The most hated U-Boat commander

[Venatore]

Im currently reading the book "Donitz & the Wolf Packs" by Bernard Edwards. On page 158 there is a strange passage in regards to a certain U-Boat captain "Hans Dohler" of U-606.

The story thus far is that he was shadowing convoy ON 166 and became involved in a fight with the Coastguard cutter "Campbell". U-606 crashed dived after being caught by Campbell but as U-606 desended into the the depths she was slammed by depth charges and to add to the confusion U-606 conning hatch was not sealed properly and her terrified crew made frantic efforts to stop her downward plunge. U-606 reached an amazing 750ft -200ft deeper than her maxium operating depth.

Hans Dohler ordered for all compressed air to be used in blowing her tanks ...U-606 erupted from the depths surfacing out of control.... right in front of Campbell:damn:. The cutter charged U-606 ramming and mortally wounding the U-boat. As the cutter reversed the conning tower hatch flung open and the Watch Officer & Engineer both of whom appeared to toast their misfortunes with bottles of champagne:()1:. 38 men including Hans Dohler went down with U-606.

Hans Dohler had a reputation of being one of the most hated commanders in the U-Boat service:stare:, this might explain the strange behaviour of the toasting between the Watch Officer & Engineer.

This passage in the book seems hard to believe:hmm:.

[kiwi_2005]

yeah another kaptain i read about who shot himself while on patrol during a depth charge episode. He started out as a top scorer then what the author suggested is he was what a lot of other kapitans had, over stressed to the max, to many patrols and not enough rest/leave. In the end he couldn't take it anymore so put a pistal to his head and by by. I have the book somewhere will look for it and put kaptains name up

[Ducimus]

Having read this book a couple times:
http://www.subsim.com/books/book_steel_boat.htm

My vote would have been for Kptlt. Peter Zschech. Crew didnt shed a tear over his loss either. Threw his body overboard rather uncerermoniously as i recall.

[Ducimus]

yeah another kaptain i read about who shot himself while on patrol during a depth charge episode. He started out as a top scorer then what the author suggested is he was what a lot of other kapitans had, over stressed to the max, to many patrols and not enough rest/leave. In the end he couldn't take it anymore so put a pistal to his head and by by. I have the book somewhere will look for it and put kaptains name up

lol way ahead of you. He wasnt any good from the get go. He was a vain egomaniac with an "itchy throat".

[mr chris]

Having read this book a couple times:
http://www.subsim.com/books/book_steel_boat.htm

My vote would have been for Kptlt. Peter Zschech. Crew didnt shed a tear over his loss either. Threw his body overboard rather uncerermoniously as i recall.

Total agree Ducimus have only just finshed reading this book. It was a great read.:yep: He was a right tyrant as soon as he took command as far as i could make out. His exc was just as bad at the start but he seemed to warm to the crew in the end and when he was posted to command his own boat , Zschech seemed to retreat into his bunk while on patrol and was rarely seen by the crew. I remember the author wote that he would have been a good staff officer but was totally out of his depth at the command of this own u-boat.

[Shaffer4]

Im currently reading the book "Donitz & the Wolf Packs" by Bernard Edwards. On page 158 there is a strange passage in regards to a certain U-Boat captain "Hans Dohler" of U-606.

The story thus far is that he was shadowing convoy ON 166 and became involved in a fight with the Coastguard cutter "Campbell". U-606 crashed dived after being caught by Campbell but as U-606 desended into the the depths she was slammed by depth charges and to add to the confusion U-606 conning hatch was not sealed properly and her terrified crew made frantic efforts to stop her downward plunge. U-606 reached an amazing 750ft -200ft deeper than her maxium operating depth.

Hans Dohler ordered for all compressed air to be used in blowing her tanks ...U-606 erupted from the depths surfacing out of control.... right in front of Campbell:damn:. The cutter charged U-606 ramming and mortally wounding the U-boat. As the cutter reversed the conning tower hatch flung open and the Watch Officer & Engineer both of whom appeared to toast their misfortunes with bottles of champagne:()1:. 38 men including Hans Dohler went down with U-606.

Hans Dohler had a reputation of being one of the most hated commanders in the U-Boat service:stare:, this might explain the strange behaviour of the toasting between the Watch Officer & Engineer.

This passage in the book seems hard to believe:hmm:.


It is written by Bernard!! surely it is hard to believe... ;)

[ASWnut101]

hmmm, to the original question:

Where did it take place?

What type of boat was it?

can you reconfirm how many people went down with her?


I've got this book called: "THE ENCYCLEOPEDIA OF U-BOATS" by Eberhard Moller & Werner Brack, that has info on the fates of EVERY U-Boat since the first one germany made back in the 1800's.

BTW, its only on german ones, too.

[hyperion2206]

Just looked into my book "Deutsche U-boote 1906-1966" by Bodo Herzog. It says that Oberleutnant Döhler was sunk on 22.02.1943 in the North Atlantic by the US Coast Guard cutter Geo W. Campbell and the polish destroyer Burza.

