GUTZMER, Albert Wilhelm

ALBERT WILHELM GUTZMER

Electrician’s Mate First Class · Plankowner, USS Silversides (SS-236) · Lieutenant

Born / Died	3 Jun 1913 / 20 Nov 1995
Service no.	316-28-20
Commissioning rate	EM1c (15 Dec 1941)
Silversides tenure	15 Dec 1941 – 15 Jul 1943
Patrols aboard	5 (13 ships credited, 73,387 t)²
Rate on leaving Silversides	CEM(AA)
Final rate	Lieutenant (Ensign 15 Feb 1945)
Other vessels	Skipjack (SS-184), Bream (SS-243, plankowner)
Service	22 Jul 1930 – 1 Oct 1957 (BIRLS)

Prewar (1913–1941)

Albert Gutzmer was born on 3 June 1913. In 1930 his widowed father Otto (57), who was born in Germany, farmed at Silver Creek, South Dakota, with seven children at home, among them Albert (16). Albert enlisted in the Navy on 22 July 1930, three months after the census was taken.

On Silversides (Dec 1941 – Jul 1943)

Gutzmer commissioned aboard *Silversides* on 15 December 1941 as EM1c. He left on 28 March 1943 for U.S. Naval Mobile Hospital No. 2, returned on 8 May 1943, and made the fifth patrol, so he was aboard for the first five. His final exit was on 15 July 1943, to ComSubDiv 82 “for duty,” as a CEM(AA).

Patrol	Dates	CO	Credited sunk	Credited damaged
1	30 Apr – 21 Jun 1942	Burlingame	5 (25,627 t)¹	1 (10,100 t)
2	15 Jul – 8 Sep 1942	Burlingame	4 (15,250 t)	2 (5,750 t)
3	2 Oct – 25 Nov 1942	Burlingame	2 (12,500 t)²	0
4	17 Dec 1942 – 31 Jan 1943	Burlingame	1 (10,010 t)	3 (14,360 t)
5	17 May – 1 Jul 1943	Burlingame	1 (10,000 t)	0
Total			13 (73,387 t)	6 (30,210 t)

¹ Tonnage as credited in endorsements. Patrol 1 includes a submarine credit that was likely a log or other debris.
² Patrol 3 figures come from the ship’s history, not a patrol report. The total therefore mixes bases.

Later War (1943–1945)

Orders to USS Bream (SS-243) were cut on 7 September 1943. He was a plankowner when she commissioned on 24 January 1944 as CEM(PA), made one war patrol and left on 14 July 1944 for the CSD 181 relief crew. He was commissioned Ensign on 15 February 1945. Skipjack (SS-184) also appears among his boats, dates unrecorded.

Postwar (1945–1995)

The 1950 census finds him in Philadelphia, listed in the Armed Forces, with his wife Lorita (37) and one child. BIRLS gives his discharge as 1 October 1957, and his Find a Grave memorial lists him as a Lieutenant in World War II and Korea. He died on 20 November 1995.

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Research Notes

• March 1943 muster: the continuity table flagged a GAP at 1943-03. He was in the Naval Mobile Hospital from 28 Mar, three days before the 31 Mar muster, which explains it as a real absence like Teem’s. verify the receipt ROC.

• Ensign date: 15 Feb 1945, source not recorded.

• 1950 census: Lorita was “on a sample line” and married more than once. She married Albert five years before the census.

• Open: OMPF (ompf_required), Skipjack dates, commissioned-officer service.

• Source notes (carried over, verbatim):

  Father was a farmer.
  Left Silversides on 28MAR43 to US NAVAL MOBILE HOSP. # 2.
  Returned to Silversides 8MAY43 from the mobile HOSP. Final exit was 15JUL43 to COMSUBDIV 82.
  Orders to the ship were cut on 7SEP43.
  Bream from commissioning through 14JUL44 when he went to CSD 181 Relief Crew for duty.
  1930 Census Silver Creek, SD. Otto Gutzmer (57) Babette(23), Otto Jr (21), Hilda (19), Albert (16), Erna (12), Florence (7), and Walter (2yrs 2 mo). Otto is widowed and a farmer. Otto was born in Germany. Albert enlisted 3 months after the census was enumerated.
  1950 Census Philadelphia, PA. Albert Gutzmer (37) and Lorita (37) and Sharon A. (2). Albert was in the Armed Forces. Lorita was on a sample line and was married more than once and married Albert 5 years before the census was enumerated.
  Made ENS 15FEB45
  One Bream patrol and 5 Silversides patrols.

Sources: 1930 and 1950 census; BIRLS; Find a Grave; Silversides and Bream musters and ROCs.