The Men - The Commander listing

Horst Degen

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 33)

Successes
5 ships sunk for a total of 25.390 GRT
4 auxiliary warships sunk for a total of 1.666 GRT
4 ships damaged for a total of 37.093 GRT
1 warship damaged for a total of 1.190 tons

Born

19 Jul, 1913

Münster, Westphalia

Kptlt. Horst Degen

U-boat Commands

U-701

16 Jul, 1941

7 Jul, 1942

3 patrols (129 days)

Personal information

Horst Degen‘s fourth patrol with the U-701 from May to 7 July 1942, where he operated in American waters, was an exceptional one; sinking 4 ships (21.789 tons) and damaging 5 more (38.283 tons).

When his boat was sunk by 3 depth charges from an American Hudson aircraft off Cape Hatteras all but 7 men escaped to the surface in two 18-man groups, but although the attacking aircraft dropped 4 life-west and life-raft plus marked the site with a flare the 7 eventual survivors were not found until 49 hours later, 110 miles offshore. Nothing was found of the other group of 18 men. The photo of Degen was taken shortly after his rescue. He and his 6 men then went to POW camp.

Patrol info

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-701	27 Dec, 1941	Kiel	9 Feb, 1942	St. Nazaire	Patrol,	45 days
2.	U-701	26 Feb, 1942	St. Nazaire	1 Apr, 1942	Brest	Patrol,	35 days
3.	U-701	19 May, 1942	Brest	20 May, 1942	Lorient		2 days
4.	U-701	20 May, 1942	Lorient	7 Jul, 1942	Sunk	Patrol,	49 days
					3 patrols, 129 days at sea

Ships hit by Horst Degen

Date	Boat	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy	Fate *
6 Jan, 1942	U-701	Baron Erskine	3.657		br	SC-62
6 Mar, 1942	U-701	Rononia	213		br
7 Mar, 1942	U-701	Nyggjaberg	349		fa
8 Mar, 1942	U-701	HMS Notts County (FY 250)	541		br
11 Mar, 1942	U-701	HMS Stella Capella (FY 107)	507		br
15 Jun, 1942	U-701	Esso Augusta [Mine]	11.237		am	KN-109	damaged
15 Jun, 1942	U-701	HMS Kingston Ceylonite (FY 214) [Mine]	448		br	KN-109
15 Jun, 1942	U-701	Robert C. Tuttle [Mine]	11.615		am	KN-109	damaged
15 Jun, 1942	U-701	USS Bainbridge (DD 246) [Mine]	1.190		am	KN-109	damaged
17 Jun, 1942	U-701	Santore [Mine]	7.117		am	KS-511
19 Jun, 1942	U-701	USS YP-389	170		am
26 Jun, 1942	U-701	Tamesis	7.256		nw		damaged
27 Jun, 1942	U-701	British Freedom	6.985		br	KS-514	damaged
28 Jun, 1942	U-701	William Rockefeller	14.054		am
			65.339
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk. [Mine] indicates the vessel was hit by a mine.