| Born | 14 May 1916 | Saarbrücken | |
| Died | 6 Apr 1943 | (26) | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-10 | 30 Nov 1941 | 22 Jun 1942 | No war patrols |
| U-632 | 23 Jul 1942 | 6 Apr 1943 (+) | 2 patrols (71 days) |
On 18 March, 1943 Hans Karpf’s wife gave birth to a daughter (later named Inge). Two weeks later his boat was sunk with all hands in the Atlantic off Iceland .
His daughter had wondered whether Karpf had known he had a child.
After Inge contacted him with this question in 1981, archivist and author Timothy Mulligan of the US National Archives waded through masses of decoded messages transmitted to U-632 on her final patrol, and finally found the thrilling text “Hero daughter born on 18 March. Congratulations”, sent by BdU (U-boat Control) 24 March. So Hans Karpf had known he was a father for two weeks before his death. (The Virginian-Pilot, 2007)
Sources
The Virginian-Pilot (Jan 7, 2007). Page A12
Patrol info for Hans Karpf
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | U-632 | 24 Dec 1942 | Kiel | 26 Dec 1942 | Marviken | 3 days | ||
| 2. | U-632 | 29 Dec 1942 | Marviken | 14 Feb 1943 | Brest | Patrol 1, | 48 days | |
| 3. | U-632 | 15 Mar 1943 | Brest | 6 Apr 1943 | Sunk | Patrol 2, | 23 days | |
| 2 patrols, 71 days at sea | ||||||||
Ships hit by Hans Karpf
| Date | U-boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Feb 1943 | U-632 |  | Cordelia | 8,190 |  | br | HX-224 | |
| 6 Apr 1943 | U-632 | | Blitar | 7,065 |  | nl | HX-231 | |
| 15,255 | ||||||||
2 ships sunk (15,255 tons). Legend | ||||||||
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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