Fritz Hintze (naval officer)

Fritz Julius Hintze (born May 13, 1901 in Medingen ; † December 26, 1943 at the North Cape ) was a German naval officer in the Navy .

Life

Family and education

Fritz Hintze was the eldest son of the mill owner Rudolf Hintze and his wife Clara, geb. v. Cölln. After attending secondary school in Uelzen , he volunteered as a midshipman in the Imperial Navy on September 25, 1918 . His first station was the naval school in Flensburg-Mürwik , which he attended until November 30, 1918. On this day, his training as a naval officer ended for the time being.

After the lost war, the new navy was to consist of only 15,000 men, including only 1,500 officers. So it was more than uncertain whether Hintze could even remain in the significantly reduced navy. At the request of his father, he began an apprenticeship in a bank in Lüneburg. When the first opportunity to return to the Navy arose in 1920, the 19-year-old finished the apprenticeship he had begun in order to join the II Marine Brigade on April 25 of the same year . Then he was from May 31 to September 10 in the ship's trunk division of the North Sea , in order to continue his interrupted training at the naval school until March 14, 1922. During this time, the ensign at sea (since November 13, 1920) was on board the minesweeper M 90 and the sailing training ship Niobe , under Lieutenant Felix Graf von Luckner, for a few weeks . After six weeks at the naval communications school , also in Mürwik, Hintze was transferred to the Hanover liner . On May 23, 1922, he experienced one of the most tragic accidents of the Reichsmarine when the Hanover collided with the torpedo boat S 18 during a night exercise , killing ten men. In the summer, the liner called Finnish ports, then took part in the first strategic maneuvers of the Imperial Navy in September and visited Stockholm from 18 to 22 October. At the beginning of the new year, Hintze was at the ship artillery school in Kiel for three months, in order to then take on board command on the cruiser Arcona . On board the ship, he visited Abo in Finland in the summer and then Karlskrona in southern Sweden. Committed to the cruiser Amazone on December 1st, he was appointed lieutenant in the sea on October 1st, 1923 with seniority from April 1st, 1923 .

Military career

From then on, Amazone belonged to the light naval forces of the North Sea and took part in various training trips in the following year. The summer of 1924 took the cruiser to Bodö in Norway. Leutnant zur See Hintze left his ship in the first quarter of 1925 to become a company officer in the Coast Guard Division VI in Emden, later renamed VI. Naval artillery division to become. Oberleutnant zur See (since July 1, 1925) Hintze was first officer on watch from July 1, 1927 to September 30, 1929, then commander of the 3rd torpedo boat semi-flotilla. This was followed by a total of three years as an assistant in the inspection of torpedoes and mines and at the blocking test and training command, both in Kiel. Hintze was then torpedo officer on the light cruiser Cologne for two years . On December 8, 1932, the ship left Wilhelmshaven for a trip abroad. It led through the Biscay into the Mediterranean to Egypt. Then it went on to India, the Dutch East Indies, Australia, the South Seas and East Asia. Via Tsingtau in China, it went to the Indian Ocean and then through the Suez Canal back home, which was reached on December 12, 1933. In 1934 Kapitänleutnant (since April 1, 1933) left the ship, and was then company commander in the II. Later in the III. Until September 24, 1936. Ship trunk department of the Baltic Sea . After that he was a consultant in the lock test detachment in Kiel until June 30, 1938. On July 1, Korvettenkapitän (since March 1, 1937) Hintze was transferred to the light cruiser Emden as a navigation officer. At the end of the month the ship left Wilhelmshaven on a course in Norwegian waters. Then it went to Reykjavik in Iceland, the Azores, across the Atlantic to Bermuda. Due to the Sudeten crisis , the ship was ordered back to Germany prematurely. On October 10, 1938, the cruiser left home again, this time heading for the Mediterranean and Black Seas . Then the ship ran back to Wilhelmshaven via Rhodes and Vigo, which was reached on December 16. The next year Hintze was on Emden from March 29th to April 15th in fishery protection. Reykjavik was called again. The corvette captain left the ship immediately after his return home to become the first navigational officer on board the new heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper . After commissioning and the usual test drives, the cruiser visited Sweden and Estonia in July.

In World War II

In mid-February 1940 Hintze took part on Admiral Hipper in an unsuccessful advance against the escort between England and Scandinavia. He took part in the " Weser Exercise " and " Juno " operations on board the cruiser, followed by some less significant actions. After an engine failure, the ship went to Hamburg for a shipyard overhaul at the end of September 1940. After successful repairs and subsequent combat exercises in the Baltic Sea, the Hipper left home in November to wage a trade war in the Atlantic. Various opposing merchant ships were sunk on two successful ventures. On March 28, 1941, the cruiser returned to Kiel. After a shipyard overhaul and the usual test and training trips, the ship moved to Trondheim in Norway in March 1942. In early July, Hipper took part in a large naval advance against the Anglo-American convoy PQ 17 . On July 26th of the same year, frigate captain Hintze left the cruiser (since July 1st, 1940) to head the torpedo department in the torpedo testing facility in Eckernförde. On September 1, 1942 he was promoted to sea captain. On November 21 of the same year he received the German Cross in Gold for his time as navigational officer on the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper.

Commander of the battleship Scharnhorst and death

On October 18, 1943, Hintze took over the battleship Scharnhorst as commandant from Captain Friedrich Hüffmeier . On December 26, 1943, during the attack on the Northern Sea Escort JW 55B , the ship was stopped by superior British naval forces and sunk by artillery and torpedo fire in the evening hours. Scharnhorst received at least 13 35.6 cm hits from the battleship Duke of York and about 14 to 15 torpedo hits from lighter units in the course of previous battles . Due to the poor visibility, the German battleship could only achieve a few artillery hits on the opposing ships. As a torpedo specialist, Captain Hintze ordered the use of the torpedoes against selected targets, but no hits were scored. He then gave the order to abandon the ship. Rear Admiral Erich Bey and Captain Hintze were the last to leave the command post. Hintze then gave disembarkation orders to his crew, who were assembled on the upper deck, by megaphone. He finally died after leaving the ship in the North Atlantic.

Commemoration

At the forest cemetery Medingen there is a memorial stone with the inscription: “Captain z.See Fritz Hintze born. May 13th, 1901, as the commander of the battleship "Scharnhorst", died in battle on December 26th, 1943 in the northern Arctic Ocean with his crew. "

literature

• Jens Grützner, sea ​​captain Ernst Lindemann - the Bismarck commander , Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-047-4 , pages 217-223
• Jens Grützner, Death in a Polar Night, in: SCHIFF Classic, magazine for shipping and marine history eV of the DGSM, issue 1/2018, pages 72–76
• Personal file Fritz Hintze, German Office (WASt) Berlin