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Born	29 Apr 1909		Guben
Died	2 Jul 1976	(67)

If you can help with photo or any information on this Officer please contact us at gummi@uboat.net.

Ranks 1 Apr 1930   Offiziersanwärter 10 Oct 1930   Seekadett 1 Jan 1932   Fähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1934   Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Oct 1934   Leutnant zur See 1 Jun 1936   Oberleutnant zur See 1 Jun 1939   Kapitänleutnant 1 Jun 1943   Korvettenkapitän Decorations

Heinz-Joachim Neumann joined the Reichsmarine in 1930. He served on the Battleship Scharnhorst from Jan 1939 to June 1940 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

He went through U-boat training from July to Nov 1940 and then began his U-boat Commander training with the 24th (Training) Flotilla which he finished in Dec 1940 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Kptlt. Heins-Joachim Neumann served in the BdU Staff Reserve until Jan 1941 when he was sent as a supernumerary Watch Officer (WO) to the U-52 (Kptlt. Otto Salman) until March 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He went out on one patrol into the North Atlantic with the boat. They sank two ships (4,662 tons) during the 34 day patrol (Rohwer, 1998).

Upon leaving U-52 in March he began his U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) to prepare for his own command of a new boat. On 19 April 1941 he commissioned the new U-372 at Kiel (Busch & Röll, 1999). He then headed into the Baltic for the extensive training needed to prepare for the front (Busch & Röll, 1997).

First patrol as Commander

On 9 July 1941 Kptlt. Heinz-Joachim Neumann left Trondheim, Norway with the U-372. For his first two patrols he operated in the North Atlantic but on the third he was ordered to break into the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar. He would operate there for additional 3 patrols (Busch & Röll, 1999).

With the U-372 he would sink 4 ships for over 26,000 tons in total.

The British Submarine tender HMS Medway (F 25) sunk by U-372 (Neumann) on 30 June 1942.

He briefly commanded the U-371 as acting commander in April/ May 1942. On his 7th patrol his U-372 was sunk on 4 Aug 1942 south-west of Haifa by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Sikh and HMS Zulu and the escort destroyers HMS Croome and HMS Tetcott and by depth charges from a British Wellington aircraft (221 Sqdn.). There were 48 survivors, no casualties (Niestlé, 1998).

Kptlt. Heinz-Joachim Neumann and his entire crew became prisoners of war (POW) (Busch & Röll, 1999).

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).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

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.

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