Reinhard Johann Heinz Paul Anton Suhren (16 April 1916 – 25 August 1984) was a German U-boat commander in World War II and younger brother of Korvettenkapitän (Ing.)

Prior to graduation, during his last summer vacation, Suhren was allowed and accepted at a sailing course at the Hanseatic Yacht School in Neustadt in Holstein.

[Note 1] He received his military basic training in the 2nd company in the 2nd department of the standing ship division of the Baltic Sea in Stralsund (5 April 1935 – 17 June 1935).

[3] Suhren sailed on Emden's sixth training cruise, which started on 23 October 1935 and took him and her crew to the Azores, West Indies and Venezuela, through the Panama Canal to Guayaquil, where they celebrated Christmas.

From Honolulu they continued to Middle America, back through the Panama Canal and after visiting a few harbours in the West Indies to Baltimore and Montreal.

[4] Following his journey on Emden, Suhren attended the main cadet course at the Naval Academy Mürwik (20 June 1936 – 31 March 1937).

[3] His military career almost came to an unexpected end on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday), the highlight of the German "Karneval" (carnival), 8 February 1937.

Baltzer would later be promoted in rank to Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) and hold the position of chief of the Marinepersonalamt (Naval Personnel Office) in the Oberkommando der Marine.

Suhren claimed that later during his career, Baltzer personally prevented him from advancing in rank to Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea).

[6] The German invasion of Poland began on 1 September 1939, and marked the beginning of World War II in Europe.

The award had been requested by Bleichrodt on account of his Knight's Cross presentation by Karl Dönitz, at the time Vizeadmiral and Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (Commander of the Submarines).

The request, with the support of Engelbert Endrass, was approved and the Knight's Cross was presented by Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, the 2nd Admiral of the U-boats and responsible for staffing.

[9] To breach this period (10 November 1940 – 2 March 1941), he was sent to lecture at the torpedo firing school of the 24th U-boat Flotilla in Memel, present-day Klaipėda.

After World War II, Gabler became one of the leading experts on conventional submarine construction and honorary professor at the University of Hamburg for shipbuilding.

Suhren, and his brother Gerd, who also happened to be in Gotenhafen at the time, both already decorated with the Knight's Cross, were invited to lunch with Hitler and his entourage.

They left La Pallice again on 18 January heading for the East Coast of the United States and arrived in Brest on 6 March 1942.

Suhren had to abort the patrol prematurely as the muzzle doors of the torpedo tubes had been damaged in a collision with U-107 off of Cape Hatteras.

[14] Suhren took U-564 on its fifth patrol (4 April 1942 – 6 June 1942) back to the East Coast of the United States again, departing and returning to Brest.

[16] The sinking of this ship, compounded with U-106's attack on another tanker, the Faja de Oro, on 21 May 1942, would bring Mexico to declare "A State of War" on the Axis powers.

[20] While on patrol Suhren was attacked by an Allied aircraft and was forced to dive to 200 meters (660 feet)—perilously close to crushing depth.

[22] By his own account, Suhren managed to get himself invited to the Berghof, Hitler's home in the Obersalzberg, following the presentation of the Swords to his Knight's Cross.

On 27 May 1944, Dönitz appointed Suhren was Führer der Unterseeboote in Norwegian waters and from September 1944 for the North Sea.

[25] Suhren was taken prisoner of war by British forces in Oslo, Norway, where he and Rösing were imprisoned in the Akershus Fortress for a year.

Suhren had managed to evacuate both his wife and his mother-in-law from Danzig to Oberstdorf in the Allgäu region of the Bavarian Alps in early 1945.

[28] Suhren was asked multiple times to join the military service in the Bundeswehr, the post World War II armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany.

[29] The Bundesmarine lost U-Hai, a modernized type XXIII submarine formerly U-2365, in a storm on 14 September 1966 roughly 138 nautical miles (256 km; 159 mi) northwest of Helgoland in the Dogger Bank.

Only the cook, Obermaat Peter Silbernagel, survived the sinking, 19 members of the crew including the commander, Oberleutnant zur See Joachim-Peter Wiedersheim, lost their lives.

Among those attending were Herbert Schultze, Erich Topp, Eberhard Godt, Otto Kretschmer, Klaus Bargsten, Hans Meckel and Peter-Erich Cremer.