Fritz Schneewind joined the Kriegsmarine in 1936, and was part of the Olympia Crew. He served as a Group Officer at the Naval College at Flensburg and on the sailing ship Leo Schlageter and at the Kriegsmarine Depot at Boulogne (Busch & Röll, 1999) before joining the U-boat arm in 1940.
After basic training he served as a Watch Officer (WO) with the 1st Flotilla and the 3rd Flotilla until Sept 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999).
From Sept 1941 - Nov 1942 Schneewind served as First Watch Officer (I WO) on the successful type IXC U-boat U-506 (Würdemann) (Busch & Röll, 1999).
Kptlt Schneewind went through U-boat Commander training with the 24th (Training) Flotilla before taking over command of U-511, another long range boat, on 18 Dec 1942 (Busch & Röll, 1999). He commanded her on two patrols; the first was in the mid Atlantic, and for the second he was ordered to take the boat to the Indian Ocean and then deliver the boat to Japan (Busch & Röll, 1997). U-511 arrived at Kure, Japan on 7 Aug 1943, having sunk two ships en route.
On 20 Nov 1943 Kptlt. Fritz Schneewind took command of U-183 (another type IXC) at Singapore (Busch & Röll, 1999). The boat operated in the Indian Ocean as part of the Monsun group. Schneewind successfully completed four patrols in her (Busch & Röll, 1997), sinking three ships of almost 18,000 tons (Rohwer, 1998).
On the fifth patrol the boat was ambushed by the American submarine USS Besugo in the Java Sea and sunk, leaving only one survivor from a crew of 55 (Niestlé, 1998). Kptlt. Fritz Schneewind went down with the boat.
6 ships sunk (37,045 tons).