The Men - The Commander listing

Peter-Erich Cremer

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 32)

Successes
6 ships sunk for a total of 26.873 GRT
1 ship damaged for a total of 8.327 GRT
1 warship damaged for a total of 925 tons

Born	25 Mar, 1911	Metz, Lorraine
Died	5 Jul, 1992	Hamburg

Peter Erich Cremer

Ranks

15 Aug, 1932	Offiziersanwärter
1 Jan, 1934	Fähnrich zur See
1 Sep, 1935	Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Jan, 1936	Leutnant zur See
1 Oct, 1937	Oberleutnant zur See
1 Feb, 1940	Kapitänleutnant
11 Jul, 1944	Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

11 Feb, 1940	Iron Cross 2nd Class
19 Oct, 1940	Destroyer War Badge
10 Feb, 1942	Iron Cross 1st Class
26 May, 1942	U-boat War Badge 1939
5 Jun, 1942	Knights Cross
11 Nov, 1942	Wounded Badge in Silver
27 Sep, 1944	U-boat Front Clasp

U-boat Commands

U-152	29 Jan, 1941	-	21 Jul, 1941	No war patrols
U-333	25 Aug, 1941	-	6 Oct, 1942	4 patrols (170 days)
U-333	18 May, 1943	-	19 Jul, 1944	5 patrols (211 days)
U-2519	15 Nov, 1944	-	Feb, 1945	No war patrols

Personal information

Korvettenkapitän 'Ali' Cremer

Peter Erich Cremer began his naval career in August 1932 after studying law for six semesters. This was four months later than the usual start date, due to an accident in June of that year in which the German sailing school ship Niobe sank after capsizing, killing most of the cadets (27 men) of Crew 1932. Some men from the Reichsmarine thus went on to replace this loss.

Cremer completed the one year of basic on-board training on the light cruiser Köln. After a few months on the armored cruiser Deutschland, Leutnant Cremer served for three years in the naval artillery. Then he became II WO on the destroyer Theodor Riedel. In August 1940 he transferred to the U-boat force.

In January 1941 Kptlt. Cremer commissioned U-152, a small coastal U-boat of type IID which only served as a school boat. A few months later he took command of the larger combat boat U-333. The boat's emblem, 3 little fishes, was chosen to go along with the boat's number. 'Ali' Cremer was one of those commanders who began their first patrol without any combat experience. Even so, he sank three ships on this first patrol - but unfortunately also sank the German blockade-runner Spreewald. Dönitz investigated the accident and found that Cremer was not to blame. During Cremer's next patrol in US waters he was also successful, sinking four ships, and managed to bring his boat badly damaged back to base after she had been rammed.

On his third patrol Cremer was seriously wounded by gunfire from the British corvette HMS Crocus. Seven crew members died and a replacement WO from the Milk Cow U-459 helped Cremer bring the once more heavily damaged U-333 back to base. After this patrol, Cremer got the nickname 'Ali Wrack' (Ali Wreck). But the crew members proudly said "Ali on board is the best life insurance!". Cremer spent three months in hospital recovering from his wounds.

Cremer
'Ali' Cremer and his LI Oblt. (Ing) Spangenberg on board U-333.

Kptlt. Cremer after patrol (on the cap the '3 little fishes')

From February to May 1943 he served on the staff of Dönitz, but after the great U-boat losses of May 1943 Dönitz sent some experienced commanders out on patrol to check out the new situation, among them Cremer. And so once again Cremer took U-333 out on patrol, and returned once again badly damaged after a serious depth charge attack in April 1944. In July 1944 he left the boat, which was lost on the next patrol.

Cremer then commissioned the new Type XXI Electro boat U-2519, and thus was one of the highly decorated U-boat commanders (like Schnee, Bülow, Emmermann, Witt and Topp), who took command of the new Electro U-boats in an attempt to turn the tide in the battle of the Atlantic.

Korvkpt. Cremer left U-2519 in February 1945. He now became commander of the Marine-Panzervernichtungsbataillon (Naval Tank Destroying Battalion) which fought on land against British tanks attempting to occupy the city of Hamburg.

On 25 April, 1945 the daily Wehrmachtsbericht announced:

Ein von Korvettenkapitän Cremer geführter Panzervernichtungstrupp der Kriegsmarine, zusammengestellt aus Freiwilligen eines Unterseeboot-Stützpunktes, vernichtete innnerhalb weniger Tage 24 Panzer.

(A navy tank destroying unit under command of Korvettenkapitän Cremer, including volunteers from a U-boat base, destroyed 24 tanks during the last few days.)

In the last days of the war Cremer became commander of Dönitz's guard unit and thus was involved in the tragic incident in which Kapitän z. See Wolfgang Lüth was shot to death by a German guard. After the surrender he spent one month in British captivity. After the war he was successful as a manager in several companies.

Patrol info

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-333	27 Dec, 1941	Kiel	9 Feb, 1942	La Pallice	Patrol,	45 days
2.	U-333	30 Mar, 1942	La Pallice	26 May, 1942	La Pallice	Patrol,	58 days
3.	U-333	11 Aug, 1942	La Pallice	24 Aug, 1942	La Pallice	Patrol,	14 days
4.	U-333	1 Sep, 1942	La Pallice	23 Oct, 1942	La Pallice	Patrol,	53 days
5.	U-333	2 Jun, 1943	La Pallice	31 Aug, 1943	La Pallice	Patrol,	91 days
6.	U-333	21 Oct, 1943	La Pallice	1 Dec, 1943	La Pallice	Patrol,	42 days
7.	U-333	10 Feb, 1944	La Pallice	12 Feb, 1944	La Pallice	Patrol,	3 days
8.	U-333	14 Feb, 1944	La Pallice	20 Apr, 1944	La Pallice	Patrol,	67 days
9.	U-333	6 Jun, 1944	La Pallice	13 Jun, 1944	Lorient	Patrol,	8 days
					9 patrols, 381 days at sea

Ships hit by Peter-Erich Cremer

Date	Boat	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy	Fate *
22 Jan, 1942	U-333	Vassilios A. Polemis	3.429		gr	ON-53
24 Jan, 1942	U-333	Ringstad	4.765		nw	ON-55
31 Jan, 1942	U-333	Spreewald	5.083		dt
6 May, 1942	U-333	Amazone	1.294		nl
6 May, 1942	U-333	Halsey	7.088		am
6 May, 1942	U-333	Java Arrow	8.327		am		damaged
10 May, 1942	U-333	Clan Skene	5.214		br
6 Oct, 1942	U-333	HMS Crocus (K 49)	925		br		damaged
			36.125
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk.