U-103 Winter 9-Feb-1942 5
Along with U-107 and U-106, U-103 made up the second wave of Operation Drumbeat to the US east coast. Kapitänleutnant (later Korvettenkapitän) Werner Winter led the submarine on a patrol which would take it for four days along the northeast quadrant of the Bermuda region. ON the 9th of February U-103 approached Bermuda from the north, then turned east for three days between the tenth and 12th. By the 13ththe sub was leaving the area, bound back to Lorient, where it sailed for the 2ndU-boat Flotilla. It arrived back on the 1st of March.
During the patrol U-103 sank the W. L. Steed and the San Gil off Delaware and Maryland on the 2nd and 4thof February respectively. Then it dispatched the India Arrow and the China Arrow, both off the US coasts of New York and Delaware.
Werner Winter would go on to lead several patrols to the region. Born in Hamburg in 1912 and a member of the Crew of 1930. He joined U-boats in 1935 and skippered both U-22 and U-103 for a total of 209 days. During the period from September 1939 and July 1942 he sank 15 ships of 78,302, for which he earned the Knights Cross in June 1942. On being ordered ashore Winter served as a staff officer in Brest, France, where he was captured when that bastion surrendered in 1944. Later released, he lived until 1972 and the age of 60.
SOURCES: Gudmundur Helgason, Rainer Kolbicz, www.uboat.net, 2013, Kenneth Wynn, U-boat Operations of the Second World War, Volume 1 and Volume 2, 1997, R. Busch, and H.-J. Röll, German U-boat Commanders of World War II, 1988, Franz Kurowski, Knights Cross Holders of the U-boat Service