READING THE NOTES
Korvettenkapitän Heinrich Bleichrodt (1909-1977), known as "Ajax", was born on 21 October 1909 in Berga in the Kyffhäuser region and entered the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1933 as Fähnrich zur See, receiving successive promotions to Leutnant zur See in 1935, Oberleutnant zur See in 1937 and Kapitänleutnant in 1939 while serving on training ships and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper before transferring to the U-Bootwaffe. On 4 September 1940 he assumed command of the Type VIIB boat U-48 of the 7. Unterseebootsflottille and on his first Feindfahrt sank several merchant vessels as well as the British sloop HMS Dundee, culminating on 18 September 1940 in the torpedoing of the passenger liner City of Benares near Rockall with heavy loss of life. For sinking fourteen ships totalling approximately 77,500 BRT and damaging another on these early patrols he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 24 October 1940 as Kapitänleutnant and Kommandant of U-48, an honour he initially hesitated to accept until his I. Wachoffizier Reinhard Suhren was similarly decorated. After briefly commissioning U-67 he took command of the Type IXB boat U-109 on 5 June 1941 and conducted six Feindfahrten in the Atlantic, sinking a further thirteen ships of more than 80,000 BRT. These continued successes brought his overall total to twenty-seven ships of roughly 159,000 BRT sunk and three damaged, for which he received the Eichenlaub on 23 September 1942 as the 125th recipient while still Kapitänleutnant and Kommandant of U-109. Health problems forced him to relinquish front-line command in early 1943; he then served as a tactics instructor with the 2. Unterseeboots-Ausbildungs-Division and later as Flottillenchef of the 22. Unterseebootsflottille, being promoted to Korvettenkapitän on 1 November 1943. After the war he lived quietly in West Germany and died in Munich on 9 January 1977.
Source :
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2011/09/album-foto-membaca-nazi-jerman.html
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