Erich Bey

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Erich Bey, 1940

Erich Bey (* 23. March 1898 in Hamburg , † 26. December 1943 in the Barents Sea ) was a German naval officer ( Rear Admiral ), which in the filling of Narvik in Norway commanded a destroyer in April 1940 and 1943 in the sinking of the battleship Scharnhorst the Found death.

Early career

Bey joined the Imperial Navy on June 13, 1916, and at the end of the First World War was a lieutenant at sea and an officer on watch in a torpedo boat flotilla. After the end of the war he was released and in February 1919 joined the Freikorps " Marine Brigade von Loewenfeld ", the so-called 3rd Marine Brigade, set up by Corvette Captain Wilfried von Loewenfeld , where he became company commander in March 1919 . After its dissolution, he was taken over into the new Reichsmarine . There he served on speedboats , torpedo boats and destroyers as well as in staff and training positions on land. On October 26, 1938, he became the commander of the destroyer Z 14 Friedrich Ihn and on April 4, 1939 , he was the commander of the 4th destroyer flotilla.

Narvik 1940

As a frigate captain , he commanded the 4th destroyer flotilla , consisting of the boats Z 11 Bernd von Arnim , Z 12 Erich Giese and Z 13 Erich Koellner , which on April 9, 1940 was part of the combat group led by Commodore Friedrich Bonte to occupy 2,000 mountain troops of the local ore port to Narvik ( company Weser Exercise ). In the following counter-attacks by the Royal Navy on April 10 and 13 , which were led on the decisive April 13 by the battleship HMS Warspite , Bey distinguished himself through brave but ultimately unsuccessful resistance. The Navy lost all ten destroyers that had been used to occupy Narvik ( Battle of Narvik ).

On May 9th, Bey received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . The next day he was promoted to sea captain and appointed leader of the destroyers , succeeding Friedrich Bonte, who died in Narvik on April 10th. Bey kept this command until his death.

Canal breakthrough in 1942

In February 1942, Captain Bey commanded the destroyer flotillas that secured the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen at the Cerberus company (canal breakthrough).

He was promoted to Commodore on April 10, 1942 and to Rear Admiral on March 1, 1943.

North Cape 1943

On December 25, 1943, Rear Admiral Bey led a combat group of five destroyers ( Z 29 , Z 30 , Z 33 , Z 34 and Z 38 ) and the battleship Scharnhorst from the northern Norwegian Altafjord to the north, around the Allied Northern Sea convoy JW 55B on its way to Intercept Murmansk ( Operation Eastern Front ). In the absence of adequate aerial reconnaissance, he split his combat group and then met surprisingly on British cruisers, to which the far superior battleship Duke of York soon followed . After about three hours of fighting, the Scharnhorst sank . Her telegram also transmitted: "The Scharnhorst fights to the last grenade. Heil Hitler." 1932 men lost their lives; only 36 were saved. The crew of the English destroyer Scorpion , who rescued 30 men, testified that Admiral Bey had been seen seriously wounded in the water, but that he had sunk before he could be rescued.

Awards

literature

  • Clemens Range : The knight's cross bearers of the Navy . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, 1974, ISBN 3-87943-355-0 .
  • Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945 Volume 1: A – G , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1988, ISBN 3-7648-1499-3
personal data
SURNAME Bey, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, most recently rear admiral in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 1943
Place of death Northern sea