Heinrich Bruns

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 31)

Successes
10 ships sunk, total tonnage 40,619 GRT

Born	3 Apr 1912		Castrop-Rauxel
Died	17 Apr 1943	(31)	North Atlantic

Ranks

1 Apr 1931		Offiziersanwärter
14 Oct 1931		Seekadett
1 Jan 1933		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1935		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1935		Leutnant zur See
1 Jan 1937		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Oct 1939		Kapitänleutnant
1 Apr 1943		Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

1940		Iron Cross 2nd Class
1940		Destroyer War Badge
Sep 1940		Wound Badge in Silver
18 Oct 1942		Iron Cross 1st Class
18 Oct 1942		U-boat War Badge 1939
7 Jan 1944		German Cross in Gold (posthumous)

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-175	5 Dec 1941	17 Apr 1943 (+)	3 patrols (158 days)

Heinrich A. B. Bruns joined the Navy in 1931. His officer training included deployments aboard the sail training ship (STS) Niobe and the light cruiser Karlsruhe. Prior to WW2 he had duty postings as watch officer on the torpedo boat Jaguar (DE equivalent) as well as cadet training officer aboard STS Albert Leo Schlageter and STS Horst Wessel.

At the start of the war he was a signals officer on the famous battle cruiser Scharnhorst and then moved on to the 1st torpedo boat flotilla where he took command of torpedo boat T 3 in January 1940. His boat was sunk, after escorting a German convoy in, by British bombers alongside the quay in Le Havre, France on 19 Sept, 1940. Bruns was severely wounded in this raid, requiring months of recovery and proper care. He then became a navigational officer on the training ship Schleswig Holstein before entering the U-boat service in March 1941.

After finishing U-boat commander training he was assigned as "Konfirmand" (Evaluation commander) to Ringelmann's U-75 where he went on one patrol where they sank 2 ships for roughly 10,000 tons. Heinrich Bruns was then assigned to oversee the final construction of the U-175 in Bremen, taking command of that boat on 5 Dec, 1941.

His first patrol on U-175 was outstanding as he sank 9 ships for roughly 33.000 tons during his 64-days at sea (all the ships were actually sunk during the last 30 days).

His boat was lost on its third patrol on 17 April, 1943 after only 7 days at sea. Heinrich Bruns and 12 of his men died but 41 men survived (Niestlé, 1998). The sinking of U-175 is often seen in books as many photographs exist of its loss.

Heinrich Bruns was married and had 2 children; a daughter and a son. His main passion in the navy lay in 2 things; sailing the big three-masted sail training vessels and driving destroyers. With no destroyer commands available in the Germany navy he volunteered for the U-boat service (info from his son).

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1998). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.

Patrol info for Heinrich Bruns

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-175	15 Aug 1942	Kiel	17 Oct 1942	Lorient	Patrol 1,	64 days
2.	U-175	1 Dec 1942	Lorient	24 Feb 1943	Lorient	Patrol 2,	86 days
3.	U-175	10 Apr 1943	Lorient	17 Apr 1943	Sunk	Patrol 3,	8 days
3 patrols, 158 days at sea

Ships hit by Heinrich Bruns

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
18 Sep 1942	U-175	Norfolk	1,901	ca
21 Sep 1942	U-175	Predsednik Kopajtic	1,798	yu
24 Sep 1942	U-175	West Chetac	5,627	am	TRIN-14
26 Sep 1942	U-175	Tambour	1,827	pa
28 Sep 1942	U-175	Alcoa Mariner	5,590	am
1 Oct 1942	U-175	Empire Tennyson	2,880	br
2 Oct 1942	U-175	Aneroid	5,074	pa
4 Oct 1942	U-175	Caribstar	2,592	am
5 Oct 1942	U-175	William A. McKenney	6,153	am

23 Jan 1943	U-175	Benjamin Smith	7,177	am
			40,619
10 ships sunk (40,619 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel.

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.