The 6. Unterseebootsflottille, also known as the U-Bootsflottille „Hundius“ or Hundius Flotilla, was a key formation of the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War that operated in two distinct phases. It was first established on 1 October 1938 in Kiel under the command of Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartmann and named in honour of Kapitänleutnant Paul Hundius, a distinguished U-boat commander of the First World War who had been killed on 16 September 1918 when his boat SM UB-103 was sunk by depth charges. Initially equipped primarily with Type IXA boats and functioning as a Frontflottille, the unit was disbanded in December 1939 and its boats and personnel integrated into the newly formed 2. U-Flottille. The flotilla was re-established in the summer of 1941, with most sources placing the formal reactivation in July or September at Danzig under Korvettenkapitän Georg-Wilhelm Schulz, where it served first as an Ausbildungsflottille responsible for training new crews and boats. In February 1942 the flottilla relocated its operational base to the French Atlantic port of St. Nazaire, converting into a full Frontflottille that participated actively in the Battle of the Atlantic. From that time onward it was subordinated to the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote and, from July 1942, also to the Führer der Unterseeboote West. Command passed in late 1943 to Kapitänleutnant Carl Emmermann, who led the flotilla until its end. Over its service life approximately 91 U-boats were assigned to the 6. Unterseebootsflottille, predominantly Type VIIB, Type VIIC and Type VIIC/41 boats after 1941, among them well-known vessels such as U-404. These submarines conducted numerous combat patrols against Allied shipping in the North Atlantic and approaches to the Americas. As Allied forces advanced into western France following the Normandy landings, the last boats of the flotilla departed St. Nazaire for Norwegian bases in August 1944, after which the 6. Unterseebootsflottille was formally disbanded.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Kapitän zur See Otto von Bülow (1911-2006) was born on 16 October 1911 in Wilhelmshaven as the son of Kapitän zur See Otto von Bülow and Johanna Meyer, descending from the old Mecklenburg aristocratic family of von Bülow. He entered the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1930 as Offiziersanwärter of Crew 30, serving initially on the training ship Niobe and light cruiser Emden before assignments on the Panzerschiff Deutschland as Batteriekommandeur and later on the Linienschiff Schleswig-Holstein as Flak-Artillerieoffizier, followed by land-based duties with Marine-Flakabteilungen. In April 1940 he transferred to the U-Boot-Waffe, completed training, and on 11 November 1940 assumed command of the training boat U-3 in the 21. U-Boot-Flottille. On 6 August 1941, as Kapitänleutnant, he commissioned and took command of U-404 in the 6. U-Flottille, conducting six war patrols totaling 280 days at sea in the Atlantic and off the American coast. With U-404 he sank 14 merchant ships totaling 71,450 GRT as well as the British destroyer HMS Veteran of 1,120 tons and damaged two further ships of 16,689 GRT. These successes, especially the sinking of eleven merchant vessels and HMS Veteran, earned him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 October 1942 while still Kapitänleutnant and Kommandant of U-404. During his sixth patrol on 23 April 1943 he fired four torpedoes at what he identified as the American aircraft carrier USS Ranger in the mid-North Atlantic; hearing explosions, he reported a presumed sinking, though the actual target was the British escort carrier HMS Biter and the weapons caused no damage. German propaganda announced the sinking of the Ranger, and on 26 April 1943 he received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz as the 234th recipient for this action, remaining Kapitänleutnant and Kommandant of U-404. Promoted to Korvettenkapitän on 1 June 1943, he left U-404 in July and from 1 September 1943 commanded the 23. U-Flottille in Danzig as a training unit. In spring 1945 he briefly commanded the Type XXI boat U-2545 before leading Marinesturmbataillon I. Captured by British forces in May 1945 and released in August, he joined the Bundesmarine in 1956, later commanding the destroyer Z-6 and the 3. Zerstörergeschwader, rising to Kapitän zur See and serving as garrison chief of Hamburg until retirement in 1970. He died on 5 January 2006 in Wohltorf.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_U-boat_Flotilla
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