Gerhard Bigalk
Korvettenkapitän (Crew 33)
| Successes 5 ships sunk for a total of 21.412 GRT 1 warship sunk for a total of 11.000 tons 1 ship damaged for a total of 8.096 GRT |
| Born | 26 Nov, 1908 | Berlin-Niederschönhausen |
| Died | 17 Jul, 1942 | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-14 | 2 Jun, 1940 | - | Aug, 1940 | No war patrols |
| U-751 | 31 Jan, 1941 | - | 17 Jul, 1942 (+) | 7 patrols (218 days) |
Personal information
 Gerhard Bigalk on the conning tower. |
Gerhard Bigalk began his naval career in April 1934. Like Günther Prien and some other U-boat commanders he spent some years in the merchant navy before joining the U-boat arm. In October 1935 he began reconnaissance training in the naval air force, and in 1937 made 21 combat flights in the Spanish Civil War. In November 1939 he transferred to the U-boat force and after the usual training and a short time as commander of the school boat U-14, he commissioned the larger Atlantic boat U-751 in January 1941.
During his very successful fourth patrol, he sank the British escort carrier HMS Audacity (11,000 tons) on 21 December, 1941. Five days later he received the Knights Cross.
Kapitänleutant Gerhard Bigalk died on 17 July, 1942 when a British aircraft sank U-751 with all hands in the North Atlantic northwest of Cape Ortegal, Spain.
Patrol info
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | |||||
| 1. | U-751 | 3 Jun, 1941 | Kiel | 5 Jul, 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol, | 33 days |
| 2. | U-751 | 2 Aug, 1941 | St. Nazaire | 8 Sep, 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol, | 38 days |
| 3. | U-751 | 11 Oct, 1941 | St. Nazaire | 8 Nov, 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol, | 29 days |
| 4. | U-751 | 16 Dec, 1941 | St. Nazaire | 26 Dec, 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol, | 11 days |
| 5. | U-751 | 14 Jan, 1942 | St. Nazaire | 23 Feb, 1942 | St. Nazaire | Patrol, | 41 days |
| 6. | U-751 | 15 Apr, 1942 | St. Nazaire | 15 Jun, 1942 | St. Nazaire | Patrol, | 62 days |
| 7. | U-751 | 14 Jul, 1942 | St. Nazaire | 17 Jul, 1942 | Sunk | Patrol, | 4 days |
| 7 patrols, 218 days at sea | |||||||
Ships hit by Gerhard Bigalk
| Date | Boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | Fate * | |
| 14 Jun, 1941 | U-751 | St. Lindsay | 5.370 |  | br | OG-64 | |
| 21 Dec, 1941 | U-751 | HMS Audacity (D 10) | 11.000 | | br | HG-76 | |
| 2 Feb, 1942 | U-751 | Corilla | 8.096 |  | nl | HX-173 | damaged |
| 4 Feb, 1942 | U-751 | Silveray | 4.535 | | br | ON-55 | |
| 7 Feb, 1942 | U-751 | Empire Sun | 6.952 | | br | ||
| 16 May, 1942 | U-751 | Nicarao | 1.445 |  | am | ||
| 19 May, 1942 | U-751 | Isabela | 3.110 | | am | ||
| 40.508 | |||||||
* 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.