The Men - The Commander listing

Horst von Schroeter

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 37b)

Successes
6 ships sunk for a total of 31.557 GRT
1 warship sunk for a total of 683 tons
1 ship damaged for a total of 7.068 GRT

Born	10 Jun, 1919	Bieberstein, Saxony
Died	25 Jul, 2006	Bonn

Horst von Schroeter

Ranks

28 Jun, 1938	Seekadett
1 Apr, 1939	Fähnrich zur See
1 Mar, 1940	Oberfähnrich zur See
1 May, 1940	Leutnant zur See
1 Apr, 1942	Oberleutnant zur See
21 Dec, 1944	Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

25 Aug, 1941	Iron Cross 2nd Class
25 Aug, 1941	U-boat War Badge 1939
10 Feb, 1942	Iron Cross 1st Class
12 Dec, 1943	German Cross in Gold
1 Jun, 1944	Knights Cross
15 Mar, 1945	U-boat Front Clasp

U-boat Commands

U-123	1 Aug, 1942	-	17 Jun, 1944	4 patrols (343 days)
U-2506	31 Aug, 1944	-	8 May, 1945	No war patrols

Personal information

Horst von Schroeter began his naval career in October 1937. Later he spent five months on the battle cruiser Scharnhorst, including two patrols in the first months of the war. In May 1940 he joined the U-boat force. After six patrols as WO on U-123 he took over this famous boat from Reinhard Hardegen on 1 August, 1942 . He left the boat in June 1944 and two months later commissioned the Type XXI boat U-2506, which sailed to Bergen, Norway in the last days of the war, but never went on war patrol.

In 1956 he joined the Bundesmarine. From 1976 to 1979 he was the Commander of the NATO Naval forces in the Baltic Sea Approaches (COMNAVBALTAP). He retired in 1979 with a rank of Vizeadmiral, and as such was the highest ranking former U-boat officer in the Bundesmarine.

Patrol info

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-123	5 Dec, 1942	Kiel	6 Feb, 1943	Lorient	Patrol,	64 days
2.	U-123	13 Mar, 1943	Lorient	8 Jun, 1943	Lorient	Patrol,	88 days
3.	U-123	1 Aug, 1943	Lorient	5 Aug, 1943	Lorient		5 days
4.	U-123	16 Aug, 1943	Lorient	7 Nov, 1943	Lorient	Patrol,	84 days
5.	U-123	29 Dec, 1943	Lorient	30 Dec, 1943	Lorient		2 days
6.	U-123	9 Jan, 1944	Lorient	24 Apr, 1944	Lorient	Patrol,	107 days
					4 patrols, 343 days at sea

Ships hit by Horst von Schroeter

Date	Boat	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy	Fate *
29 Dec, 1942	U-123	Baron Cochrane	3.385		br	ONS-154
29 Dec, 1942	U-123	Empire Shackleton	7.068		br	ONS-154	damaged

8 Apr, 1943	U-123	Castillo Montealegre	3.972		sp
18 Apr, 1943	U-123	Empire Bruce	7.459		br
18 Apr, 1943	U-123	HMS P-615	683		br
29 Apr, 1943	U-123	Nanking	5.931		sw
5 May, 1943	U-123	Holmbury	4.566		br
9 May, 1943	U-123	Kanbe	6.244		br	TS-38
			39.308
* Unless otherwise noted the ships listed here were sunk.