Helmuth Pich

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 34)

Successes
2 ships sunk, total tonnage 6,568 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk, total tonnage 1,440 GRT
1 ship damaged, total tonnage 9,804 GRT

Born	26 Jun 1914		Babziens, Rastenburg
Died	18 Mar 1997	(82)

Ranks

8 Apr 1934		Offiziersanwärter
1 Jul 1935		Fähnrich zur See
1 Jan 1937		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1937		Leutnant zur See
1 Apr 1939		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Feb 1942		Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

		Iron Cross 2nd Class
		Iron Cross 1st Class
		U-boat War Badge 1939

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-168	10 Sep 1942	6 Oct 1944	4 patrols (252 days)

Helmuth Pich joined the Reichsmarine in 1934. From Sept 1939 to Sept 1941 he was seconded to the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force, serving as a flight captain in 2. Seeaufklärergruppe 126 (Naval Reconaissance). (Busch & Röll, 1999).

He went through U-boat training Oct 1941 - March 1942. From March to June 1942 Kplt. Pich served as a supernumerary Watch Officer (WO) on U-103 (Winter) (Busch & Röll, 1999). Pich went out on one 69 day patrol on which nine ships totalling 42,000 tons were sunk (Rohwer, 1998).

Pich went through U-boat construction familiarization (Baubelehrung) June - Sept 1942 to prepare for his next command. On 10 Sept 1942 he commissioned the large type IXC/40 U-168 at Bremen (Busch & Röll, 1999). During the winter he prepared the boat boat and crew with working up exercises in the Baltic before leaving for his first patrol as commander from Kiel on 9 March 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1997).

Operations in the Indian Ocean

On 3 July 1943 Kptlt. Pich took U-168 on a very long patrol to the Indian Ocean as part of the Monsun fleet. He arrived at Penang 132 days later on 11 Nov. He sank the British ship Haiching (2,183 tons) en route on 2 Oct (Rohwer, 1998).

Pich next sailed from Penang on 7 Feb 1944 and docked 47 days later at Batavia, sinking 2 ships (5,825 tons) and damaging the large Norwegian tanker Fenris (Rohwer, 1998).

Helmuth Pich relaxing on the bridge

U-168 then sailed from Batavia on 5 Oct 1944, but was sunk in an ambush by the Dutch submarine HrMs Zwaardvisch in the Java Sea the next day (Niestlé, 1998). 23 men died and 27 survived, including Pich.

Kptlt. Helmut Pich was captured with the rest of the survivors and remained in captivity until March 1947 (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.

Patrol info for Helmuth Pich

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-168	9 Mar 1943	Kiel	18 May 1943	Lorient	Patrol 1,	71 days
2.	U-168	3 Jul 1943	Lorient	11 Nov 1943	Penang	Patrol 2,	132 days
3.	U-168	28 Jan 1944	Penang	3 Feb 1944	Penang		7 days
4.	U-168	7 Feb 1944	Penang	24 Mar 1944	Batavia	Patrol 3,	47 days
5.	U-168	5 Oct 1944	Batavia	6 Oct 1944	Sunk	Patrol 4,	2 days
4 patrols, 252 days at sea

Ships hit by Helmuth Pich

Date	U-boat	Name of ship	Tons
2 Oct 1943	U-168	Haiching	2,183	br

14 Feb 1944	U-168	HMS Salviking	1,440	br
15 Feb 1944	U-168	Epaminondas C. Embiricos	4,385	gr
21 Feb 1944	U-168	Fenris (d.)	9,804	nw
			17,812
3 ships sunk (8,008 tons) and 1 ship damaged (9,804 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.