The Men - The Commander listing

Heinrich Bruns

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 31)

Successes
10 ships sunk for a total of 40.619 GRT

Born	3 Apr, 1912	Castrop-Rauxel
Died	17 Apr, 1943	North Atlantic

Ranks

1 Apr, 1935	Leutnant zur See
1 Jan, 1937	Oberleutnant zur See
1 Oct, 1939	Kapitänleutnant
1 Apr, 1943	Korvettenkapitän

U-boat Commands

U-175

5 Dec, 1941

17 Apr, 1943 (+)

3 patrols (158 days)

Personal information

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. 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.

Patrol info

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

Ships hit by Heinrich Bruns

Date	Boat	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy	Fate *
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
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk.