| Born | 16 Jun 1910 | Berlin | |
| Died | 6 Nov 1943 | (33) | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations |
U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-842 | 1 Mar 1943 | 6 Nov 1943 (+) | 1 patrol (33 days) |
Wolfgang Heller joined the Reichsmarine in 1930. From Sept 1937 to Feb 1940 he served as a range-finder officer on the 'pocket battleship' Deutschland (renamed Lützow in 1940), and then as a Watch Officer. In Nov 1941 he became a staff officer at Naval General Staff Battleships/Cruisers, and from March to April 1942 served with Station Command Baltic (Busch & Röll, 1999).
In April 1942 Kptlt. Heller joined the U-boat force and following standard training underwent U-boat Commander training with the 24th (Training) Flotilla from Sep to Oct 1942 (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Heller joined the veteran U-155 (Piening) as a Kommandantenschüler (Commander-in-Training) in Oct 1942 to gain sea experience under battle conditions. On 7 Nov U-155 left Lorient for a patrol in the North Atlantic west of Portugal (Busch & Röll, 1997). She returned 55 days later, having sunk three ships,including the British escort carrier HMS Avenger, one of Piening's greatest successes. (Rohwer, 1998).
HMS Avenger (D 14) sunk by U-155 on 15 Nov 1942.
From Jan to Feb 1943 Heller attended Baubelehrung (U-boat familiarization) with the rest of his future crew in preparation for his own command, and on 1 March 1943 commissioned U-842, a long range boat similar to U-155 (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Kptlt. Heller spent the next six months preparing both boat and men in the Baltic before leaving for their new base at Bergen in Norway (Busch & Röll, 1997).
On 6 Oct U-842 sailed on her first war patrol (Busch & Röll, 1997), heading for the eastern coast of the US. Wolfgang Heller died with his crew when U-842 was sunk on 6 Nov 1943 in the western Atlantic the British sloops HMS Starling and HMS Wild Goose (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.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.
Patrol info for Wolfgang Heller
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | U-842 | 14 Sep 1943 | Kiel | 17 Sep 1943 | Bergen | 4 days | ||
| 2. | U-842 | 5 Oct 1943 | Bergen | 6 Nov 1943 | Sunk | Patrol 1, | 33 days | |
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.
Media links
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