Hans-Günther Lange

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Hans-Günther Lange (* 28. September 1916 in Hannover , † 3. April 2014 in Kiel ) was a German naval officer , submarine - commander in World War II and commander of Ubootflottille the German Navy .

Life

Navy

On April 3, 1937, Hans-Günther Lange joined the Navy as a candidate for sea officer . From mid-1940 he was second or first officer on watch on the torpedo boat Jaguar before he switched to submarine weapons in September 1941 . There he was initially employed in the rank of first lieutenant at sea as first watch officer on U 431 under Wilhelm Dommes. On September 26, 1942, he became the commander of U 711 .

U 711 belonged to the 13th U-Flotilla and was mainly used in arctic waters against British and Soviet convoys . U 711 attacked Soviet radio stations on smaller islands in the Barents Sea and neighboring waters three times . On a total of twelve patrols with U 711, Lange sank two ships, including the corvette HMS Bluebell on February 17, 1945.

On May 4, 1945, Lange narrowly escaped a British bomber attack on the living and depot ship Black Watch immediately after entering the submarine base in Kilbotn Bay near Harstad . The Black Watch sank after seven and U 711 after five bomb hits.

On May 8, 1945 he was taken prisoner of war , from which he was released after three months. His last rank was lieutenant captain .

Federal Navy

From 1957 he was involved in the creation of the new submarine weapon for the German Navy. He was the commander of the 1st submarine squadron and, from January 1964, commander of the submarine flotilla, in which all German submarines were combined. As such, he supported the temporary rental of the German U 3 submarine to NATO partner Norway for training purposes . In gratitude for this, the Federal Republic of Germany received the German submarine U 995 from the Second World War, which was in service in Norway as KNM Kaura until 1965, for a symbolic price of one mark . Today, U 995 is a museum submarine at the Laboe Naval Memorial .

Lange handed over command of the submarine flotilla on March 31, 1965 and retired on September 30, 1972 as a staff officer of the North Sea Marine Division .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary
  2. ↑ U 711, at www.ubootarchiv
  3. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 491.
personal data
SURNAME Lange, Hans-Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, submarine commander in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH 3rd April 2014
Place of death Kiel