Hans-Rudolf Rösing

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Rear Admiral Hans-Rudolf Rösing (1963)

Hans-Rudolf Rösing (born September 28, 1905 in Wilhelmshaven ; † December 16, 2004 in Kiel ) was a German naval officer , submarine commander in World War II and, most recently, rear admiral in the German Navy . He was in command of U 11 , U 35 , U 48 and temporarily of U 10 . On his enemy voyages with U 48 he sank twelve ships and damaged another one, which, however, was able to reach a port.

youth

"Haro" Rösing (the predominant nickname) was the son of the imperial naval officer (most recently Vice Admiral) Bernhard Rösing (1869–1947) and his wife Elfriede, nee Wünsche (1882–1961). His three brothers Friedrich Wilhelm, Kurt-Wolf and Bernhard died in World War II. His sister Elfriede survived the war as an interned teacher at the German school in Beijing.

Promotions:

Federal Navy:

Imperial Navy

Rösing joined the Reichsmarine in 1924 , making him a member of Crew 24 . After completing on-board training, instruction trips and the naval school, he finished his training on the light cruisers Nymphe and Königsberg . In 1930/31 Rösing was one of the officers of the Reichsmarine who served in secrecy in the Swedish Navy.

Navy and World War II

After serving as the commander of the S-15 and S-3 speedboats for two years , he was assigned to the anti-submarine defense school in October 1933. He received his first submarine command in September 1935, which was the newly built U 11 . Rösing commanded it for two years. At the beginning of 1937 he drove with U 35 on patrol to Ponta Delgada ( Azores ). In October of the same year Rösing was active in the torpedo test command in Eckernförde . He stayed there for a year. In December 1938 he was appointed chief of the 5th U-Flotilla. Rösing had just been employed as a consultant to the commander of the submarines for a week when he was entrusted with the command of the 7th U-Flotilla in January 1940. In May of the same year he replaced Herbert Schultze , who was ill, as commander of U 48 . Rösing led the submarine on two ventures that lasted 55 days. The later leader of the U-Boats (FdU) Norway, Reinhard Suhren , was the 1st watch officer at this time , and thus artillery officer of U 48 . After returning from his second patrol in this boat, Rösing was awarded the Knight's Cross.

From September 1940 to February 1941 Rösing worked as a liaison officer for the German Navy in the Italian submarine flotilla in Bordeaux . Between March and August of the same year he was given command of the 3rd submarine flotilla , before he again joined the staff of the submarine commander for a few months as chief of the central department. In July 1942 Rösing became FdU West and was thus responsible for all submarines stationed in France . In autumn 1944 Rösing moved to Norway , but continued to work in his position. After Germany surrendered , he spent more than a year in Allied captivity .

Ramming order

Herbert A. Werner, former commander of U 415 , published under the title Die Eisernen Coffins , or Iron Coffins, in 1969, simultaneously in Germany and in the USA, a report about his time in the submarine weapon of the Navy, which also included Rösing Was mentioned. Werner, who at that time was already living as a businessman in Canada, attempted with his memoir-like description to contradict the nimbus of the submarine weapon and to demythologize the submarine. Werner reports in his book that he as commander of a boat stationed in northern France 1st U-boat Flotilla in the summer of 1944 to celebrate the upcoming Allied landing of Captain z S Rösing in the presence of additional submarine commanders regarding the order channel no. 1 had been taught that this command is to be interpreted as a “ramming command”.

“Any enemy vehicle that is used for landing, even if it only brings about half a hundred soldiers or a tank ashore, is a target that requires the full use of the submarine. It is to be attacked, even if you risk losing your own boat. When it comes to getting to the enemy landing fleet, there is no consideration of shallow water hazards or possible mine barriers or any concerns ... Every commander is aware that a more serious and decisive task cannot be given to a soldier and that the Germany's future will demand the toughest commitment from him. "

- Karl Dönitz : according to Michael Salewski : Die Deutsche Seekriegsleitung, II, p. 415f

Lothar-Günther Buchheim , for example, complied with the reading of the order channel no. 1 as a request to the submarine commanders to sacrifice their own boat and most likely also the crew by ramming them . However, when Jürgen Rohwer was asked about this statement by the magazine “ Der Spiegel ” on the occasion of the publication of Werner's book , the historian assessed their statement completely differently. He understood this as the requirement to proceed without “consideration for ... mines” and stated that a return after “the fighting strength was used up” had been ordered. In this context, Rohwer spoke of the Fama of the suicide order , and Rösing himself also stated that there was no “ramming ”. In an interview with the 24-year-old student Lars Bodenstein in 2001 on the occasion of his thesis, Rösing no longer ruled out that he understood the order as a “ramming order” or that he had interpreted it towards his commanders. The historian Dieter Hartwig evaluates the order accordingly as an ordered kamikaze mission , the failure of which could be punished. Of the thirty submarines that ran against the Allied invasion fleet, twenty never returned from service.

Post-war period and the German Navy

In the post-war period, Rösing temporarily worked for the Naval Historical Team , which processed German naval war experience on behalf of the United States. After working in the Blank Office , the predecessor organization of the Federal Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany , from August 1952 , he joined the newly founded Federal Navy four years later . Just a year later he was in the rank of Flotilla Admiral Commander of the North Sea Marine Section Command. Rösing held this office for more than four years before he was promoted to Rear Admiral and served as Commander in Defense Division I from April 1962 until his retirement . He ended his military career at the end of September 1965. In the following year, Rösing was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his post-war achievements .

further activities

He was the oldest member of the German High Seas Sports Association Hansa , in which he acted as a skipper for many years . After he transferred the mahogany slup coat of arms of Hamburg from the Elbe to the DHH yacht school Elba at the beginning of the seventies , he worked there for two years as acting headmaster.

At the age of 96, in 2001, he worked as a contemporary witness in the documentary War of the Century: Deadly Trap by director Sebastian Dehnhardt and publicist Guido Knopp .

Rösing also worked as a translator from English , French and Italian for Delius Klasing Verlag and Edition Maritim. He also wrote works, for example The Little Book of Water Sports and the Art of War in Our Time .

References

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer Busch, Hans Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945 . Volume three: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945 . Publishing house ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg u. a. 2001, pages 48-49
  2. ^ Rainer Busch, Hans Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945 . Volume five: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon . Publishing house ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg u. a. 2003, page 55
  3. ^ Rainer Busch, Hans Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945 . Volume two: U-boat construction in German shipyards . Publishing house ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg u. a. 2003, page 436
  4. ↑ Michael L. Hadley: The myth of the German submarine weapon . Publishing house ES Mittler & Sohn GmbH, Hamburg u. a. 2001, page 115
  5. ^ Herbert A. Werner: The iron coffins . Heyne, Munich 1984, page 257
  6. ↑ Dieter Hartwig: Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz Legend and Reality . Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2010, page 408
  7. ↑ Jürgen Rohwer and Hans Rösing im Spiegel (21/1970) on the ramming order
  8. ↑ Dieter Hartwig: Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz Legend and Reality . Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2010, page 148
  9. ↑ a b C. Schuhmann: Hans-Rudolf Rösing died , published in: Yacht online, report from January 11, 2005
  10. ^ ZDF Contemporary History - Deadly Trap ( Memento from August 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive )


personal data
SURNAME Rösing, Hans-Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rösing, Haro (common short name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer and submarine commander in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilhelmshaven
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 2004
Place of death Kiel