Heino von Heimburg Heino von Heimburg ( 24 October 1889 – October 1945 ) was a German U - boat commander in the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I and served also as Vice Admiral in the Kriegsmarine during World War II . World War I . On 10 June 1915 , Heimburg , in command of sank the Italian submarine " Medusa " off Porto di Piave Vecchia in the northern Adriatic . On 6 July 1915 , Heimburg , in command of with a crew of 14 , torpedoed and sank the while operating under the Austrian flag off Venice . On 16 July , Heimburg sailed for the Dardanelles . This was at a time when the range of submarines was very limited , unlike today . To reach Bodrum , " UB - 14 " had to be towed a considerable part of the distance by an Austrian destroyer . Even so her engine broke down off Crete and her compass became defective . Despite these problems she arrived safely at Bodrum on 24 July . On arrival she recharged the batteries of the which had arrived four days earlier with engine problems . A maintenance team then had to travel from Constantinople to carry out necessary repairs to both submarines . At the time this journey was not easy being made partly by train and partly by camel . On 12 August , Heimburg sailed from Bodrum for the known steamer route between Alexandria and the Dardanelles . After leaving , Heimburg ' s first sighting was a fully lit hospital ship seen that evening which was not attacked . On 13 August he first sighted the liner in service as a hospital ship . He then sighted the sailing unescorted for Madras . He fired one torpedo from under a mile away which hit her stern . The " Royal Edward " sank quickly in position 6 miles west from Kandeliusa in the Aegean Sea . The after deck was awash in three minutes and the ship had sunk with her bows in the air in six minutes . 132 members of her crew and maybe 1000 soldiers died , while figures vary . The survivors were picked up by the " Soudan " , two French destroyers and some trawlers . Heimburg and the " UB - 14 " did not stay on to harass the rescue effort , but headed back to Bodrum with some technical problems where she arrived on the morning of the 15 August . Later in August Heimburg and the " UB - 14 " sank the Australian troopship " Southland " bound for Gallipoli . Approximately thirty men were killed and the remaining troops and crew were rescued by nearby ships . A skeleton crew of volunteers managed to keep the ship afloat and beach it in Moudros harbour . On 4 September , the British submarine became entangled in enemy torpedo net s off Nagara Point in the Dardanelles . All attempts to free the submarine failed . However , they had caught the attention of Heimburg , currently in harbour with " UB - 14 " which was undergoing repairs at nearby Çanakkale . He visited the spot in a small skiff , from which he lowered a small explosive charge . " E7 " was forced to the surface and her crew scuttled it before they were taken as prisoners of war . On 5 November , Heimburg with " UB - 14 " torpedoed and sank the British submarine and after taking command of he also torpedoed and sank the French submarine " Ariane " on 19 June 1917 . On 11 August , Heino von Heimburg was awarded the Pour le Mérite . World War II . At the beginning of World War II , Heimburg was a judge at the Reichskriegsgericht . Until 1943 , when he was retired , Heimburg served in Bremen . In 1944 he was selected to sit on the People ' s court , a Nazi special court . Despite the fact that he was now retired , in March 1945 Heimburg was apprehended by the Soviets and died in a POW camp near Stalingrad in 1945 .