The grave of a U-boat Commander lost at sea

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Peter
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Joined: 24 Nov 2002, 12:13
Location: Europe

The grave of a U-boat Commander lost at sea

#1

Post by Peter » 10 Aug 2009, 15:18

Its very unusual to find a grave for a u-boat commander who was killed in action.

Oblt z.S.d.Res Werner Strübing had come to the u-boat arm after basic submarine training in mid 1943 and a period of trial service aboard UD-4 in the Fall of 1943. As commander of U1003 he was killed when his boat escaped an attack by a 120 Squadron Liberator on 20 March 1945 but was rammed at periscope depth on the next evening by the RCN frigate "New Glasgow". Seriously damaged she went to the bottom and was depth charged by a number of warships.

Early next morning Strübing surfaced to check the extensive damage but had to dive quickly as a ship approached. Books say that U1003 proceeded northwestwards and was leaking badly, had to dive again when they surfaced to re-charge the batteries, but U1003 was finished when the batteries failed and in the early morning of 23 March the pumps stopped working.

Strübing surfaced and the crew abandoned ship, 31 were rescued by HMCS "Thetford Mines" (2 died later) and 18 men including the commander died in the water.

He is buried in the UK (NOTE we are not allowed to state the place of burial, AHF rules).


Can any other AHF members post photos of the graves of u-boat crews who were killed in action at sea ?
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Peter
Financial supporter
Posts: 4792
Joined: 24 Nov 2002, 12:13
Location: Europe

Re: The grave of a U-boat Commander lost at sea

#2

Post by Peter » 10 Aug 2009, 19:08

I believe that Arved von Mühlendahl (commander U867) is buried ashore in Norway and Dietrich von der Ropp (commander U12) is buried in France, does anybody have a photo of the graves ?

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