Asmus Nicolai Clausen
Korvettenkapitän (Crew 29)
| Successes 23 ships sunk for a total of 73,428 GRT 1 warship sunk for a total of 1,379 tons |
| Born | 2 Jun 1911 | Flensburg | |
| Died | 16 May 1943 | (31) | South Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
| U-142 | 4 Sep 1940 | 13 Oct 1940 | No war patrols |
| U-37 | 26 Oct 1940 | 2 May 1941 | 3 patrols (85 days) |
| U-129 | 21 May 1941 | 13 May 1942 | 4 patrols (180 days) |
| U-182 | 30 Jun 1942 | 16 May 1943 (+) | 1 patrol (159 days) |
Personal information
 Kptlt. 'Niko' Clausen on board |
Nicolai Clausen joined the Reichsmarine in October 1929 as a seaman. He spent the next few years on torpedo boats (T-185 and G-10) and on the sailing school ship (Segelschulschiff) Gorch Fock. In September 1935 he transferred to the new U-boat force and after some months of training, joined U-26 under Kptlt. Werner Hartmann in April 1936.
In March 1937 he entered the Navy school (Marineschule) Mürwik and received several months of officer training. In the next two years he served on the cruiser Admiral Graf Spee and on the minesweeper M-134.
When the war broke out in autumn 1939, his former commander Werner Hartmann requested him, and so Niko Clausen became the first watch officer (I WO) on U-37. He completed three patrols on U-37, mostly in the Atlantic, and received his Iron Cross second class (EK II) after the first patrol from Karl Dönitz personally (see a photo).
He left the U-boat in summer 1940 and in August 1940 commissioned the Type IID U-boat U-142. Just two months later he returned to U-37 and replaced the commander Victor Oehrn. During the next three patrols Niko Clausen sank twelve ships, most of them small. In May 1941 he left U-37, which then became a training boat. Three weeks later he commissioned the U-129.
The first three patrols on U-129, mostly in the Atlantic, ended without success, but on the fourth patrol in Caribbean waters Niko Clausen sank seven ships for a total of 25,613 tons. During this patrol he received the Knights Cross. After the patrol, in May 1942, he turned over command of the U-boat to Hans-Ludwig Witt.
In July 1942, Kptlt. Niko Clausen commissioned U-182, a Type IXD U-boat. On his first patrol in the Indian Ocean he sank five ships for a total of 30,071 tons. During the return journey, U-182 was lost with all hands, being sunk on 16 May, 1943 by the American destroyers USS Mackenzie and Lamb.
Patrol info for Asmus Nicolai Clausen
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
| 1. | U-37 | 28 Nov 1940 | Lorient | 7 Jan 1941 | Lorient | Patrol 1, | 41 days | |
| 2. | U-37 | 30 Jan 1941 | Lorient | 18 Feb 1941 | Lorient | Patrol 2, | 20 days | |
| 3. | U-37 | 27 Feb 1941 | Lorient | 22 Mar 1941 | Kiel | Patrol 3, | 24 days | |
| 4. | U-129 | 23 Jul 1941 | Kiel | 24 Jul 1941 | Horten | 2 days | ||
| 5. | U-129 | 3 Aug 1941 | Horten | 30 Aug 1941 | Lorient | Patrol 4, | 28 days | |
| 6. | U-129 | 27 Sep 1941 | Lorient | 8 Oct 1941 | Lorient | Patrol 5, | 12 days | |
| 7. | U-129 | 21 Oct 1941 | Lorient | 28 Dec 1941 | Lorient | Patrol 6, | 69 days | |
| 8. | U-129 | 25 Jan 1942 | Lorient | 5 Apr 1942 | Lorient | Patrol 7, | 71 days | |
| 9. | U-182 | 9 Dec 1942 | Horten | 16 May 1943 | Sunk | Patrol 8, | 159 days | |
| 8 patrols, 424 days at sea | ||||||||
Ships hit by Asmus Nicolai Clausen
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.