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Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock

Fregattenkapitän (Crew 31)

Successes 24 ships sunk, total tonnage 170,237 GRT 2 ships damaged, total tonnage 15,864 GRT 1 ship a total loss, total tonnage 8,888 GRT

Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock began his naval career in April 1931, serving for more than a year on the light cruiser Karlsruhe (together with Karl-Friedrich Merten) and 18 months on the sailing school ship Horst Wessel.

In April 1939 he transferred to the U-boat force, and completed standard officer training. After a short time on board U-8 he took command of U-5 in December 1939. Lehmann-Willenbrock made his first patrol in Norwegian waters during Operation Hartmut (the occupation of Norway in spring 1940).

In August 1940 he left U-5 and a month later commissioned the type VIIC U-boat U-96.

After three months of training the U-boat was attached to the 7th Flotilla at St Nazaire, France. Lehmann-Willenbrock took U-96 on eight patrols. His third patrol in February 1942 resulted in seven ships sunk with a total of 49,490 tons. On 25 February 1942 the daily Wehrmachtsbericht announced:

An dem großen Erfolg der Unterseebootswaffe ist das Boot des Kapitänleutnants Lehmann-Willenbrock mit 55,600 BRT hervorragend beteiligt. Kapitänleutnant Lehmann-Willenbrock hat damit in kurzer Zeit 125,580 BRT feindlichen Handelsschiffsraumes vernichtet.

(Kapitänleutnant Lehmann-Willenbrock's boat has contributed to the great success of the U-boat force with 55,600 tons sunk. Kapitänleutnant Lehmann-Willenbrock within a short span of time has sunk a total of 125,580 tons of enemy shipping.)

A war corespondent, Sonderführer-Leutnant Lothar-Günther Buchheim, accompanied U-96 on her seventh patrol. Thirty years later he wrote about his experiences on board in a book entitled Das Boot. Lehmann-Willenbrock served as the model for the commander in that book.

Lehmann-Willenbrock left U-96 in March 1942 to command the 9th Flotilla at Brest. Korvettenkapitän Lehmann-Willenbrock left Brest for his last patrol in U-256 in September 1944, just a few days before American forces occupied the town.

He arrived at Bergen, Norway in U-256, where in December 1944 he became commander of the 11th Flotilla, a position he held until the end of the war.

After a year in captivity, Lehmann-Willenbrock returned to Germany in May 1946 and worked with Karl-Friedrich Merten on the salvage of sunken ships in the river Rhine. In 1948 together with three friends he built the sailing ship Magellan. They sailed together to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they initiated a regatta.

Later he was skipper of several merchant ships. In March 1959 he showed great courage as skipper of the freighter Inga Bastian when he and his crew saved 57 survivors from the burning Brazilian ship Commandante Lyra. In 1969 he became captain of the German nuclear research ship Otto Hahn, a post which he held for more than ten years.

For his outstanding service after the war he was decorated with the Bundes-Verdienstkreuz am Bande (Federal German Merit Cross 2nd class) in 1974. He was chairman of the U-Bootskameradschaft Bremen (U-boat comrades association Bremen) for many years, whose headquarters bear his name to this day.

35 years later.
Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock on the set with Jürgen Prochnow
who played the commander ("Der Alte") in Das Boot.

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).
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

Date	U-boat		Name of ship	Tons	Nat.		Convoy
11 Dec 1940	U-96		Rotorua	10,890		br	HX-92
11 Dec 1940	U-96		Towa	5,419		nl	HX-92
12 Dec 1940	U-96		Stureholm	4,575		sw	HX-92
12 Dec 1940	U-96		Macedonier	5,227		be	HX-92
14 Dec 1940	U-96		Western Prince	10,926		br
14 Dec 1940	U-96		Empire Razorbill (d.)	5,118		br	OB-257
18 Dec 1940	U-96		Pendrecht (d.)	10,746		nl	OB-259
16 Jan 1941	U-96		Oropesa	14,118		br
17 Jan 1941	U-96		Almeda Star	14,936		br
13 Feb 1941	U-96		Clea	7,987		br	HX-106
13 Feb 1941	U-96		Arthur F. Corwin	10,516		br	HX-106
18 Feb 1941	U-96		Black Osprey	5,589		br	HX-107
22 Feb 1941	U-96		Scottish Standard	6,999		br	OB-287
23 Feb 1941	U-96		Anglo-Peruvian	5,457		br	OB-288
24 Feb 1941	U-96		Linaria	3,385		br	OB-288
24 Feb 1941	U-96		Sirikishna	5,458		br	OB-288
28 Apr 1941	U-96		Caledonia	9,892		nw	HX-121
28 Apr 1941	U-96		Oilfield	8,516		br	HX-121
28 Apr 1941	U-96		Port Hardy	8,897		br	HX-121
19 May 1941	U-96		Empire Ridge	2,922		br	HG-61
5 Jul 1941	U-96		Anselm	5,954		br
31 Oct 1941	U-96		Bennekom	5,998		nl	OS-10
19 Feb 1942	U-96		Empire Seal	7,965		br
20 Feb 1942	U-96		Lake Osweya	2,398		am
22 Feb 1942	U-96		Torungen	1,948		nw
22 Feb 1942	U-96		Kars (t.)	8,888		br
9 Mar 1942	U-96		Tyr	4,265		nw
				194,989
25 ships sunk (179,125 tons) and 2 ships damaged (15,864 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.

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