Heinrich Liebe

Heinrich Liebe
Born	(1908-01-29)29 January 1908 Gotha
Died	27 July 1997(1997-07-27) (aged 89) Eisenach, Germany
Allegiance	Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazy Germany
Service/branch	Reichsmarine Kriegsmarine
Years of service	1927–45
Rank	Fregattenkapitän
Unit	SSS Niobe Meteor Schleswig-Holstein U-Bootschulflottille 6th U-boat Flotilla
Commands held	U-2,1 October 1936 – 31 January 1938 U-38, 24 October 1938 – 22 July 1941
Battles/wars	Battle of the Atlantic
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves

Heinrich Liebe (29 January 1908 – 27 July 1997) was a highly decorated German Fregattenkapitän (commander) who served as a U-boat commander during World War II until transferred to Oberkommando der Marine (Naval High Command). He sank 34 ships for a total of 187,267 gross register tons (GRT), placing him fourth among top scoring U-boat commanders. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. It was Nazi Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Heinrich Liebe.

Biography

Born in Gotha, Liebe began his Reichsmarine career in 1927. Promoted to Oberfähnrich zur See on 1 June 1931, Liebe served on the World War I battleship Schleswig-Holstein for four years. In September 1935, Liebe transferred to the U-boat arm.

On 1 October 1936, Liebe was promoted to Kapitänleutnant (lieutenant) and assigned commander of U-2, a Type II U-boat attached to the U-Bootschulflottille. On 24 October 1938, Liebe commissioned U-38, a Type IX U-boat assigned to 6th U-boat Flotilla.

World War II

U-38 embarked on her first war time patrol on 19 August 1939 from Wilhelmshaven. Operating off Lisbon, Portugal on the outbreak of war, Liebe managed to sink two British freighters before returning to port on 18 September. On 2 November, Liebe set sail for Norwegian water on his second patrol.

Liebes fourth patrol, on 8 April 1940 was also set in Norwegian waters, to support Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway. During this patrol, Liebe shared the same negative experience of failed torpedoes as many other u-boat captains operating in the area. In mid April 1940, Liebe fired on the British heavy cruiser Effingham, but all the torpedoes fired failed to detonate.

U-38 left on her fifth patrol on 6 June 1940, tasked with patrolling the Western Approaches off southern Ireland. Liebe managed to sink six ships during this patrol, and also succeeded in landing a German agent in Ireland on 12 June. During his sixth patrol, Liebe sank three ships, and were ordered to the new 6th U-boat Flotilla base in Lorient, France. During this patrol, on 14 August, Liebe received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

On 9 April 1941, Liebe set sail for operations off Freetown, Africa. This was Liebe's ninth and last patrol with U-38, during which he sank eight ships for a total of 47,279 GRT. For these successes, Liebe was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross on 10 June 1941. On 29 June, U-38 returned to Lorient. The presentation was made on 30 June 1941 by Hitler at the Führer Headquarter Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in Rastenburg (now Kętrzyn in Poland). On 22 July, Liebe transferred off the U-38, which was put under the command of Heinrich Schuch.

Following his departure from U-38, Liebe was assigned to the staff of Oberkommando der Marine. In August 1944, he was transferred to the staff of the Commander-in-Chief of Submarines (Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote or BdU), Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, during which tenure he was promoted to Fregattenkapitän (frigate captain) on 1 October 1944.

After the war

After the war Liebe returned to his hometown in the Soviet sector to live with his parents. Since he refused to train Soviet submariners, he felt that was to blame for his being held to menial occupations. He died in July 1997 and is buried in Eisenach, Germany.

Summary of career

Ships attacked

As commander of U-38 Liebe was credited with the sinking of 34 commercial ships for 187,267 gross register tons (GRT), and damaged another of 3,670 GRT.

