Werner Hartenstein

Werner Hartenstein (27 February 1908 – 8 March 1943) was a German naval officer during World War II who commanded the U-boat GS U-156 (1941).

He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Hartenstein was credited with sinking 19 ships totaling, and with damaging three ships and a destroyer.

Hartenstein was born in Plauen in the Vogtland of the Kingdom of Saxony, then a federated state of the German Empire, on 27 February 1908.

He was the second child of William Karl Adolf Hartenstein, an export merchant, and Selma Emma Hartenstein, née Schlingensiepen.

Hartenstein had one older sister, Thea Irena, and a younger sister, Charlotte.

He celebrated his confirmation in 1923 and graduated from a humanities-oriented secondary school in Plauen with his diploma (Abitur) in 1926.

After graduation in 1926 he applied for a naval officer cadetship but was rejected at first, and instead studied two semesters of jurisprudence.

He matriculated at the University of Freiburg (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) in Freiburg im Breisgau on 29 April 1927.

Born in Plauen, Hartenstein joined the Reichsmarine (navy of the Weimar Republic) in 1928.

Aged 20, Hartenstein re-applied for the cadetship, was accepted and began his naval career with the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1928 as a member of "Crew 28" (the incoming class of 1928).

He underwent basic military training in the 2nd department of the standing ship division of the Baltic Sea in Stralsund (1 April 1928 – 30 June 1928).

Hartenstein was then transferred to the training ship Niobe (1 July 1928 – 15 October 1928), attaining the rank of Seekadett (midshipman) on 11 October 1928.

Following a 14-month stay on board the cruiser Emden (16 October 1928 – 3 January 1930) he advanced in rank to Fähnrich zur See (officer cadet) on 1 January 1930.

Emden at the time was under the command of Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, a U-boat commander during World War I.

Hartenstein then underwent a number of officer training courses at the Naval Academy at Mürwik, including navigational training cruises on the survey vessel Meteor, before transferring to the light cruiser Köln (1 October 1931 – 23 September 1934).

His stay on Köln was occasionally interrupted to attend further training courses at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel-Wik.

During this assignment on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, came to power in Germany, and began to rearm the navy.

In 1935, the Reichsmarine was renamed the Kriegsmarine.

Hartenstein served as first watch officer on the torpedo boat GERMAN TORPEDO BOAT Greif from 30 September 1936 to 13 November 1938.

He was promoted to Kapitänleutnant (captain lieutenant) on 1 June 1937.

Hartenstein participated in several patrols in 1937 and 1938 on board Greif in Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War.

Hartenstein took command of torpedo boat GERMAN TORPEDO BOAT Seeadler on 20 November 1938.

For these services he was awarded the Spanish Cross in Bronze (Spanienkreuz in Bronze) on 6 June 1939.

At the outbreak of World War II, Hartenstein continued to serve on torpedo boats.

In this position, he completed 65 patrols in the North Sea, Norwegian waters, the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel in the first one and a half years of the war.

In October 1939 Hartenstein transferred and switched command of torpedo boat GERMAN TORPEDO BOAT Jaguar with Kapitänleutnant Franz Kohlauf who took over command of Seeadler.

After a period of training on surface vessels and service on various torpedo boats during the Spanish Civil War and the first year of World War II, he transferred to the U-boat service in 1941.

On 30 March 1941, command of Jaguar was given to Kapitänleutnant Friedrich-Karl Paul and Hartenstein transferred to the U-boat force, and on 4 September 1941 was given command of U-156, a Type IXC U-boat.

U-156 was first assigned to the 4th U-boat Flotilla at Stettin as a training boat, then was transferred to the 2nd U-boat Flotilla at Lorient, France, on 31 December 1941.

Hartenstein's first patrol (24 December 1941 – 10 January 1942) was an uneventful transfer patrol taking U-156 from Kiel to Lorient.

U-156, together with GS U-87 (1941) and GS U-753, transited through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, passing Brunsbüttel where they joined up with a pathfinder and GS U-135 (1941).

The convoy received aerial protection from Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft and split up once they reached Cuxhaven.

In September 1942, Hartenstein torpedoed and sank the RMS Laconia (1921), then attempted to rescue the survivors.

He was forced to abort the rescue when his U-boat came under attack by a B-24 Liberator bomber of the United States Army Air Forces.

The event became known as the "Laconia incident" and resulted in the "Laconia Order", an order from the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote to the entire German U-boat force that forbade rescuing the survivors of sunken ships.

For his service on torpedo boats, Hartenstein was awarded the German Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) on 2 February 1942.

Karl Dönitz personally pinned the award on Harteinstein's leather jacket on 17 March 1942.

Passing south of the Shetland Islands, bypassing the Hebrides, U-156 slowly approached Rockall, where two weather buoys (Wetterfunkgeräte/Boje, or WFB) were released: "WFB 33" on 7 January 1942 at 51.07167°N, -11.06667°W, and "WFB 32" on 8 January 1942 at 02:44 at 53.4°N, -13.53333°W in the Porcupine Bank.

Hartenstein and the entire crew of U-156 were killed in action by depth charges from a US PBY Catalina aircraft on 8 March 1943.