Georg-Werner Fraatz
Korvettenkapitän (Crew 35)
Successes 3 ships sunk, total tonnage 10,775 GRT 1 auxiliary warship sunk, total tonnage 558 GRT 2 warships sunk, total tonnage 2,740 tons 2 ships damaged, total tonnage 9,918 GRT 1 auxiliary warship damaged, total tonnage 10,917 GRT |
Born | 30 Mar 1917 | Hamelin | |
Died | 15 Feb 1943 | (25) | North Atlantic |
Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
U-boat | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
U-652 | 3 Apr 1941 | 2 Jun 1942 | 9 patrols (151 days) |
U-529 | 30 Sep 1942 | 15 Feb 1943 (+) | 1 patrol (17 days) |
Georg-Werner Fraatz joined the Kriegsmarine in 1935. He served as Second Watch officer (2WO) on the small "duck" U-3 from Aug to Oct 1939 under Joachim Schepke. Fraats went out on 3 patrols with the boat during which they sank 2 ships.
From Oct 1940 to Feb 1940 Fraatz served as an officer with the U-boat school Neustadt. In Feb he was sent to U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) of the type VIIB boat U-101 on which he served as First Watch Officer from March 1940 to Jan 1941. he went out on 5 patrols with the boat during which the boat sank 18 ships and damaged two more. These 138 days at sea during war patrols gave Fraatz very valuable experience for his own boat.
From Jan to Feb 1941 Oblt. Georg-Werner Fraatz went through U-boat Commander training at the 24th Flotilla and then U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) in preparation of his own U-boat command.
On 3 April 1941 Fraatz was given command of the new U-652. With this boat he sank 5 ships and damaged 3 more during 8 patrols.
The Mediterranean
On the third patrol U-652 was sent to the Mediterranean. Leaving Lorient, France on 1 Nov 1941 the boat passed through the heavily guarded Straits of Gibraltar on 28 Nov and then to Messina on 12 Dec (Busch and Röll, 1997). The boat spent the remainder of her career in the Mediterranean.
The Loss of U-652
On 2 June 1942 the boat was depth charges by a British Swordfish aircraft and so heavily damaged that it was scuttled afterwards by its fellow boat U-81 (Guggenberger). Entire crew of 46 men was saved by U-81 (Niestlé, 1998).
From June to Sept 1942 Fraatz served as an officer with the 1st Flotilla and was then sent to another U-boat familiarization, this time for the larger type IXC/40 boats. He then took command of the new U-529 on 30 Sept 1942.
After working up in the Baltic U-529 left base at Kiel for its first war patrol on 30 Jan 1943 but was lost 17 days later with all hands of 48 men.
Reassessment of the loss of U-529
In 2009 Dr. Axel Niestlé reassessed the fate of U-529, long believed to have gone missing to unknown causes. His assessment is that the boat was sunk on 15 Feb 1943 by depth charges by a British Liberator aircraft (Sqdn 120/S). The aircraft photographed the diving boat but the photo was long believed to have been of a smaller type VIIC boat instead of a larger type IXC/40 boat like U-529.
Read the full article on the loss of U 225 and U 529.
Sources
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1998). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Niestle, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Patrol info for Georg-Werner Fraatz
U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | U-652 | 19 Jun 1941 | Kiel | 20 Jun 1941 | Horten | 2 days | ||
2. | U-652 | 29 Jun 1941 | Horten | 3 Jul 1941 | Trondheim | 5 days | ||
3. | U-652 | 17 Jul 1941 | Trondheim | 22 Jul 1941 | Bökfjord | 6 days | ||
4. | U-652 | 23 Jul 1941 | Bökfjord | 7 Aug 1941 | Kirkenes | Patrol 1, | 16 days | |
5. | U-652 | 9 Aug 1941 | Kirkenes | 13 Aug 1941 | Trondheim | 5 days | ||
6. | U-652 | 23 Aug 1941 | Trondheim | 18 Sep 1941 | Lorient | Patrol 2, | 27 days | |
7. | U-652 | 1 Nov 1941 | Lorient | 12 Dec 1941 | Messina | Patrol 3, | 42 days | |
8. | U-652 | 14 Dec 1941 | Messina | 1 Jan 1942 | La Spezia | Patrol 4, | 19 days | |
9. | U-652 | 5 Feb 1942 | La Spezia | 16 Feb 1942 | Salamis | Patrol 5, | 12 days | |
10. | U-652 | 21 Feb 1942 | Salamis | 1 Mar 1942 | Salamis | Patrol 6, | 9 days | |
11. | U-652 | 12 Mar 1942 | Salamis | 14 Mar 1942 | Salamis | Patrol 7, | 3 days | |
12. | U-652 | 18 Mar 1942 | Salamis | 31 Mar 1942 | Pola | Patrol 8, | 14 days | |
13. | U-652 | 25 May 1942 | Pola | 2 Jun 1942 | Sunk | Patrol 9, | 9 days | |
14. | U-529 | 30 Jan 1943 | Kiel | 15 Feb 1943 | Sunk | Patrol 10, | 17 days | |
10 patrols, 168 days at sea |
Ships hit by Georg-Werner Fraatz
Date | U-boat | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | Convoy | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6 Aug 1941 | U-652 | PS-70 | 558 | sj | ||||
26 Aug 1941 | U-652 | HMS Southern Prince (M 47) (d.) | 10,917 | br | ||||
10 Sep 1941 | U-652 | Tahchee (d.) | 6,508 | br | SC-42 | |||
10 Sep 1941 | U-652 | Baron Pentland (d.) | 3,410 | br | SC-42 | |||
9 Dec 1941 | U-652 | Saint Denis | 1,595 | fr | ||||
19 Dec 1941 | U-652 | Varlaam Avanesov | 6,557 | sj | ||||
20 Mar 1942 | U-652 | HMS Heythrop (L 85) | 1,050 | br | ||||
26 Mar 1942 | U-652 | HMS Jaguar (F 34) | 1,690 | br | ||||
26 Mar 1942 | U-652 | Slavol | 2,623 | br | ||||
34,908 | ||||||||
6 ships sunk (14,073 tons) and 3 ships damaged (20,835 tons). Legend |
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.
Media links
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