Engelbert Endrass
Kapitänleutnant (Crew 34)
Successes 19 ships sunk, total tonnage 81,164 GRT 2 auxiliary warships sunk, total tonnage 35,284 GRT 4 ships damaged, total tonnage 25,491 GRT 1 ship a total loss, total tonnage 2,080 GRT |
Born | 2 Mar 1911 | Bamberg | |
Died | 21 Dec 1941 | (30) | Northeast of Azores |
Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
U-boat | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
U-46 | 22 May 1940 | 24 Sep 1941 | 8 patrols (195 days) |
U-567 | 15 Oct 1941 | 21 Dec 1941 (+) | 2 patrols (37 days) |
Oblt. Engelbert Endraß on board |
Engelbert Endraß began his naval career in April 1935. Like Prien and Metzler, he had previously spent some years in the merchant navy.
After some months serving on the pocket battleship Deutschland and some escort vessels, he was assigned to the U-boat force in October 1937. He joined U-47 in December 1938 as Leutnant z. See. Endraß was 1WO when Günther Prien made his famous Scapa Flow attack and sank HMS Royal Oak.
It was Endraß who painted the famous snorting bull emblem on U-47's conning tower before they returned.
He stayed on U-47 until December 1939, and after some training courses took command of U-46, another type VIIB U-boat, from her luckless commander Herbert Sohler in May 1940.
His first patrol with U-46 was very successful. Endraß sank five ships with a total of 35,347 tons, including the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Carinthia of 20,277 tons. Although hampered by a damaged main (attack) periscope, he repeated that success on his second patrol: he sank five ships, in total 27,038 tons, including another British auxiliary cruiser, the Dunvegan Castle of 15,007 tons. After returning from this patrol Endraß was awarded the Knights Cross. After the seventh patrol, the Oak Leaves were added. In September 1941 he left U-46 and a month later took over the type VIIC U-boat U-567.
Endraß was killed on 21 December 1941, when U-567 was sunk with all hands (47 men) by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Deptford and the British corvette HMS Samphire NE of the Azores at 44.02N, 20.10W (Niestlé, 1998).
Three months later on 31 March 1942 the daily Wehrmachtsbericht announced:
Das Unterseeboot unter Führung von Kapitänleutnant Endraß, Träger des Eichen laubes zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, ist von Feindfahrt nicht zurück gekehrt. Ein hervorragender Unterseebootkommandant ist mit seiner tapferen Besatzung vor dem Feind geblieben.
(The U-boat under the command of Kapitänleutnant Endraß, recipient of the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, has not returned from patrol. An outstanding U-boat commander is on eternal patrol with his brave crew.)
Sources
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1998). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.
Patrol info for Engelbert Endrass
U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | U-46 | 1 Jun 1940 | Kiel | 1 Jul 1940 | Kiel | Patrol 1, | 31 days | |
2. | U-46 | 1 Aug 1940 | Kiel | 4 Aug 1940 | Bergen | 4 days | ||
3. | U-46 | 8 Aug 1940 | Bergen | 6 Sep 1940 | Lorient | Patrol 2, | 30 days | |
4. | U-46 | 20 Sep 1940 | Lorient | 21 Sep 1940 | St. Nazaire | 2 days | ||
5. | U-46 | 23 Sep 1940 | St. Nazaire | 29 Sep 1940 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 3, | 7 days | |
6. | U-46 | 13 Oct 1940 | St. Nazaire | 29 Oct 1940 | Kiel | Patrol 4, | 17 days | |
7. | U-46 | 12 Feb 1941 | Kiel | 4 Mar 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 5, | 21 days | |
8. | U-46 | 15 Mar 1941 | St. Nazaire | 10 Apr 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 6, | 27 days | |
9. | U-46 | 15 May 1941 | St. Nazaire | 13 Jun 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 7, | 30 days | |
10. | U-46 | 26 Jul 1941 | St. Nazaire | 26 Aug 1941 | Kiel | Patrol 8, | 32 days | |
11. | U-567 | 25 Oct 1941 | St. Nazaire | 26 Nov 1941 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 9, | 33 days | |
12. | U-567 | 18 Dec 1941 | St. Nazaire | 21 Dec 1941 | Sunk | Patrol 10, | 4 days | |
10 patrols, 232 days at sea |
Ships hit by Engelbert Endrass
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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