Further infos: http://uboat.net/boats/u606.htm

[IceGrog]

http://www.uboat.net/
http://www.uboat.net/boats/u606.htm ??????

does anyone know if there is site like this for American or English subs

[ASWnut101]

yes, my book said the same thing, hyperion. It just did'nt say by what.

U-606: Sunk 22 February 1943 in the central North Atlantic Ocean (36 Fatalities)

[hyperion2206]

I guess U 606 was either depth charged or rammed, or both. Here's some (pre-war) info about the Campbell and her class. It's all I could find.

http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/WPG_Photo_Index.html

[bigboywooly]

http://www.uboat.net/
http://www.uboat.net/boats/u606.htm ??????

does anyone know if there is site like this for American or English subs

I use this one for British subs

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/ww2sm2.html

And this one for Dutch subs in British flotillas

http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/men/men_british_flotillas.htm

[mookiemookie]

Allow me to offer one up: The story of U-570's maiden voyage.

In August 1941 U-570 left Trondheim on its maiden voyage commanded by Captain Hans Rahmlow. The boat was already a mess, having bottomed out while trying to escape an airplane on the way out. Hydrophones weren't working, diesels and air compressors damaged, batteries not strapped down properly, unsecured torpedos.....

On August 26, U-570 was ordered to interecept a convoy off the coast of Iceland. While waiting in position, a large portion of the crew became seasick in rough seas. Captain Rahmlow submerged to give them a bit of a rest, and after a couple hours popped up his scope in preparation to surface. Seeing no ships, he gives the order to surface the boat. What Captain Rahmlow DIDN'T check for were enemy planes. As soon as he opened the hatch and stepped on to the bridge, he heard aiplane engines and ordered a crash dive. The plane dropped a couple D/Cs right on U-570's head. Dials and lights shattered in the command room, and the crew panicked and evacuated the aft compartments of the boat, saying there was flooding in the batteries, resulting in chlorine gas. Rahmlow tried to dive, but as Clay Blair in Hitler's U-Boat War Volume 1 puts it "nothing happened. The impact of the explosion had disengaged or broken the electric busses and fuses and there was no one in the aft room to reset or fix them, a simple task."

Luckily for U-570, the plane above had dropped all of its D/Cs and was now only armed with a machine gun. But Rahmlow panicked, and ordered an emergency surface and prepared to scuttle the boat. The Engima and other secret materials were thrown over the side, and as the Coastal Command plane came about, it saw the crew flooding the bridge. It made a couple strafing runs until the pilot realized that the crew wasn't manning AA guns...they were waving white flags and surrendering. To a single plane armed only with a machine gun.

To further illustrate what a great Kaleun Rahmlow was.... when Allied ships arrived on scene, the officers and Rahmlow left U-570 first ahead of wounded crewmembers, and the displeasure of U-570's crew at this was even noted in the office American intel report.

When Rahmlow and his crew were later taken to a POW camp in England, no less of a figure than Silent Otto Kretschmer himself (who was already being held in this camp) convened a "Council of Honor" made up of senior U-boat POWs to "try" Rahmlow (who was being held in isolation) and his officers for cowardice. They were found guilty and sentenced to be excuted. After the "trial" U-570's first watch officer was shot trying to escape and the English transferred Rahmlow to another camp for his own safety.

Now you tell me that's not a pretty craptastic captain :rotfl:

[Patboot]

Seems "fragging" wasn't an American invention then.

[Safe-Keeper]

Good to hear the proffesionals make mistakes, too.

PS: And I thought Bernard was bad;).

[Sailor Steve]

In 1940 two German destroyers were sunk by a Heinkel He-111. Friendly-fire incidents abound in every war.

[bigboywooly]

In 1940 two German destroyers were sunk by a Heinkel He-111. Friendly-fire incidents abound in every war.

They sure do

This is from the channel dash in 42


HMS Walpole was ordered back to Harwich at 1318 when a main bearing burned. During her return voyage she was attacked by 2 RAF Wellington bombers, which made several runs and scored near misses. The bombers were driven off by a flight of Me 109’s, which gave the ship close air cover until they ran short of fuel and had to return to base

[bookworm_020]

http://www.uboat.net/
http://www.uboat.net/boats/u606.htm ??????

does anyone know if there is site like this for American or English subs

My Sister's father in law has a full document history of all british subs! When I was in England we went to Barrow where they have built sub's for over 100 years.

[Steeltrap]

Bigboywooly, that's a screamer from the Channel Dash! Wonder how often Brit ships were escorted by German fighters as a screen against Brit bombers?? :hmm: :o

Of course there's also the infamous "Sheffield" incident, with Swordfish attacking with torps, thinking she's the Bismarck....seems a pretty bizarre mistake given the relative sizes of the ships in question! At least they learned their torps' pistols were dodgy.

[Sailor Steve]

:rotfl: for the channel-dash story. I was also going to mention Sheffield. Not only was she much smaller than Bismarck, but also had triple-gun turrets instead of twins.