Heinrich Schonder

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 34)

Successes
14 ships sunk, total tonnage 28,318 GRT
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 1,050 tons
1 ship damaged, total tonnage 155 GRT
1 warship damaged, total tonnage 1,690 tons

Born	23 Jul 1910		Erfurt
Died	24 Jun 1943	(32)	North Atlantic

Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Schonder

Ranks

8 Apr 1934		Offiziersanwärter
26 Sep 1934		Seekadett
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 Sep 1941		Kapitänleutnant
1 Jun 1943		Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

1 Oct 1939		Iron Cross 2nd Class
1 Dec 1939		U-boat War Badge 1939
23 Jul 1940		Iron Cross 1st Class
19 Aug 1942		Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-53	Dec, 1939	Jan, 1940	No war patrols
U-58	1 Jul 1940	24 Nov 1940	4 patrols (56 days)
U-77	18 Jan 1941	2 Sep 1942	7 patrols (222 days)
U-200	22 Dec 1942	24 Jun 1943 (+)	1 patrol (13 days)

Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Schonder on board

Heinrich Schonder began his naval career in April 1935. After some months on the torpedo boat Falke he transferred to the U-boat force in January 1938.

He served for two years on several U-boats as watch officer before taking command of the type IIC U-boat U-58 in June 1940. During four patrols, mostly in the North Atlantic, he sank four ships.

He left U-58 and in January 1941 commissioned the type VIIC U-boat U-77. After three patrols in the North Atlantic, in December 1941 he succeeded in breaking through to the Mediterranean. He went on six patrols there, sinking, among other vessels, the British the frigate HMS Grove, and damaging the destroyer HMS Kimberley.

'Hein' Schonder left U-77 in September 1942 and three months later commissioned the type IX-D2 U-200, which was sunk with all hands on her first patrol, southwest of Iceland, by an RAF B-24 Liberator on 24 June 1943. (Niestlé, 1998).

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 Heinrich Schonder

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-58	6 Jul 1940	Kiel	22 Jul 1940	Lorient	Patrol 1,	17 days
2.	U-58	29 Jul 1940	Lorient	12 Aug 1940	Lorient	Patrol 2,	15 days
3.	U-58	2 Sep 1940	Lorient	20 Sep 1940	Lorient	Patrol 3,	19 days
4.	U-58	2 Oct 1940	Lorient	12 Oct 1940	Bergen		11 days
5.	U-58	14 Oct 1940	Bergen	18 Oct 1940	Kiel	Patrol 4,	5 days
6.	U-77	29 May 1941	Kiel	7 Jul 1941	St. Nazaire	Patrol 5,	40 days
7.	U-77	2 Aug 1941	St. Nazaire	10 Sep 1941	St. Nazaire	Patrol 6,	40 days
8.	U-77	11 Oct 1941	St. Nazaire	13 Nov 1941	Lorient	Patrol 7,	34 days
9.	U-77	10 Dec 1941	Lorient	19 Dec 1941	Messina	Patrol 8,	10 days
10.	U-77	21 Dec 1941	Messina	14 Jan 1942	Salamis	Patrol 8,	25 days
11.	U-77	28 Mar 1942	Salamis	3 Apr 1942	Salamis	Patrol 9,	7 days
12.	U-77	7 Apr 1942	Salamis	11 Apr 1942	La Spezia		5 days
13.	U-77	6 Jun 1942	La Spezia	17 Jun 1942	Salamis	Patrol 10,	12 days
14.	U-77	23 Jun 1942	Salamis	9 Jul 1942	Salamis	Patrol 10,	17 days
15.	U-77	16 Jul 1942	Salamis	21 Aug 1942	Salamis	Patrol 11,	37 days
16.	U-77	25 Aug 1942	Salamis	30 Aug 1942	Pola		6 days
17.	U-200	12 Jun 1943	Kiel	24 Jun 1943	Sunk	Patrol 12,	13 days
12 patrols, 291 days at sea

Ships hit by Heinrich Schonder

Date	U-boat	Commander	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
18 Jul 1940	U-58	Heinrich Schonder	Gyda	1,591	nw
4 Aug 1940	U-58	Heinrich Schonder	Pindos	4,360	gr	SL-40
8 Oct 1940	U-58	Heinrich Schonder	Confield	4,956	br	HX-76

13 Jun 1941	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Tresillian	4,743	br	OB-330
22 Jun 1941	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Arakaka	2,379	br
25 Jun 1941	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Anna Bulgaris	4,603	gr
15 Dec 1941	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Empire Barracuda	4,972	br

12 Jan 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	HMS Kimberley (F 50) (d.)	1,690	br
12 Jun 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	HMS Grove (L 77)	1,050	br	MW-11
22 Jul 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Vassiliki	140	gr
24 Jul 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Toufic El Rahman	30	sy
30 Jul 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Fany	43	ag
1 Aug 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	St. Simon	85	ag
6 Aug 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Ezzet	158	ag
6 Aug 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Adnan (d.)	155	ag
10 Aug 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Kharouf	158	pl
16 Aug 1942	U-77	Heinrich Schonder	Daniel	100	pl
				31,213
15 ships sunk (29,368 tons) and 2 ships damaged (1,845 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.