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Born	23 Nov 1912		Kiel
Died	6 Jul 1942	(29)	Bay of Biscay

Kptlt. Jürgen von Rosenstiel

Ranks 1 Apr 1933   Offiziersanwärter 1 Jul 1934   Fähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1936   Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Oct 1936   Leutnant zur See 1 Jun 1938   Oberleutnant zur See 1 Apr 1941   Kapitänleutnant Decorations 6 Jun 1939   Spanish Cross in Silver without Swords 5 Nov 1940   Iron Cross 2nd Class 22 Jan 1941   U-boat War Badge 1939 17 Mar 1942   Iron Cross 1st Class

Jürgen von Rosenstiel joined the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1933 as part of Crew 33. During his training spent time on the sailing school ship Gorch Fock and the cruiser Karlsruhe (239 day world trip in 1933 and 55 days in Spanish waters 1936-1937). Lastly he sailed on the school ship Schlesien from Oct 1938 to March 1939 (126 days) (WASt).

He then joined the Schlesien crew, serving as radio technical officer and as a Watch Officer from July 1939 to March 1940, when he transferred to the U-boat force (Busch and Röll, 1999).

From April to August 1940 Rosenstiel went through U-boat training, and then joined the 2nd Flotilla as a supernumerary Watch Officer until Sept 1940 (Busch and Röll, 1999).

He was 2nd Watch Officer (II WO) on U-38 from Sep to Nov 1940, and then I WO until Feb 1941, when he commenced U-boat Commander training with the 24th (Training) Flotilla, and then with the 22nd (Training) Flotilla (WASt).

In preparation for taking command of a new boat Rosenstiel went through U-boat construction familiarization (Baubelehrung) at Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg from 17 April 1941 (WASt).

On 31 May 1941 Kptlt. Jürgen von Rosenstiel commissioned the type IXC U-boat U-502 at Hamburg (Busch and Röll, 1999). He spent the next four months in the Baltic training his crew and preparing the boat for combat. On 29 Sept 1941 he took the boat out on the first of four war patrols (Busch and Röll, 1997).

He enjoyed significant success, sinking 14 ships totalling 78,843 tons and damaging two more of 23,797 GRT. His greatest success was in the Caribbean, and he sank the greatest tonnage on the fourth patrol, but on returning from that patrol, U-502 was herself sunk, by an RAF Wellington bomber in the Bay of Biscay. U-158 was the first U-boat sunk in a Leigh Light attack, and the first U-boat sunk by a Wellington. There were no survivors (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.
WASt (2011). Career information on Jürgen von Rosenstiel.

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.

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