Fritz Frauenheim

Fritz Hermann Günter Frauenheim (born March 9, 1912 in Friedenau; † September 28, 1969 in Hamburg ) was a German naval officer in the Kriegsmarine in World War II and a member of the board of directors of Mobil Oil AG .

Life

Fritz Frauenheim was born on March 9, 1912 in the Berlin district of Friedenau . He joined the Reichsmarine on April 1, 1930 .

Imperial Navy

Frauenheim received his infantry basic training with the 1st ship trunk division of the Baltic Sea, which was stationed on the Dänholm near Stralsund . On July 1, 1930 woman home was on the sail training ship Niobe shifted, where he began his practical on-board training. Here Frauheim was appointed on October 10, 1930 midshipmen appointed. On October 11, 1930, he switched to the light cruiser Emden to continue his on-board training. Effective January 1, 1932, Frauenheim was promoted to ensign at sea . He then went to the Mürwik Naval School in Flensburg - Mürwik . In early 1932, the Navy's training departments were reclassified. Frauenheim now belonged to the 4th department of the 2nd ship master department in Stralsund. Here Frauenheim received his further basic and infantry training. On April 1, 1932, he returned to the Naval School Mürwik to complete his main ensign course. He then attended the ensign artillery course from March 29, 1933 at the barrier school in Kiel-Wik, then from June 29, 1933 the ensign torpedo course at the naval school. From August 19, 1933, Frauenheim attended the ensign anti-aircraft machine weapons course at the coastal artillery school in Wilhelmshaven and, from September 13, 1933, the Flensburg-Mürwik torpedo and news school . On October 2, 1933, he resumed his on-board training on board the Schleswig-Holstein liner . There he acted as corporal leader, division sergeant and platoon leader . On April 1, 1934, he was promoted to senior ensign at sea . On June 26, 1934, Frauenheim changed to the light cruiser Karlsruhe , which at that time was serving as a training ship . With the Karlsruhe Frauenheim toured North, Central and South America, as well as Portugal and Spain. In the function of a division lieutenant he was employed in training and was promoted to lieutenant at sea on October 1, 1934 during the voyage .

Navy

From September 30, 1935, Frauenheim completed the torpedo officer course B at the naval school in Mürwik. He reported to the submarine weapon and was trained from January 27, 1936 at the submarine school in Kiel. On May 1, 1936, he became an officer on watch on U 25 . A month later he was promoted to lieutenant at sea . With U 5 , Frauenheim took part in the sea blockade of Spain as a result of the civil war under the command of Eberhard Godt . After initially two German submarines, U 33 and U 31 , had secretly intervened in the fighting there, further German submarines were sent to the Spanish sea area in the summer of 1937 to support the internationally agreed sea blockade. Two years later, Frauenheim was awarded the Spanish Cross in bronze for his commitment . At the beginning of October 1, 1937, Frauenheim was appointed commander of the U 21 .

Second World War

The cruiser Belfast was so badly damaged by a sea ​​mine launched by U 21 in the Firth of Forth that it was out of order for three years

As a commander, Frauenheim undertook five patrols with U 21 . On the first venture, the boat patrolled the Dutch coast. The second venture took place between September 9th and October 3rd. On September 22nd, Frauenheim reported the sinking of a British destroyer in the sea area off Northern Scotland - but this success could not be confirmed. The third operation, from October 22, 1939 to November 8, 1939, completed the boat in the North Sea and off the Firth of Forth , where Frauenheim carried out a mining operation. One of the of U 21 yielded mines damaged shortly after the British cruiser Belfast heavy. At the end of 1939, Frauenheim was available from December 30, 1939. From February 10, 1940, he and other officers received building instructions for the new U 101 boat, which he was supposed to be in command of. The boat should actually have been called " U 71 " if the consistent numbering of the German boats had been adhered to, but had been given a higher number to disguise the stagnant production figures.

The Washington

SS Washington

After the launch, Frauenheim became the commander of U 101 on March 11, 1940 . The first venture took the boat to Trondheim at the beginning of May to supply the occupying forces there with aircraft fuel. In May and June, Fraunheim patrolled the U 101 in the Atlantic and the Biscay. In early June it almost provoked a serious diplomatic incident. On June 6, U 101 encountered a large passenger steamer with 24,000 GRT in the sea area off Lisbon , which Frauenheim identified as a Greek ship. He surfaced, steered U 101 to the other ship and requested the crew and passengers to disembark within ten minutes. It turned out that it was the US passenger steamer SS Washington , which was on the way from Portugal to Galway . When Frauenheim noticed his mistake, he called out to the steamer: "Sorry. Mistake. Proceed!", Which was later interpreted indignantly in the Allied press as an overbearing strict order. Similar to the sinking of the Athenia , the German submarine command initially tried to attribute the incident to a British submarine, while American reporters speculated that the German side had aimed at a sinking in order to blame the British, which in turn led to the good connections between the The USA and the UK should have incriminated, but both arguments failed.

Knight's cross

On this venture Frauenheim sank the British steamer Wellington Star with 11,400 GRT. Furthermore, Frauenheim reported the sinking of a total of 41,500 GRT. For this he was named in the Wehrmacht report on June 17, 1940 . On another venture with this boat, which lasted from August 9, 1940 to September 16, 1940, he sank another three ships with 12,311 GRT. For these achievements, Frauenheim was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 29, 1940 . The last operation of U 101 under the command of Frauenheim lasted from October 5 to 24, 1940. Four ships, including the Assyrian , with at least 14,616 GRT were sunk again. Frauenheim reported four more sinkings of large ships, which he estimated at 5,000–7,000 GRT each - but this information could not be confirmed. Nevertheless, Frauenheim was named again in the Wehrmacht report on October 19, 1940 due to its success in sinking. He then handed over command of U 101 to Ernst Mengersen on November 3, 1940. On December 21, 1940, Frauenheim became an officer instructor of the 2nd Submarine Training Division in Gotenhafen .

