View source for Siegfried von Forstner

{{Short description|German naval officer and U-boat commander during World War II}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Siegfried von Forstner
|birth_date={{birth date|1910|9|19|df=y}}
|death_date={{death date and age|1943|10|13|1910|9|19|df=y}}
|image=File:Siegfried von Forstner.jpg
|birth_place=[[Hannover]]
|death_place=[[Atlantic Ocean]] {{KIA}}
|nickname=
|allegiance={{flag|Weimar Republic}} (to 1933)<br/>{{flag|Nazi Germany}}
|branch={{navy|Weimar Republic}}<br/>{{navy|Nazi Germany}}
|serviceyears=1930–43
|rank=[[Korvettenkapitän]]<br/>posthumously promoted to [[Fregattenkapitän]]
|commands={{GS|U-402||2}}
|unit=[[Niobe (schooner)|SSS ''Niobe'']]<br/>cruiser ''[[German cruiser Emden|Emden]]''<br/>survey vessel ''[[Meteor (1915)|Meteor]]''<br/>battleship ''[[SMS Hessen|Hessen]]''<br/>cruiser ''[[German cruiser Admiral Scheer|Admiral Scheer]]''<br/>cruiser ''[[German cruiser Nürnberg|Nürnberg]]''<br/>Panzerschiff ''[[German cruiser Deutschland|Deutschland]]''<br/>{{GS|U-99|1940|2}}
|battles=[[World War II]]
* [[Battle of the Atlantic]]
* [[convoy SC 107]]
* [[convoy SC 118]]
|awards=[[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]]
|laterwork=}}

[[Korvettenkapitän]] '''Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner'''{{ref label|Note1|a|a}} (19 September 1910 – 13 October 1943{{ref label|Note2|b|b}}) was a German [[U-boat]] commander during [[World War II]]. He was also a recipient of the [[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]]. He and his entire crew of {{GS|U-402||2}} were [[killed in action]] on 13 October 1943.

==Background==
Von Forstner was the son of an aristocratic Prussian family whose men had served for generations as Army and Navy officers. His younger brother Wolfgang Friedrich (born in 1916) was also a U-boat commander, and two other brothers (Ernst Richard and Hans Dietrich) were Army officers. Wolfgang was the only brother to survive [[World War II]].{{sfn|Waters|1966|p=99}} Their great-grandfather and grandfather had been army officers, and their father was a general, Ernst Freiherr von Forstner (1869–1950), who had won the [[Pour le Mérite]] with cluster as a regimental commander during [[World War I]].{{sfn|Waters|1967|p=260}} Their uncle George Gunther von Forstner had commanded {{SMU|U-1|Germany|2}} and {{SMU|U-28|Germany|2}} during [[World War I]],{{sfn|Waters|1966|p=99}} and another uncle in the service of the Imperial Navy had died in that conflict.{{sfn|Waters|1966|p=99}}

==Career==
Siegfried von Forstner joined the [[Kriegsmarine]] in 1930 and served for four years on the {{ship|German cruiser|Nürnberg}} following training as an artillery technical officer. Many of his year group were already at sea in submarines when he entered U-boat school in 1940. Von Forstner received training as a student commander aboard {{GS|U-99|1940|2}} under his Naval School classmate [[Otto Kretschmer]].{{sfn|Waters|1966|p=99}} After a 5-month tour in {{GS|U-59|1939|2}}, von Forstner assumed command of {{GS|U-402||2}}. Von Forstner carried out eight combat patrols in ''U-402'' sinking 14 merchantmen and one warship and damaging three other ships.

Von Forstner married in [[Hamburg]] in December, 1940, while waiting to take command of ''U-402''. His wife Annamaria made distinctive red [[pom-pom]]s for the crew of ''U-402'' to wear on their uniform hats.{{sfn|Waters|1967|p=266}} No ships were sunk during the first ''U-402'' patrol from 26 October 1941 to 9 December 1941. On the second patrol von Forstner damaged the 12000-ton [[troopship]] {{MV|Llangibby Castle||2}} off the Bay of Biscay on 16 January 1942 but the damaged troopship was able to make repairs in the [[Azores]].{{sfn|Blair|1996|pp=489-492}}

Von Forstner then made two patrols off the Atlantic coast of the United States. He sank a 4800-ton ship en route and then sank the 5300-ton Russian tanker ''Ashkabad'' and the 602-ton converted yacht {{USS|Cythera|PY-26|6}} off [[Cape Hatteras]] on 2 May 1942.{{sfn|Blair|1996|p=544}} On the next patrol, ''U-402'' was depth charged by patrol bombers off Cape Hatteras in mid-July and suffered a battery explosion.{{sfn|Waters|1966|p=99}}

Von Forstner received the [[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]] for torpedoing twelve ships from [[convoy SC 107]] and [[convoy SC 118]]. Baron von Forstner sank two ships during a submerged daylight attack on convoy SC 129 before ''U-402'' was depth charged and damaged by the corvette {{HMS|Gentian|K90|2}}.{{sfn|Blair|1998|p=329}}

