Greatest U-boat Commanders
Commanders with over 50,000 tons sunk
This listing should be complete as for commander who sank over 50,000 tons of confirmed allied shipping. The men who sank over 100,000 tons can be found on the Top U-boat Aces page. Warships are not included in these figures.
| Commander | Patrols | Ships sunk/damaged | |
| 1. | Werner Hartenstein | 5 patrols | 19 ships sunk (97.489 tons) 3 ships damaged (18,811 tons) |
| 2. | Fritz-Julius Lemp | 10 patrols | 20 ships sunk (96.639 tons) 3 ships damaged (14,317 tons) |
| 3. | Adalbert Schnee | 12 patrols | 23 ships sunk (95.889 tons) 3 ships damaged (28,820 tons) |
| 4. | Reinhard Suhren | 6 patrols | 18 ships sunk (95.544 tons) 4 ships damaged (28,907 tons) |
| 5. | Karl-Heinz Moehle | 10 patrols | 21 ships sunk (92.086 tons) |
| 6. | Georg-Wilhelm Schulz | 8 patrols | 19 ships sunk (89.886 tons) 1 ship damaged (3,900 tons) |
| 7. | Georg Schewe | 10 patrols | 16 ships sunk (85.779 tons) |
| 8. | Hans-Georg Friedrich Poske | 4 patrols | 16 ships sunk (85.299 tons) |
| 9. | Ulrich Heyse | 5 patrols | 12 ships sunk (83.639 tons) |
| 10. | Ulrich Folkers | 5 patrols | 17 ships sunk (82.873 tons) |
| 11. | Herbert Kuppisch | 14 patrols | 16 ships sunk (82.108 tons) |
| 12. | Jürgen Wattenberg | 3 patrols | 14 ships sunk (82.027 tons) |
| 13. | Werner Winter | 6 patrols | 16 ships sunk (80.650 tons) |
| 14. | Rolf Mützelburg | 8 patrols | 17 ships sunk (79.268 tons) 3 ships damaged (17,052 tons) |
| 15. | Jürgen von Rosenstiel | 4 patrols | 14 ships sunk (78.843 tons) 2 ships damaged (23,797 tons) |
| 16. | Hermann Rasch | 6 patrols | 12 ships sunk (78.553 tons) 1 ship damaged (4,639 tons) |
| 17. | Fritz Frauenheim | 9 patrols | 18 ships sunk (78.248 tons) 1 ship damaged (4,155 tons) |
| 18. | Harro Schacht | 5 patrols | 19 ships sunk (77.143 tons) 1 ship damaged (6,561 tons) |
| 19. | Otto Ites | 8 patrols | 15 ships sunk (76.882 tons) 1 ship damaged (8,022 tons) |
| 20. | Erich Würdemann | 5 patrols | 15 ships sunk (76.714 tons) 3 ships damaged (23,358 tons) |
| 21. | Georg Staats | 6 patrols | 14 ships sunk (74.087 tons) |
| 22. | Friedrich Markworth | 4 patrols | 13 ships sunk (74.067 tons) 1 ship damaged (10,172 tons) |
| 23. | Asmus Nicolai Clausen | 8 patrols | 23 ships sunk (73.428 tons) |
| 24. | Claus Korth | 15 patrols | 15 ships sunk (73.015 tons) 1 ship damaged (4,996 tons) |
| 25. | Günther Müller-Stöckheim | 7 patrols | 13 ships sunk (72.138 tons) 5 ships damaged (29,726 tons) |
| 26. | Otto von Bülow | 6 patrols | 14 ships sunk (71.450 tons) 2 ships damaged (16,689 tons) |
| 27. | Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner | 8 patrols | 15 ships sunk (71.036 tons) 3 ships damaged (28,682 tons) |
| 28. | Hans-Hartwig Trojer | 5 patrols | 11 ships sunk (69.589 tons) 1 ship damaged (7,197 tons) |
| 29. | Heinz-Otto Schultze | 8 patrols | 20 ships sunk (67.991 tons) 2 ships damaged (15,666 tons) |
| 30. | Otto Schuhart | 8 patrols | 12 ships sunk (67.277 tons) |
| 31. | Alfred Eick | 4 patrols | 10 ships sunk (67.191 tons) 1 ship damaged (3,702 tons) |
| 32. | Ernst Mengersen | 11 patrols | 12 ships sunk (67.126 tons) 3 ships damaged (20,159 tons) |
| 33. | Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen | 5 patrols | 12 ships sunk (66.174 tons) 3 ships damaged (22,490 tons) |
| 34. | Herbert Wohlfarth | 10 patrols | 21 ships sunk (66.032 tons) 2 ships damaged (9,903 tons) |
| 35. | Albrecht Achilles | 6 patrols | 13 ships sunk (63.412 tons) 5 ships damaged (35,672 tons) |
| 36. | August Maus | 3 patrols | 9 ships sunk (62.761 tons) 1 ship damaged (6,840 tons) |
| 37. | Karl Thurmann | 10 patrols | 12 ships sunk (61.390 tons) 2 ships damaged (15,273 tons) |
| 38. | Hans Rudolf Rösing | 2 patrols | 12 ships sunk (60.701 tons) 1 ship damaged (5,888 tons) |
| 39. | Udo Heilmann | 13 patrols | 11 ships sunk (57.089 tons) 1 ship damaged (9,718 tons) |
| 40. | Otto Salman | 7 patrols | 13 ships sunk (56.333 tons) |
| 41. | Jost Metzler | 4 patrols | 11 ships sunk (56.318 tons) 1 ship damaged (4,887 tons) |
| 42. | Günter Kuhnke | 9 patrols | 13 ships sunk (56.272 tons) 2 ships damaged (10,067 tons) |
| 43. | Siegfried Strelow | 8 patrols | 10 ships sunk (56.168 tons) |
| 44. | Hans Oestermann | 3 patrols | 13 ships sunk (55.659 tons) 1 ship damaged (490 tons) |
| 45. | Gerhard Wiebe | 3 patrols | 9 ships sunk (54.753 tons) 1 ship damaged (9,687 tons) |
| 46. | Reinhart Reche | 6 patrols | 10 ships sunk (54.420 tons) |
| 47. | Heinrich Timm | 14 patrols | 9 ships sunk (53.782 tons) |
| 48. | Reiner Dierksen | 3 patrols | 11 ships sunk (53.307 tons) |
| 49. | Friedrich-Wilhelm Wissmann | 4 patrols | 8 ships sunk (52.346 tons) 2 ships damaged (15,440 tons) |
| 50. | Siegfried Rollmann | 3 patrols | 8 ships sunk (51.859 tons) 1 ship damaged (1,999 tons) |
On 346 war patrols these 50 men sank 714 ships with a total of 3.582.730 tons.
This listing is as accurate as the data in our database allows, mistakes or omissions should be very few and far between. Changes in the database (ships moved from one U-boat to another etc.) are reflected immediately.
Please note: These tonnage figures (and sometimes the number of ships sunk) is still being debated among historians. This is one of several different possible figures but still very close whatever the "real truth is". This is often due to convoy battles at night when an attacking wolfpack fired torpedoes into the convoy and two commanders claimed the same ship, although post-war research has eliminated most of those doubtful victims there are still some in question.