Viktor Schütze

Captain Viktor Schütze (16 February 1906 – 23 September 1950), was a German Kriegsmarine U-boat ace, sinking a total of 35 allied ships totalling 180,053 tons during the Second World War. He is in fifth place on the ten Aces of the Deep. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Biography
Schütze was born in Flensburg, and started his naval career aboard German torpedo boats in April 1925, before transferring to the new U-boat division ten years later in October 1935. There he commanded GS U-19 (1936) for two years, before being relieved to take destroyer training - before returning to the U-boat arm in command of GS U-11 (1935). When war broke out he commanded GS U-25 (1936), with which he sailed on three patrols, mainly in the Bay of Biscay and off the Portuguese coast.

In July 1940 he assumed command over the Type IXC GS U-103 (1940), and commanded for four patrols in North Atlantic and African waters. In December he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his successes. In August 1941 he retired from front service, taking up positions as Flottillenchef of 2nd U-boat Flotilla. In March 1943 he became the FdU Ausbildungsflottillen (Commander of the training flottillas in the Baltic Sea) in Flensburg-Kappeln, in which position he served until the end of the war.

He died in Frankfurt am Main in 1950.

Awards

 * Spanisches Marineverdienstkreuz in Weiß (21 August 1939)
 * Iron Cross (1939)
 * 2nd Class (13 November 1939)
 * 1st Class (21 February 1940)
 * Italienisches Kriegskreuz mit Schwertern (1 November 1941)
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
 * Knight's Cross on 11 December 1940 as Korvettenkapitän and commander of U-103
 * 23rd Oak Leaves on 14 July 1941 as Korvettenkapitän and commander of U-103
 * War Merit Cross
 * 2nd Class (30 January 1944)
 * 1st Class (1 September 1944)
 * Mentioned four times in the Wehrmachtbericht on 4 December 1940, 10 December 1940, 27 May 1941 and 13 July 1941