Heinrich-Andreas Schroeteler

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)

Successes
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 335 tons
1 ship damaged, total tonnage 7,345 GRT

Born	10 Dec 1915		Essen-Katernberg
Died	19 Jan 2000	(84)	Bochum, Germany

Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Schroeteler

Ranks

3 Apr 1936		Offiziersanwärter
10 Sep 1936		Seekadett
1 May 1937		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1938		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1938		Leutnant zur See
1 Oct 1940		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Apr 1943		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

24 Oct 1940		Iron Cross 2nd Class
14 Apr 1941		Iron Cross 1st Class
6 Jul 1942		U-boat War Badge 1939
7 Oct 1944		U-boat Front Clasp
10 Nov 1944		German Cross in Gold
2 May 1945		Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-667	21 Oct 1942	May, 1944	4 patrols (218 days)
U-1023	10 Mar 1945	10 May 1945	1 patrol (47 days)

Heinrich Schroeteler after patrol

Heinrich Schroeteler joined the Kriegsmarine in April 1936, and was part of the Olympia Crew. In September 1939 he began two years of service on minesweepers.

In September 1941 he transferred to the U-boat force and went on one patrol on U-96 as Kommandantenschüler (Commander-in-training). In October 1942 he commissioned U-667 and commanded her until May 1944 when he left to join the staff member of BdU op, where in July 1944 he replaced 'Adi' Schnee.

In January 1945 he served as training officer in the 27th (Training) Flotilla for a month before taking command of the type VIIC U-boat U-1023 in February 1945.

In the last days of the war Heinrich Schroeteler damaged a British tanker of 7,345 tons and on the evening of 7 May 1945, one day before Germany's surrender, sank the Norwegian minesweeper NYMS 382 (Rohwer, 1998). Three days later Schroeteler surrendered U-1023 at Weymouth (Niestlé, 1998). He then spent three years as a POW in Britain.

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 Heinrich-Andreas Schroeteler

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-667	20 May 1943	Kiel	26 Jul 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 1,	68 days
2.	U-667	14 Sep 1943	St. Nazaire	16 Sep 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 2,	3 days
3.	U-667	18 Sep 1943	St. Nazaire	11 Oct 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 2,	24 days
4.	U-667	18 Nov 1943	St. Nazaire	6 Jan 1944	St. Nazaire	Patrol 3,	50 days
5.	U-667	8 Mar 1944	St. Nazaire	19 May 1944	St. Nazaire	Patrol 4,	73 days
6.	U-1023	25 Mar 1945	Bergen	10 May 1945	Weymouth, UK	Patrol 5,	47 days
5 patrols, 265 days at sea

Ships hit by Heinrich-Andreas Schroeteler

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
23 Apr 1945	U-1023	Riverton (d.)	7,345	br	TBC-135
7 May 1945	U-1023	HNoMS NYMS-382	335	nw
			7,680
1 ship sunk (335 tons) and 1 ship damaged (7,345 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. (d.) means the ship was damaged.

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.