This Date in History: September 29

 

On September 13, 1939 the U-14 left Kiel, still under the command of Horst Wellner, for operations in the North Sea.  Although he did not sink any enemy ships, Kapitänleutnant Wellner performed an even more valuable service and, arriving on September 17, reconnoitered the Orkneys area and the approaches to Scapa Flow, providing information which would be used for the penetration of Scapa Flow by Günther Prien in the U-47.  Two days later enemy aircraft dropped six depth charges near the U-14, but the U-boat dove quickly and escaped.  The U-boat attempted to torpedo an enemy destroyer on September 22 but missed; in return the enemy ship dropped eighteen depth charges near the U-boat.  She returned to Kiel on September 29, 1939 after over two weeks on patrol – during which she was subjected to forty-four enemy depth charges – and conducted a detailed debriefing of his findings with Kommodore Dönitz.  (Dönitz’s Crews: Germany’s U-Boat Sailors in World War II)

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Willi Börker was born on July 16, 1921 at Förste in Lower Saxony.  He joined the Waffen-SS on February 28, 1941.  Willi was promoted to SS-Sturmmann on March 1, 1942.  Assigned to the new Tiger company, 8th (Heavy) Company, in the Das Reich, commanded by Paul Hausser (above), in February 1943, he became a driver, was promoted to SS-Rottenführer on April 1, 1943, and was in this position at Kursk.  Willi Börker was wounded in action on July 6, 1943; he later received the Wound Badge in Black.  On September 29, 1943, Börker was placed on orders for a future assignment to the SS Panzer Training and Replacement Regiment at Beneschau south of Prague.  Willi Börker survived the war but committed suicide in 1995.  (Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 & 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943)