Fritz Schneewind

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)


Successes
5 ships sunk, total tonnage 30,052 GRT
1 ship a total loss, total tonnage 6,993 GRT

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


Ranks

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

Decorations

 Iron Cross 2nd Class
 Iron Cross 1st Class
11 Jan 1945German Cross in Gold

U-boat Commands

U-boatFromTo
U-511 18 Dec 1942 20 Nov 1943   2 patrols (158 days) 
U-183 20 Nov 1943 23 Apr 1945  (+)  3 patrols (99 days) 

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.

Patrol info for Fritz Schneewind


 U-boat Departure Arrival  
1. U-511 31 Dec 1942  Lorient  8 Mar 1943  Lorient  Patrol 1,68 days
2. U-511 10 May 1943  Lorient  7 Aug 1943  Kure  Patrol 2,90 days
3. U-183 28 Jan 1944  Singapur  30 Jan 1944  Penang   3 days
4. U-183 10 Feb 1944  Penang  21 Mar 1944  Penang  Patrol 3,41 days
5. U-183 3 May 1944  Penang  5 May 1944  Penang  Patrol 4,3 days
6. U-183 17 May 1944  Penang  7 Jul 1944  Penang  Patrol 4,52 days
7. U-183 Aug 1944  Penang  Aug 1944  Singapur   
8. U-183 16 Oct 1944  Singapur  30 Oct 1944  Kobe   15 days
9. U-183 22 Feb 1945  Kobe  9 Mar 1945  Batavia   16 days
10. U-183 21 Apr 1945  Batavia  23 Apr 1945  Sunk  Patrol 5,3 days
5 patrols, 257 days at sea

Ships hit by Fritz Schneewind

Date U-boat Name of ship Tons Nat. Convoy
9 Jan 1943U-511 William Wilberforce5,004br
27 Jun 1943U-511 Sebastian Cermeno7,194am
9 Jul 1943U-511 Samuel Heintzelman7,176am
 
29 Feb 1944U-183 Palma5,419br
9 Mar 1944U-183 British Loyalty (t.)6,993br
5 Jun 1944U-183 Helen Moller5,259br
 37,045

6 ships sunk (37,045 tons).

Legend
We have a picture of this vessel.
(t.) means the ship was a total loss (included in ships & tonnage lost).


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.

Media links


German U-boat Commanders of World War II

Busch, Rainer and Röll, Hans-Joachim

Listing of all U-boat commanders