Carl-Heinz Birnbacher

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Heinz Birnbacher (born May 26, 1910 in Villach ; † December 5, 1991 ibid) was a German naval officer of Austrian origin, most recently Rear Admiral of the Federal Navy .

Life

As the son of a former Austro-Hungarian officer, Birnbacher attended the Peraugymnasium , where he passed his matriculation examination in 1929 .

Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine

Birnbacher joined the Reichsmarine as a midshipman on October 9, 1930 and was trained as a naval officer on the sailing training ship Niobe and the light cruiser Emden . He then served as a sea ​​lieutenant on the ship of the line Hessen . This was followed by training as a torpedo officer . As such he served on the ironclad Admiral Scheer . In 1935 he became a teacher at the Torpedo School in Flensburg - Mürwik .

In the Navy he was transferred to the light cruiser Karlsruhe after completing a course in aircraft catapults . There he was responsible for the aiming of the torpedo weapon and for the aircraft catapult. In September 1936 he joined the 1st Schnellbootflotille, in which he was successively commander of the Schnellboot S-7 and S-14 . In October 1937 he became an officer on watch at Z 1 Leberecht Maass . In 1938 he was transferred to the torpedo school in Flensburg-Mürwik as a teacher. Since December 1, 1939 flotilla commander of the 1st Schnellbootflottille, it was for the success of his flotilla in filling Bergen as part of the company Weserübung awarded in April 1940 and before the English coast on 17 June 1940, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. In the course of the western campaign , the flotilla moved from Bergen to Borkum in May 1940 . In Operation Barbarossa , the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Birnbacher's flotilla was deployed in the Baltic Sea , and in May 1942 it was moved overland and across the Danube to Constana on the Black Sea . From October 1942, Birnbacher served first as first officer and then as commander on three destroyers . With Z 24 he fought in the Bay of Biscay and in the North Atlantic . At the end of 1943, eleven destroyers and torpedo boats were to penetrate the Bay of Biscay at the Trave company in order to bring the Alsterufer blockade breaker into the Gironde . The venture became a lossy failure; However, Birnbacher was able to escape his opponents. After the Z 24 had been sunk by British bombers off Le Verdon in August 1944 , Birnbacher took over command of the Narvik Marine Battalion in the Gironde South Fortress on August 26, 1944 , which consisted of crew members from the Z 24 and T 24 . There he was taken prisoner by the French on April 20, 1945 , from which he was released on October 6, 1947 in Innsbruck .

post war period

In his homeland, Birnbacher first learned the trades as a carpenter and boat builder . He studied at the local Montan University Leoben , where in 1951 - as a war-experienced corvette captain of 41 years - he became a corps loop bearer of the Corps Schacht . Until 1956 he worked in an auditor's office.

Federal Navy

To an Austrian requested Birnbacher German citizenship shortly after the founding of the Armed Forces on 16 August 1956 as a Commander in the German Navy to enter. After a briefing course, he first became the commander of the Cuxhaven naval base command and then the commander of the 5th ship master department responsible for training destroyers . From 1957 to 1959 he served as an admiral staff officer in the command of the naval forces . In 1959 he became the commandant of the first destroyer of the German Navy Destroyer 1 (D 170), which was taken over from the USA, and led him, at the end promoted to sea captain, until September 1960. From 1960 to 1962 he was the commander of the speedboat command .

After a short interim assignment and briefing in the Central Naval Command , Birnbacher was Deputy Commander of the Fleet from 1963 to 1964 as Flotilla Admiral . In October 1964 he became the commander of the North Sea naval section command and in 1967 the commander of the naval forces of the North Sea . From October 1968 to October 1970 he was once again Deputy Commander of the Fleet, now with the rank of Rear Admiral. Birnbacher retired on September 30, 1970.

retirement

After his retirement, Birnbacher was Federal Commissioner at the Flensburg and Lübeck Maritime Offices from 1973 to 1986 . Shortly before his death, Birnbacher and his wife moved back to his birthplace in Villach in Austria.

Awards

Promotions

  • October 9, 1930 Naval Cadet (Reichsmarine)
  • April 1, 1931 Private
  • April 1, 1932 Ensign at sea
  • July 1, 1932 Chief Petty Officer
  • April 1, 1934 Senior Ensign at Sea
  • October 1, 1934 Lieutenant at sea
  • June 1, 1936 First Lieutenant for the Sea (Navy)
  • April 1, 1939 Lieutenant Commander
  • 1st April 1943 Corvette Captain
  • August 16, 1956 Frigate Captain (German Navy)
  • September 18, 1960 sea captain
  • August 7, 1963 Flotilla Admiral
  • October 2, 1968 Rear Admiral

Birnbacher was, among other things, an honorary member of the Navy Comradeship Frigate Captain Peter-Pirkham Villach .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Obituary in: MOV - MOH - DMI - Nachrichten 3-1992 p.10 *
  2. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Württembergische Landesbibliothek - Chronik des Maritime War 1939-45
  3. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 153/277
  4. ^ History of the German Fletcher destroyer
  5. ↑ Federal Archives / Military Archives on Carl-Heinz Birnbacher ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / startext.net-build.de
  6. ↑ 84th Cabinet Meeting, July 17, 1963
personal data
SURNAME Birnbacher, Carl-Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Birnbacher, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer of Austrian origin, most recently rear admiral of the Federal Navy
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Villach
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1991
Place of death Villach