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Born	21 Apr 1916		Pellworm
Died	23 Sep 1944	(28)	Indian Ocean, Strait of Malacca

Ranks 5 Apr 1935 Offiziersanwärter 1 Jul 1936 Fähnrich zur See 1 Jan 1938 Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1934 Leutnant zur See 1 Oct 1939 Oberleutnant zur See 1 Jul 1942 Kapitänleutnant Decorations   Iron Cross 2nd Class   Iron Cross 1st Class 19 Sep 1944 German Cross in Gold

Johann Jebsen joined the Kriegsmarine in 1935. After the usual training He served as the Second Watch officer (2WO) on the large Type IX boat U-39 (Gerhard Glattes) from Oct 1938 to July 1939. Then Jebsen served as the First Watch Officer (1WO) on the small "duck" U-20 (Kptlt. Karl-Heinz Moehle) until April 1940 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He went out on 11 patrols with the boat, spending 97 days at sea (Busch & Röll, 1997).

Jebsen went through the U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) for the type IXC boats before joining the U-123 (Kptlt. Karl-Heinz Moehle) as its First Watch Officer in May 1940 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He went out on 2 patrols with the boat, 48 days at sea. During these 2 patrols U-123 sank 11 ships for over 50,000 tons.

Jebsen went through U-boat Commander training with the 24th Flotilla from Jan 1941 to March when he began another U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) for a type VIIC boat (Busch & Röll, 1999).

On 10 April 1941 Oblt. Jebsen took command of the type VIIC boat U-565. He left for his first patrol on 8 July 1941 from Trondheim, Norway. On his third patrol he took the boat from Lorient, France through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean on 16 Nov 1941 then reaching his new base at La Spezia, Italy on 25 Dec 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1997). He left the boat on 17 May 1942 after 4 patrols, spending 176 days at sea. He sank one ship with his boat, the British light cruiser HMS Naiad (93) on 11 March 1942.

From April to Oct 1942 he served with the 25th flotilla, then as tactical instructor with AGRU from Oct 1942 to June 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

He went through another U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung), from June to July 1943, this time for the much larger type IXD2 boats, in preparation for taking command of the U-859 on 8 July 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

After working up the the Baltic he left for his first patrol with the new boat on 8 April 1944 from Marviken, Norway heading for the Indian Ocean (Busch & Röll, 1997). He sank 3 ships for almost 21,000 tons on his 169 day patrol before being sunk by a British submarine near Penang. There were 20 survivors but 47 men died, including commander Jebsen (Niestlé, 1998).

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.

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.

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