The 10. Unterseebootsflottille was a front-line combat formation of the Kriegsmarine established on 15 January 1942 at the Atlantic base of Lorient in occupied France under the continuous command of Korvettenkapitän Günther Kuhnke. It functioned as one of the principal Frontflottille operating from the five major northern French U-boat bases and was subordinated from July 1942 to the Führer der U-Boote West. Its headquarters was located at Kernevel, the former command centre of the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote, while the boats were equipped and maintained in the massive concrete U-Boot-Bunker complexes of Lorient. Personnel were billeted in barracks on the eastern bank of the harbour as well as in the former French harbour barracks and the municipal music school. The flotilla operated primarily large ocean-going Type IXC and Type IXC/40 boats, supplemented by one Type XB minelayer and six Type XIV supply submarines known as Milchkühe, together with the two captured Dutch vessels UD-3 and UD-5, for a total of approximately eighty U-boats assigned during its existence. These boats conducted long-range patrols in the Battle of the Atlantic and the Caribbean, while several units belonging to Gruppe Monsun transferred their operational areas to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, basing temporarily at Japanese-held ports such as Penang, Batavia and Singapore yet remaining administratively attached to the 10. Unterseebootsflottille. After the Allied invasion of Normandy and the subsequent liberation of France began, the Führer der U-Boote West relocated his headquarters to Norway and most of the French-based flotillas were gradually disbanded. The 10. Unterseebootsflottille was formally dissolved between August and October 1944; Korvettenkapitän Kuhnke himself departed Lorient as the last commander aboard U-853 on 27 August 1944, reaching Flensburg on 14 October and subsequently assuming command of the 33. Unterseebootsflottille, while the remaining boats were transferred to bases in Norway and Germany.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Korvettenkapitän Georg Lassen (1915-2012) was born on 12 May 1915 in Berlin-Steglitz and entered the Kriegsmarine in 1935, rising through the ranks from Offiziersanwärter and Seekadett to Leutnant zur See and later Oberleutnant zur See. At the outbreak of the Second World War he served as I. Wachoffizier aboard U-29 under Kapitänleutnant Otto Schuhart, participating in the sinking of multiple vessels including the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous. From 3 January to 14 September 1941 he commanded U-29 itself while it operated as a training boat with the 24. Unterseebootsflottille. On 16 October 1941 he commissioned the Type IXC boat U-160, initially attached to the 4. Unterseebootsflottille and later the 10. Unterseebootsflottille, and conducted four war patrols lasting a total of 328 days. During his first patrol between March and April 1942 in American waters he sank or damaged six ships totaling around 43,560 GRT. For his overall successes with U-160 after two patrols, amounting to eleven ships sunk for 66,012 GRT and two damaged, he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 10 August 1942 while holding the rank of Oberleutnant zur See and serving as Kommandant of U-160. Promoted to Kapitänleutnant on 1 September 1942, he continued his highly effective operations. On his fourth and final patrol in South African waters, during the night of 3 to 4 March 1943 against convoy DN-21 near Durban, Lassen and the crew of U-160 sank or damaged six ships totaling 41,076 GRT in under five hours. This outstanding action, combined with further successes that brought his career total to twenty-six ships sunk for 156,082 GRT and five damaged for 34,419 GRT, led to the award of the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 7 March 1943 as Kapitänleutnant and Kommandant of U-160. In June 1943 he was reassigned as a tactics instructor and Chef Offizierskompanie with the 1. U-Boot-Lehrdivision. Promoted to Korvettenkapitän on 1 April 1945, he survived the war, later worked as a businessman and managing director, lost an arm in a traffic accident, and eventually settled in Mallorca, where he died on 18 January 2012 at the age of ninety-six.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_U-boat_Flotilla
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