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Born	10 Apr 1917		Padang, Sumatra
Died	23 Apr 1945	(28)	Java Sea

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 Mar 1943 Kapitänleutnant Decorations   Iron Cross 2nd Class   Iron Cross 1st Class 11 Jan 1945 German Cross in Gold

Fritz Schneewind joined the Kriegsmarine in 1936. He was a Group Officer at the Naval College at Flensburg from Oct 1939 to Aug 1940. During this time he also served on the sailing ship Leo Schlageter from March to June 1940. From Aug to Oct 1940 Schneewind served at the Kriegsmarine Depot at Boulogne (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Oblt. Fritz Schneewind went through U-boat training from Oct 1940 to March 1941. He then served as a Watch Officer (WO) with the 1st and 3rd Flotillas until Sept 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

From Sept 1941 to Nov 1942 Schneewind served on the successful type IXC boat U-506 (Kptlt. Erich Würdemann) (Busch & Röll, 1999). On this boat he went out on 3 patrols, spending 191 days at sea, taking part in sinking 12 ships, damaging 3 more and destroying one more. They operated on those patrols in the North Atlantic, the US east coast and off West Africa respectively.

Commander training and patrol to Japan

Schneewind went through U-boat Commander training with the 24th Flotilla from Nov to Dec 1942. On 18 Dec 1942 Schneewind took command of the U-511 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He commanded the boat on two patrols; the first was in the mid Atlantic (68 days) and for the second he was ordered to take the boat to the Indian Ocean and then deliver the boat to Japan (Busch & Röll, 1997). U-511 arrived at Kure, Japan on 7 Aug 1943 having sunk 2 ships enroute.

On 20 Nov 1943 Kptlt. Fritz Schneewind took command of the U-183 at Singapore (Busch & Röll, 1999). The boat operated in the Indian Ocean as part of the Monsun group. Schneewind successfully completed 4 patrols with the boat (Busch & Röll, 1997). During these patrols he sank or destroyed 3 ships for almost 18,000 tons (Rohwer, 1998).

On the 5th patrol the boat was ambushed by the American submarine USS Besugo in the Java Sea and sunk leaving only 1 survivor from a crew of 55 men (Niestlé, 1998). Kptlt. Fritz Schneewind went down with the boat.

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

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.

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