Fritz-Julius Lemp

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 31)

Successes
19 ships sunk, total tonnage 96,314 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk, total tonnage 325 GRT
3 ships damaged, total tonnage 14,317 GRT
1 warship damaged, total tonnage 31,100 tons

Born	19 Feb 1913		Tsingtau, China
Died	9 May 1941	(28)	Northern Atlantic

Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp after receiving his Knights Cross.

Ranks

1 Apr 1931		Offiziersanwärter
14 Oct 1931		Seekadett
1 Jan 1933		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1935		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1935		Leutnant zur See
1 Jan 1937		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Oct 1939		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

6 Jun 1939		Spanish Cross in Bronze without Swords
27 Sep 1939		Iron Cross 2nd Class
18 Jan 1940		Iron Cross 1st Class
14 Aug 1940		Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-28	28 Oct 1938	Nov, 1938	No war patrols
U-30	Nov, 1938	Sep, 1940	8 patrols (189 days)
U-110	21 Nov 1940	9 May 1941 (+)	2 patrols (46 days)

Kptlt. Fritz-Julius Lemp was the central figure of one of the most controversial incidents of the Battle of the Atlantic when, as commander of U-30, he spotted a large blacked-out ship zig-zagging at high speed on 3 September 1939. Lemp took an educated guess that this vessel was an armed merchant cruiser (an AMC, a converted liner fitted with deck guns to protect merchant ships), as passenger liners were not supposed to be zig-zagging like this one was, and he managed to hit it with two torpedoes, sinking the ship. The vessel turned out to be the passenger liner Athenia; 112 of her passengers died in the sinking.

Lemp achieved great success in U-30, sinking 17 ships and damaging two, including the British battleship HMS Barham (04). She was the first U-boat to make use of the French bases in July 1940, and on 14 August 1940 Lemp, aged 26, became the seventh U-boat commander to be awarded the Knights Cross.

Lemp's first patrol in the newly-commisioned U-110 was a disappointment after his previous success, and the second proved disastrous. The boat was captured east of Cape Farewell, Greenland in position 60N, 33W by the British destroyers HMS Bulldog, HMS Broadway and the British corvette HMS Aubretia. (Niestlé, 1998). The boat's Enigma machine and current code books were captured, with grave consequences for the Germans. Kptlt. Lemp died in action.

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 Fritz-Julius Lemp

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-30	22 Aug 1939	Wilhelmshaven	27 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 1,	37 days
2.	U-30	9 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	14 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 2,	6 days
3.	U-30	23 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	17 Jan 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 3,	26 days
4.	U-30	11 Mar 1940	Wilhelmshaven	30 Mar 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 4,	20 days
5.	U-30	3 Apr 1940	Wilhelmshaven	4 May 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 5,	32 days
6.	U-30	8 Jun 1940	Wilhelmshaven	7 Jul 1940	Lorient	Patrol 6,	30 days
7.	U-30	13 Jul 1940	Lorient	24 Jul 1940	Lorient	Patrol 7,	12 days
8.	U-30	5 Aug 1940	Lorient	30 Aug 1940	Kiel	Patrol 8,	26 days
9.	U-110	9 Mar 1941	Kiel	29 Mar 1941	Lorient	Patrol 9,	21 days
10.	U-110	15 Apr 1941	Lorient	9 May 1941	Sunk	Patrol 10,	25 days
10 patrols, 235 days at sea

Ships hit by Fritz-Julius Lemp

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
3 Sep 1939	U-30	Athenia	13,581	br
11 Sep 1939	U-30	Blairlogie	4,425	br
14 Sep 1939	U-30	Fanad Head	5,200	br
28 Dec 1939	U-30	HMS Barbara Robertson	325	br
28 Dec 1939	U-30	HMS Barham (04) (d.)	31,100	br

11 Jan 1940	U-30	El Oso [Mine]	7,267	br	HX-14B
16 Jan 1940	U-30	Gracia (d.) [Mine]	5,642	br	OB-72
17 Jan 1940	U-30	Cairnross [Mine]	5,494	br	OB-74
7 Feb 1940	U-30	Munster [Mine]	4,305	br
9 Feb 1940	U-30	Chagres [Mine]	5,406	br
8 Mar 1940	U-30	Counsellor [Mine]	5,068	br	HX-22
20 Jun 1940	U-30	Otterpool	4,876	br	HG-34F
22 Jun 1940	U-30	Randsfjord	3,999	nw	HX-49
28 Jun 1940	U-30	Llanarth	5,053	br
1 Jul 1940	U-30	Beignon	5,218	br	SL-36
6 Jul 1940	U-30	Angele Mabro	3,154	ag
21 Jul 1940	U-30	Ellaroy	712	br
9 Aug 1940	U-30	Canton	5,779	sw
16 Aug 1940	U-30	Clan Macphee	6,628	br	OB-197

16 Mar 1941	U-110	Erodona (d.)	6,207	br	HX-112
23 Mar 1941	U-110	Siremalm (d.)	2,468	nw
27 Apr 1941	U-110	Henri Mory	2,564	br
9 May 1941	U-110	Bengore Head	2,609	br	OB-318
9 May 1941	U-110	Esmond	4,976	br	OB-318
			142,056
20 ships sunk (96,639 tons) and 4 ships damaged (45,417 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. (d.) means the ship was damaged. [Mine] indicates the vessel was hit by a mine laid by said U-boat.

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.