Wolfgang Wenzel

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 34)

No ships sunk or damaged.

Born	29 Mar 1910		Dresden
Died	14 Apr 1992	(82)

Ranks

8 Apr 1934		Offiziersanwärter
1 Jul 1935		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1937		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1937		Leutnant zur See
1 Apr 1939		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Apr 1942		Kapitänleutnant

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-231	14 Nov 1942	13 Jan 1944	3 patrols (125 days)

Wolfgang Wenzel served on the pocket battleship Graf Spee before the war, and from the start of the war until the end of 1941 as navigation officer on the commerce raider Atlantis.

After commander training and Baubelehrung (U-boat construction familiarization) while U-231 was being built at Kiel, he commissioned her at the end of 1942, commanding her until she was sunk in 1944.

When the damaged-beyond-repair U-231 was abandoned, Wenzel, "apparently in a state of despondence attempted suicide by firing a revolver bullet to the mouth". Incredibly, the bullet lodged in the back of his throat without causing serious damage. All 50 men from the boat escaped from the wreck, but seven died of exposure before the rest were rescued by Allied destroyers. The bullet was removed from Wenzel's throat by a doctor on the American escort carrier USS Block Island (Blair, 1998).

Wolfgang Wenzel on the bridge.

After his lucky reprieve, Kptlt. Wenzel spent time in POW camp in Arizona, and was released on May 17 1946.

Wolfgang Wenzel was formerly a merchant navy officer, and resumed that career after the war. (Rust, 2009).

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.
Rust, E. (2009) E-mail correspondence. Author of Naval Officers under Hitler.

Patrol info for Wolfgang Wenzel

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-231	13 Apr 1943	Kiel	31 May 1943	La Pallice	Patrol 1,	49 days
2.	U-231	27 Jul 1943	La Pallice	29 Jul 1943	La Pallice		3 days
3.	U-231	23 Sep 1943	La Pallice	24 Sep 1943	Bordeaux		2 days
4.	U-231	27 Sep 1943	Bordeaux	22 Nov 1943	La Pallice	Patrol 2,	57 days
5.	U-231	26 Dec 1943	La Pallice	13 Jan 1944	Sunk	Patrol 3,	19 days
3 patrols, 125 days at sea

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.