| Born | 28 Apr 1921 | Berlin |
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Ranks
Decorations |
U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
| U-148 | 30 Nov 1943 | 15 Dec 1944 | No war patrols |
| U-977 | Mar, 1945 | 17 Aug 1945 | 1 patrol (108 days) |
Personal information
Previously in the war Schäffer had made 4 patrols as watch officer on the U-445. He then took command of the small boat U-148. (Blair, Clay. 1998. Hitler's U-boat War)
With his U-977 he made the very famous and no doubt hardship-filled trip to Argentina when Germany announced its surrender. He made sure not to fire any torpedoes as to not being accused of sinking any ships after the cease-fire orders.
After the war he wrote the book U-boat 977 about this patrol and all the crazy rumors related to it.
Patrol info for Heinz Schaeffer
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
| 1. | U-977 | 13 Apr 1945 | Kiel | 20 Apr 1945 | Horten | 8 days | ||
| 2. | U-977 | 29 Apr 1945 | Horten | 30 Apr 1945 | Kristiansand | 2 days | ||
| 3. | U-977 | 2 May 1945 | Kristiansand | 17 Aug 1945 | Mar del Plata, Argentina | Patrol 1, | 108 days | |
Ships hit by Heinz Schaeffer
No entries found.
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.