The Men - U-boat Commanders

Waldemar Mehl

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 33)

Successes
4 ships sunk, total tonnage 26,279 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk, total tonnage 545 GRT
2 warships sunk, total tonnage 2,286 tons
4 ships damaged, total tonnage 28,072 GRT
2 ships a total loss, total tonnage 13,341 GRT

Born	7 Sep 1914		Grävenwiesbach, Usingen, Taunus
Died	29 Mar 1996	(81)	Wiesbaden, Germany

Waldemar Mehl

Ranks

1 Apr 1933		Offiziersanwärter
23 Sep 1933		Seekadett
1 Jul 1934		Fähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1936		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1936		Leutnant zur See
1 Jun 1938		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Feb 1941		Kapitänleutnant
1 Mar 1945		Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

6 Jun 1939		Spanish Cross in Bronze without Swords
30 Apr 1940		Iron Cross 2nd Class
26 Oct 1940		Iron Cross 1st Class
22 Sep 1942		U-boat War Badge 1939
19 Nov 1943		German Cross in Gold
28 Mar 1944		Knights Cross
10 Mar 1945		U-boat Front Clasp

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-62	5 Nov 1941	19 Nov 1941	No war patrols
U-72	2 Dec 1941	6 May 1942	No war patrols
U-371	25 May 1942	4 Apr 1944	12 patrols (227 days)

Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Mehl

Waldemar Mehl joined the Reichsmarine in April 1933. Before the war he served on the light cruisers Köln and Nürnberg and the battleship Schleswig-Holstein. From December 1939 he served in several positions ashore before transferring to the U-boat force in April 1941.

Following standard training he spent a few months as a Kommandantenschüler (prospective commanding officer) on U-371 before taking over command of U-62, then U-72.

In May 1942 he returned to U-371 to command her on 13 successful patrols in the Mediterranean over the next two years, sinking, among other vessels, three Allied warships.

He left U-371 in April 1944 to join the FdU Mittelmeer (U-Boat Command Mediterranean) staff, and also held two other staff positions. After the war he served in a minesweeper unit for three months.

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.

Patrol info for Waldemar Mehl

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-371	1 Jul 1942	Salamis	7 Jul 1942	Pola		7 days
2.	U-371	5 Sep 1942	Pola	18 Sep 1942	Salamis	Patrol 1,	14 days
3.	U-371	12 Oct 1942	Salamis	16 Oct 1942	Pola		5 days
4.	U-371	1 Dec 1942	Pola	4 Dec 1942	Messina	Patrol 2,	4 days
5.	U-371	7 Dec 1942	Messina	10 Jan 1943	La Spezia	Patrol 3,	35 days
6.	U-371	14 Feb 1943	La Spezia	3 Mar 1943	La Spezia	Patrol 4,	18 days
7.	U-371	7 Apr 1943	La Spezia	11 May 1943	Toulon	Patrol 5,	35 days
8.	U-371	3 Jul 1943	Toulon	12 Jul 1943	Toulon	Patrol 6,	10 days
9.	U-371	22 Jul 1943	Toulon	11 Aug 1943	Toulon	Patrol 7,	21 days
10.	U-371	21 Aug 1943	Toulon	3 Sep 1943	Toulon	Patrol 8,	14 days
11.	U-371	7 Oct 1943	Toulon	28 Oct 1943	Toulon	Patrol 9,	22 days
12.	U-371	15 Nov 1943	Toulon	23 Nov 1943	Toulon	Patrol 10,	9 days
13.	U-371	22 Jan 1944	Toulon	13 Feb 1944	Toulon	Patrol 11,	23 days
14.	U-371	4 Mar 1944	Toulon	25 Mar 1944	Toulon	Patrol 12,	22 days
12 patrols, 227 days at sea

Ships hit by Waldemar Mehl

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
7 Jan 1943	U-371	HMS Jura (T 169)	545	br
7 Jan 1943	U-371	Ville de Strasbourg (d.)	7,159	br	MKS-5
23 Feb 1943	U-371	Fintra	2,089	br	Ropsley
28 Feb 1943	U-371	Daniel Carroll (d.)	7,176	am	TE-16
27 Apr 1943	U-371	Merope	1,162	nl
10 Jul 1943	U-371	Gulfprince (d.)	6,561	am	ET-22A
10 Jul 1943	U-371	Matthew Maury (d.)	7,176	am	ET-22A
7 Aug 1943	U-371	Contractor	6,004	br	GTX-5
11 Oct 1943	U-371	HMS Hythe (J 194)	656	br	MKS-27
13 Oct 1943	U-371	USS Bristol (DD 453)	1,630	am
15 Oct 1943	U-371	James Russell Lowell (t.)	7,176	am	GUS-18

17 Mar 1944	U-371	Dempo	17,024	nl	SNF-17
17 Mar 1944	U-371	Maiden Creek (t.)	6,165	am	SNF-17
			70,523
9 ships sunk (42,451 tons) and 4 ships damaged (28,072 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.