Habekost, Johannes born 03-02-1907 in Spandau, a district of the city of Berlin. 
Johannes first joined the Reichsmarine 
and then the Kriegsmarine 
in the late 1930s, and like every cadet received his officer training where he was promoted to Kapitänleutnant on 01-08-1938. On 08-11-1938, as a 31-year-old officer, he was given command of the first and last U-boat he would command, the U-31. 
Johannes Habekost commander of U-31 coincidently from the ‘crew’ intake of 1931. Also part of that ‘crew’ was Heinrich-Lehmann Willenbrock (U-96) 
, Fritz-Julius Lemp 
and Gunther Prien. 
Johannes Habekost left Memel on 27-08-1939 for his base in Wilhelmshaven, where he arrived on September 2 after seven patrol days. Departing on 09-09-1939 for his second mission of 24 patrol days, he would be the first U-boat to launch an attack on a convoy, or at least on a freighter that did not actually belong to convoy OB-4. Capitain Luietenant Johannes Habekost, attacked the first convoy of the war when he sank the British steam freighter Aviemore, 
which was not actually sailing with an unknown number of ships from convoy OB-4. In fact, the Aviemore was ahead of the convoy group steaming toward North America. Aviemore was a British Merchant steamer built in 1920 and owned by the Johnston Warren Lines Ltd. On the 16-09-1939 when on route from Swansea for Montevideo and Buenos Aires carrying a cargo of 5165 tons tinplates and black sheets she was torpedoed by U-31 and sunk. 23 crew lost. Read more at wrecksite:
OB-4 was an Allied shipping convoy during World War II. This convoy was the first convoy of the war to be attacked. It is not known how many ships were sailing with it, but the convoy was first sighted on 15-09-1939 by U-31 of. Johannes Habekost. The subsequent convoy attack lasted from September 15 to 16, 1939, in which one German submarine took part.Convoy OB-4 had departed Liverpool and was en route to the United States across the North Atlantic. There were no escort ships present. The next day, September 16, U-31 attacked at about 8:15 am. This attack was successful as the 4,060 ton British freighter Aviemore was hit and sank. This was the first ship to sail ahead of a convoy and be lost. The Aviemore was not actually part of OB-4 even though it was in the area. Two weeks later, on October 2, U-31 returned to Wilhelmshaven.
On 04-12-1939, HMS Nelson 
was damaged by a naval mine laid by U-31. The 33,950-ton British battleship HMS Nelson was able to continue its journey, but had to be repaired in Scotland. On 04-12-1939, she detonated a magnetic mine (laid by U-31) at the entrance to Loch Ewe on the Scottish coast and was under repair in HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, until August 1940. The mine blew a 10-by-6-foot (3.0 by 1.8 m) hole in the hull forward of ‘A’ turret which flooded the torpedo compartment and some adjacent compartments. The flooding caused a small list and caused the ship to trim down by the bow. No one was killed, but 74 sailors were wounded.
Death and burial ground of Habekost, Johannes.
The fate that befell U-31 and its crew on 11-03-1940 happened in Jadebusen, Wilhelmshaven. There the U-31 was sunk by a British Bristol-Blenheim bomber 
of the Royal Air Force. 
All 58 troops, including Johannes Habekost, lost their lives. The sunken U-31 was refloated in March 1940, repaired and released to U-boat service. The U31 had sunk 8 ships for a total of 17,962 GRT. 2 auxiliary warships sunk for a total of 160 GRT. 1 warship damaged for a total of 33,950 tons. Together a total of 52,072 tons. Kapitänleutnant Johannes Habekost was just 33 years old when he was killed…Johannes Habekost was buried at the German War Cemetery Wilhelmshaven; Block Ea, Grave 150
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