Date	Ship	Nationality	Tonnage	Fate and location
6 September 1939	Manaar	United Kingdom	7,242	sunk at 38°28′N 10°50′W
11 September 1939	Inverliffey	United Kingdom	9,456	sunk at 48°14′N 11°48′W
7 December 1939	Thomas Walton	United Kingdom	4,460	sunk at 67°52′N 14°28′E
11 December 1939	Garoufalia	Greece	4,708	sunk at 64°36′N 10°42′E
13 December 1939	Deptford	United Kingdom	4,101	sunk at 62°15′N 05°08′E
9 March 1940	Leukos	Ireland	216	sunk at 55°20′N 08°45′W
17 March 1940	Argentina	Denmark	5,375	sunk at 60°47′N 00°30′W
21 March 1940	Algier	Denmark	1,654	sunk at 60°17′N 02°49′W
21 March 1940	Christiansborg	Denmark	3,270	sunk at 60°17′N 02°49′W
26 March 1940	Cometa	Norway	3,794	sunk at 60°06′N 04°36′W
2 April 1940	Signe	Finland	1,540	sunk at 58°52′N 01°31′W
14 June 1940	Mount Myrto	Greece	5,403	sunk at 50°03′N 10°05′W
15 June 1940	Erik Boye	Canada	2,238	sunk at 50°37′N 08°44′W
15 June 1940	Italia	Norway	9,973	sunk at 50°37′N 08°44′W
20 June 1940	Tilia Gorthon	Sweden	1,776	sunk at 48°32′N 06°20′W
21 June 1940	Luxembourg	Belgium	5,809	sunk at 47°25′N 04°55′W
22 June 1940	Neion	Greece	5,154	sunk at 47°09′N 04°17′W
7 August 1940	Mohamed Ali El-Kebir	United Kingdom	7,529	sunk at 55°22′N 13°18′W
11 August 1940	Llanfair	United Kingdom	4,966	sunk at 54°48′N 13°46′W
31 August 1940	Har Zion	United Kingdom	2,508	sunk at 56°20′N 10°00′W
1 October 1940	Highland Patriot	United Kingdom	14,172	sunk at 52°20′N 19°04′W
17 October 1940	Aenos	Greece	3,554	sunk at 59°00′N 13°00′W
18 October 1940	Carsbreck	United Kingdom	3,670	damaged at 36°20′N 10°50′W
19 October 1940	Bilderdijk	Netherlands	6,856	sunk at 56°35′N 17°15′W
19 October 1940	Matheran	United Kingdom	7,653	sunk at 57°00′N 17°00′W
27 December 1940	Waiotira	United Kingdom	12,823	sunk at 58°10′N 16°56′W
31 December 1940	Valparaiso	Sweden	3,760	sunk at 60°01′N 23°00′W
4 May 1941	Japan	Sweden	5,230	sunk at 09°50′N 17°50′W
5 May 1940	Queen Maud	United Kingdom	4,976	sunk at 07°54′N 16°41′W
23 May 1940	Berhala	Netherlands	6,622	sunk at 09°50′N 17°50′W
24 May 1941	Vulcain	United Kingdom	4,362	sunk at 09°20′N 15°35′W
29 May 1941	Tabaristan	United Kingdom	6,251	sunk at 06°32′N 15°23′W
30 May 1941	Empire Protector	United Kingdom	6,181	sunk at 06°00′N 14°25′W
31 May 1941	Rinda	Norway	6,029	sunk at 06°52′N 15°14′W
8 June 1941	Kingston Hill	United Kingdom	7,628	sunk at 09°35′N 29°40′W

Awards

• Wehrmacht Long Service Award 4th Class (2 October 1936)
• Olympic Games Decoration (20 April 1937)
• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (8 October 1939)
  • 1st Class (6 April 1940)
• U-boat War Badge (1939) (16 December 1939)
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 14 August 1940 as Kapitänleutnant and commander of U-38
  • 13th Oak Leaves on 10 June 1941 as Kapitänleutnant and commander of U-38
• Italian War Cross with Swords (2 December 1941)
• War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords (3 September 1944)
• Mentioned three times in the Wehrmachtbericht (5 July 1940, 31 May 1941 and 9 June 1941)

Promotions

11 October 1927:	Seekadett (Midshipman)
1 April 1929:	Fähnrich zur See (Officer Cadet)
1 June 1931:	Oberfähnrich zur See (Senior Ensign)
1 October 1930:	Leutnant zur See (Second Lieutenant)
1 October 1933:	Oberleutnant zur See (First Lieutenant)
1 October 1936:	Kapitänleutnant (Captain Lieutenant)
1 December 1941:	Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain)
17 September 1944:	Fregattenkapitän (Frigatte Captain)

References

Bibliography

• Busch, Rainer; Röll, Hans-Joachim (2003). Der U-Boot-Krieg 1939–1945 — Die Ritterkreuzträger der U-Boot-Waffe von September 1939 bis Mai 1945 (in German). Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn Germany: Verlag E.S. Mittler & Sohn. ISBN 978-3-8132-0515-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Williamson, Gordon; Bujeiro, Ramiro (2004). Knight's Cross and Oak Leaves Recipients 1939–40. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-641-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Band 1, 1. September 1939 bis 31. Dezember 1941 (in German). München, Germany: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. 1985. ISBN 978-3-423-05944-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)

External links

• Helgason, Guðmundur. "Heinrich Liebe". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 14 April 2015.