August-Wilhelm Hewicker

Oberleutnant zur See (Crew 37a)

No ships sunk or damaged.

Born	30 Jul 1918		Hamburg
Died	26 Nov 1971	(53)	Elmshorn, Germany

Kriegsmarine Crew photo

Ranks

3 Apr 1937		Offiziersanwärter
21 Sep 1937		Seekadett
1 May 1938		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jul 1939		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Aug 1939		Leutnant zur See
1 Sep 1941		Oberleutnant zur See

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-671	3 Mar 1943	4 May 1943	No war patrols

August-Wilhelm Hewicke commanded a minesweeper of the 42nd Minesweeper Flotilla from Aug 1940 - Sep 1941, and after ten months U-boat training, culminating in three months at the Watch Officer at the 26th (Training) Flotilla Watch Officer school at Pillau, served as IWO (1st Watch Officer) on U-566 for five months.

He commissioned his own boat, U-671, on 3 March 1943, and began working up exercises in the Baltic.

Two months later the 24 year old U-boat commander was found to have broken the officer ethics code, allegedly because of a woman. He was relieved of his command on 4 May 1943 and on 11 May sentenced to nine months in prison for "joint enterprise theft and suppressing a complaint" (Gemeinschaftlichen Diebstahls und Unterdrückung einer Beschwerde), stripped of his rank and demoted to seaman (Matrose).

On 22 July 1943 he was taken to Anklam military prison, and then on 22 Aug 1943 to Rathenow, where he completed his sentence.

His appeal to Dönitz for a pardon was rejected on 8 April 1944.

On 21 April 1944 he was released from prison and posted to the 1st Marine Reserve Battalion. As a highly trained officer he could still be useful to the Navy, and he was given command of minesweeper M 265 in April. He commanded M 265 until Dec 1944, and his record during that time was excellent.

On 14 Sept 1945 he requested that his rank of Oberleutnant zur See be reinstated. His application was rejected on 18 Feb 1946.

Special thanks to Mr. Fernando Almeida for career details.

Patrol info for August-Wilhelm Hewicker

This commander did not go out on patrols with his boats.

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.