Otto Schuhart

Korvettenkapitän (Crew 29)

Successes
12 ships sunk, total tonnage 67,277 GRT
1 warship sunk, total tonnage 22,500 tons

Born	1 Apr 1909		Hamburg
Died	10 Mar 1990	(80)	Stuttgart, Germany

Otto Schuhart

Ranks

1 Apr 1929		Offiziersanwärter
10 Oct 1929		Seekadett
1 Jan 1931		Fähnrich zur See
1 Apr 1933		Oberfähnrich zur See
1 Oct 1933		Leutnant zur See
1 Jun 1935		Oberleutnant zur See
1 Aug 1938		Kapitänleutnant
1 Apr 1943		Korvettenkapitän

Decorations

26 Sep 1939		Iron Cross 2nd Class
26 Sep 1939		Iron Cross 1st Class
16 Dec 1939		U-boat War Badge 1939
16 May 1940		Knights Cross

U-boat Commands

U-boat	From	To
U-8	2 Sep 1938	29 Oct 1938	No war patrols
U-25	10 Dec 1938	3 Apr 1939	No war patrols
U-29	4 Apr 1939	2 Jan 1941	7 patrols (219 days)

Otto Schuhart began his naval career in April 1929. Later he spent two years on the battleship Schleswig-Holstein. In 1936 he joined the U-boat force. On his first war patrol he sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous (Rohwer, 1998). This was the first outstanding sinking of the U-boat arm, and the whole crew received the EK II (Iron Cross) and as commander Schuhart received both the EK I and the EK II.

In 1941 he became an instructor in the 1st ULD (Unterseeboots-Lehr-Division), and in June 1943 became commander of the 21st (Training) Flotilla. The last months of the war he spent in the Marineschule Flensburg-Mürwik.

Otto Schuhart joined the Bundesmarine in 1955, retiring in 1967 with a rank of Kapitän zur See.

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).
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

Patrol info for Otto Schuhart

	U-boat	Departure		Arrival
1.	U-29	19 Aug 1939	Wilhelmshaven	26 Sep 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 1,	39 days
2.	U-29	14 Nov 1939	Wilhelmshaven	16 Dec 1939	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 2,	33 days
3.	U-29	6 Feb 1940	Wilhelmshaven	7 Feb 1940	Helgoland	Patrol 3,	2 days
4.	U-29	11 Feb 1940	Helgoland	12 Mar 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 3,	31 days
5.	U-29	17 Apr 1940	Wilhelmshaven	23 Apr 1940	Trondheim		7 days
6.	U-29	27 Apr 1940	Trondheim	4 May 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 4,	8 days
7.	U-29	27 May 1940	Wilhelmshaven	11 Jul 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 5,	46 days
8.	U-29	2 Sep 1940	Wilhelmshaven	5 Sep 1940	Bergen		4 days
9.	U-29	11 Sep 1940	Bergen	1 Oct 1940	Lorient	Patrol 6,	21 days
10.	U-29	26 Oct 1940	Lorient	3 Dec 1940	Wilhelmshaven	Patrol 7,	39 days
7 patrols, 219 days at sea

Ships hit by Otto Schuhart

Date	U-boat	Commander	Name of ship	Tons		Convoy
8 Sep 1939	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Regent Tiger	10,176	br
13 Sep 1939	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Neptunia	798	br
14 Sep 1939	U-29	Otto Schuhart	British Influence	8,431	br
17 Sep 1939	U-29	Otto Schuhart	HMS Courageous (50)	22,500	br

3 Mar 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Cato [Mine]	710	br
4 Mar 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Thurston	3,072	br
4 Mar 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Pacific Reliance	6,717	br	OA-102
16 Mar 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Slava [Mine]	4,512	yu
26 Jun 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Dimitris	5,254	gr
1 Jul 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Adamastos	7,466	gr
2 Jul 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Santa Margarita	4,919	pa
2 Jul 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Athellaird	8,999	br	OB-176
25 Sep 1940	U-29	Otto Schuhart	Eurymedon	6,223	br	OB-217
				89,777
13 ships sunk (89,777 tons). Legend We have a picture of this vessel. [Mine] indicates the vessel was hit by a mine laid by said U-boat.

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.