Hans-Hartwig Trojer

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)

Successes
11 ships sunk, total tonnage 69,589 GRT
10 warships sunk, total tonnage 759 tons (lost aboard transport ships)
1 ship damaged, total tonnage 7,197 GRT

Born	22 Jan 1916		Birthälm, Siebenbürgen (now Biertan, Sibiu), Romania
Died	27 Sep 1943	(27)	North Atlantic

Hans-Hartwig Trojer

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

12 Nov 1939		U-boat War Badge 1939
7 Feb 1940		Iron Cross 2nd Class
5 Aug 1940		Iron Cross 1st Class
24 Mar 1943		Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-3	3 Jul 1941	2 Mar 1942	No war patrols
U-221	9 May 1942	27 Sep 1943 (+)	5 patrols (199 days)

Hans Trojer after joining the Kriegsmarine

Hans-Hartwig Trojer joined the Kriegsmarine in 1936, and was part of the Olympia Crew. Because he was born in Transylvania, he was soon nicknamed Count Dracula by his comrades.

In October 1938 he joined the U-boat force, and he spent the first two years of the war as Watch Officer on U-34 and U-67.

After completing commander training, Trojer took over command of the school boat U-3. In March 1942 he commissioned the combat boat U-221.

His first patrol in the North Atlantic was so successful (six ships totalling 29,682 tons), that he and his crew were mentioned in the daily Wehrmachtsbericht (Armed Forces bulletin). He was awarded the Knights Cross via radio during his third patrol in March 1943.

On 8 Dec 1942 Trojer's boat accidentally rammed U-254 while the boats were on convoy operations in the North Atlantic. U-254 went down immediately with all but four of her crew (41 dead, including the Commander). U-221 herself was seriously damaged and unable to dive. Trojer abandoned the patrol and made for St. Nazaire, France, reaching base on 23 Dec. He was later absolved of any blame for the accident (Blair, 1998).

Kapitänleutant Trojer died with his entire crew on 27 September 1943 when a British Halifax sank U-221 in the Atlantic south of Ireland (Niestlé, 1998).

Sources

Blair, C. (1998). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunted, 1942-1945.
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 Hans-Hartwig Trojer

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-221	1 Sep 1942	Kiel	2 Sep 1942	Kristiansand		2 days
2.	U-221	3 Sep 1942	Kristiansand	22 Oct 1942	St. Nazaire	Patrol 1,	50 days
3.	U-221	23 Nov 1942	St. Nazaire	23 Dec 1942	St. Nazaire	Patrol 2,	31 days
4.	U-221	27 Feb 1943	St. Nazaire	28 Mar 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 3,	30 days
5.	U-221	3 May 1943	St. Nazaire	21 Jul 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 4,	80 days
6.	U-221	20 Sep 1943	St. Nazaire	27 Sep 1943	Sunk	Patrol 5,	8 days
5 patrols, 199 days at sea

Ships hit by Hans-Hartwig Trojer

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
13 Oct 1942	U-221	Fagersten	2,342	nw	SC-104
13 Oct 1942	U-221	Ashworth	5,227	br	SC-104
13 Oct 1942	U-221	Senta	3,785	nw	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	Susana	5,929	am	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-508 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-509 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-519 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-522 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-523 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-532 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-537 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-547 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCM-620 [Trans.]	52	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	HMS LCT-2006 [Trans.]	291	br	SC-104
14 Oct 1942	U-221	Southern Empress	12,398	br	SC-104

7 Mar 1943	U-221	Jamaica	3,015	nw
10 Mar 1943	U-221	Tucurinca	5,412	br	HX-228
10 Mar 1943	U-221	Andrea F. Luckenbach	6,565	am	HX-228
10 Mar 1943	U-221	Lawton B. Evans (d.)	7,197	am	HX-228
18 Mar 1943	U-221	Walter Q. Gresham	7,191	am	HX-229
18 Mar 1943	U-221	Canadian Star	8,293	br	HX-229
12 May 1943	U-221	Sandanger	9,432	nw	HX-237
			77,545
21 ships sunk (70,348 tons) and 1 ship damaged (7,197 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. (d.) means the ship was damaged. [Trans.] indicates the vessel was lost while being transported on another vessel.

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.