August mouse

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August Maus as a prisoner of the US Navy aboard USS Core
Captain MR Greer interrogates August Maus aboard USS Core

Wilhelm Hugo August Maus (born February 7, 1915 in what would later become the Wuppertal , † September 28, 1996 in Hamburg ) was a German naval officer and submarine commander in World War II .

Prewar years

Maus joined the Reichsmarine on April 8, 1934 as a candidate for naval officers and was assigned to the 2nd Company of the 2nd Ship Mastery Department of the Baltic Sea in Stralsund for basic infantry training. He was then transferred to the sailing training ship Gorch Fock , where he began his practical on-board training. On September 26, 1934, he was appointed sea ​​cadet . On September 27, 1934, Maus was transferred to the light cruiser Emden to continue his on-board training there. On the Emden took place on October 1, 1934 his promotion to the top sailors and 1 January 1935, the Chief Staff sailors. From June 27, 1935, Maus took part in the ensign's course at the Mürwik Naval School , and on July 1, 1935, he was appointed ensign at sea . From March 31, 1936 to July 29, 1936, he completed various weapons courses. He also completed his infantry training in July 1936 with the II. Ship Mastery. Maus had already completed his two navigation instruction trips in August 1935 and February 1936 on board the Poseidon and the tender Hecht .

After completing his ensign training course, Mauses was transferred to the cruiser Nuremberg , where he completed his on-board training. Maus then took part in coastal protection trips with the Nuremberg as part of the Spanish Civil War . On January 1, 1937, he was promoted to senior ensign at sea . After his return to Germany, Maus completed an E-measurement course at the E-Messschule zu Saßnitz in mid-February 1937 and, in April, a Fla-E measurement training at the coastal artillery school. It was here that he was promoted to lieutenant at sea with effect from April 1, 1937 . He then returned to the Nuremberg and served there until the end of May 1938 as a watch and E-Mess officer. From March 3, 1939 to June 14, 1939, Maus was adjutant in the 1st ship regiment , where he was promoted to lieutenant at sea on April 1, 1939 . On June 15, 1939 he became a training officer on the Schleswig-Holstein .

Use and Second World War

Patrols

U 68

  1. June 30, 1941 to August 1, 1941 as IWO
  2. September 11, 1941 to December 25, 1941 as IWO

U 185

  1. October 27, 1942 to January 1, 1943 (1 ship with 5,476 GRT sunk)
  2. February 8, 1943 to May 3, 1943 (3 ships with 20,504 GRT sunk)
  3. June 5, 1943 to August 24, 1943 (5 ships with 36,781 GRT sunk)

In this role, Maus was present during the attack on Poland at the shelling of the Westerplatte and later at the landing of 225 marines. In the course of the Weser Exercise company , however, Maus resigned as a permanent staff member of Schleswig-Holstein and switched to the U-Boot weapon on April 29, 1940, where he also attended a UTO course and a U-course for officers on watch . Then on December 22, 1940 he was delegated to the building instruction of U 68 , whose 1st watch officer he was on February 11, 1941 under the command of Karl-Friedrich Merten . Maus was involved in two patrols with U 68 . On November 1, 1941, he was promoted to lieutenant captain here . Then Maus left U 68 and from December 30, 1941, took part in a commanders' shooting course with the 24th U-Flotilla . From March 12, 1942, he was initially "available" to complete the commandant course from April 20, 1942. After its completion, on May 5, 1942, he was again delegated to construction advice for U 185 , of which he became commander on June 12, 1942.

Maus was deployed with U 185 during three patrols in the South Atlantic off North Africa and later in the South and Central Atlantic. Here he was able to sink 9 ships with 62,761 GRT . On August 11, 1943, U 604 was sighted and attacked by an American Liberator . However, the U 185 operating nearby was able to shoot the attacker down with flak fire and then took 22 survivors (13 men, 5 NCOs, 2 sergeants and 2 officers) from U 604 on board. U 604 was then sunk itself because it was too badly damaged. On August 14, 1943, U 185 handed these men over to U 172 , which later reached Lorient with dysentery on board .

Sink of U 185 on August 24, 1943

Then Maus resumed his patrol, but was sighted and sunk a few days later on August 24, 1943 by three reconnaissance aircraft of the US escort aircraft carrier USS Core . There were 43 dead on U 185 - 29 of U 185 and 14 of U 604 . The remaining 32 men - 23 of U-185 and 9 of U-606 - fell into American captivity . Initially 36 men were brought out of the water onto the destroyer Barker , but four died there from their severe wounds. Shortly afterwards, the 32 survivors - including Maus - were brought to the USS Core . On September 21, 1943, Maus, who was already in captivity at that time, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his successes in sinking . It is no longer possible to clarify whether the Navy High Command was informed of the capture of Maus and / or the loss of U 185 at this point in time . Maus and his people were later handed over to the US authorities, initially interned in Crossville ( Tennessee ) and transferred to the " Camp Papago Park " prisoner of war camp in Arizona on January 27, 1944 . Together with four submarine commanders, he managed to escape on February 12, 1944, but he and Friedrich Guggenberger were captured again in Tucson (Arizona), while Jürgen Quaet-Faslem , Hermann Kottmann and Hans Johannsen were first captured in Mexico and to Papago Park were sent back. He was unable to participate in the second attempt to escape on December 23, 1944 because he was injured, but he helped dig the tunnel. This escape attempt (" Great Papago Escape ") was initially more successful, because 25 companions, including Friedrich Guggenberger and Hans-Werner Kraus , managed a two-week escape. They were only found by the American authorities six kilometers from the Mexican border.

In 1946, Maus was released from captivity and returned to Germany. After the war he worked as a businessman.

Awards

literature

  • Kenneth Wynn: U-boat Operations of the Second World War: Career histories, U511-UIT25 Naval Institute Press 1998, ISBN 1-55750-862-3 .
  • Jürgen Rohwer: The submarine successes of the Axis powers, 1939-1945 Documentation of the library for contemporary history, Munich: JF Lehmanns Verlag, 1968 OCLC 185956008
  • Gaylord ™ Kelshall: The U-boat war in the Caribbean , Naval Institute Press 1994, ISBN 978-1-55750-452-4 .
  • Manfred Dörr: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon 1939-1945 Volume II, letters K – Z, p. 104–106.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Theodore P. Savas: Silent Hunters. German U-boat Commanders of World War II. Savas Publishing, Campbell (California) 1997, pp. 105f.
  2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 531.
personal data
SURNAME Mouse, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maus, Wilhelm Hugo August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Area of ​​the later Wuppertal
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1996
Place of death Hamburg