Heinz Schäffer

Oberleutnant zur See (Crew XII/39)

No ships sunk or damaged.

Born	28 Apr 1921		Berlin
Died	15 Jan 1979	(57)	Berlin, Germany

Ranks

1 Dec 1939		Offiziersanwärter
1 Nov 1940		Fähnrich zur See
1 Nov 1941		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1942		Leutnant zur See
1 Dec 1943		Oberleutnant zur See

Decorations

		Iron Cross 2nd Class
		Iron Cross 1st Class
		U-boat War Badge 1939

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-148	30 Nov 1943	15 Dec 1944	No war patrols
U-977	Mar, 1945	17 Aug 1945	1 patrol (108 days)

Earlier in the war Schäffer served on U-445 as 1st Watch Officer (I WO) for four patrols. He then took command of the small type IID U-boat U-148.

He later took over U-977 from Hans Leilich, and it was under Oblt. Schäffer’s command that U-977 set off from Norway on her very famous (and no doubt arduous) voyage to Argentina when Germany announced her surrender. He made sure to keep the full complement of torpedoes, despite the cramped conditions in a type VIIC U-boat, to avoid any accusations of having sunk ships after the ceasefire (Blair, 1998).

After the war he wrote a book, U-boat 977, about this patrol and all the bizarre rumours related to it.

Sources

Blair, C. (1998). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunted, 1942-1945.
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).

Patrol info for Heinz Schäffer

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-977	13 Apr 1945	Kiel	20 Apr 1945	Horten		8 days
2.	U-977	29 Apr 1945	Horten	30 Apr 1945	Kristiansand		2 days
3.	U-977	2 May 1945	Kristiansand	17 Aug 1945	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Patrol 1,	108 days

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.