commanding officer of the U 11 and was promoted to Kapitänleutnant in 1911. He received the Roter Adler Orden the following year.
In 1914 he took over command of the U 12 and led her on several early-war missions in the North Sea. Forstmann, however, is best known for his string of successes in the Mediterranean in the U 39.
Forstman received the Pour le Mérite on the 12th August 1916 as CO of this U-boat 'for outstanding naval planning and operations, which resulted in the sinking of 261.070 BRT of Allied warships and merchant ships'.
He was also the man that sank the HMS Niger, a British gunboat on the 11th November 1914.
He would finish the war having sunk nearly 400,000 tons of shipping and ranks as the second highest scoring submarine commander of all time. In 1917 he became Chef der III U Flottille.
In 1919 he left service with the rank of Korvettenkapitän. He went into business after the war and became the director of an industrial firm.