| Born | 18 Dec, 1917 | Berlin |
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Ranks
Decorations |
Personal information
From the beginning of the war until July 1942, Helmut Schmoeckel served on the cruiser Admiral Hipper. After the U-boat training and a few months as I WO he became commander of U-802 in December 1943. He operated mostly in the North Atlantic and in Canadian waters. He surrendered his U-boat on 11 May, 1945 in Loch Eriboll.
After the war Helmut Schmoeckel wrote the book Menschlichkeit im Seekrieg (Humanity in the Naval War), in which he described instances of German naval crews giving aid to shipwrecked Allies.
You can listen to Mr. Schmoeckel speaking of his experiences here.
Patrol info
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | |||||
| 1. | U-802 | 29 Jan, 1944 | Kiel | 2 May, 1944 | Lorient | Patrol, | 95 days |
| 2. | U-802 | 22 Jun, 1944 | Lorient | 9 Jul, 1944 | Lorient | Patrol, | 18 days |
| 3. | U-802 | 16 Jul, 1944 | Lorient | 12 Nov, 1944 | Bergen | Patrol, | 120 days |
| 4. | U-802 | 13 Nov, 1944 | Bergen | 20 Nov, 1944 | Horten | 8 days | |
| 5. | U-802 | 21 Nov, 1944 | Horten | 23 Nov, 1944 | Flensburg | 3 days | |
| 6. | U-802 | 8 Apr, 1945 | Kiel | 12 Apr, 1945 | Horten | 5 days | |
| 7. | U-802 | 22 Apr, 1945 | Horten | 23 Apr, 1945 | Kristiansand | 2 days | |
| 8. | U-802 | 28 Apr, 1945 | Kristiansand | 11 May, 1945 | Loch Eriboll, UK | Patrol, | 14 days |
| 4 patrols, 247 days at sea | |||||||
Ships hit by Helmut Schmoeckel
| Date | Boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | Fate * | |
| 22 Mar, 1944 | U-802 | Watuka | 1.621 |  | ca | SH-125 | |
| 1.621 | |||||||
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk. | |||||||
Books dealing with this subject include: Menschlichkeit im Seekrieg, Schmoeckel, Helmut, 1988 |
Decorations and ranks information is in many cases not complete. If you can help on any of those missing that would be great.