Staff officer and flotilla chief

On April 5, 1941, Frauenheim became a liaison officer for the Atlantic pilot , Lieutenant General Martin Harlinghausen . This office, which was to serve the extensive reconnaissance of the Atlantic sea area by the air force, was stationed in Lorient . Frauenheim's task as admiral staff officer was to coordinate the use of the submarines with the reconnaissance tasks of the air forces. On July 1, 1941, Frauenheim took over command of the 4th Submarine Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Stettin . A month later he was given command of the 6th U-Flotilla . The flotilla was reorganized in Danzig during this period and Frauenheim did not take command.

Frauenheim (right) with other staff officers and sailors, in the middle Karl Dönitz

On September 11th he became the commander of the 23rd U-Flotilla , which was also under construction. The engagement of the navy in the Mediterranean had increased considerably during this time. At the end of June, the Marine Group Command South was set up to coordinate the joint deployment of the German and Italian naval forces, with the staff officer involved in the complex structure of responsibilities only being able to make suggestions. The deployment of the naval forces of the Axis Powers was in fact commanded solely by the chief of the Naval Group Command South, Karlgeorg Schuster . The newly built submarine flotilla was stationed on Salamis . In this area of ​​the sea, the Admiral Aegean was in command, an agency that had existed since July 1941 and was filled in at the time of Frauenheim's appointment by Vice-Admiral Erich Förste . With Frauenheim's command of the 23rd U-Flotilla, which made him directly subordinate to the Naval Group Command South, however, his command of the German (and thus also the Italian) submarines east of the Strait of Messina went hand in hand. This led to a grotesque equality with the considerably older and more senior Admiral Aegean Förste, which prompted Admiral Schuster to lodge a complaint on October 16. As a consequence, Schuster was withdrawn from command of the German submarines and completely transferred to the leader of the submarines in the Mediterranean, Victor Oehrn , which Schuster regretted very much. Frauenheim, who received the Italian War Cross with Swords on November 1, 1941, was directly subject to Oehrn as a result of the reorganization from spring 1942. He held his position until May 1942, when the 23rd U-Flotilla merged with the 29th U-Flotilla , which Frauenheim took over on May 29, 1942. This flotilla was stationed in the Italian port of La Spezia , from where the remaining Mediterranean submarines of the Navy operated. However, the port proved to be too small for their efficient use, and it was overcrowded with Italian ships and submarines. Additional difficulties arose from the cooperation with the Italian services, which did not go smoothly. After the defeat in the Tunisian campaign , the naval command also feared the deposition of Mussolini and the surrender of the Italian ally, or even the transfer to the Allied side. It was therefore decided to relocate the U-Flotilla to Toulon - at the same time Frauenheim, who had been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Roman Eagle with Swords in June 1943 , was replaced by Günter Jahn .

Between August 1, 1943 and February 16, 1944, meanwhile promoted to Corvette Captain on March 1, 1944 , Frauenheim was again available to the commanding admiral of the submarines . Until April he was a U-Admiralstabsoffizier at the naval command of the Baltic Sea . In the spring of 1944, Frauenheim was the head of operations for the newly established small combat units of the Kriegsmarine during their first combat mission in April 1944 in Nettuno . Back in Germany, Frauenheim was appointed chief of staff at the admiral of the small combat units Hellmuth Heye in April 1944 . On November 23rd he received the German Cross in Gold , a few days later he was promoted to frigate captain. Frauenheim held the position of chief of staff until the end of the war. On May 8, 1945, he was taken prisoner by the British , from which he was released on January 9, 1946.

The German-born military writer Mallmann Showell rated Frauenheim as an "extraordinary submarine commander".

post war period

After the war, Frauenheim worked for Mobil Oil AG in the Federal Republic of Germany for almost 20 years until his death . Most recently, he was a member of the board of directors and head of the Marine Transportation and Pipelines Department.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0 , page 58
2. ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Part 1. The hunters. 1939–1942 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X . Page 131
3. ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Part 1. The hunters. 1939–1942 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X . Page 199
4. ↑ As a result of the first "torpedo crisis" that was evident at the Weser Exercise Company , the submarine command had decided not to commission a submarine with combat operations. The submarines in Norwegian waters had reported numerous torpedo failures
5. ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Part 1. The hunters. 1939-1942 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X . Page 206
6. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , page 279
7. ^ Admiral Aegean Office in Jürgen Rohwer : "Chronicle of the Sea War 1939–1945", on the website of the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart, accessed on February 2, 2020
8. ^ Michael Salewski : The German naval warfare 1935-1945. Volume I: 1935-1941 , Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1970
9. ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Part 2. The hunted. 1942-1945 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 . Page 275
10. ↑ Manfred Dörr, The Knight's Cross Bearers of the German Navy 1939–1945 Volume I, Letters A – K, pp. 87–88
11. ↑ Jak P. Mallmann Showell: German Navy Handbook 1939-1945 , Verlag Sutton, 1999, ISBN 0750915560
12. ↑ Erdöl & Kohlen, Erdgas, Petrochemie , Volume 22, Page 650, German Society for Mineral Oil Science and Coal Chemistry (Ed.), Industrial Publishing House von Hernhaussen, 1969 excerpt