U-98 Gysae 8-Feb-1942
U-98 under Kapitänleutnant (later Korvettenkapitän) Robert Gysae merely dipped into the region northeast of Bermuda for three days between the seventh and 9th of February, 1942. Most of the patrol was off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Sailing for the 7th U-boat Flotilla, U-98 left St. Nazaire, France on the 18thof January 1942 and returned there on the 27th of February. During that time Gysae managed to sink the British steamship Biela of 5,298 tons north of the Bermuda area.
Robert Gysae was born in 1911 and had just turned 31 at the outset of the patrol. A member of the Crew of 1931, he was older than most of his contemporaries that attacked the Americas. His naval career began with the torpedo boat T-107before he joined U-boats in 1940. From 1944 he joined a naval anti-tank regiment and then served as senior officer in minesweeping. He went on to live until 78 years, dying in 1989.
Overall in his career he sank 25 ships and damaged one for a total of 149,403 tons. He was awarded the Knights Cross before this patrol, on 31 December, 1941, to which the Oak Leaves were added in May of 1943. The U-boat Front Clasp was given in October, 1944.
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