Hans-Jürgen Zetzsche

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 34)

Successes
4 ships sunk, total tonnage 19,932 GRT
1 ship damaged, total tonnage 5,701 GRT

Born	5 Oct 1915		Annaberg, Erzgebirge
Died	21 Oct 1991	(76)

Kriegsmarine Crew photo

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 Jan 1942		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

		Iron Cross 2nd Class
		Iron Cross 1st Class
		Wound Badge in Silver
14 Feb 1944		German Cross in Gold
		U-boat War Badge 1939

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-20	16 Apr 1940	7 Jun 1940	No war patrols
U-8	7 Jul 1940	28 Jul 1940	No war patrols
U-4	29 Jul 1940	2 Feb 1941	No war patrols
U-560	6 Mar 1941	24 Aug 1941	No war patrols
U-591	9 Oct 1941	8 Sep 1942	4 patrols (91 days)
U-378	10 Sep 1942	11 Oct 1942	1 patrol (15 days) (Acting CO)
U-591	12 Nov 1942	17 May 1943	3 patrols (99 days)

After the war

Upon his release from captivity on April 25, 1947, Hans-Jürgen Zetzsche joined the PR department of the ESSO (EXXON) corporation in Hamburg (Rust, 2009).

Sources

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

Patrol info for Hans-Jürgen Zetzsche

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-591	15 Jan 1942	Kiel	20 Feb 1942	Bergen	Patrol 1,	37 days
2.	U-591	1 Apr 1942	Bergen	11 Apr 1942	Trondheim	Patrol 2,	11 days
3.	U-591	10 May 1942	Trondheim	2 Jun 1942	Narvik	Patrol 3,	24 days
4.	U-591	4 Jun 1942	Narvik	7 Jun 1942	Bergen		4 days
5.	U-591	27 Jul 1942	Bergen	14 Aug 1942	Bergen	Patrol 4,	19 days
6.	U-591	22 Aug 1942	Bergen	24 Aug 1942	Skjomenfjord		3 days
7.	U-591	27 Aug 1942	Skjomenfjord	27 Aug 1942	Bogenbucht		1 days
8.	U-591	28 Aug 1942	Bogenbucht	29 Aug 1942	Skjomenfjord		2 days
9.	U-591	8 Sep 1942	Skjomenfjord	9 Sep 1942	Trondheim		2 days
10.	U-591	11 Sep 1942	Trondheim	12 Sep 1942	Bergen		2 days
11.	U-378	12 Sep 1942	Trondheim	26 Sep 1942	Skjomenford	Patrol 5,	15 days
12.	U-591	1 Dec 1942	Bergen	12 Jan 1943	Brest	Patrol 6,	43 days
13.	U-591	17 Feb 1943	Brest	7 Apr 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 7,	50 days
14.	U-591	12 May 1943	St. Nazaire	17 May 1943	St. Nazaire	Patrol 8,	6 days
8 patrols, 205 days at sea

Ships hit by Hans-Jürgen Zetzsche

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
21 Dec 1942	U-591	Montreal City	3,066	br	ON-152
28 Dec 1942	U-591	Norse King (d.)	5,701	nw	ONS-154
29 Dec 1942	U-591	Zarian	4,871	br	ONS-154

7 Mar 1943	U-591	Empire Impala	6,116	br	SC-121
8 Mar 1943	U-591	Vojvoda Putnik	5,879	yu	SC-121
			25,633
4 ships sunk (19,932 tons) and 1 ship damaged (5,701 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. (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.