Wilhelm Franken
Korvettenkapitän (Crew 35)
| Successes 3 ships sunk for a total of 11,347 GRT 1 warship sunk for a total of 1,540 tons 2 ships damaged for a total of 17,565 GRT |
| Born | 11 Sep 1914 | Schildesche, Bielefeld | |
| Died | 13 Jan 1945 | (30) | Kiel |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
| U-565 | 17 Mar 1942 | 7 Oct 1943 | 11 patrols (274 days) |
Personal information
Wilhelm Franken began his naval career in April 1935. He served as gunnery officer in the Danube flotilla and for a year on the battleship Scharnhorst. In October 1940 he transferred to the U-boat force. His first three patrols he served as IWO on U-331 under Kptlt. Tiesenhausen, where he took part in the sinking of HMS Barham.
He left the boat in January 1942 and in March took over U-565. On his sixth patrol, only operating in the Mediterranean, he sank the British destroyer HMS Partridge (1,540 tons).
Kptlt. Wilhelm Franken left the boat in October 1943 and became a staff member of the BdU org under Admiral Friedeburg. Unfortunately he was killed during a fire aboard the living-quarters ship Daressalam on 13 January, 1945 in Kiel, suffering the same fate as Korvkpt. Siegfried Lüdden.
Patrol info for Wilhelm Franken
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
| 1. | U-565 | 11 Apr 1942 | La Spezia | 30 Apr 1942 | Salamis | Patrol 1, | 20 days | |
| 2. | U-565 | 7 May 1942 | Salamis | 10 Jun 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol 2, | 35 days | |
| 3. | U-565 | 9 Jul 1942 | La Spezia | 4 Aug 1942 | Salamis | Patrol 3, | 27 days | |
| 4. | U-565 | 16 Aug 1942 | Salamis | 25 Aug 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol 4, | 10 days | |
| 5. | U-565 | 31 Aug 1942 | La Spezia | 4 Sep 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol 5, | 5 days | |
| 6. | U-565 | 25 Oct 1942 | La Spezia | 13 Nov 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol 6, | 20 days | |
| 7. | U-565 | 23 Nov 1942 | La Spezia | 1 Jan 1943 | La Spezia | Patrol 7, | 40 days | |
| 8. | U-565 | 14 Feb 1943 | La Spezia | 5 Mar 1943 | La Spezia | Patrol 8, | 20 days | |
| 9. | U-565 | 8 Apr 1943 | La Spezia | 12 May 1943 | La Spezia | Patrol 9, | 35 days | |
| 10. | U-565 | 17 Jun 1943 | La Spezia | 23 Jul 1943 | Toulon | Patrol 10, | 37 days | |
| 11. | U-565 | 7 Sep 1943 | Toulon | 1 Oct 1943 | Toulon | Patrol 11, | 25 days | |
| 11 patrols, 274 days at sea | ||||||||
Ships hit by Wilhelm Franken
| Date | Boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | Fate * | |
| 23 Apr, 1942 | U-565 | Kirkland | 1,361 |  | br | TA-36 | |
| 18 Dec, 1942 | U-565 | HMS Partridge (G 30) | 1,540 | | br | ||
| 24 Feb, 1943 | U-565 | Nathanael Greene | 7,176 |  | am | MKS-8 | damaged |
| 27 Feb, 1943 | U-565 | Seminole | 10,389 | | br | TE-16 | damaged |
| 20 Apr, 1943 | U-565 | Michigan | 5,594 | | am | UGS-7 | |
| 20 Apr, 1943 | U-565 | Sidi-Bel-Abbès | 4,392 |  | fr | UGS-7 | |
| 30,452 | |||||||
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk. | |||||||
Decorations and ranks information is in many cases not complete. If you can help on any of those missing that would be great.