Horst Hamm

Horst Hamm (17 March 1916 – 19 February 1943) was a German U-boat commander in World War II.

Naval career
Horst Hamm joined the Kriegsmarine (German navy) in 1935. From August 1939 to May 1940 he served as the Second Watch Officer (2WO) on the GS U-26 (1936) spending 120 days at sea on four patrols. From June to August 1940 he served with the 1st U-boat Flotilla before being sent as First Watch Officer on the famous GS U-96 (1940) in September. With the U-96 Hamm went out on three patrols spending 70 days at sea. On his first patrol with this boat they sank five ships (37,037 GRT) and damaged two more (15,864). The second patrol was also successful but the third patrol saw the boat sink 7 ships with a total of 45,391 GRT. 190 days at sea during 7 patrols on two U-boats under very competent Commanders gave Hamm invaluable experience for his own command. He got his own boat on 7 April 1941 when he took command of the small school boat GS U-58 (1938) for 5 months. Hamm got his second boat, the larger GS U-562, on 4 September 1941. Hamm would take his U-562 out on eight patrols, 241 days at sea, from September 1941. During this time he sank six ships with a total of 37,287 GRT and damaged one merchant of 3,359 GRT. On 27 November 1941 U-562 passed the dangerous Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. The boat thus left the Atlantic for good, having completed one patrol there. Hamm and his entire crew of 49 men died when the U-562 was sunk in the Mediterranean north-east of Benghazi, Libya by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Isis (D87), the British escort destroyer HMS Hursley (L84) and a British Wellington aircraft.