- Gerd Suhren
Infobox Military Person
name=Gerd Suhren
born=birth date|1914|5|16|df=y
died=death date and age|1991|5|6|1914|5|16|df=y
placeofbirth=Tafaigata,Samoa
placeofdeath=
caption=Gerd Suhren
nickname=
allegiance=flagicon|Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
serviceyears=1933 - 1945
rank=Korvettenkapitän (Ing.)
branch=Kriegsmarine
commands=
unit=U-21, U-31, U-37, U-2511
battles=World War II
awards=Iron Cross 2nd and 1st ClassU-boat War Badge Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
relations=Reinhard Suhren
laterwork=Gerd Suhren (
May 16 ,1914 in Tafaigata,Samoa –May 6 ,1991 ) was a GermanU-boat engineer (Ing.) inWorld War II and older brother ofFregattenkapitän and Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords recipientReinhard Suhren .Biography
Gerd Suhren joined the
Kriegsmarine in April 1933. Since April 1937 he served in the U-boat force and got a solid pre-war training. In September 1939 he was LI on U-37 and in the next year he rode 8 patrols on this boat. He was the first engineering officer ("Leitender Ingenieur") to be awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross .Gerd Suhren left U-37 in October 1940 and became a training officer in the 25th flotilla. Later he served in several staff positions.
In September 1944 he became once more the "Leitender Ingenieur" on the new commissioned type XXI U-boat under the command of
Adalbert Schnee . He took part in the patrol, that U-2511 rode in May 1945.After the war Gerd Suhren served for more than 2 years in mine sweeping duty.His parents and sister committedsuicide in 1945, after failure to escape from theSudetenland . [Fritz Brustal-Naval, page 15-16.]Awards
*
Iron Cross
** 2nd Class (8 November 1939)
** 1st Class (28 February 1940)
* U-boat War Badge 1939 (8 November 1939)
*Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (21 October 1940)References
* Brustal-Naval, Fritz and Teddy Suhren, Teddy. "Nasses Eichenlaub: als Kommandant und F.d.U. im U-Boot-Krieg". Frankfurt/M; Berlin:Ullstein, 1999. ISBN 3-548-23537-9.
* Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer. "Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945". Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas, 2000. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.
* Kurowski, Franz. "Knight's Cross Holders of the U-Boat Service". Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1995. ISBN 0-88740-748-X.
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