Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat

Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat (born September 11, 1906 in Stahlheim , Lorraine , † January 9, 1974 in Barmbek ) was a German naval officer and submarine commander of the Kriegsmarine in World War II . He is known for having completed the longest patrol of the war with the submarine U 196 with 225 days at sea.

Career

Kentrat began his military career in 1925 with what was then the Reichsmarine . In 1928 he began officer training and became an ensign in the sea in 1930, a lieutenant in the sea in 1931, a first lieutenant in the sea in 1934 and finally in 1937 a lieutenant commander . In October 1939 he decided to switch to the submarine weapon. First he undertook a patrol on board U 25 in the winter of 1939/1940 and became commander of U 8 in May 1940 , but was wounded in an accident on board and remained in the hospital until autumn.

On October 31, 1940, he received command of the newly commissioned boat U 74 , with which he undertook seven enemy voyages with a total of 163 days at sea until March 1942. He succeeded in sinking five ships, including the Canadian corvette HMCS Levis . He also damaged the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Worcestershire (11,402 gross register tonnes ) and broke through the heavily secured Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean on the last patrol . During his time on U 74 , Kentrat was awarded the Iron Cross first and second class and finally also the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . In addition, Kentrat - alongside U 556 - witnessed the last battle of the battleship Bismarck . After it was sunk, U 74 was involved in the search for survivors and was able to save three crew members.

After handing over the command to Oberleutnant zur See Karl Friederich, Kentrat initially worked for six months in the staff of the Admiral of the U-Boats Hans-Georg von Friedeburg , but then received the command of the new U- 196 , in September 1942 Long distance type IX D2 . After the boat's crew had been trained until the beginning of 1943, U 196 set out from Kiel on March 13, 1943 and only returned to a port in Bordeaux on October 23 of that year . This was the longest submarine trip in the entire war; she led the boat in the South Atlantic and off the coast of South Africa . Two ships with a total of 12,000 GRT were sunk on the way. A second patrol also lasted over five months and also served to relocate the boat to the "monsoon submarines" in the Indian Ocean and their base in Penang in what is now Malaysia . There Kentrat disembarked and then served in various staffs at the base and in Japan. After the war ended in 1945, Kentrat was captured and returned to Germany in October 1947.

Overall, during the war, as submarine commander, Kentrat was responsible for the sinking of seven merchant ships with a total of 42,433 GRT, also for the sinking of a warship with 925 t, as well as for the damage to two other ships. 139 of the crew and passengers died on the attacked ships, at least 370 survived. After the war, Kentrat no longer served in the Navy and died on January 9, 1974 in Barmbek.

Web link

• Biography of Kentrat on Uboat.net (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ships attacked under the command of Kentrat (according to information on uboat.net):
   • 11th Mar 1941, damaged by U-74: Frodi , Icelandic trawler of 123 GRT, 5 dead and 6 survivors
   • Apr. 3, 1941, sunk by U-74: Leonidas Z. Cambanis , Greek merchant ship of 4,274 GRT, with 2 dead and 27 survivors
   • Apr. 3, 1941, damaged by U-74: HMS Worcestershire , British auxiliary cruiser of 11,402 GRT, 1 dead, the rest of the crew survived
   • Aug. 5, 1941, sunk by U-74: Kumasian , British merchant ship of 4,922 GRT, with 1 dead and 59 survivors
   • 19 Sep 1941, sunk by U-74: HMCS Levis , Canadian corvette of 925 GRT, with 18 dead and 40 survivors
   • Sep 20 1941, sunk by U-74: Empire Burton , British CAM ship of 6,966 GRT, with 2 dead and 58 survivors
   • 7th Nov. 1941, sunk by U-74: Nottingham , British merchant ship of 8,532 GRT, with 62 dead and no survivors
   • May 11, 1943, sunk by U-196: Nailsea Meadow , British merchant ship of 4,962 GRT, with 2 dead and 42 survivors
   • 3 Aug 1943, sunk by U-196: City of Oran , British merchant ship of 7,323 GRT, no dead and 86 survivors
   • July 9, 1944, sunk by U-196: Shahzada , British merchant ship of 5,454 GRT, with 46 dead and 52 survivors
   In total, there were 139 dead and 370 survivors in the attacks, plus the survivors from HMS Worcestershire .

literature

• Franz Kurowski: Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat. In: Franz Kurowski: Hunter of the Seven Seas. The most famous submarine commanders of World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1998 (2nd edition), pages 340–351. ISBN 3-613-01633-8 . (Biographical, representation of the patrols)