Wolfgang Luth
"Wolfgang Luth" ranks 8th in the list of the greatest Submarine Aces of World War II. In 1939, as First Officer under Heinrich Liebe, Wolfgang Luth performed his first war patrol. Luth took leadership of U-9 in December of that year. He attacked and sank a surfaced French submarine, Doris, off the coast of Holland while commanding that U-boat. He took command of U-138 in 1940, and his sinkings continued to rise, reaching well over 55,000 tons by autumn. Luth later commanded the U-43 and the U-181. In 1943, he set off on a voyage in the Indian Ocean and along the coast of South Africa that lasted 205 days, the second longest patrol of any submarine during WWII.
Luth completed 15 combat patrols, surviving depth charging by escort ships, enemy aircraft bombing and strafing flights, and bombardment by armed merchant ships. During the war, he spent nearly 600 days at sea. He took on new responsibilities at Murwik in 1944, and he remained there when the British invaded the area in May 1945. He was returning to the academy on the evening of May 15 after drinking heavily in neighborhood taverns. A sentry signaled him to stop. Luth either did not hear or was too drunk to respond to the German sentry's challenge, and the sentry shot him once in the head. The Germans were given a state funeral by the ocupying British authorities. The sentry was cleared of any wrongdoing by both British and German authorities.
- Date/place of birth: 15 October 1913Riga, Russian Empire (now Latvia)
- Date of death: 14 May 1945 (aged 31)Flensburg-Mürwik, Nazi Germany
- Awards: Spanish Cross, Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, Croce di Guerra
- Sink more than 221,981 tons (47 ships)
