| Born | 24 Sep, 1908 | Gera, Thüringen |
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Ranks
Decorations |
U-boat Commands
| U-3 | 30 Sep, 1937 | - | Jul, 1938 | No war patrols |
| U-51 | 6 Aug, 1938 | - | Aug, 1939 | No war patrols |
| U-53 | Aug, 1939 | - | 14 Jan, 1940 | 2 patrols (74 days) |
Personal information
Ernst-Günter Heinicke joined the navy in 1927. He took command of the small boat U-3 in Sept 1937 and left that boat in July 1938 before moving on to the larger Type VIIB boat U-51 in August 1938. He commanded U-51 for a year, switching to the U-53 in August 1938 just before the war started.
Heinicke took the U-53 on 2 patrols, 72 days at sea, and sank 2 ships for 14.018 tons before leaving the U-boat force for the merchant raider Widder in January 1940. The served on the raider for 13 months, leaving the ship in February 1941. From there on he served in several staff and training positions, focusing largely on torpedoes.
Near the end of the war in March 1945 he was assigned as Baubelehrung commander of the new type XXI boat U 2561, but the boat was never commissioned and Heinicke thus never took command of the boat which was broken up on the stocks after the war.
Heinicke was detained by the Allies after the German surrender but freed on 6 October 1945.
Patrol info
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | |||||
| 1. | U-53 | 29 Aug, 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 30 Sep, 1939 | Kiel | Patrol | 33 days |
| 2. | U-53 | 21 Oct, 1939 | Kiel | 30 Nov, 1939 | Kiel | Patrol | 41 days |
Ships hit by Ernst-Günter Heinicke
| Date | Boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | Fate * | |
| 15 Sep, 1939 | U-53 | Cheyenne | 8.825 |  | br | ||
| 17 Sep, 1939 | U-53 | Kafiristan | 5.193 | | br | ||
| 14.018 | |||||||
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk. | |||||||
Decorations and ranks information is in many cases not complete. If you can help on any of those missing that would be great.