Friedrich Steinhoff (officer)

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Friedrich Steinhoff (born July 14, 1909 in Küllstedt , † May 19, 1945 in Boston - Charlestown ) was a German officer in the Navy , most recently a lieutenant captain and submarine commander in World War II . Under his command, tests with a missile submarine were carried out in Peenemünde . In the last days of the war he operated with U 873 near the Atlantic coast of the USA . After he and his crew surrendered to the US Navy at the end of the war , he was tortured during interrogation and committed suicide on May 19, 1945.

Life

Friedrich Steinhoff grew up in his hometown Küllstedt in Thuringia and went to the merchant navy after graduating , where he served as a nautical officer . On April 5, 1935 - one year after the National Socialists came to power - Friedrich Steinhoff switched to the Reichsmarine as an officer candidate , which from June 1, 1935 was called the Kriegsmarine . After his basic and on-board training, which lasted until November 1939, he became a commander in the 4th minesweeping flotilla in December 1939 and joined the Coast Guard Association in Bergen (Norway) in May 1940 . From March 1941 he was trained as an officer for submarines and in July 1941 he became an officer on watch on U 96 . From October to November 1941 he took part in a commanders course with the 26th U-Flotilla in Pillau in East Prussia . On December 1, 1941 he was promoted to lieutenant captain, and with the commissioning of U 511 of the type IXC in Hamburg on December 8, 1941, he became its first commander. Until July 31, 1942, the submarine was used and tested under his command at the 4th U-Flotilla stationed in Stettin for training purposes.

Of 31 May 1942 to 5 June 1942 Friedrich Steinhoff with was U 511 in the port of Peenemünde Army Research Center , where within the framework of "Project Ursel" on the submarine launch experiments with rockets were conducted. It was the first time that a rocket was launched from a submarine from a depth of 23 m. Friedrich worked closely with his brother Ernst Steinhoff , who was involved in the development of missiles for use by the Wehrmacht in Peenemünde .

Steinhoff commanded U 511 on two patrols - from July 16, 1942 to September 29, 1942 and from October 24, 1942 to November 28, 1942. During this time (and also until his decommissioning on September 1, 1943) belonged the submarine 10th submarine flotilla based in Lorient . On its first patrol, the submarine under Steinhoff sank two tankers with a total of 21,999 GRT and damaged one with 8,773 GRT. On his second patrol, however, Steinhoff fell ill with bloody diarrhea and stomach pain, so that the boat had to return to Lorient without sinking. On December 18, 1942, Steinhoff gave command of U 511 to Fritz Schneewind . From February 1943 on, Lieutenant Steinhoff served as a staff officer in the staff of the 7th U-Flotilla in Saint-Nazaire .

From January 1944 Steinhoff was prepared in the 6th warship construction training department in Bremen for the management of the new submarine U 873 of type IXD2. With the commissioning of the submarine in Bremen on March 1, 1944, he became the commander of U 873 , which he used as a training boat for the 4th U-Flotilla based in Stettin until January 31, 1945, and from February 1, 1945 as a front boat in directed the 33rd U-Flotilla based in Flensburg . After moving the submarine, he left the port of Kristiansand in the North Atlantic off the east coast of the USA on March 30, 1945 with U 873 . As part of the submarine group "Seewolf", the submarine was supposed to attack enemy ships directly on the North American coast, but there was no contact with the enemy. The leadership of the US Navy feared a submarine attack with missiles or cruise missiles on cities in the USA, but in reality none of the submarines were equipped with it. In Operation Teardrop , the massive use of numerous warships wiped out 10 of the 18 submarines of the "Sea Wolf" - nine of them without survivors - but Steinhoff's U 873 escaped this fate. After the Wehrmacht surrendered on May 8, 1945, Steinhoff decided to deliver the submarine to the US Navy and surrender. On May 11, 1945 Steinhoff surrendered with his 59-man crew to the destroyer escort USS Vance . On May 17, 1945 Steinhoff arrived with his crew on U 873 accompanied by the US destroyer in the US coastal city of Portsmouth ( New Hampshire ).

