Harald Gelhaus
Kapitänleutnant (Crew 35)
Successes 19 ships sunk, total tonnage 100,373 GRT 1 ship damaged, total tonnage 10,068 GRT |
Born | 24 Jul 1915 | Göttingen | |
Died | 2 Dec 1997 | (82) | Bochum, Westphalia, Germany |
Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
U-boat | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
U-143 | 31 Mar 1941 | 19 Nov 1941 | 4 patrols (82 days) |
U-107 | 1 Dec 1941 | 6 Jun 1943 | 6 patrols (343 days) |
Harald Gelhaus began his naval career in April 1935. He served on the light cruiser Karlsruhe and on the battleship Gneisenau. In October 1939 he transferred to the U-boat force. His first three patrols were as I WO on U-103 under Korvkpt. Schütze (Busch & Röll, 1999).
He left the boat in March 1941 and took command of the type IIB boat U-143. After four patrols he became the commander of U-107, the already famous boat of Korvkpt. Hessler (Busch & Röll, 1999). On the next six patrols he sank 19 ships with a total of little more than 100,00 tons (Rohwer, 1998). In June 1943 he became a staff member of the OKM, the High Command of the German Navy (Busch & Röll, 1999).
From February 1944 Gelhaus was a training officer in the 22nd (Training) Flotilla and 27th (Training) Flotillas. The final months of the war he spent in staff positions, the last one being in Naval High Command North. After the war he spent three months in Allied captivity (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Sources
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.
Patrol info for Harald Gelhaus
U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | U-143 | 19 Apr 1941 | Kiel | 13 May 1941 | Bergen | Patrol 1, | 25 days | |
2. | U-143 | 13 May 1941 | Bergen | 18 May 1941 | Kiel | 6 days | ||
3. | U-143 | 9 Jun 1941 | Kiel | 29 Jun 1941 | Bergen | Patrol 2, | 21 days | |
4. | U-143 | 6 Jul 1941 | Bergen | 14 Jul 1941 | Bergen | Patrol 3, | 9 days | |
5. | U-143 | 17 Jul 1941 | Bergen | 21 Jul 1941 | Kiel | 5 days | ||
6. | U-143 | 17 Aug 1941 | Kiel | 12 Sep 1941 | Kiel | Patrol 4, | 27 days | |
7. | U-107 | 10 Dec 1941 | Lorient | 26 Dec 1941 | Lorient | Patrol 5, | 17 days | |
8. | U-107 | 7 Jan 1942 | Lorient | 7 Mar 1942 | Lorient | Patrol 6, | 60 days | |
9. | U-107 | 21 Apr 1942 | Lorient | 11 Jul 1942 | Lorient | Patrol 7, | 82 days | |
10. | U-107 | 15 Aug 1942 | Lorient | 18 Nov 1942 | Lorient | Patrol 8, | 96 days | |
11. | U-107 | 30 Jan 1943 | Lorient | 25 Mar 1943 | Lorient | Patrol 9, | 55 days | |
12. | U-107 | 24 Apr 1943 | Lorient | 26 May 1943 | Lorient | Patrol 10, | 33 days | |
10 patrols, 425 days at sea |
Ships hit by Harald Gelhaus
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
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