Konstantin von Puttkamer

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)

Successes
3 ships sunk, total tonnage 19,435 GRT
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 1,087 tons

Born	31 Jul 1917		Swinemünde
Died	23 Feb 1943	(25)	Mediterranean

Ranks

3 Apr 1936		Offiziersanwärter
10 Sep 1936		Seekadett
1 May 1937		Fähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1938		Leutnant zur See
1 Oct 1940		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Feb 1943		Kapitänleutnant

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-46	20 Nov 1941	Mar, 1942	No war patrols
U-443	18 Apr 1942	23 Feb 1943 (+)	3 patrols (67 days)

Konstantin von Puttkamer joined the Kriegsmarine in 1936, and was part of the Olympia Crew. From Aug. 1939 to March 1940 he served with Naval Artillery Detachment 121. He went through U-boat training from April to Oct. 1940 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

He was a Watch Officer on U-146 from Nov. to Dec. 1940. Von Puttkamer went through U-boat construction familiarization (Baubelehrung) for the type VIIB U-boat U-46 from Dec. 1940 to March 1941, afterwards serving as 2nd Watch Officer (II WO) from March to Aug. 1941 and 1st Watch Officer (I WO) until Oct 1941 on her under Kptlt. Engelbert Endrass (Busch & Röll, 1999). During three patrols over that period U-46 sank four ships (23,088 GRT) and damaged two others (10,520 GRT).

Oblt. von Puttkamer went through U-boat Commander training with the 24th (Training) Flotilla from Oct. to Nov. 1941, afterwards taking command of U-46 (from Grau) until March 1942.

Following a brief second Baubelehrung, he commissioned the type VIIC U-boat U-443 at Danzig on 18 April 1942. (Busch & Röll, 1999).

After working up exercises in the Baltic, U-443 left Kiel for her first patrol on 1 Oct. 1942 (Busch & Röll, 1997). She arrived at her new base at Brest 35 days later, having sunk two ships (17,843 GRT) on the way. (Rohwer, 1998).

The Mediterranean

For the second patrol, Kptlt. von Puttkamer was ordered to break into the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar. He left Brest on 29 Nov. and arrived at La Spezia, Italy on 22 Dec. 1942 with a further two ships added to his score (2,679 GRT), one being the British destroyer HMS Blean (L 47) (Busch & Röll, 1997), (Rohwer, 1998).

The British destroyer HMS Blean (L 47) sunk by U-443 (von Puttkamer) on 11 Dec. 1942.

Kptlt. Konstantin von Puttkamer left La Spezia in U-433 for her third patrol on 16 Feb. 1943. Eight days later she was sunk with all hands (48 men) off Algiers by depth charges from the British escort destroyers HMS Bicester, HMS Lamerton and HMS Wheatland (Niestlé, 1998).

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 Konstantin von Puttkamer

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-443	1 Oct 1942	Kiel	4 Nov 1942	Brest	Patrol 1,	35 days
2.	U-443	29 Nov 1942	Brest	22 Dec 1942	La Spezia	Patrol 2,	24 days
3.	U-443	16 Feb 1943	La Spezia	23 Feb 1943	Sunk	Patrol 3,	8 days
3 patrols, 67 days at sea

Ships hit by Konstantin von Puttkamer

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
22 Oct 1942	U-443	Winnipeg II	9,807	br	ON-139
22 Oct 1942	U-443	Donax	8,036	br	ON-139
11 Dec 1942	U-443	HMS Blean (L 47)	1,087	br	KMF-4
14 Dec 1942	U-443	Edencrag	1,592	br	TE-9
			20,522
4 ships sunk (20,522 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel.

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.