Engelbert Endrass

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 34)

Successes
19 ships sunk, total tonnage 81,164 GRT
2 auxiliary warships sunk, total tonnage 35,284 GRT
4 ships damaged, total tonnage 25,491 GRT
1 ship a total loss, total tonnage 2,080 GRT

Born	2 Mar 1911		Bamberg
Died	21 Dec 1941	(30)	Northeast of Azores

Engelbert Endraß

Ranks

8 Apr 1934		Offiziersanwärter
1 Jul 1935		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1937		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1937		Leutnant zur See
20 Apr 1939		Oberleutnant zur See
1 May 1941		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

6 Jun 1939		Spanish Cross in Bronze without Swords
25 Sep 1939		Iron Cross 2nd Class
17 Oct 1939		Iron Cross 1st Class
19 Dec 1939		U-boat War Badge 1939
5 Sep 1940		Knights Cross
10 Jun 1941		Knights Cross with Oak Leaves
18 Jul 1941		U-boat War Badge with Diamonds
1 Nov 1941		Italienisches Kriegsverdienstkreuz mit Schwertern "Croce di Guerra al Valore Militare"

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-46	22 May 1940	24 Sep 1941	8 patrols (195 days)
U-567	15 Oct 1941	21 Dec 1941 (+)	2 patrols (37 days)

Oblt. Engelbert Endraß on board

Engelbert Endraß began his naval career in April 1935. Like Prien and Metzler, he had previously spent some years in the merchant navy.

After some months serving on the pocket battleship Deutschland and some escort vessels, he was assigned to the U-boat force in October 1937. He joined U-47 in December 1938 as Leutnant z. See. Endraß was 1WO when Günther Prien made his famous Scapa Flow attack and sank HMS Royal Oak.

It was Endraß who painted the famous snorting bull emblem on U-47's conning tower before they returned.

He stayed on U-47 until December 1939, and after some training courses took command of U-46, another type VIIB U-boat, from her luckless commander Herbert Sohler in May 1940.

His first patrol with U-46 was very successful. Endraß sank five ships with a total of 35,347 tons, including the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Carinthia of 20,277 tons. Although hampered by a damaged main (attack) periscope, he repeated that success on his second patrol: he sank five ships, in total 27,038 tons, including another British auxiliary cruiser, the Dunvegan Castle of 15,007 tons. After returning from this patrol Endraß was awarded the Knights Cross. After the seventh patrol, the Oak Leaves were added. In September 1941 he left U-46 and a month later took over the type VIIC U-boat U-567.

Engelbert Endraß (left) greets his closest friend Erich Topp, returning from patrol in May 1941.

Endraß was killed on 21 December 1941, when U-567 was sunk with all hands (47 men) by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Deptford and the British corvette HMS Samphire NE of the Azores at 44.02N, 20.10W (Niestlé, 1998).

Three months later on 31 March 1942 the daily Wehrmachtsbericht announced:

Das Unterseeboot unter Führung von Kapitänleutnant Endraß, Träger des Eichen laubes zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, ist von Feindfahrt nicht zurück gekehrt. Ein hervorragender Unterseebootkommandant ist mit seiner tapferen Besatzung vor dem Feind geblieben.

(The U-boat under the command of Kapitänleutnant Endraß, recipient of the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, has not returned from patrol. An outstanding U-boat commander is on eternal patrol with his brave crew.)

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1998). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

Patrol info for Engelbert Endrass

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-46	1 Jun 1940	Kiel	1 Jul 1940	Kiel	Patrol 1,	31 days
2.	U-46	1 Aug 1940	Kiel	4 Aug 1940	Bergen		4 days
3.	U-46	8 Aug 1940	Bergen	6 Sep 1940	Lorient	Patrol 2,	30 days
4.	U-46	20 Sep 1940	Lorient	21 Sep 1940	St. Nazaire		2 days
5.	U-46	23 Sep 1940	St. Nazaire	29 Sep 1940	St. Nazaire	Patrol 3,	7 days
6.	U-46	13 Oct 1940	St. Nazaire	29 Oct 1940	Kiel	Patrol 4,	17 days
7.	U-46	12 Feb 1941	Kiel	4 Mar 1941	St. Nazaire	Patrol 5,	21 days
8.	U-46	15 Mar 1941	St. Nazaire	10 Apr 1941	St. Nazaire	Patrol 6,	27 days
9.	U-46	15 May 1941	St. Nazaire	13 Jun 1941	St. Nazaire	Patrol 7,	30 days
10.	U-46	26 Jul 1941	St. Nazaire	26 Aug 1941	Kiel	Patrol 8,	32 days
11.	U-567	25 Oct 1941	St. Nazaire	26 Nov 1941	St. Nazaire	Patrol 9,	33 days
12.	U-567	18 Dec 1941	St. Nazaire	21 Dec 1941	Sunk	Patrol 10,	4 days
10 patrols, 232 days at sea

Ships hit by Engelbert Endrass

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
6 Jun 1940	U-46	HMS Carinthia	20,277	br
9 Jun 1940	U-46	Margareta	2,155	fi
11 Jun 1940	U-46	Athelprince (d.)	8,782	br	OG-33F
12 Jun 1940	U-46	Barbara Marie	4,223	br	SL-34
12 Jun 1940	U-46	Willowbank	5,041	br	SL-34
17 Jun 1940	U-46	Elpis	3,651	gr
16 Aug 1940	U-46	Alcinous (d.)	6,189	nl	OB-197
20 Aug 1940	U-46	Leonidas M. Valmas (t.)	2,080	gr
27 Aug 1940	U-46	HMS Dunvegan Castle	15,007	br	SL-43
31 Aug 1940	U-46	Ville de Hasselt	7,461	be
2 Sep 1940	U-46	Thornlea	4,261	br	OB-206
4 Sep 1940	U-46	Luimneach	1,074	ir
26 Sep 1940	U-46	Coast Wings	862	br	OG-43
26 Sep 1940	U-46	Siljan	3,058	sw
18 Oct 1940	U-46	Beatus	4,885	br	SC-7
18 Oct 1940	U-46	Convallaria	1,996	sw	SC-7
18 Oct 1940	U-46	Gunborg	1,572	sw	SC-7
19 Oct 1940	U-46	Ruperra	4,548	br	HX-79
20 Oct 1940	U-46	Janus	9,965	sw	HX-79

29 Mar 1941	U-46	Liguria	1,751	sw	OB-302
31 Mar 1941	U-46	Castor	8,714	sw
2 Apr 1941	U-46	British Reliance	7,000	br	SC-26
3 Apr 1941	U-46	Alderpool (d.)	4,313	br	SC-26
8 Jun 1941	U-46	Ensis (d.)	6,207	br	OB-330
9 Jun 1941	U-46	Phidias	5,623	br	OB-330
21 Dec 1941	U-567	Annavore	3,324	nw	HG-76
			144,019
22 ships sunk (118,528 tons) and 4 ships damaged (25,491 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.