Theodor Petersen

Oberleutnant zur See



No ships sunk or damaged.


Born  14 Jan 1914 Flensburg
Died  25 Mar 1999(85)


Ranks

1 Jan 1942 Leutnant zur See
1 Jan 1943 Oberleutnant zur See

Decorations

  Iron Cross 2nd Class
  Iron Cross 1st Class
12 Mar 1943 German Cross in Gold

U-boat Commands

U-boatFromTo
U-612 31 May 1943 20 Feb 1944   No war patrols 
U-874 8 Apr 1944 9 May 1945   No war patrols 

Theodor Petersen, possibly promoted to officer status during the war, did not belong to Crew 34. He may have been belatedly attached to the Crew for administrative purposes by the Navy’s personnel office, but he did not share the common training experience of the Crew’s regular members, nor did he participate in any Crew events such as reunions after the war (Rust, 2009).

Petersen served under Wolfgang Luth for some three years, which included U-181's first Southern oceans cruise. In late 1941 he was still a rating, albeit 3rd Watch Officer, on U-43. In October 1942 he was a Leutnant zur See, the rank shown on his 'Crossing the Equator' certificate reproduced in Jordan Vause's excellent book "U boat Ace, the story of Wolfgang Luth". He left U-181 in January 1943. Petersen was a major source of information for Vause's book and is quoted frequently in its text.

Sources

Rust, E. (2009) E-mail correspondence. Author of Naval Officers under Hitler.

Patrol info for Theodor Petersen

This commander did not go out on patrols with his boats.

Media links


German U-boat Commanders of World War II

Busch, Rainer and Röll, Hans-Joachim

Listing of all U-boat commanders


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