Rolf-Birger Wahlen

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)

Successes
2 ships sunk, total tonnage 443 GRT
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 35 tons
1 auxiliary warship damaged, total tonnage 1,005 GRT
1 warship damaged, total tonnage 56 tons

Born	28 Jul 1915		Altona, Elbe
Died	10 May 1998	(82)	Hamburg, Germany

Great photo of Rolf Birger Wahlen

Ranks

3 Apr 1936		Offiziersanwärter
10 Sep 1936		Seekadett
1 May 1937		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1938		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1939		Leutnant zur See
1 Oct 1940		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Oct 1943		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

		Iron Cross 2nd Class
		Iron Cross 1st Class
14 Jul 1944		German Cross in Gold

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-23	27 Mar 1942	26 Aug 1942	No war patrols
U-23	3 Jun 1943	19 Jun 1944	6 patrols (159 days)
U-2514	17 Oct 1944	8 Apr 1945	No war patrols
U-2541	20 Apr 1945	5 May 1945	No war patrols

Crew of 1936

Rolf-Birger Wahlen was one of the Kriegsmarine's famous Olympia Crew. This Crew chose the Olympic rings as their symbol (the 1936 Olympic games were held in Berlin). It was the largest Crew, and produced more U-boat commanders than any other – of the 164 who 'graduated', 140 took command during the war.

Patrol info for Rolf-Birger Wahlen

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-23	27 Jun 1943	Konstanza	16 Jul 1943	Sevastopol	Patrol 1,	20 days
2.	U-23	18 Jul 1943	Sevastopol	19 Jul 1943	Konstanza	Patrol 1,	2 days
3.	U-23	10 Aug 1943	Konstanza	9 Sep 1943	Konstanza	Patrol 2,	31 days
4.	U-23	10 Oct 1943	Konstanza	11 Nov 1943	Konstanza	Patrol 3,	33 days
5.	U-23	14 Dec 1943	Konstanza	7 Jan 1944	Konstanza	Patrol 4,	25 days
6.	U-23	30 Mar 1944	Konstanza	24 Apr 1944	Konstanza	Patrol 5,	26 days
7.	U-23	17 May 1944	Konstanza	7 Jun 1944	Konstanza	Patrol 6,	22 days
6 patrols, 159 days at sea

Ships hit by Rolf-Birger Wahlen

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons
24 Aug 1943	U-23	Shkval	35	sj
15 Oct 1943	U-23	TSC-486 Sovetskaja Rossija (d.)	1,005	sj
23 Oct 1943	U-23	Tanais	372	sj

5 Apr 1944	U-23	SKA-099 (d.)	56	sj
29 May 1944	U-23	Smelyj	71	sj
			1,539
3 ships sunk (478 tons) and 2 ships damaged (1,061 tons). Legend (d.) means the ship was damaged.

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.