Ralf-Reimar Wolfram (31 March 1912 – 9 February 1945) was a ''

Korvettenkapitän () is the lowest ranking senior officer in a number of Germanic-speaking navies. Austro-Hungary Belgium Germany Korvettenkapitän, short: KKpt/in lists: KK, () is the lowest senior officer rank () in the German Navy. Address The offi ...

'' during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. During his career he commanded two

U-boats U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

for a total of 118 days at sea spanning four patrols. During his third patrol he sank the , an American

liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost constr ...

. ''Robert Gray'' was a straggler from convoy HX 234 en route to Britain. For Wolfram's fourth patrol, he commanded during

Operation Caesar Operation Caesar () was a secret mission carried out by Germany in the Second World War to supply Japan, with advanced technology. The operation failed due to the sinking of U-864 by a British submarine, the only known example of a submerged ...

. He was killed when ''U-864'' was sunk by the British submarine . This was the only known instance of one submerged submarine sinking another submerged submarine. ''U-864'' remains Wolfram's grave to this day.

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Ralf-Reimar Wolfram
1912 births 1945 deaths People from Wilhelmshaven Kriegsmarine personnel killed in World War II People from the Province of Hanover U-boat commanders (Kriegsmarine) Reichsmarine personnel People lost at sea Military personnel from Lower Saxony {{germany-navy-bio-stub