Siegfried von Forstner

Infobox Military Person
name= Siegfried von Forstner
born=birth date|1910|9|19|df=y
died=dda|1943|10|13|1910|9|19|df=y


placeofbirth=Hannover
placeofdeath= KIA Atlantic Ocean
nickname=
allegiance=flagicon|Germany Weimar Republic (to 1933)
flagicon|Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
branch=navy|Weimar Republic
navy|Nazi Germany
serviceyears=1930–1943
rank=Korvettenkapitän
posthumously promoted to Fregattenkapitän
commands="U 402"
unit=light cruiser "Nürnberg"
"U 99"
battles=World War II
* Battle of the North Atlantic
awards=Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
laterwork=

Korvettenkapitän Siegfried Freiherr von Forstnerref label|Note1|a|a (19 September 1910 – 13 October 1943ref label|Note2|b|b) was a German U-boat commander during World War II.

Background

Baron von Forstner was the son of an aristocratic Prussian family whose men had served for generations as Army and Navy officers. His younger brother Wolfgang was also a U-boat commander, and two other brothers were Army officers. Wolfgang was the only brother to survive World War II. [Waters December 1966 p.99] Their great-grandfather and grandfather had been army officers, and their father was a general, Ernst Freiherr von Forstner, who had won the Pour le Mérite with cluster as a regimental commander during World War I. [Waters 1967 p.260] Their uncle George Gunther von Forstner had commanded "U1" and "U28" during World War I, [Waters December 1966 p.99] and another uncle of the Imperial Navy had died in that conflict. [Waters 1967 p.260]

Career

Baron Siegfried von Forster joined the Kriegsmarine in 1930 and served four years on the German cruiser Nürnberg following training as an artillery technical officer. Many of his year group were already at sea in submarines when he entered U-boat school in 1940. Baron von Forstner received training as a student commander aboard "U99" under his Naval School classmate Otto Kretschmer. [Waters December 1966 p.99] After a 5-month tour in "U59", von Forstner assumed command of "U402". Baron von Forstner carried out eight combat patrols in "U402" sinking 14 merchantmen and one warship and damaging three other ships.

Baron von Forstner married in Hamburg in December, 1940, while waiting to take command of "U402". His wife Annamaria made distinctive red pom-poms for the crew of "U402" to wear on their uniform hats. [Waters 1967 p.266] The Baron and Baroness saved their home in Hamburg from burning during August, 1943, air-raids by staying on the roof and extinguishing incendiary bombs. [Waters 1967 p.267]

No ships were sunk during the first "U402" patrol from 26 October 1941 to 9 December 1941. On the second patrol von Forstner damaged the 12000-ton troopship "Llangibby Castle" off the Bay of Biscay on 16 January 1942 but the damaged troopship was able to make repairs in the Azores. [Blair 1996 pp.489-492]

Baron von Forstner then made two patrols off the Atlantic coast of the United States. He sank a 4800-ton ship en route and then sank the 5300-ton Russian tanker "Ashkabad" and the 1000-ton converted yacht USS Cythera (PY-26) off Cape Hatteras on 2 May 1942. [Blair 1996 p.544] On the next patrol, "U402" was depth charged by patrol bombers off Cape Hatteras in mid-July and suffered a battery explosion. [Waters December 1966 p.99]

Baron von Forstner received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for torpedoing twelve ships from convoy SC-107 and convoy SC-118. Baron von Forstner sank two ships during a submerged daylight attack on convoy SC-129 before "U402" was depth charged and damaged by the corvette "Gentian". [Blair 1998 p.329]

Baron von Forstner shot down an attacking RAF 172 Squadron Vickers Wellington bomber over the Bay of Biscay following departure for his last patrol on 4 September 1943. [Blair 1998 pp.420&762] "U402" provided flak protection for "U377" when the latter was attacked by a B-24 Liberator bomber during the battle of Convoy ON-202. [Waters 1967 p.268] A U-boat believed by the Allied Anti-Submarine Assessment Committee to be "U402" was sunk with all hands on 13 October 1943 by a Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo dropped by TBF Avenger aircraft from USS Card (CVE-11). [Blair 1998 p.432] [Cressman 2000 p.187] [Kafka & Pepperburg 1946 p.1085] [Lenton 1976 p.180] [Taylor 1967 p.125] [Waters December 1966 p.105] [Waters 1967 p.269]

Footnotes

*note label|Note1|a|aGerman title Freiherr
*note label|Note2|b|bSources are inconclusive with respect to date of death. Some sources indicate that von Forstner succumbed to his injuries on 22 October 1943 nine days after the sinking of U 402 on 13 October 1943. [Fellgiebel 2000, p. 184.] [Kurowski 1995, p. 57.] [Range 1974, p. 78.]

References

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