Fritz Sachße

Fritz Sachße (born June 10, 1875 in Hohenthurm near Halle (Saale) , † March 12, 1954 in Göttingen ) was a German naval officer , most recently Rear Admiral of the Reichsmarine .

Fritz Sachße (1920)

Career

Sachße joined the Imperial Navy as a cadet on April 16, 1894 . After basic training , he was appointed midshipman on May 13, 1895 . Further theoretical and practical training followed. On October 25, 1897 he was promoted to Unterleutnant zur See (renamed Lieutenant zur See on January 1, 1899). From 1897 to 1906, Sachße went through various on-board commands. During this time he was promoted to first lieutenant at sea on March 16, 1901 and on April 5, 1905 to lieutenant captain. In the period from October 1, 1906 to September 30, 1909, he was adjutant for the inspection of coastal artillery and mining in Cuxhaven . From April 30, 1910 to September 30, 1913, Sachße served as an artillery officer on the ship of the line Rheinland and the great cruisers Yorck and Moltke . During this period of service he was promoted to Corvette Captain on April 25, 1912 .

On October 16, 1913, Sachße traveled with the steamer Princess Alice to East Asia , where he took over the gunboat Iltis as commandant on December 6, 1913 . At the beginning of the First World War , the polecat was decommissioned. The crew was commanded to the auxiliary cruiser Cormoran , while Sachße was appointed head of the stage on August 7, 1914 and assigned to the Kiautschou sailor artillery department on August 20 . On September 20, he became the reserve's commanding officer.

After the siege of Tsingtau and the conquest of the city by Japanese forces , Sachße came into Japanese captivity in November 1914 and was brought to Japan. On November 16, 1915, Sachße escaped from captivity together with Herbert Straehler and fled via Korea , Mukden and Beijing to Shanghai . From there, the two tried from January 23 to June 6, 1916 to continue their escape through China, but failed and returned to Shanghai. Finally came Sachße by steamer Justin to New York in where he is still neutral United States . From there he reached the North Sea , but was discovered by the British on November 15, 1916 near the Orkney Islands and interned as a civilian in the Skipton camp on the Isle of Man . After the war, Sachße published a book about his experiences there.

In October 1919 Sachße was released from captivity. Returned to Germany, he was promoted to frigate captain on November 18, 1919 with seniority from April 28, 1918 . Sachße was taken over into the provisional Reichsmarine and promoted to captain at sea on February 5, 1920 . Various commands followed ashore; from about September 21, 1920 to September 30, 1922, he was in command of the land forces in the Baltic Sea. On December 21, 1922, Sachße left the service. With his retirement he was given the character of a rear admiral . Sachße continued to live in Stralsund , where he was an honorary member of the Former Marine Association. After the Second World War , Sachße moved to Göttingen , where he died in 1954.

family

Sachße was married and had two daughters.

Publications

• Prisoners of War in Skipton: Life and history of German prisoners of war in an English camp , together with DR Cossmann. Ernst Reinhardt Publishing House . Munich. 1920.

Web links

• Short biography of Fritz Sachße. In: Tsingtau and Japan 1914–1920 - Historisch Biographisches Projekt. Retrieved March 23, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Brian K. Feltman: The Stigma of Surrender: German Prisoners, British Captors, and Manhood in the Great War and Beyond. The University of North Carolina Press Books. 2015. ISBN 978-1-4696-1993-4 . Page 245.