| Born | 14 May, 1916 | Saarbrücken |
| Died | 6 Apr, 1943 | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations |
U-boat Commands
| U-10 | 30 Nov, 1941 | - | 22 Jun, 1942 | No war patrols |
| U-632 | 23 Jul, 1942 | - | 6 Apr, 1943 (+) | 2 patrols (71 days) |
Personal information
On 18 March, 1943 Hans Karpf’s wife delivered a daughter (later named Inge) – two weeks later the boat was sunk near Iceland with all hands.
His daughter wondered about whether Karpf had known about this child before his death.
Starting in 1981 after contact from Inge archivist and author Timothy Mulligan of the US National Archives waded through loads of decoded messages sent to the boat and finally found the thrilling text “Hero daughter born on 18 March. Congratulations” sent by U-boat Control on 24 March. So for about 2 weeks Hans Karpf knew he was a father. (The Virginian-Pilot, Jan 7, 2007. Page A12)
The medals of Hans Karpf
Patrol info
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | |||||
| 1. | U-632 | 24 Dec, 1942 | Kiel | 26 Dec, 1942 | Marviken | 3 days | |
| 2. | U-632 | 29 Dec, 1942 | Marviken | 14 Feb, 1943 | Brest | Patrol, | 48 days |
| 3. | U-632 | 15 Mar, 1943 | Brest | 6 Apr, 1943 | Sunk | Patrol, | 23 days |
| 2 patrols, 71 days at sea | |||||||
Ships hit by Hans Karpf
| Date | Boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | Fate * | |
| 3 Feb, 1943 | U-632 | Cordelia | 8.190 |  | br | HX-224 | |
| 6 Apr, 1943 | U-632 | Blitar | 7.065 |  | nl | HX-231 | |
| 15.255 | |||||||
* 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.