Siegfried Koitschka

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 37a)

Successes
2 warships sunk, total tonnage 2,181 tons
2 ships damaged, total tonnage 17,754 GRT

Born	6 Aug 1917		Siebitz, Bautzen
Died	17 May 2002	(84)	Lohra / Hessen, Germany

Siegfried Koitschka

Ranks

3 Apr 1937		Offiziersanwärter
21 Sep 1937		Seekadett
1 May 1938		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1939		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Aug 1939		Leutnant zur See
1 Sep 1941		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Jun 1944		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

8 May 1941		Iron Cross 2nd Class
8 May 1941		U-boat War Badge 1939
7 Oct 1941		Iron Cross 1st Class
19 Nov 1943		German Cross in Gold
27 Jan 1944		Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-7	16 Jan 1942	7 Oct 1942	No war patrols
U-616	8 Oct 1942	17 May 1944	9 patrols (204 days)

Oblt. Siegfried Koitschka after patrol

Siegfried Koitschka began his naval career in April 1937. After some months on the cruiser Admiral Hipper and in a training unit he transferred to the U-boat force in June 1940.

Six months later he became second watch officer (II WO) on the newly commissioned U-552, the famous "Red Devil Boat". He accompanied the U-boat on her first six patrols under the command of Erich Topp. He left U-552, certainly with a lot of combat experience, in December 1941.

After the commander training course in the 26th (Training) Flotilla, he became commander of the school boat U-7. But in December of the same year he took command of his own front boat, the type VIIC U-boat U-616. After one patrol in the North Atlantic he managed to break through the Straits of Gibraltar in May 1943.

After six patrols in the Mediterranean, where he sank a US destroyer in October 1943 and damaged two ships in May 1944 with a total of more than 17,000 tons (he claimed more sinkings, but they were not confirmed successes), he left Toulon on 30 April for his last patrol.

Two weeks later, east of Cartagena, Spain, one of the longest U-boat hunting operations of the war took place. After torpedoing two ships, Kptlt. Koitschka with U-616 was located by US destroyers on 14 May, 1944. The next three days U-616 was attacked by the destroyer and also British Wellington aircraft before being forced to surface on the 17 May. All the crew survived the scuttling of the U-boat (Niestlé, 1998).

Siegfried Koitschka spent more than two years in Allied captivity before he was released in June 1946.

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1998). 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.

Patrol info for Siegfried Koitschka

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-616	6 Feb 1943	Kiel	26 Mar 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 1,	49 days
2.	U-616	19 Apr 1943	St. Nazaire	17 May 1943	La Spezia	Patrol 2,	29 days
3.	U-616	28 Jul 1943	La Spezia	18 Aug 1943	Toulon	Patrol 3,	22 days
4.	U-616	8 Sep 1943	Toulon	18 Sep 1943	Toulon	Patrol 4,	11 days
5.	U-616	3 Oct 1943	Toulon	15 Oct 1943	Toulon	Patrol 5,	13 days
6.	U-616	20 Nov 1943	Toulon	12 Dec 1943	Toulon	Patrol 6,	23 days
7.	U-616	3 Jan 1944	Toulon	15 Jan 1944	Toulon	Patrol 7,	13 days
8.	U-616	19 Feb 1944	Toulon	15 Mar 1944	Toulon	Patrol 8,	26 days
9.	U-616	30 Apr 1944	Toulon	17 May 1944	Sunk	Patrol 9,	18 days
9 patrols, 204 days at sea

Ships hit by Siegfried Koitschka

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
9 Oct 1943	U-616	USS Buck (DD 420)	1,570	am
11 Oct 1943	U-616	HMS LCT-553	611	br

14 May 1944	U-616	Fort Fidler (d.)	7,127	br	GUS-39
14 May 1944	U-616	G.S. Walden (d.)	10,627	br	GUS-39
			19,935
2 ships sunk (2,181 tons) and 2 ships damaged (17,754 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.