Herbert A. Werner (13 May 1920 – 6 April 2013) was a German submarine officer and captain during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He served in five

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

s and survived the sinking of in the Baltic and the loss of in Brest harbour. Werner moved to the United States in 1957 and became an American citizen.uboat.net

Biography

Herbert Werner was born in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

in 1920. He joined the navy in 1939 as an officer candidate and became a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest Military rank#Subordinate/student officer, rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Royal Cana ...

(''Fähnrich zur See'') in November 1940. in April 1941 he was appointed watch officer on under Ottokar Paulshen and carried out three war patrols with her, from April to November 1941, during which he was involved in a number of engagements and took part in the sinking of five merchant ships. Werner was promoted and sent to U-boat school for training, before joining ''U-612'' in April 1942 as first watch officer under Paul Siegmann. ''U-612'' was lost accidentally in August 1942 while working up, although most of the crew were saved; they were transferred ''en bloc'' to . Werner accomplished four patrols with her (seeing only one success) up to December 1943, when he was again promoted and sent to commanders school. In April 1944 he took command of ''U-415'' but made only two abortive sorties before she was sunk in harbour after detonating a mine. Werner then took command of , in August 1944 and escaped with her to Norway, from whence he made one unfruitful patrol before the German surrender in May 1945. Werner is thought to have moved to the US in 1957, and there wrote the best selling memoir ''Iron Coffins''. He is believed to have died on 4 (or 6) April 2013 in Vero Beach, Florida.Herbert Werner at uboat.net
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References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Werner, Herbert 1920 births 2013 deaths U-boat commanders (Kriegsmarine) Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion Military personnel from Freiburg im Breisgau People from the Republic of Baden Emigrants from West Germany to the United States