Hans Benker
Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)
| Successes 3 ships sunk for a total of 18,751 GRT 2 auxiliary warships sunk for a total of 1,129 GRT |
| Born | 21 Feb 1917 | Bochum | |
| Died | 2 Jan 1944 | (26) | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
| U-80 | 6 Oct 1941 | 4 May 1942 | No war patrols |
| U-625 | 4 Jun 1942 | 2 Jan 1944 (+) | 9 patrols (224 days, * died during this patrol) |
Personal information
On Jan 2, 1944 the boat was attacked by two British B-24 Liberators from Sqdn 224. Benker managed to drive the first aircraft off but ordered dive when the second bomber threatened the boat.
During the dive the Naxos wire running into the tower prevented a safe seal Benker thought and cancelled the dive and went up with another man to clear the wire and secure the boat. Sadly the order to cancel the dive was not recognised and the boat continued the dive causing Benker and the other man to drown. (Blair, Clay. 1998. Hitler's U-boat War, vol 2, page 484).
Patrol info for Hans Benker
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
| 1. | U-625 | 1 Oct 1942 | Kiel | 8 Oct 1942 | Skjomenfjord | 8 days | ||
| 2. | U-625 | 4 Nov 1942 | Skjomenfjord | 29 Nov 1942 | Narvik | Patrol 1, | 26 days | |
| 3. | U-625 | 30 Nov 1942 | Narvik | 2 Dec 1942 | Bergen | 3 days | ||
| 4. | U-625 | 23 Dec 1942 | Bergen | 25 Dec 1942 | Narvik | 3 days | ||
| 5. | U-625 | 30 Dec 1942 | Narvik | 6 Feb 1943 | Narvik | Patrol 2, | 39 days | |
| 6. | U-625 | 7 Feb 1943 | Narvik | 11 Feb 1943 | Bergen | 5 days | ||
| 7. | U-625 | 17 Mar 1943 | Bergen | 16 Apr 1943 | Hammerfest | Patrol 3, | 31 days | |
| 8. | U-625 | 26 Apr 1943 | Hammerfest | 31 May 1943 | Narvik | Patrol 4, | 36 days | |
| 9. | U-625 | 10 Jun 1943 | Narvik | 11 Jun 1943 | Hammerfest | 2 days | ||
| 10. | U-625 | 21 Jun 1943 | Hammerfest | 28 Jun 1943 | Narvik | Patrol 5, | 8 days | |
| 11. | U-625 | 29 Jun 1943 | Narvik | 30 Jun 1943 | Trondheim | 2 days | ||
| 12. | U-625 | 12 Jul 1943 | Trondheim | 27 Jul 1943 | Narvik | Patrol 6, | 16 days | |
| 13. | U-625 | 4 Aug 1943 | Narvik | 5 Aug 1943 | Tromsö | 2 days | ||
| 14. | U-625 | 5 Aug 1943 | Tromsö | 6 Aug 1943 | Hammerfest | 2 days | ||
| 15. | U-625 | 7 Aug 1943 | Hammerfest | 20 Aug 1943 | Narvik | Patrol 7, | 14 days | |
| 16. | U-625 | 21 Aug 1943 | Narvik | 23 Aug 1943 | Trondheim | 3 days | ||
| 17. | U-625 | 4 Nov 1943 | Trondheim | 8 Nov 1943 | Trondheim | Patrol 8, | 5 days | |
| 18. | U-625 | 15 Nov 1943 | Trondheim | 6 Jan 1944 | Brest | Patrol 9, | 49 days | * |
| 9 patrols, 224 days at sea * Hans Benker died during this patrol on 2 Jan 1944 | ||||||||
Ships hit by Hans Benker
| Date | U-boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Nov 1942 | U-625 |  | Chulmleigh | 5,445 |  | br | |
| 6 Nov 1942 | U-625 | Empire Sky | 7,455 | | br | ||
| 23 Nov 1942 | U-625 | | Goolistan | 5,851 | | br | QP-15 |
| 25 Jul 1943 | U-625 | T-904 (No 58) [Mine] | 557 |  | sj | ||
| 25 Aug 1943 | U-625 | ASO-1 Shkval [Mine] | 572 | | sj | ||
| 19,880 | |||||||
5 ships sunk (19,880 tons). Legend | |||||||
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.