Patrol 29, U-582 under Werner Schulte, 4-day patrol 5 to 10 May, 1942.
The emblem of U-582 under Werner Schulte: the Lesser Keys for the city of Bremen. Courtesy of http://uboat.net/boats/u582.htm
Kapitänleutnant(later Korvettenkapitän) Werner Schulte brought his command, U-582, on a short four-day incursion into New England waters from the 7th to the 10th of May, 1942. It was a simple eastbound crossing from south of Montauk to exit several hundred miles south of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. The patrol began on the 19th of March and ended on the 24thof May in Brest, France.
Originally U-582 was to escort the blockade-runner Rio Grande from Japan into France, however the orders were changed when the ship broke the rendezvous. On her way back in late April she was refueled roughly 500 nautical miles northeast of Bermuda. She sank no ships on this patrol (Uboat.net, Wynn, Volume 2, p. 55).
Werner Schulte was born in Kiel in November 1912 and died on 5 October 1942 at the age of 29 when U-582 was sunk southwest of Iceland. He joined the navy in the Crew of 1937a and early in his career served in gunnery aboard the light cruiser Koningsberg. Until 1940 he served with naval command in Bergen Norway then joined U-Boats in October. He served under Gysae on a patrol aboard U-98 before commissioning U-582 in August 1941. He was the boat’s only skipper.
Schulte and all 46 mariners aboard U-582 were killed during an attack by a US Catalina off Iceland (Uboat.net, Niestlé). He received no decorations but was given a promotion with seniority posthumously. Schulte sank 6 merchant ships and one warships for a total of just under 39,000 tons.
SOURCES:
Busch, Rainer and Röll, Hans-Joachim, “German U-Boat Commanders of World War II, A Biographical Dictionary,” Greenhill Books, London and Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1999
Högel, Georg, “U-Boat Emblems of World War II 1939 – 1945,” Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA, US, 1999
Kurowski, Franz, Knights of the Wehrmacht, Knight’s Cross Holders of the U-Boat Service,” Schiffer Military/Aviation History, Atglen, PA, US, 1995
Mason, Jerry, www.uboatarchive.net – for the KTB or war diary of this patrol, 2015
Niestlé,Axel, “German U-Boat Losses During World War II – Details of Destruction,” Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1998