| Born | 28 Apr 1918 | Göttingen | |
| Died | 16 Dec 1999 | (81) |
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Ranks
Decorations |
U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-974 | 22 Apr 1943 | 8 Nov 1943 | No war patrols |
Joachim Zaubitzer joined the Kriegsmarine in 1937. He served as No 2 Torpedo Officer on the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer from April to Sept 1941. From Sept 1941 to March 1942 he went through U-boat training (Busch & Röll, 1999).
From March 1942 to Feb 1943 Zaubitzer was the First Watch Officer (1WO) on the very successful U-129 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He served with one of the most successful U-boat Commanders, KrvKpt. Hans-Ludwig Witt. During Zaubitzer's service on the boat they went on 2 very long patrols, 195 days in total, to the Caribbean and South America. They sank 16 ships (74,183 GRT) on these patrols (Rohwer, 1998).
First U-boat command
With this valuable experience Zaubitzer began U-boat Commander training with the 24th Flotilla in Feb 1943 and then an U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) to prepare him for his own command of a new boat. On 22 April 1943 Oblt. Joachim Zaubitzer commissioned the new type VIIC boat U-974 at Hamburg (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Zaubitzer spent the summer of 1943 training and getting his boat ready for combat. He never went out on war patrol and handed over command to Oblt. Heinz Wolff on 8 Nov 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1999). U-974 would be sunk by the Norwegian submarine HNoMS Ula on 19 April 1944, leaving 8 survivors from a crew of 50 (Niestlé, 1998).
Kptlt. Joachim Zaubitzer served with the Torpedo School Flensburg-Mürwik as Training Leader from Nov 1943 until the end of the war (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Sources
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat
commanders of World War II.
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World
War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine
Successes of World War Two.
Ships hit by Joachim Zaubitzer
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.
Media links
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