Hans-Hartwig Trojer
Kapitänleutnant (Crew 36)
| Successes 11 ships sunk, total tonnage 69,589 GRT 10 warships sunk, total tonnage 759 tons (lost aboard transport ships) 1 ship damaged, total tonnage 7,197 GRT |
| Born | 22 Jan 1916 | Birthälm, Siebenbürgen (now Biertan, Sibiu), Romania | |
| Died | 27 Sep 1943 | (27) | North Atlantic |
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Ranks
Decorations
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U-boat Commands
| U-boat | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-3 | 3 Jul 1941 | 2 Mar 1942 | No war patrols |
| U-221 | 9 May 1942 | 27 Sep 1943 (+) | 5 patrols (199 days) |
Hans Trojer after joining the Kriegsmarine |
Hans-Hartwig Trojer joined the Kriegsmarine in 1936, and was part of the Olympia Crew. Because he was born in Transylvania, he was soon nicknamed Count Dracula by his comrades.
In October 1938 he joined the U-boat force, and he spent the first two years of the war as Watch Officer on U-34 and U-67.
After completing commander training, Trojer took over command of the school boat U-3. In March 1942 he commissioned the combat boat U-221.
His first patrol in the North Atlantic was so successful (six ships totalling 29,682 tons), that he and his crew were mentioned in the daily Wehrmachtsbericht (Armed Forces bulletin). He was awarded the Knights Cross via radio during his third patrol in March 1943.
On 8 Dec 1942 Trojer's boat accidentally rammed U-254 while the boats were on convoy operations in the North Atlantic. U-254 went down immediately with all but four of her crew (41 dead, including the Commander). U-221 herself was seriously damaged and unable to dive. Trojer abandoned the patrol and made for St. Nazaire, France, reaching base on 23 Dec. He was later absolved of any blame for the accident (Blair, 1998).
Kapitänleutant Trojer died with his entire crew on 27 September 1943 when a British Halifax sank U-221 in the Atlantic south of Ireland (Niestlé, 1998).
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).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.
Patrol info for Hans-Hartwig Trojer
| U-boat | Departure | Arrival | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | U-221 | 1 Sep 1942 | Kiel | 2 Sep 1942 | Kristiansand | 2 days | ||
| 2. | U-221 | 3 Sep 1942 | Kristiansand | 22 Oct 1942 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 1, | 50 days | |
| 3. | U-221 | 23 Nov 1942 | St. Nazaire | 23 Dec 1942 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 2, | 31 days | |
| 4. | U-221 | 27 Feb 1943 | St. Nazaire | 28 Mar 1943 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 3, | 30 days | |
| 5. | U-221 | 3 May 1943 | St. Nazaire | 21 Jul 1943 | St. Nazaire | Patrol 4, | 80 days | |
| 6. | U-221 | 20 Sep 1943 | St. Nazaire | 27 Sep 1943 | Sunk | Patrol 5, | 8 days | |
| 5 patrols, 199 days at sea | ||||||||
Ships hit by Hans-Hartwig Trojer
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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