Type: IX-B
Built by: AG Weser (Bremen)
Date Launched: 6 September, 1940
Date Commissioned: 19 December, 1940
Feldpost Nr.: M22133
Date Sunk: 4 October, 1941
Sunk by: HMS LADY SHIRLEY (Trawler) using Depth Charges and Gunfire
Location Sunk: WSW of Teneriffe, Canary Islands
Position Sunk: 27.15N x 20.27W (10 men lost)

The only Skipper of U-111 was Kapitanleutnant Wilhelm Kleinschmidt. U-111 was assigned to the 2nd U-Boot Flotille based at Lorient, France. KURT SCHONTHIER (215-1986) served aboard U-111; he wrote that the crest of the town of Oldenburg was shown because that was the home of the Skipper, but they also had a BLACK HEART on the conning tower. The town of Paten-Stadt was their sponson town.

On her first patrol, U-111 operated against convoys in the North Atlantic and she reconnoitered shipping traffic off the Strait of Belle Isle and Cape Race, Newfoundland over May and June 1941. U-111 took on fuel from the tanker BELCHEN over the night of 25-26 May, 1941.

U-111 was destroyed after her patrol in the Central Atlantic, off Freetown, Sierre Leone West Africa. One report says 8 were lost, another says 10 lost.

Here's just one of the radio-telegrams sent to U-111 while she was on patrol:

7640/21.05 KC/S
T O I 1851/22/5/41
T.O.O.2019
FROM: A.C. U BOATS
TO: U-111

PROCEED IN DIRECTION OF SQUARE A D 98 IN ORDER TO MAKE THE ENEMY BELIEVE THAT THE ATTACK ON THE CONVOY IS BEING CONTINUED. SEND EVERY TWO HOURS UNTIL 0600 DUMMY E BAR SIGNALS IN THE FORM OF SHADOWING REPORTS.

(DEPT.NOTE: U-111 SENT DUMMY E BAR SIGNALS AT 1948 (E BAR 206, T.O.O. 2135/22) AND AT 1718 (E BAR 678. T.O.O. 1900/22).

SHIPS SUNK BY U-111
13.05.41	SOMERSBY	Brit stmr	5,170 GRT
20.05.41	COCKAPONSET	Brit stmr	5,995 GRT
(NOTE - Kleinschmidt fired at another ship in CONVOY HX.126, but it was a hurried shot and U-111 had to dive quickly. The torpedo missed the target ship but hit and sank COCKAPONSET, the next ship in line.)
22.05.41	BARNBY	Brit stmr	4,813 GRT
10.09.41	MARKEN	Neth mtrshp	5,719 GRT
20.09.41	CINGALESE PRINCE	Brit mtrshp	8,474 GRT