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Born	23 Oct 1914		Berlin
Died	25 Apr 1966	(51)	Bonn

Ranks 8 Apr 1934 Offiziersanwärter 1 Jul 1935 Fähnrich zur See 1 Jan 1937 Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1937 Leutnant zur See 1 Apr 1939 Oberleutnant zur See 1 Mar 1942 Kapitänleutnant Decorations Iron Cross 2nd Class Iron Cross 1st Class U-boat War Badge 1939

Günther Pfeffer joined the German Navy (Reichsmarine) in 1934. He served as the First Watch officer (1WO) on the U-67 from Jan to May 1941, before taking command of the boat for a month in the summer (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Pfeffer went through U-boat Commander training with the 24th Flotilla and 7th Flotilla and going through his U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) from July to Oct 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Günther Pfeffer commissioned the new type IXC boat U-171 at Bremen on 25 Oct 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He went out on 1 long patrol of 115 days to the Gulf of Mexico during the summer of 1942. On reaching base after his patrol the boat was sunk by mines on 9 Oct 1942 suffering 22 dead but with 30 survivors (Niestlé, 1998). He sank 3 ships for 17,641 tons in the Gulf of Mexico.

After another U-boat familiarization from Nov 1942 to Jan 1943 Pfeffer then commissioned another type IXC boat, the U-170, also at Bremen on 19 Jan 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He commanded the boat on 3 patrols of 270 days, sinking 1 ship of 4,663 tons.

In August 1944 Pfeffer became acting commander of the U-548, then stationed at besieged Lorient, France (Busch & Röll, 1999). He took the boat from Lorient on 11 Aug and arrived at Bergen, Norway on 25 sept 1944. Then he took the boat to Flensburg via short stop at Hölen arriving on 12 Oct (Busch & Röll, 1997).

The last months of the war Günther Pfeffer spent as a training leader at torpedo schools and other staff positions at Kiel (Busch & Röll, 1999).

After the war

Günther Pfeffer rejoined the Bundesmarine, post-war German navy, after the war and held the rank of Fregattenkapitän at the time of his death (Rust, 2009).

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

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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