Joachim Schepke

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 30)

Successes
36 ships sunk, total tonnage 153,677 GRT
4 ships damaged, total tonnage 17,229 GRT
1 ship a total loss, total tonnage 2,205 GRT

Born	8 Mar 1912		Flensburg
Died	17 Mar 1941	(29)	North Atlantic

Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke

Ranks

1 Apr 1930		Offiziersanwärter
10 Oct 1930		Seekadett
1 Jan 1932		Fähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1934		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1934		Leutnant zur See
1 Jun 1936		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Jun 1939		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

27 Feb 1940		Iron Cross 1st Class
24 Sep 1940		Knights Cross
1 Dec 1940		Knights Cross with Oak Leaves

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-3	29 Oct 1938	2 Jan 1940	3 patrols (24 days)
U-19	3 Jan 1940	30 Apr 1940	5 patrols (66 days)
U-100	30 May 1940	17 Mar 1941 (+)	6 patrols (112 days)

Kptlt. Schepke returning from a voyage

Joachim Schepke began his naval career in April 1930. He spent two years on the 'pocket battleship' Deutschland before, as Günther Prien also had, transferring to the U-boat force in October 1935. Later he spent 18 months as an instructor at the Torpedo School at Flensburg, but in 1938 he became commander of the training U-boat U-3. His time commanding U-3 saw him achieve his first successes, leaving her in January 1940.

He then took over command of U-19 (Müller-Arnecke) and sank nine ships with a total of 15,715 tons.

In May 1940 he commissioned the larger type VIIB U-boat U-100. On his first patrol from Kiel to Lorient in August 1940, he sank six ships with a total of 25,812 tons and damaged one more.

But it wasn't until her second patrol during September 1940 that Kapitänleutnant Schepke became famous as commander of U-100. In only two days he sank seven ships with a total of 50,340 tons. Two days later he received the Knights Cross.

Kptlt. Schepke meeting the public

Kptlt. Schepke in Berlin 6 weeks before his death

23 November 1940 was another memorable day, on which Schepke sank seven ships totaling 24,601 tons. One week later he was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knights Cross.

In 1940 he published a book, U-Boot Fahrer von heute (U-boat men of today), describing life on a U-boat in simple terms. This book is illustrated with his own paintings.

Schepke was nicknamed Ihrer Majestät bestaussehender Offizier (Her Majesty's best-looking officer. The expression Ihrer Majestät is used to indicate the country's leader, and is not referring to royalty in this case!).

At the Berlin Sportpalast in February 1941 he spoke to an audience of thousands of young Germans about the U-boat war.

Joachim Schepke died when U-100 was sunk at 0318hrs on 17 March 1941 SE of Iceland in approximate position 61N, 12W, after being rammed and depth charged by the British destroyers HMS Walker and HMS Vanoc (Niestlé, 1998). Vanoc located U-100 with her early radar in heavy fog and chased the contact. Schepke is said to have been caught on the bridge when the boat was rammed. Six men survived and 38 were lost.

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.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

Patrol info for Joachim Schepke

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-3	4 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	8 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 1,	5 days
2.	U-3	13 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	24 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 2,	12 days
3.	U-3	27 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	3 Oct 1939	Kiel	Patrol 3,	7 days
4.	U-19	4 Jan 1940	Kiel	12 Jan 1940	Kiel	Patrol 4,	9 days
5.	U-19	18 Jan 1940	Kiel	28 Jan 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 5,	11 days
6.	U-19	12 Feb 1940	Wilhelmshaven	26 Feb 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 6,	15 days
7.	U-19	14 Mar 1940	Wilhelmshaven	23 Mar 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 7,	10 days
8.	U-19	3 Apr 1940	Wilhelmshaven	23 Apr 1940	Kiel	Patrol 8,	21 days
9.	U-100	9 Aug 1940	Kiel	1 Sep 1940	Lorient	Patrol 9,	24 days
10.	U-100	11 Sep 1940	Lorient	25 Sep 1940	Lorient	Patrol 10,	15 days
11.	U-100	12 Oct 1940	Lorient	23 Oct 1940	Lorient	Patrol 11,	12 days
12.	U-100	7 Nov 1940	Lorient	27 Nov 1940	Lorient	Patrol 12,	21 days
13.	U-100	2 Dec 1940	Lorient	1 Jan 1941	Kiel	Patrol 13,	31 days
14.	U-100	9 Mar 1941	Kiel	17 Mar 1941	Sunk	Patrol 14,	9 days
14 patrols, 202 days at sea

Ships hit by Joachim Schepke

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
30 Sep 1939	U-3	Vendia	1,150	da
30 Sep 1939	U-3	Gun	1,198	sw

9 Jan 1940	U-19	Manx	1,343	nw
23 Jan 1940	U-19	Pluto	1,598	nw
23 Jan 1940	U-19	Baltanglia	1,523	br
25 Jan 1940	U-19	Everene	4,434	le
25 Jan 1940	U-19	Gudveig	1,300	nw
19 Mar 1940	U-19	Minsk	1,229	da
19 Mar 1940	U-19	Charkow	1,026	da
20 Mar 1940	U-19	Viking	1,153	da
20 Mar 1940	U-19	Bothal	2,109	da
16 Aug 1940	U-100	Empire Merchant	4,864	br
25 Aug 1940	U-100	Jamaica Pioneer	5,471	br
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Dalblair	4,608	br	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Hartismere (d.)	5,498	br	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Astra II	2,393	br	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Alida Gorthon	2,373	sw	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Empire Moose	6,103	br	OA-204
21 Sep 1940	U-100	Canonesa	8,286	br	HX-72
21 Sep 1940	U-100	Torinia	10,364	br	HX-72
21 Sep 1940	U-100	Dalcairn	4,608	br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Empire Airman	6,586	br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Scholar	3,940	br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Frederick S. Fales	10,525	br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Simla	6,031	nw	HX-72
18 Oct 1940	U-100	Shekatika (d.)	5,458	br	SC-7
18 Oct 1940	U-100	Boekelo (d.)	2,118	nl	SC-7
19 Oct 1940	U-100	Blairspey (d.)	4,155	br	SC-7
20 Oct 1940	U-100	Caprella	8,230	br	HX-79
20 Oct 1940	U-100	Sitala	6,218	br	HX-79
20 Oct 1940	U-100	Loch Lomond	5,452	br	HX-79
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Justitia	4,562	br	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Bradfyne	4,740	br	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Ootmarsum	3,628	nl	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Bruse (t.)	2,205	nw	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Salonica	2,694	nw	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Leise Mærsk	3,136	br	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Bussum	3,636	nl	SC-11
14 Dec 1940	U-100	Kyleglen	3,670	br	OB-256
14 Dec 1940	U-100	Euphorbia	3,380	br	OB-256
18 Dec 1940	U-100	Napier Star	10,116	br
			173,111
37 ships sunk (155,882 tons) and 4 ships damaged (17,229 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. (d.) means the ship was damaged. (t.) means the ship was a total loss (included in ships & tonnage lost).

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.