Von Forstner and his wife saved their home in Hamburg from burning during August, 1943, air-raids by staying on the roof and extinguishing [[incendiary bomb]]s.{{sfn|Waters|1967|p=267}} Following departure for her last patrol on 4 September 1943, ''U-402'' shot down an attacking [[No. 172 Squadron RAF|RAF 172 Squadron]] [[Vickers Wellington]] bomber over the Bay of Biscay,{{sfn|Blair|1998|pp=420, 762}} The submarine also provided flak protection for {{GS|U-377||2}} when the latter was attacked by a [[B-24 Liberator]] bomber during the battle of [[Convoy ON 202]].{{sfn|Waters|1967|p=268}} A U-boat believed by the Allied Anti-Submarine Assessment Committee to be ''U-402'' was sunk with all hands on 13 October 1943 by a [[Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo]] dropped by [[Grumman TBF Avenger]] aircraft from {{USS|Card|CVE-11|6}}.{{sfn|Blair|1998|p=432}}{{sfn|Cressman|2000|p=187}}{{sfn|Kafka|Pepperburg|1946|p=1085}}{{sfn|Lenton|1976|p=180}}{{sfn|Taylor|1967|p=125}}{{sfn|Waters|1966|p=105}}{{sfn|Waters|1967|p=269}}

==Awards==
*[[Wehrmacht Long Service Award]] 4th Class (2 October 1936){{sfn|Busch|Röll|2003|p=315}}
*[[Sudetenland Medal]] (20 December 1938){{sfn|Busch|Röll|2003|p=315}}
*[[Iron Cross]] (1939)
** 2nd Class (18 February 1942){{sfn|Busch|Röll|2003|p=315}}
** 1st Class (7 August 1942){{sfn|Busch|Röll|2003|p=315}}
*[[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]] on 9 February 1943 as ''[[Kapitänleutnant]]'' and commander of {{GS|U-402||2}}{{sfn|Scherzer|2007|p=314}}{{sfn|Fellgiebel|2000|p=184}}

==Footnotes==
*{{note label|Note1|a|a}}{{German title Freiherr}}

==References==

===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book| title=Hitler's U-Boat War – The Hunters 1939–1942 |last=Blair |first=Clay |author-link=Clay Blair |publisher=Random House |year=1996 |isbn=0-394-58839-8}}
* {{cite book| title=Hitler's U-Boat War The Hunted 1942–1945 |last=Blair |first=Clay |author-link=Clay Blair |publisher=Random House |year=1998 |isbn=0-679-45742-9}}
* {{Cite book
  |last1=Busch
  |first1=Rainer
  |last2=Röll
  |first2=Hans-Joachim
  |year=2003
  |title=Der U-Boot-Krieg 1939–1945 – Die Ritterkreuzträger der U-Boot-Waffe von September 1939 bis Mai 1945
  |trans-title=The U-Boat War 1939–1945 – The Knight's Cross Bearers of the U-Boat Force from September 1939 to May 1945
  |language=de
  |location=Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn Germany
  |publisher=Verlag E.S. Mittler & Sohn
  |isbn=978-3-8132-0515-2
}}
* {{cite book| title=The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II | url=https://archive.org/details/TheOfficialChronologyOfTheUSNavyInWorldWarII |last=Cressman |first=Robert J. |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=2000 |isbn=1-55750-149-1}}
* {{Cite book
 |last=Fellgiebel
 |first=Walther-Peer
 |author-link=:de:Walther-Peer Fellgiebel
 |year=2000
 |title=Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 – Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile
 |trans-title=The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 – The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches
 |language=de
 |location=Friedberg, Germany
 |publisher=Podzun-Pallas
 |isbn=978-3-7909-0284-6
}}
* {{cite book| title=Warships of the World |last1=Kafka |first1=Roger  |last2=Pepperburg |first2=Roy L.  |name-list-style=amp |publisher=Cornell Maritime Press |year=1946}}
* {{cite book| title=German Warships of the Second World War |last=Lenton |first=H.T. |publisher=Arco Publishing Company |year=1976 |isbn=0-668-04037-8}}
* {{Cite book
 |last=Scherzer
 |first=Veit 
 |year=2007
 |title=Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives
 |trans-title=The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives
 |language=de
 |location=Jena, Germany
 |publisher=Scherzers Militaer-Verlag
 |isbn=978-3-938845-17-2
}}
* {{cite book| title=German Warships of the World War II |last=Taylor |first=J.C. |publisher=Doubleday & Company |year=1967}}
* {{cite journal|last=Waters |first=John M. Jr., CAPT USCG |title=Stay Tough |publisher=United States Naval Institute Proceedings |date=December 1966}}
* {{cite book| title=Bloody Winter |last=Waters |first=John M. Jr., CAPT USCG |publisher=D. Van Nostrand Company |location=Princeton, New Jersey |year=1967}}
{{Refend}}

{{Subject bar
| portal1=Biography
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forstner, Siegfried von}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:U-boat commanders (Kriegsmarine)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]]
[[Category:Kriegsmarine personnel killed in World War II]]
[[Category:People who died at sea]]
[[Category:Reichsmarine personnel]]
[[Category:German barons]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Hanover]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the Province of Hanover]]
[[Category:Captains who went down with the ship]]
[[Category:Deaths by American airstrikes during World War II]]