Gerhard Glattes

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 27)

No ships sunk or damaged.

Born	6 Feb 1909		Bruchsal, Baden
Died	25 Oct 1986	(77)

Ranks

11 Oct 1927		Seekadett
1 Apr 1929		Fähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1931		Leutnant zur See
1 Jul 1933		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Oct 1936		Kapitänleutnant
1 Sep 1941		Korvettenkapitän

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-5	1 Oct 1936	2 Feb 1938	No war patrols
U-39	10 Dec 1938	14 Sep 1939	1 patrol (27 days)

Gerhard Glattes joined the Reichsmarine in 1927. He went through U-boat training from March to Sept 1936, and on 1 Oct 1936 took command of the small "duck" school boat U-5 (Dau), remaining there until 2 Feb 1938 (Busch and Röll, 1999).

Glattes then served in several staff positions before commencing U-boat construction familiarization (Baubelehrung) at the AG Weser yard in Hamburg on 18 Nov 1938. On 10 Dec he commissioned the much larger type IX U-boat U-39 (Busch and Röll, 1999).

First U-boat to be sunk in WWII

On 19 Aug 1939 Kptlt. Glattes took U-39 out from Wilhelmshaven in preparation for the impending war. On 14 Sept 1939, while inbound for base after 26 days at sea, the boat came across the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (91) - a submariner's dream target. Glattes carefully set up a very promising attack and fired three torpedoes. Detonations were heard, and Gattes assumed the attack had succeded, but rather than hitting the target, all three torpedoes had malfunctioned and exploded close by (Blair, 1996).

The subsequent depth charging from the three escort destroyers, HMS Faulknor, HMS Foxhound and HMS Firedrake, was accurate enough to damage U-39 so badly that Glattes brought her to the surface and ordered the crew to abandon ship. She surfaced in broad daylight in the midst of the British destroyers, who opened fire, but promptly stopped when it was evident that the Germans were abandoning ship. The entire crew of 44 were rescued (Blair, 1996).

Gerhard Glattes spent the next seven and a half years as a POW, only being released on 8 April 1947 (Busch and Röll, 1999). This was the second longest imprisonment of any U-boat Commander, beaten only by Günther Lorentz - by one day.