[1] The title was established in June 1917, replacing the role of "Leader of the U-boats" (Führer der Unterseeboote, or FdU) for the High Seas Flotillas.

The first incumbent was Kapitan zur See/Kommodore Andreas Michelsen, previously head of the High Seas Fleet’s destroyer force.

He retained the title, but was replaced as operational commander at BdU by his chief of staff Eberhard Godt.

[4] Godt's successor was Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeburg, who held the position at the end of the war and became commander-in-chief of the German navy when Dönitz became head of Nazi Germany after Hitler's suicide.

[5] Beucke was withdrawn from command of U-boat (a single patrol with German submarine U-173) in 1942 because his brothers had been killed.