Joachim Schepke

Joachim Schepke
Nickname(s)	Her Majesty's best-looking officer (Ihrer Majestät bestaussehender Offizier)
Born	(1912-03-08)8 March 1912 Flensburg,Province of Schleswig-Holstein,Prussia,Germany
Died	17 March 1941(1941-03-17)(aged 29) U-100,Western Approaches,offBritish-occupied Iceland 61°N12°W
Allegiance	Weimar Republic(to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Reichsmarine Kriegsmarine
Years of service	1930–41
Rank	Kapitänleutnant
Commands	U-3 U-19 U-100
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves

Joachim Schepke(8 March 1912 – 17 March 1941) was a GermanU-boatcommander duringWorld War II.He was the seventh recipient of theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

Schepke is credited with having sunk 36 Allied ships. During his career, he gained notoriety among fellow U-boat commanders for exaggerating the tonnage of ships sunk.

Career

Schepke joined theReichsmarinein 1930. In 1934, he was assigned to the newly createdU-boat arm,and in 1938 he commandedU-3.After a short stint commandingU-19and serving in a staff position, Schepke received the command ofU-100,aType VIIBboat. After 5 patrols inU-100she was heavily damaged on 17 March 1941 by depth charges from HMSWalkerandVanocwhile attackingConvoy HX 112.U-100was forced to surface and was detected on radar and rammed byVanoc.Schepke and most of the crew died.

Schepke claimed to have sunk 37 ships, for a total of 213,310gross register tons(GRT) and damaged 4 more. If true, this would have made him the third skipper to have sunk over 200,000 tons. While he definitely sank 36 ships, he was known throughout the fleet to exaggerate his tonnage claims; other U-boat men came to use the expression "Schepke tonnage" in reference to this. Nonetheless, at one point Schepke ranked first in number of ships sunk, and was recommended by AdmiralDönitzfor the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.

Awards

• Iron Cross(1939)
  • 2nd Class
  • 1st Class (27 February 1940)
• U-Boat War Badge(1939) (3 January 1940 – 30 April 1940)
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 24 September 1940 asKapitänleutnantand commander ofU-100
  • 7th Oak Leaves on 1 December 1940 asKapitänleutnantand commander ofU-100

References

Bibliography

• Blair, Clay(1996).Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters 1939-1942.New York: Random House.ISBN0-394-58839-8.
• Busch, Rainer; Röll, Hans-Joachim (2003).Der U-Boot-Krieg 1939–1945 — Die Ritterkreuzträger der U-Boot-Waffe von September 1939 bis Mai 1945[The U-Boat War 1939–1945 — The Knight's Cross Bearers of the U-Boat Force from September 1939 to May 1945] (in German). Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn Germany: Verlag E.S. Mittler & Sohn.ISBN978-3-8132-0515-2.
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986].Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile[The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas.ISBN978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Fuhren, Franz (1943).Kapitänleutnant Schepke erzählt. Mit einem Geleitwort von Großadmiral Dönitz.Minden: Köhler Verlag.
• Hadley, Michael L. (1995).Count Not the Dead: The Popular Image of the German Submarine.Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's Press.ISBN978-0-7735-6526-5.
• Rohwer, Jürgen(1999).Axis submarine successes of World War Two: German, Italian, and Japanese submarine successes, 1939-1945.Greenhill Books.ISBN978-1557500298.
• Schepke, Joachim (1940).U-Boot-Fahrer von heute. Erzählt und gezeichnet von einem U-Boot-Kommandanten.Berlin, Deutscher Verlag 1940
• Scherzer, Veit (2007).Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945[The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag.ISBN978-3-938845-17-2.
• Thomas, Franz (1998).Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 2: L–Z[The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 2: L–Z] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag.ISBN978-3-7648-2300-9.

• Williamson, Gordon;Bujeiro, Ramiro (2004).Knight's Cross and Oak Leaves Recipients 1939–40.Oxford, UK:Osprey Publishing.ISBN978-1-84176-641-6.