Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke - German U-boat Commanders of WWII - The Men of the Kriegsmarine (original) (raw)

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 30)

Successes
36 ships sunk, total tonnage 153,677 GRT
4 ships damaged, total tonnage 17,229 GRT
1 ship a total loss, total tonnage 2,205 GRT

Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke	Ranks 1 Apr 1930 _Offiziersanwärter_10 Oct 1930 Seekadett1 Jan 1932 Fähnrich zur See1 Apr 1934 Oberfähnrich zur See1 Oct 1934 Leutnant zur See1 Jun 1936 Oberleutnant zur See1 Jun 1939 Kapitänleutnant Decorations

U-boat Commands

Kptlt. Schepke returning from a voyage

Joachim Schepke began his naval career in April 1930. He spent two years on the 'pocket battleship' Deutschland before, as Günther Prien also had, transferring to the U-boat force in October 1935. Later he spent 18 months as an instructor at the Torpedo School at Flensburg, but in 1938 he became commander of the training U-boat U-3. His time commanding U-3 saw him achieve his first successes, leaving her in January 1940.

He then took over command of U-19 (Müller-Arnecke) and sank nine ships with a total of 15,715 tons.

In May 1940 he commissioned the larger type VIIB U-boat U-100. On his first patrol from Kiel to Lorient in August 1940, he sank six ships with a total of 25,812 tons and damaged one more.

But it wasn't until her second patrol during September 1940 that Kapitänleutnant Schepke became famous as commander of U-100. In only two days he sank seven ships with a total of 50,340 tons. Two days later he received the Knights Cross.

Kptlt. Schepke meeting the public

Kptlt. Schepke in Berlin 6 weeks before his death

23 November 1940 was another memorable day, on which Schepke sank seven ships totaling 24,601 tons. One week later he was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knights Cross.

In 1940 he published a book, U-Boot Fahrer von heute (U-boat men of today), describing life on a U-boat in simple terms. This book is illustrated with his own paintings.

Schepke was nicknamed Ihrer Majestät bestaussehender Offizier (Her Majesty's best-looking officer. The expression Ihrer Majestät is used to indicate the country's leader, and is not referring to royalty in this case!).

At the Berlin Sportpalast in February 1941 he spoke to an audience of thousands of young Germans about the U-boat war.

Joachim Schepke died when U-100was sunk at 0318hrs on 17 March 1941 SE of Iceland in approximate position 61N, 12W, after being rammed and depth charged by the British destroyers HMS Walker and HMS Vanoc (Niestlé, 1998). Vanoc located U-100 with her early radar in heavy fog and chased the contact. Schepke is said to have been caught on the bridge when the boat was rammed. Six men survived and 38 were lost.

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 Joachim Schepke

| | U-boat | Departure | Arrival | | | | | | | --------------------------- | ------------------------ | ----------- | ------------- | ----------- | ------------- | ---------- | ------- | | 1. | U-3 | 4 Sep 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 8 Sep 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol 1, | 5 days | | 2. | U-3 | 13 Sep 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 24 Sep 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol 2, | 12 days | | 3. | U-3 | 27 Sep 1939 | Wilhelmshaven | 3 Oct 1939 | Kiel | Patrol 3, | 7 days | | 4. | U-19 | 4 Jan 1940 | Kiel | 12 Jan 1940 | Kiel | Patrol 4, | 9 days | | 5. | U-19 | 18 Jan 1940 | Kiel | 28 Jan 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol 5, | 11 days | | 6. | U-19 | 12 Feb 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 26 Feb 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol 6, | 15 days | | 7. | U-19 | 14 Mar 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 23 Mar 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | Patrol 7, | 10 days | | 8. | U-19 | 3 Apr 1940 | Wilhelmshaven | 23 Apr 1940 | Kiel | Patrol 8, | 21 days | | 9. | U-100 | 9 Aug 1940 | Kiel | 1 Sep 1940 | Lorient | Patrol 9, | 24 days | | 10. | U-100 | 11 Sep 1940 | Lorient | 25 Sep 1940 | Lorient | Patrol 10, | 15 days | | 11. | U-100 | 12 Oct 1940 | Lorient | 23 Oct 1940 | Lorient | Patrol 11, | 12 days | | 12. | U-100 | 7 Nov 1940 | Lorient | 27 Nov 1940 | Lorient | Patrol 12, | 21 days | | 13. | U-100 | 2 Dec 1940 | Lorient | 1 Jan 1941 | Kiel | Patrol 13, | 31 days | | 14. | U-100 | 9 Mar 1941 | Kiel | 17 Mar 1941 | Sunk | Patrol 14, | 9 days | | 14 patrols, 202 days at sea | | | | | | | |

Ships hit by Joachim Schepke

Date	U-boat	Commander	Name of ship	Tons	Nat.	Convoy
30 Sep 1939	U-3	Joachim Schepke		Vendia	1,150		da
30 Sep 1939	U-3	Joachim Schepke		Gun	1,198		sw
9 Jan 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Manx	1,343		nw
23 Jan 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Pluto	1,598		nw
23 Jan 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Baltanglia	1,523		br
25 Jan 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Everene	4,434		le
25 Jan 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Gudveig	1,300		nw
19 Mar 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Minsk	1,229		da
19 Mar 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Charkow	1,026		da
20 Mar 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Viking	1,153		da
20 Mar 1940	U-19	Joachim Schepke		Bothal	2,109		da
16 Aug 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Empire Merchant	4,864		br
25 Aug 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Jamaica Pioneer	5,471		br
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Dalblair	4,608		br	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Hartismere (d.)	5,498		br	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Astra II	2,393		br	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Alida Gorthon	2,373		sw	OA-204
29 Aug 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Empire Moose	6,103		br	OA-204
21 Sep 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Canonesa	8,286		br	HX-72
21 Sep 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Torinia	10,364		br	HX-72
21 Sep 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Dalcairn	4,608		br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Empire Airman	6,586		br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Scholar	3,940		br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Frederick S. Fales	10,525		br	HX-72
22 Sep 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Simla	6,031		nw	HX-72
18 Oct 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Shekatika (d.)	5,458		br	SC-7
18 Oct 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Boekelo (d.)	2,118		nl	SC-7
19 Oct 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Blairspey (d.)	4,155		br	SC-7
20 Oct 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Caprella	8,230		br	HX-79
20 Oct 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Sitala	6,218		br	HX-79
20 Oct 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Loch Lomond	5,452		br	HX-79
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Justitia	4,562		br	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Bradfyne	4,740		br	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Ootmarsum	3,628		nl	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Bruse (t.)	2,205		nw	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Salonica	2,694		nw	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Leise Mærsk	3,136		br	SC-11
23 Nov 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Bussum	3,636		nl	SC-11
14 Dec 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Kyleglen	3,670		br	OB-256
14 Dec 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Euphorbia	3,380		br	OB-256
18 Dec 1940	U-100	Joachim Schepke		Napier Star	10,116		br
	173,111
37 ships sunk (155,882 tons) and 4 ships damaged (17,229 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.

Media links

Listing of all U-boat commanders

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