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 HERBERT SCHULTZE was born 24 July 1909 in the navy town of Kiel and he was in the Naval Class 1930.  His one and only U-Boat command was U-48, but he was highly successful with that boat, sinking some 28 ships with a total of 183,432 gross tons.

He commanded U-48 from the first part of World War II and had excellent success, sinking 16 ships with more than 100,000 gross tons.  This was in the early days of the war, and on many occasions, he would take the time to allow neutral ships to head for the area of his victim to rescue the men in the water.

After these four very successful Feindfahrten (war patrols), he became quite ill and command of U-48 was handed over to RÖSING (313-1999) and then to Bleichrodt.  He missed the next four Feindfahrten but when he was recovered, he again took command of the "Black Cat X 3" boat.  U-48 would become the most successful submarine of any navy in World War II.

        

Once recovered, he took over U-48 and went to sea again, but with rather slim results.  They sank only two ships for a total of 8,640 gross tons - definitely not what he was accustomed to.  On the next patrol however, he sank five ships and damaged one and on the last patrol of U-48, he sank an additional five ships with 38,463 gross tons.

The famed boat of "Dreimal Schwartze Katter" or 'Three Black Tomcats' was retired from front service to become a training submarine under command of Oberleutnant zur See Atzinger and on 3 May 1945, was scuttled off Neustadt, only to be raised by the victorious Allies and broken up for scrap.

After relinquishing command of U-48, Schultze became Flottillenchef (Flotilla Commander) of the 3rd U-Bootflottille based in La Rochelle, France which he commanded from July 1941 until March 1942.  His next posting was that of Instructor at the Academy to train upcoming officers.  His final posting during the War was Commander of Department II at the Academy in Flensburg/Mürwik.

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