Born 15 August 1908 in Posen, he attended the Naval Academy in the Class
of 1926.
As a young Leutnant zur See,
MERTEN served as Gunnery Officer aboard the cruiser KÖNIGSBERG.
Later he served aboard the torpedoboat T-157 and was
Skipper of the escort vessel F-7 for a while. later,
he was Cadet Training Officer aboard the old SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.
Shortly after the outbreak of war (early 1940) MERTEN volunteered
for the U-Boat service. Because he had enough rank, he sailed
aboard a Frontboot (combat sub) as "Kommandantenschüler" or
Commander in Training. This was U-38 under command
of HEINRICH LIEBE (1670-1990).
Now ready for his own boat, he put U-68 into commission on
11 February 1941 and commanded for five Feindfahrten (war patrols) and
was the lead officer during the rescue of the crews of the raiders
ATLANTIS and PYTHON. Under his command, his
U-68 and other boats towed a string of overcrowded
lifeboats all the way from the South Atlantic to one of the French bases
used by the U-Bootwaffe.
He was promoted and commanded the 24th U-Bootflottille based in Pillau
then took command of the 26th U-Bootflottille based in Memel where he
ran the operations to save some 50,000 Germans from Memel plus 6,000
Hitler Youth in the face of the onrushing Red Army.
MERTEN was arrested three years after the close of the war, in
October 1948, to appear before the Frimaire Trial in France. In
spite of the anger and hatred of the complainants, their case was
dismissed and MERTEN was released in March 1949.
We were honored to meet MERTEN in person during our 1988 "Patrol" to the French bases and North Germany. He was a kindly old gentleman - a polite and honorable officer of the old school.
