Kapitän zur See (Crew 23)
3 ships sunk, total tonnage 14,128 GRT
7 ships damaged, total tonnage 49,587 GRT
2 ships a total loss, total tonnage 14,368 GRT
|Born||30 Jan 1901||Kolberg, Pomerania|
|Died||13 Nov 1966||(65)||Kiel, Germany|
|U-510||25 Nov 1941||21 May 1943||3 patrols (220 days)|
Karl Neitzel began his naval career in the Kaiserliche Marine in 1917 on torpedo boats. After the war he left the navy, but in April 1923 rejoined what was now called the Reichsmarine and served on minesweepers for a few years. He was flotilla commander of the 1st minesweeper flotilla before joining the U-boat force in February 1941.
He commissioned the type IXC U-boat U-510 in November 1941 and operated in the Caribbean on his first and third patrols. On his third patrol he executed an outstanding attack against convoy BT 6, in which he sank three ships and damaged another five with a total of 54,130 tons (18,240 tons sunk) in only three hours. He was awarded the Knights Cross shortly afterwards.
He left the boat in May 1943 to become deputy commander of the 25th (Training) Flotilla, and in January 1944 took command of the 2nd ULD (Unterseeboots-Lehrdivision, training division). For the last three months of the war he served as the commander of Marine-Grenadier-Regiment 7 (Naval infantry regiment). After the surrender he spent more than seven months in Allied captivity.
One of the oldest Commanders
KrvKpt. Karl Neitzel was one of the oldest U-boat commanders of WWII to depart on patrol when he took U-510 out from Kiel, Germany on 7 July 1942. He was 41 years old. U-510 arrived at Lorient 69 days later, having sunk two ships totalling over 10,000 GRT and damaging two more.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.
Patrol info for Karl Neitzel
|1.||U-510||7 Jul 1942||Kiel||13 Sep 1942||Lorient||Patrol 1,||69 days|
|2.||U-510||14 Oct 1942||Lorient||12 Dec 1942||Lorient||Patrol 2,||60 days|
|3.||U-510||16 Jan 1943||Lorient||16 Apr 1943||Lorient||Patrol 3,||91 days|
|3 patrols, 220 days at sea|
Ships hit by Karl Neitzel
|Date||U-boat||Commander||Name of ship||Tons||Nat.||Convoy|
|2 Aug 1942||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Maldonado||5,285||ur|
|10 Aug 1942||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Alexia (d.)||8,016||br|
|19 Aug 1942||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Cressington Court||4,971||br||TRIN-1|
|31 Oct 1942||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Alaska (d.)||5,681||nw||SL-125|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||George G. Meade (d.)||7,176||am||BT-6|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Kelvinbank||3,872||br||BT-6|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Joseph Rodman Drake (d.)||7,181||am||BT-6|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Tabitha Brown (d.)||7,176||am||BT-6|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Mark Hanna (d.)||7,176||am||BT-6|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||James Smith (d.)||7,181||am||BT-6|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||Thomas Ruffin (t.)||7,191||am||BT-6|
|9 Mar 1943||U-510||Karl Neitzel||James K. Polk (t.)||7,177||am||BT-6|
5 ships sunk (28,496 tons) and 7 ships damaged (49,587 tons).