Reinhard Hardegen

Korvettenkapitän Reinhard Hardegen (18 March 1913 – 9 June 2018) was a German U-boat commander during World War II.

He was credited with the sinking of 25 ships (2 were later refloated), at a total of 136,661 tons.

After the war, he spent a year and a half as a British prisoner-of-war before starting a successful oil trading business and serving as a member of Bremen's city council (the Bürgerschaft) for over 32 years.

Hardegen served as 1.WO (First Watch Officer) under Kapitänleutnant Georg-Wilhelm Schulz aboard GS U-124 (1940) and, after two war patrols, was given his own command, the Type IID U-boat GS U-147 (1940), operating out of Kiel, on 11 December 1940.

The boat was ready for its first patrol shortly before the new year and, after visiting the U-boat base in Bergen, U-147 was ordered to patrol the convoy routes north of the Hebrides.

On the second day of the patrol, Hardegen fired a torpedo which failed to detonate against a large merchant ship, before being forced to submerge after mistaking a destroyer for a merchant ship.

During the dive, the tower hatch was damaged, forcing U-147 to resurface after a short while to make feverish repairs only a few hundred meters from the destroyer.

The gathering darkness, however, saved the boat from being detected.

The water leaks had damaged the diesel engines aboard the boat, forcing Hardegen to use his electric motors when, later in the night, he saw another merchant passing by.

Although slowed, the U-boat had enough speed to close the distance and launch a torpedo which sank the freighter.

After interrogating the crew, Hardegen learned it was the Norwegian steamer Augvald.

A few days later, Hardegen again attacked two freighters, only to find his torpedoes missing or failing to detonate.

Shortly thereafter, he was ordered back to Kiel.

After completing the patrol, Hardegen was given command of GS U-123 (1940), a Type IXB U-boat operating out of Lorient.

Hardegen's first patrol with U-123 started on 16 June 1941, with a course for West African waters to attack British shipping around Freetown.

On 20 June, Hardegen sank the neutral Portuguese vessel Ganda, mistaking her for a British freighter.

Dönitz later ordered all references to this sinking deleted from the journals of U-123 and the matter received little attention.

This was one of two known alterations of the Kriegstagebuch ordered by Dönitz, the other being in regard to the sinking of the liner SS Athenia.

His next patrol, in October 1941, took him to the North Atlantic.

On 20 October he intercepted a convoy and attacked the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Aurania (13,984 tons).

Although badly damaged, the cruiser was towed to harbour for repairs.

Some of the crew abandoned the cruiser, however, and Hardegen picked up a survivor who was brought back to France as a prisoner of war.

This led Hardegen to claim the sinking.

On 23 December 1941, U-123 left for the first phase of Operation Drumbeat.

Five boats, which was all Dönitz could muster, were sent towards the American coast, to take advantage of the confusion in the Eastern Seaboard defense networks shortly after the declaration of war.

Hardegen was ordered to penetrate the inshore areas around New York City, however due to the need for strict operational secrecy for this task, no mapping of the area was issued from stores in Lorient, and Hardegen had only large nautical charts as well as a Knaurs pocket atlas (of his own), for navigation.

After sinking the Cyclops and Norness, Hardegen decided to bottom (place the boat on the ocean bottom) the boat and wait for nightfall before proceeding into the harbour itself.

During the night of 15 January, Hardegen entered the harbour, nearly beaching the boat when he mistook shorelight for a light ship.

The crew of U-123 were elated when they came within the sight of the city itself, all lights burning brightly, but Hardegen did not linger long, due to the lack of merchant traffic.

He did sink the British tanker Coimbra on his way out.

Hardegen then proceeded south along the coast, submerging during the day and surfacing at night.

Apart from one air attack on 16 January, Hardegen did not experience any resistance from the United States Navy or United States Army Air Forces.

During the night of 19 January, Hardegen sank three freighters off Cape Hatteras in shallow waters close to shore.

A couple of hours later, he happened upon five more merchants traveling in a group and attacked them with his last two torpedoes and his 105 mm deck gun, sinking a freighter and claiming the tanker Malay as well.

Although badly damaged, Malay, traveling empty, had enough buoyancy to stay afloat and managed to make its way to New York under her own power five days later.

With all torpedoes expended, and the port diesel engine not functioning optimally, Hardegen decided to set course for home.

Just before dawn, the Norwegian whaling factory Kosmos II was spotted only 400 m away.

The skipper of Kosmos, Einar Gleditsch, decided to ram U-123, ordering full speed ahead.

Hardegen, realizing that the whaler was too close for him to submerge, turned hard to port and ordered full ahead.

With its port engine unable to deliver top RPMs, U-123 only just managed to keep ahead of the tanker, and it took over an hour for Hardegen to gain enough of a lead to have room to maneuver.