The Men - The Commander listing

Fritz-Julius Lemp

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 31)

Successes
19 ships sunk for a total of 96,314 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk for a total of 325 GRT
3 ships damaged for a total of 14,317 GRT
1 warship damaged for a total of 31,100 tons

Born	19 Feb 1913		Tsingtau, China
Died	9 May 1941	(28)	Northern Atlantic

Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp after receiving his Knights Cross.

Ranks

14 Oct 1931	Seekadett
1 Jan 1933	Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1935	Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1935	Leutnant zur See
1 Jan 1937	Oberleutnant zur See
1 Oct 1939	Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

27 Sep 1939	Iron Cross 2nd Class
18 Jan 1940	Iron Cross 1st Class
14 Aug 1940	Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-28	28 Oct 1938	Nov, 1938	No war patrols
U-30	Nov, 1938	Sep, 1940	8 patrols (189 days)
U-110	21 Nov 1940	9 May 1941 (+)	2 patrols (46 days)

Personal information

Kptlt. Fritz-Julius Lemp was the central figure of one of the most controversial incidents of the entire Battle of the Atlantic when, as commander of U-30, he spotted a large blacked-out ship zig-zagging at high speed on 3 September, 1939. Lemp took an educated guess that this vessel was an armed merchant cruiser (an AMC, a converted liner fitted with deck guns to protect merchants) as passenger liners were not supposed to be zig-zagging like this one did, and he managed to hit it with two torpedoes, sinking the ship. The vessel turned out to be the passenger liner Athenia; 112 of her passengers died in the sinking.

Lemp achieved great success with U-30, sinking 17 ships and damaging one. This was the first U-boat to make use of the French bases in July 1940, and on 14 August, 1940 Lemp, age 26, was the seventh U-boat commander to be awarded the Knights Cross.

After these successes, Lemp was disappointed with his first patrol on the new U-110. On his second patrol the boat was captured east of Cape Farewell in position 60N, 33W by the British HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway, and Lemp was killed in action.

Patrol info for Fritz-Julius Lemp

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-30	22 Aug 1939	Wilhelmshaven	27 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 1,	37 days
2.	U-30	9 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	14 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 2,	6 days
3.	U-30	23 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	17 Jan 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 3,	26 days
4.	U-30	11 Mar 1940	Wilhelmshaven	30 Mar 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 4,	20 days
5.	U-30	3 Apr 1940	Wilhelmshaven	4 May 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 5,	32 days
6.	U-30	8 Jun 1940	Wilhelmshaven	7 Jul 1940	Lorient	Patrol 6,	30 days
7.	U-30	13 Jul 1940	Lorient	24 Jul 1940	Lorient	Patrol 7,	12 days
8.	U-30	5 Aug 1940	Lorient	30 Aug 1940	Kiel	Patrol 8,	26 days
9.	U-110	9 Mar 1941	Kiel	29 Mar 1941	Lorient	Patrol 9,	21 days
10.	U-110	15 Apr 1941	Lorient	9 May 1941	Sunk	Patrol 10,	25 days
10 patrols, 235 days at sea

Ships hit by Fritz-Julius Lemp

Date	Boat	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy	Fate *
3 Sep, 1939	U-30	Athenia	13,581		br
11 Sep, 1939	U-30	Blairlogie	4,425		br
14 Sep, 1939	U-30	Fanad Head	5,200		br
28 Dec, 1939	U-30	HMS Barbara Robertson	325		br
28 Dec, 1939	U-30	HMS Barham (04)	31,100		br		damaged

11 Jan, 1940	U-30	El Oso [Mine]	7,267		br	HX-14B
16 Jan, 1940	U-30	Gracia [Mine]	5,642		br	OB-72	damaged
17 Jan, 1940	U-30	Cairnross [Mine]	5,494		br	OB-74
7 Feb, 1940	U-30	Munster [Mine]	4,305		br
9 Feb, 1940	U-30	Chagres [Mine]	5,406		br
8 Mar, 1940	U-30	Counsellor [Mine]	5,068		br	HX-22
20 Jun, 1940	U-30	Otterpool	4,876		br	HGF-34
22 Jun, 1940	U-30	Randsfjord	3,999		nw	HX-49
28 Jun, 1940	U-30	Llanarth	5,053		br
1 Jul, 1940	U-30	Beignon	5,218		br	SL-36
6 Jul, 1940	U-30	Angele Mabro	3,154		ag
21 Jul, 1940	U-30	Ellaroy	712		br
9 Aug, 1940	U-30	Canton	5,779		sw
16 Aug, 1940	U-30	Clan Macphee	6,628		br	OB-197

16 Mar, 1941	U-110	Erodona	6,207		br	HX-112	damaged
23 Mar, 1941	U-110	Siremalm	2,468		nw		damaged
27 Apr, 1941	U-110	Henri Mory	2,564		br
9 May, 1941	U-110	Bengore Head	2,609		br	OB-318
9 May, 1941	U-110	Esmond	4,976		br	OB-318
			142,056
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk. [Mine] indicates the vessel was hit by a mine.