Paul Just

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)

Successes
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 1,200 tons

Born	24 Dec 1915		Hamburg
Died	8 Sep 2000	(84)

Kptlt. Paul Just aboard USS Bogue after capture

Ranks

3 Apr 1936		Offiziersanwärter
10 Sep 1936		Seekadett
1 May 1937		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1938		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1938		Leutnant zur See
1 Oct 1940		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Aug 1943		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

		Iron Cross 2nd Class
		Iron Cross 1st Class
3 May 1944		German Cross in Gold

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-6	Aug, 1942	Sep, 1942	No war patrols
U-151	Sep, 1942	May, 1943	No war patrols
U-546	2 Jun 1943	24 Apr 1945	3 patrols (284 days)

Paul Just joined the Kriegsmarine in 1936, and was part of the Olympia Crew. He went through officer training from April 1936 to Sept 1938 and was then seconded to the Luftwaffe until Jan 1941, serving as a flight crew Observer in Coastal Command.

Oblt. Paul Just joined the U-bootwaffe (U-boat force) in Jan 1941 and his first posting following training was to U-156. He went through U-boat Commander training from July to Aug 1942 and then served as an acting Commander on the small 'duck' school boat U-6, before taking over command of another school boat, U-151 until May 1943, when he commenced Baubelehrung (U-boat construction familiarization) in preparation for commissioning the large type IXC/40 U-546.

He took command on 2 June 1943, and after working up exercises in the Baltic, left Marviken, Norway for the first war patrol on 26 Jan 1944. U-546 was lost on the third patrol NW of the Azores en route for the US east coast, just after sinking her first victim.

Capture

U-546 was sunk on 24 April 1945 by depth charges from eight US destroyers from a hunter/killer group vectored in by aircraft. 26 of her crew died but 33 survived, amongst them Kptlt. Just (Niestlé, 1998).

After being rescued Just was taken to America, and placed in temporary detention in a Boston city jail, together with fellow U-boat commander Friedrich Steinhoff. They suffered harsh treatment while being kept there, and Steinhoff committed suicide (Blair, 1998).

The ship he sank was the American destroyer Frederick C Davis (DE 136) (Rohwer, 1998). One of the survivors, former Lt (jg) P K Lundeberg, visited Paul Just after the war on a number of occasions.

Sources

Blair, C. (1998). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunted, 1942-1945.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

Patrol info for Paul Just

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-546	22 Jan 1944	Kiel	23 Jan 1944	Marviken		2 days
2.	U-546	26 Jan 1944	Marviken	23 Apr 1944	Lorient	Patrol 1,	89 days
3.	U-546	15 Jun 1944	Lorient	11 Nov 1944	Flensburg	Patrol 2,	150 days
4.	U-546	11 Mar 1945	Kiel	24 Apr 1945	Sunk	Patrol 3,	45 days
3 patrols, 284 days at sea

Ships hit by Paul Just

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons	Convoy
24 Apr 1945	U-546	USS Frederick C. Davis (DE 136)	1,200	am
	1,200
1 ship sunk (1,200 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel.

Date

U-boat

Name of ship

Tons

Nat.

Convoy

24 Apr 1945

U-546

USS Frederick C. Davis (DE 136)

1,200

1 ship sunk (1,200 tons).

Legend
We have a picture of this vessel.

About ranks and decorations
Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.