| Born | 18 Dec 1919 | Cologne | |
| Died | 23 Aug 1944 | (24) | Bay of Biscay |
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Ranks
Decorations |
U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-180 | 2 Apr 1944 | 23 Aug 1944 (+) | 1 patrol (4 days) |
Rolf Riesen joined the Kriegsmarine in 1938. He served as a Div. Officer and a Watch Officer on the heavy cruiser Lützow from March to Dec 1941. Until March 1942 he served with the destroyer and torpedo boat crew holding division (Busch & Röll, 1999).
He went through U-boat training from April to Sept 1942. In Sept 1942 he went through U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) training and then served as a Watch Officer on U-198 until Feb 1944 (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Rolf Riesen on the tower.
From Feb to April 1944 Riesen went through U-boat commander training with the 23rd training flotilla at Danzig. On 2 April 1944 he took command of the large boat U-180 (Busch & Röll, 1999). Unfortunately Riesen and his entire crew of 56 men was lost only 4 days into the first patrol when the boat went missing from 23 Aug 1944 in the Bay of Biscay west of Bordeaux, France (Niestlé, 1998).
Sources
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Patrol info for Rolf Riesen
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | U-180 | 20 Aug 1944 | Bordeaux | 23 Aug 1944 | Sunk | Patrol 1, | 4 days | |
About ranks and decorations
Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.
Media links
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