Born in Kanazawa, Japan, Herbert Wohlfarth began his naval career in April 1933. After the usual training he spent more than a year on the cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. In May 1937 he joined the U-boat force, and like many of the later successful commanders received a solid pre-war training under Karl Dönitz. After some months as aide-de-camp in the Third Flotilla "Lohs", in September 1938 he became watch officer on U-16.
On 19 October 1939 Oberleutnant zur See Wohlfarth took command of U-14. On his first three patrols he sank nine mostly smaller ships in Scottish and Norwegian waters. The fourth patrol with U-14 was for him, as for most other commanders during Operation Hartmut against Norway, without success.
On 15 June 1940 Wohlfarth commissioned U-137, also a Type IIB boat, referred to as Einbaum (dugout canoe). But these small boats were also very successful and other well-known commanders including Hardegen, Kretschmer and Lüth won their first successes in them.
Wohlfarth led U-137 on three patrols during the autumn of 1940. He sank seven ships for a total of 25,465 tons, mostly in the area south of the Hebrides. Especially notable was his torpedo hit on the 10,552-ton armed merchant cruiser Cheshire, damaging the ship so badly that she had to spend six months in the shipyard for repairs.
On 15 December 1940 Kapitänleutnant Wohlfarth left U-137 and two months later commissioned the Type VIIC boat U-556. On his first patrol in the Atlantic with this new boat he sank four ships for a total of 18,583 tons and damaged two more.
On 15 May 1941 he received the Knights Cross while still on patrol, but during his return to Wilhelmshaven, ten days before his 26th birthday, he witnessed one of the most tragic moments in the history of the Kriegsmarine, when the German battleship Bismarck was sunk in the Atlantic. Wohlfarth was unable to help because he had fired all his torpedoes during his patrol. He watched the battleship Renown and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal pass his bows on their way to sink Bismarck and could do nothing to hinder them. It was
On 19 June 1941 Wohlfarth started his second patrol on U-556, but just eight days later his boat was sunk in the North Atlantic southwest of Iceland by the British corvettes Nasturtium, Celandine and Gladiolus. He and most of his crew were captured; one officer and four men were killed.
Wohlfarth then spent more than six years in English and Canadian prisoner of war camps. His war record stood at 21 ships sunk, totalling 66,032 tons, and three more damaged, totalling 20,455 tons. He returned to Germany on 14 July 1947.
Wohlfarth died on 13 August 1982 in Villingen, Germany, 67 years old. In 1989, three days after what would have been Wohlfarth's 74th birthday, the wreck of Bismarck was located.
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