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Born	16 Sep 1910		Süderende, Tondem
Died	15 May 1984	(73)	Kiel

Kapitänleutnant Adolf Piening

Ranks 1 Apr 1930 Offiziersanwärter 9 Oct 1930 Seekadett 1 Jan 1932 Fähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1934 Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Oct 1934 Leutnant zur See 1 Jun 1936 Oberleutnant zur See 1 Apr 1939 Kapitänleutnant 1 Apr 1943 Korvettenkapitän Decorations 21 Nov 1939 Iron Cross 2nd Class 27 Jun 1940 Iron Cross 1st Class 13 Mar 1942 U-boat War Badge 1939 13 Aug 1942 Knights Cross

Adolf Piening began his navy career on the armored cruiser Deutschland, then spent a few years on torpedo boats and minesweepers before transferring in October 1940 to the U-boat arm. After the usual training he made one patrol on U-48 as Kommandantenschüler in June 1941. In August 1941 he took command of U-155. He was very successful with this boat and on 15 November, 1942 sank the British escort carrier HMS Avenger (13.875 tons).

In March 1944 he became the commander of the 7th Flotilla. On 30 April, 1945 he laid mines outside St. Nazaire with U-255. After the war he spent more than two years in Allied captivity. In 1956 the later Kapitän zur See Adolf Piening joined the Bundesmarine, serving for 13 years.

Piening is famous for the so-called Piening Route which he invented as a means to escape Allied aircraft in the Bay of Biscay.

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).
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

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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