The Men - U-boat Commanders

Reinhard Hardegen

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 33)

Successes
22 ships sunk, total tonnage 113,792 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk, total tonnage 3,209 GRT
4 ships damaged, total tonnage 32,516 GRT
1 auxiliary warship damaged, total tonnage 13,984 GRT

Born	18 Mar 1913		Bremen
Died	9 Jun 2018	(105)	Bremen

Kapitänleutnant Reinhard Hardegen

Ranks

1 Apr 1933		Offiziersanwärter
1 Jul 1934		Fähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1936		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1936		Leutnant zur See
1 Jun 1938		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Dec 1940		Kapitänleutnant
1 Mar 1944		Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

18 Sep 1940		Iron Cross 2nd Class
18 Nov 1940		U-boat War Badge 1939
23 Aug 1941		Iron Cross 1st Class
23 Jan 1942		Knights Cross
23 Apr 1942		Knights Cross with Oak Leaves
7 May 1942		U-boat War Badge with Diamonds

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-147	11 Dec 1940	4 Apr 1941	1 patrol (19 days)
U-123	19 May 1941	31 Jul 1942	4 patrols (221 days)

Kptlt. Hardegen at the chart table

Reinhard Hardegen began his naval career in April 1933. After two and a half years he was transferred, together with other officers, to the Marineflieger (Naval Air Force) branch of the Kriegsmarine. He was trained as an aircraft observer and later as a pilot. Following a crash and an ensuing six months in hospital, he transferred to the U-boat force in November 1939.

He received his first operational experience on U-124, under Kptlt. Schulz. In December 1940 he was made commander of U-147. On his first patrol in her in March 1941 he sank the Norwegian steamer Augvald (4,811 tons).

On 16 May 1941 he took over U-123, a very successful boat, from Kptlt. Karl-Heinz Moehle. On his first patrol, in summer 1941 in West African waters, Hardegen sank five ships with a total of 21,507 tons. In October 1941 he torpedoed the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Aurania (13,984 tons), but the badly damaged ship was towed to harbour by two destroyers.

Hardegen's medical history then finally caught up with him. Due to injuries received in the 1936 plane crash, Hardegen had actually been classed as unfit for U-boat service. However, his papers had repeatedly arrived at each training location after he had already departed for the next. Now Dönitz learned of Hardegen's lingering injuries (including a shortened leg and chronic bleeding of the stomach which required a special diet), but rewarded Hardegen's dedication by permitting him to carry out two further patrols.

On 23 December 1941 U-123 left Lorient on a special mission. She was one of five U-boats ordered to launch an attack against the eastern coast of the United States, part of operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat).

On 12 January 1942, before reaching the operational area, Hardegen sank the British freighter Cyclops in Canadian waters. Although this was two days before the official start of Operation Paukenschlag, the commanders had permission to sink ships on the crossing to the US coast if they were larger than 10,000 tons. The next two weeks were very successful for U-123, sinking nine ships with a total of 53,173 tons. On 20 January Dönitz sent the following radiogram:

An den Paukenschläger Hardegen. Bravo! Gut gepaukt. Dönitz.

Hardegen

Dönitz

Three days later Hardegen received a radio message that he had been awarded the Knights Cross.

Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen after patrol

In March 1942 Hardegen was once more in U-123 off the US east coast. During this second Drumbeat patrol he sank ten ships with a total of 57,170 tons. For this additional outstanding patrol he was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knights Cross while still at sea. In May 1942 Hardegen brought U-123 back to Kiel for repair.

On 31 July 1942 he left U-123 to become an instructor with the 27th (Training) Flotilla in Gotenhafen. In March 1943 Kptlt. Hardegen became chief of U-boat training at the Torpedo School at Mürwik. After then serving in the Torpedowaffenamt (torpedo technical department) for a few months, he was made a battalion commander in Marine Infanterie Regiment 6 in February 1945.

After the war Reinhard Hardegen spent more than a year in British captivity before returning home in November 1946. He built up a successful oil trading company and was a representative in the parliament of his hometown of Bremen for 20 years.

You can hear Mr. Hardegen speak of his experiences here.

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

Patrol info for Reinhard Hardegen

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-147	9 Feb 1941	Kiel	16 Feb 1941	Bergen		8 days
2.	U-147	22 Feb 1941	Bergen	12 Mar 1941	Kiel	Patrol 1,	19 days
3.	U-123	8 Jun 1941	Lorient	12 Jun 1941	Lorient		5 days
4.	U-123	15 Jun 1941	Lorient	23 Aug 1941	Lorient	Patrol 2,	70 days
5.	U-123	14 Oct 1941	Lorient	22 Nov 1941	Lorient	Patrol 3,	40 days
6.	U-123	23 Dec 1941	Lorient	9 Feb 1942	Lorient	Patrol 4,	49 days
7.	U-123	2 Mar 1942	Lorient	2 May 1942	Lorient	Patrol 5,	62 days
8.	U-123	16 May 1942	Lorient	24 May 1942	Bergen		9 days
9.	U-123	25 May 1942	Bergen	26 May 1942	Kristiansand		2 days
10.	U-123	26 May 1942	Kristiansand	27 May 1942	Aarhus		2 days
11.	U-123	28 May 1942	Aarhus	29 May 1942	Kiel		2 days
12.	U-123	3 Jun 1942	Kiel	5 Jun 1942	Stettin		3 days
5 patrols, 240 days at sea

Ships hit by Reinhard Hardegen

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
2 Mar 1941	U-147	Augvald	4,811	nw	HX-109
20 Jun 1941	U-123	Ganda	4,333	pt
27 Jun 1941	U-123	P.L.M. 22	5,646	br	SL-78
27 Jun 1941	U-123	Oberon	1,996	nl	SL-78
29 Jun 1941	U-123	Rio Azul	4,088	br	SL-78
4 Jul 1941	U-123	Auditor	5,444	br	OB-337
21 Oct 1941	U-123	HMS Aurania (F 28) (d.)	13,984	br	SL-89

12 Jan 1942	U-123	Cyclops	9,076	br
14 Jan 1942	U-123	Norness	9,577	pa
15 Jan 1942	U-123	Coimbra	6,768	br
17 Jan 1942	U-123	Octavian	1,345	nw
19 Jan 1942	U-123	Norvana	2,677	am
19 Jan 1942	U-123	City of Atlanta	5,269	am
19 Jan 1942	U-123	Malay (d.)	8,206	am
19 Jan 1942	U-123	Ciltvaira	3,779	le
25 Jan 1942	U-123	Culebra	3,044	br	ON-53
27 Jan 1942	U-123	Pan Norway	9,231	nw	ON-56
22 Mar 1942	U-123	Muskogee	7,034	am
24 Mar 1942	U-123	Empire Steel	8,138	br
27 Mar 1942	U-123	USS Atik (AK 101)	3,209	am
2 Apr 1942	U-123	Liebre (d.)	7,057	am
8 Apr 1942	U-123	Oklahoma (d.)	9,264	am
8 Apr 1942	U-123	Esso Baton Rouge (d.)	7,989	am
9 Apr 1942	U-123	Esparta	3,365	am
11 Apr 1942	U-123	Gulfamerica	8,081	am
13 Apr 1942	U-123	Leslie	2,609	am
13 Apr 1942	U-123	Korsholm	2,647	sw
17 Apr 1942	U-123	Alcoa Guide	4,834	am
			163,501
23 ships sunk (117,001 tons) and 5 ships damaged (46,500 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.