Günther Reeder

Kapitänleutnant (Crew 35)


Successes
3 ships sunk, total tonnage 18,266 GRT
1 auxiliary warship damaged, total tonnage 10,552 GRT

Born  2 Nov 1915 Berlin-Karlshorst


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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 Jun 1942 Kapitänleutnant

Decorations

  Iron Cross 2nd Class
  Iron Cross 1st Class
29 Jun 1943 German Cross in Gold

U-boat Commands

U-boatFromTo
U-7 Oct, 1940 Jan, 1941   No war patrols 
U-7 Feb, 1941 29 Mar 1941   No war patrols 
U-214 1 Nov 1941 10 May 1943   5 patrols (181 days) 

Günther Reeder joined the Kriegsmarine in 1935. After the usual training he was the First Watch Officer (1WO) on the U-58 (Kptlt. Herbert Kuppisch) from Feb 1939 to Sept 1940 (Busch & Röll, 1999). On this boat he went out on 11 patrols, spending 181 days at sea (Busch & Röll, 1997).

He commanded of the small "duck" U-7 from Oct 1940 to Jan 1941 and again from Feb 1941 to 29 March 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

In Oct 1941 Oblt. Günther Reeder was sent to a shipyard in Kiel to go through his U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) in preparation for this next command. On 1 Nov 1941 he commissioned the brand new type VIID minelaying U-boat U-214 (Busch & Röll, 1999). His boat was one of only 6 such boats in the war. The next 6 months he spent in the Baltic working up both boat and men.

On 18 May 1942 U-214 left Kiel, Germany for Norway and then for Lorient, France arriving on 2 June. Reeder commanded the U-214 on 5 patrols, 181 days at sea (Busch & Röll, 1997). He sank 3 ships for over 18,000 tons and damaged the British Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Cheshire (F 18) on 18 Aug 1942 (Rohwer, 1998).

While outbound through the Bay of Biscay on May 6, 1943 Reeder's boat, the U-214, was heavily depth charged by a British Whitley bomber (10 OTU). Heavy machine-gunfire hit and severely wounded Reeder forcing him to abort his 2 day old patrol and put into Brest on May 10. A replacement captain, Rupperecht Stock, took the boat out again on May 19 (Blair, 1998).

This was to be Reeder's last U-boat command. He then joined the staff of 9th Flotilla in May 1943, serving there until Sept when he became an instructor with the 3rd ULD until the end of the war (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Sources

Blair, C. (1998). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunted, 1942-1945.
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 Günther Reeder

 U-boat Departure Arrival  
1. U-214 18 May 1942  Kiel  20 May 1942  Kristiansand  Patrol 1,3 days
2. U-214 21 May 1942  Kristiansand  2 Jun 1942  Lorient  Patrol 1,13 days
3. U-214 3 Jun 1942  Lorient  4 Jun 1942  Brest  Patrol 1,2 days
4. U-214 13 Jun 1942  Brest  17 Jun 1942  Lorient  Patrol 2,5 days
5. U-214 17 Jun 1942  Lorient  18 Jun 1942  Brest  Patrol 2,2 days
6. U-214 9 Aug 1942  Brest  9 Oct 1942  Brest  Patrol 3,62 days
7. U-214 30 Nov 1942  Brest  24 Feb 1943  Brest  Patrol 4,87 days
8. U-214 4 May 1943  Brest  10 May 1943  Brest  Patrol 5,7 days
5 patrols, 181 days at sea

Ships hit by Günther Reeder

Date U-boat Name of ship Tons Nat. Convoy
18 Aug 1942U-214 Balingkar6,318nlSL-118
18 Aug 1942U-214 Hatarana7,522brSL-118
18 Aug 1942U-214 HMS Cheshire (F 18) (d.)10,552brSL-118
30 Dec 1942U-214 Paderewski4,426po
 28,818

3 ships sunk (18,266 tons) and 1 ship damaged (10,552 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.

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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