German prisoners of war from U-873 in Portsmouth Harbor. Friedrich Steinhoff with his white service cap can only be seen from behind.

Steinhoff and his men were interrogated at Portsmouth Naval Prison , but were then taken to the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston . Here they had to march through the streets of Boston to the Suffolk County's Charles Street Jail , while onlookers cursed them and threw stones and rubbish at them from the roadside. Their medals and other belongings were distributed among prison staff as souvenirs.

The civil interrogator Jack Henry Alberti took over the interrogation of the prisoners, whereby a strong marine had the task of beating the interrogated if necessary. Steinhoff's face was swollen after the interrogations and had a cut. On May 19, 1945, he committed suicide in his cell by severing the artery on his right wrist with a broken spectacle lens and a piece of wire from his service cap and bleeding to death . He was buried at Fort Devens (grave number 934).

The content of the interrogations was kept secret. Friedrich Steinhoff is associated in particular with the experiments on rocket submarines in Peenemünde, but suspicions have been made that the interrogations involved uranium transports with German submarines to Japan . In contrast to U 234 , U 873 had no uranium on board at the time of its surrender.

Due to Steinhoff's suicide , the American naval command initiated an official investigation. In the same report of June 29, 1945 it was established that the distribution of the prisoners' property among the prison staff as souvenirs as well as the use of beatings during interrogation was a serious violation of the Geneva Convention and the guidelines of the US Navy for it dealing with prisoners. In addition, the civilian officer Jack Henry Alberti had far exceeded his competencies as an officer with the interrogations with the help of the marine soldier used for the beatings.

family

Friedrich Steinhoff was married to Ilse Steinhoff in Cuxhaven and had one child. While Friedrich Steinhoff's life ended in a Boston prison in 1945, his older brother Ernst Steinhoff (1908–1987) was named Dr. Ing. And specialist in rocket technology brought to the USA in 1945 as part of Operation Paperclip , where he made a significant contribution to their rocket program.

Military awards

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. Preface by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rohwer, Member of the Presidium of the International Commission on Military History. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1996, p. 233. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Philip K. Lundeberg: Operation Teardrop Revisited . In: Timothy J. Runyan, Jan M. Copes (Eds.): To Die Gallantly - The Battle of the Atlantic . Westview Press, Boulder 1994, pp. 213, 219, 227. ISBN 0-8133-8815-5 .
  • Walter Lohmann, Hans H. Hildebrand: The German Navy 1939-1945, Volume 3 . Podzun Verlag, Brilon 1956, p. 200 (section 292).
  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War - The Hunted 1942–1945 . Heyne Verlag, 1999. pp. 749, 799. ISBN 3-4531-6059-0 .
  • Jochen Brennecke : Hunters and Hunted - German U-Boats 1939-1945 . Koehler Verlag, Herford 1982. ISBN 3-7822-0262-7
  • Christian Prague: No Ordinary War - The Eventful Career of U-604. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis (Maryland) 2009. p. 166.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Stephen D. Bryen: Technology Security and National Power: Winners and Losers. Routledge, London / New York 2017. p. 107.
  2. ^ Medical Examiner's Certificate of Death for Kapitänleutnant Fritz Steinhoff. U-873 , Uboatarchive.net, accessed September 5, 2019.
  3. ^ Philip Henshall: The Nuclear Axis: Germany, Japan and the Atom Bomb Race, 1939-1945 . Sutton, 2000. p. 178.
  4. ↑ James P. Duffy: Target: America. Hitler's Plan to Attack the United States. Lyons Press, New York NY 2006, ISBN 1-59228-934-7 , pp. 116 and 175. Original source: Irregularities Connected with the Handling of Surrendered German Submarines and Prisoners of War at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, SecNav / CNO file A16-2 (3) EF30, Record Group 80; National Archives USA ( U-873 available online at Uboatarchive.net).
  5. ↑ Basic Personnel Record (Alien Enemy or Prisoner of War) , back cover . On: U-873 , Uboatarchive.net: U-873 surrendered to US forces on May 11, 1945
personal data
SURNAME Steinhoff, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, submarine commander
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Küllstedt
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1945
Place of death Boston - Charlestown