Siegfried von Forstner

Korvettenkapitän Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner[a] (19 September 1910 – 13 October 1943[b]) was a German U-boat commander during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He and his entire crew of U-402 were killed in action on 13 October 1943.

Siegfried von Forstner
Born(1910-09-19)19 September 1910
Hannover
Died13 October 1943(1943-10-13) (aged 33)
Atlantic Ocean  †
Allegiance Weimar Republic (to 1933)
 Nazi Germany
Service/branch Reichsmarine
 Kriegsmarine
Years of service1930–43
RankKorvettenkapitän
posthumously promoted to Fregattenkapitän
UnitSSS Niobe
cruiser Emden
survey vessel Meteor
battleship Hessen
cruiser Admiral Scheer
cruiser Nürnberg
Panzerschiff Deutschland
U-99
Commands heldU-402
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Background

Von Forstner was the son of an aristocratic Prussian family whose men had served for generations as Army and Navy officers. His younger brother Wolfgang Friedrich (born in 1916) was also a U-boat commander, and two other brothers (Ernst Richard and Hans Dietrich) were Army officers. Wolfgang was the only brother to survive World War II.[1] Their great-grandfather and grandfather had been army officers, and their father was a general, Ernst Freiherr von Forstner (1869–1950), who had won the Pour le Mérite with cluster as a regimental commander during World War I.[2] Their uncle George Gunther von Forstner had commanded U-1 and U-28 during World War I,[1] and another uncle of the Imperial Navy had died in that conflict.[1]

Career

Siegfried von Forstner joined the Kriegsmarine in 1930 and served four years on the German cruiser Nürnberg following training as an artillery technical officer. Many of his year group were already at sea in submarines when he entered U-boat school in 1940. Von Forstner received training as a student commander aboard U-99 under his Naval School classmate Otto Kretschmer.[1] After a 5-month tour in U-59, von Forstner assumed command of U-402. Von Forstner carried out eight combat patrols in U-402 sinking 14 merchantmen and one warship and damaging three other ships.

Von Forstner married in Hamburg in December, 1940, while waiting to take command of U-402. His wife Annamaria made distinctive red pom-poms for the crew of U-402 to wear on their uniform hats.[3] No ships were sunk during the first U-402 patrol from 26 October 1941 to 9 December 1941. On the second patrol von Forstner damaged the 12000-ton troopship Llangibby Castle off the Bay of Biscay on 16 January 1942 but the damaged troopship was able to make repairs in the Azores.[4]

Von Forstner then made two patrols off the Atlantic coast of the United States. He sank a 4800-ton ship en route and then sank the 5300-ton Russian tanker Ashkabad and the 602-ton converted yacht USS Cythera off Cape Hatteras on 2 May 1942.[5] On the next patrol, U-402 was depth charged by patrol bombers off Cape Hatteras in mid-July and suffered a battery explosion.[1]

Von Forstner received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for torpedoing twelve ships from convoy SC 107 and convoy SC 118. Baron von Forstner sank two ships during a submerged daylight attack on convoy SC 129 before U-402 was depth charged and damaged by the corvette Gentian.[6]

Von Forstner and his wife saved their home in Hamburg from burning during August, 1943, air-raids by staying on the roof and extinguishing incendiary bombs.[7] Following departure for her last patrol on 4 September 1943, U-402 shot down an attacking RAF 172 Squadron Vickers Wellington bomber over the Bay of Biscay,[8] The submarine also provided flak protection for U-377 when the latter was attacked by a B-24 Liberator bomber during the battle of Convoy ON 202.[9] A U-boat believed by the Allied Anti-Submarine Assessment Committee to be U-402 was sunk with all hands on 13 October 1943 by a Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo dropped by Grumman TBF Avenger aircraft from USS Card.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Awards

Footnotes
  • a Regarding personal names: Freiherr is a former title (translated as Baron). In Germany since 1919, it forms part of family names. The feminine forms are Freifrau and Freiin.

References

Citations
  1. Waters 1966, p. 99.
  2. Waters 1967, p. 260.
  3. Waters 1967, p. 266.
  4. Blair 1996, pp. 489–492.
  5. Blair 1996, p. 544.
  6. Blair 1998, p. 329.
  7. Waters 1967, p. 267.
  8. Blair 1998, pp. 420, 762.
  9. Waters 1967, p. 268.
  10. Blair 1998, p. 432.
  11. Cressman 2000, p. 187.
  12. Kafka & Pepperburg 1946, p. 1085.
  13. Lenton 1976, p. 180.
  14. Taylor 1967, p. 125.
  15. Waters 1966, p. 105.
  16. Waters 1967, p. 269.
  17. Busch & Röll 2003, p. 315.
  18. Scherzer 2007, p. 314.
  19. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 184.

Bibliography
  • Blair, Clay (1996). Hitler's U-Boat War – The Hunters 1939–1942. Random House. ISBN 0-394-58839-8.
  • Blair, Clay (1998). Hitler's U-Boat War The Hunted 1942–1945. Random House. ISBN 0-679-45742-9.
  • Busch, Rainer; Röll, Hans-Joachim (2003). Der U-Boot-Krieg 1939–1945 – Die Ritterkreuzträger der U-Boot-Waffe von September 1939 bis Mai 1945 [The U-Boat War 1939–1945 – The Knight's Cross Bearers of the U-Boat Force from September 1939 to May 1945] (in German). Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn Germany: Verlag E.S. Mittler & Sohn. ISBN 978-3-8132-0515-2.
  • Cressman, Robert J. (2000). The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-149-1.
  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer [in German] (2000). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 – Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 – The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
  • Kafka, Roger & Pepperburg, Roy L. (1946). Warships of the World. Cornell Maritime Press.
  • Lenton, H.T. (1976). German Warships of the Second World War. Arco Publishing Company. ISBN 0-668-04037-8.
  • Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
  • Taylor, J.C. (1967). German Warships of the World War II. Doubleday & Company.
  • Waters, John M. Jr., CAPT USCG (December 1966). "Stay Tough". United States Naval Institute Proceedings. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Waters, John M. Jr., CAPT USCG (1967). Bloody Winter. Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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