The Men - U-boat Commanders

Horst Hamm

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 35)


Successes
6 ships sunk, total tonnage 37,287 GRT
1 ship damaged, total tonnage 3,359 GRT

Born  17 Mar 1916 Düsseldorf
Died  19 Feb 1943(26)Mediterranean

Ranks

5 Apr 1935 Offiziersanwärter
25 Sep 1935 Seekadett
1 Jul 1936 Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1938 Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1938 Leutnant zur See
1 Oct 1939 Oberleutnant zur See
1 Sep 1942 Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

27 Sep 1939 Iron Cross 2nd Class
6 Dec 1939 U-boat War Badge 1939
25 Jan 1941 Iron Cross 1st Class
16 Aug 1943 Bronze Medal of Military Valor (Italy) (posthumous)

U-boat Commands

U-boatFromTo
U-58 7 Apr 1941 3 Sep 1941   No war patrols 
U-562 4 Sep 1941 19 Feb 1943  (+)  8 patrols (241 days) 

Horst Hamm joined the Kriegsmarine in 1935. From August 1939 to May 1940 he served as the Second Watch Officer (2WO) on the U-26 spending 120 days at sea on 4 patrols. From June to Aug 1940 he served with the 1st Flotilla before being sent as First Watch Officer on the famous U-96 in Sept.

With the U-96 Hamm went out on 3 patrols spending 70 days at sea. On his first patrol with this boat they sank 5 ships (37,037 GRT) and damaged 2 more (15,864). The second patrol was also successful but they third patrol saw the boat sink 7 ships with a total of 45,391 GRT.

190 days at sea during 7 patrols on 2 U-boats under very competent Commanders gave Oblt. Horst Hamm invaluable experience for his own command. He got his own boat on 7 April 1941 when he took command of the small school boat U-58 for 5 months.

He got his second boat, the larger U-562, on 4 Sept 1941. Oblt. Horst Hamm would take his U-562 out on 8 patrols, 241 days at sea, from Sept 1941. During this time he sank 6 ships with a total of 37,287 GRT and damaged one merchant of 3,359 GRT.

The Mediterranean
On 27 Nov 1941 U-562 passed the dangerous Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean (Busch and Röll, 1997). The boat thus left the Atlantic for good, having completed one patrol there.

Kapitänleutnant Horst Hamm and his entire crew of 49 men died when the U-562 was sunk in the Mediterranean north-east of Benghazi, Libya by British warships and aircraft (Niestlé, 1998).

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).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.

Patrol info for Horst Hamm

 U-boat Departure Arrival  
1. U-562 11 Sep 1941  Brest  15 Oct 1941  Brest  Patrol 1,35 days
2. U-562 17 Nov 1941  Brest  6 Dec 1941  Messina  Patrol 2,20 days
3. U-562 6 Dec 1941  Messina  29 Dec 1941  Pola  Patrol 3,24 days
4. U-562 4 Apr 1942  Pola  11 May 1942  Pola  Patrol 4,38 days
5. U-562 22 Jun 1942  Pola  25 Jul 1942  La Spezia  Patrol 5,34 days
6. U-562 5 Sep 1942  La Spezia  18 Oct 1942  La Spezia  Patrol 6,44 days
7. U-562 22 Nov 1942  La Spezia  24 Dec 1942  La Spezia  Patrol 7,33 days
8. U-562 7 Feb 1943  La Spezia  19 Feb 1943  Sunk  Patrol 8,13 days
8 patrols, 241 days at sea

Ships hit by Horst Hamm

Date U-boat Name of ship Tons Nat. Convoy
22 Sep 1941U-562 Erna III1,590brON-16
2 Oct 1941U-562 Empire Wave7,463brON-19
2 Dec 1941U-562 Grelhead4,274br
 
29 Apr 1942U-562 Alliance [Mine]81br
29 Apr 1942U-562 Terpsithea [Mine]157br
14 Jul 1942U-562 Adinda (d.)3,359nl
21 Dec 1942U-562 Strathallan23,722brKMF-5
 40,646

6 ships sunk (37,287 tons) and 1 ship damaged (3,359 tons).

Legend
We have a picture of this vessel.
(d.) means the ship was damaged.
[Mine] indicates the vessel was hit by a mine laid by said U-boat.


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


German U-boat Commanders of World War II
Busch, Rainer and Röll, Hans-Joachim

Listing of all U-boat commanders


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