Adolf Cornelius Piening (16 September 1910 – 15 May 1984) was a German naval officer. During World War II, he served in the ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

'' and commanded the Type IXC U-boat , sinking twenty-six ships on nine patrols, for a total of of Allied shipping. Piening was a recipient of the

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (german: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Knight' ...

. Piening spent two years as a prisoner of war and was released in 1947. He joined the new German Navy, which was established in 1956, serving until becoming team leader at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College. He retired in 1969 with the rank of Captain at sea.

Career

Piening joined the ''

Reichsmarine The ''Reichsmarine'' ( en, Realm Navy) was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the ''Reichswehr'', existing from 1919 to 1935. In 1935, it became known as the ''K ...

'' in 1930; the service was renamed as

in 1935. His first assignment was to the armoured cruiser , after which he served on torpedo boats and minesweepers, reaching the rank of ''Kapitänleutnant'' by April 1939. In October 1940 he moved from the surface fleet to the U-boat arm (''U-Bootwaffe''). In May–June 1941 he carried out a single patrol out of

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean ...

aboard (commanded by

Herbert Schultze Herbert Emil Schultze (24 July 1909 – 3 June 1987), was a German submarine commander during World War II. He commanded the for eight patrols during the early part of the war, sinking of shipping. Schultze was a recipient of the Knight's Cross ...

) as ''Kommandantenschüler'' or "Commander-in-Training". Following this, he was appointed commander of the newly built Type IX submarine on 23 August 1941. After training the boat's crew for several month, Piening set out from Kiel on his first patrol in command of ''U-155'' in February 1942, with the intention of attacking shipping in American waters. On the journey across the Atlantic, ''U-155'' encountered the westbound

convoy ON 67 Convoy ON 67 was a trade convoy of merchant ships during the Second World War. It was the 67th of the numbered series of ON convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America. The ships departed from Liverpool on 14 February 1942 with co ...

, and after sending out a contact report that allowed several more U-boats to be directed against the convoy, carried out an attack that sank an 8,000 ton tanker and a 1,800 ton freighter. ''U-155'' sank another ship off the coast of the United States re-crossing the Atlantic to the submarine's new base at Lorient, as part of the

10th U-boat Flotilla 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Piening carried out a further seven patrols in command of ''U-155'', sinking 26 ships for a total of , including the

escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft ...

, and also badly damaged the attack cargo ship . He also became well known for developing the "Piening Route" in 1943, hugging the coast of France and northern Spain, to evade Allied patrol aircraft in the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

. ''U-155'' attacked and sank MS ''Siranger,'' sailing from New York to West-Africa, on 24 October 1943. There were no deaths, and all on board reached the lifeboats. The "U-155" later surfaced and Piening apologized to the survivors for the act, claiming he was only carrying out orders
Dokumentary by NRK
In March 1944 Piening left ''U-155'' and was appointed commander of the 7th U-boat Flotilla at Saint-Nazaire. In April 1945 Piening made one last patrol, laying mines off Saint-Nazaire in . At the end of the war, he was taken prisoner of war.

Postwar

Piening was released after two years of Allied imprisonment in 1947. In 1956, West Germany established its navy, the '' Bundesmarine'', and Piening joined the new navy. In 1959 he was appointed commanding officer of the 1. Geleitgeschwader (1st Escort Squadron). He then held the position of Planning officer on the staff of COMNAVNORCENT (Commander Allied Naval Forces North Norway) and Chief of the Operations Division on the staff of COMNAVBALTAP (Commander of Allied Forces Baltic Approaches). On 1 October 1965 he became team leader at the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr, serving until 1969, retiring with the rank of '' Kapitän zur See''. He died in Kiel on 15 May 1984.

Awards

* Wehrmacht Long Service Award 4th Class (2 October 1936)Busch & Röll 2003, p. 242. * Spanish Cross in Bronze with Swords (6 June 1939) * Iron Cross (1939) ** 2nd Class (22 November 1939) ** 1st Class (27 June 1940) * U-boat War Badge (1939) (28 March 1942) *

on 13 August 1942 as '' Kapitänleutnant'' and commander of ''U-155''.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piening, Adolf 1910 births 1984 deaths U-boat commanders (Kriegsmarine) German military personnel of the Spanish Civil War Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross German Navy personnel Reichsmarine personnel German prisoners of war in World War II People from Nordfriesland Military personnel from Schleswig-Holstein