Hans Bütow (naval officer)

Hans Bütow (born December 28, 1894 in Volpersdorf , Neurode district , province of Silesia ; † May 9, 1974 in Hamburg ) was a German naval officer in the First and Second World Wars ; most recently with the rank of rear admiral .

Life

Hans Bütow came from a respected bourgeois family. He played a decisive role in the formation of the German Schnellbootwaffe in World War II and at the end of the war, as admiral of the Navy Service in Hamburg, he subverted Hitler's orders to completely destroy the Port of Hamburg .

In 1914 Bütow joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman . During the First World War, he served as ensign and lieutenant on several cruisers ("Derfflinger", "Augsburg", "Königsberg") and the ship of the line "Schwaben". In the spring of 1918 he attended the Mürwik Naval School . In January 1919 he was transferred ashore; first to the 1st Guard Reserve Regiment and in May 1919 as a battalion orderly officer to the 2nd Marine Brigade . In May 1920 he was transferred to the Nordsee ship master division and promoted to lieutenant in September . After another time on board from May 1921 to April 1923 as a torpedo and watch officer on the cruiser "Arcona", Lieutenant Bütow became company commander in the 6th Coast Guard Department. In April 1926 he was promoted to lieutenant captain and in October of the same year he was commanded as an officer on watch for the 3rd torpedo boat semi- flotilla . In September 1927 he was transferred to the Mürwik Naval School as leader of the ensign company. In January 1930 he came to the commander of the ships of the line as an admiralty staff officer. In September 1932 he became chief of the 1st torpedo boat semi-flotilla in Swinoujscie and was promoted to corvette captain a year later . From September 1934 on he was first admiral staff officer with the staff of the leader of the torpedo boats for two years. In April 1937 he was promoted to frigate captain .

In November 1938 he became head of the Danube Flotilla and in April 1939 he was appointed captain of the sea . From the beginning of the war until May 1942 he was the leader of the torpedo boats and then became chief of staff of the Baltic Sea naval station. On January 1, 1943, he was promoted to Rear Admiral. In June 1943 he switched to the Naval High Command of the Baltic Sea as Chief of Staff . In June 1944 he became the commander of the security of the Baltic Sea and took over the 10th security division on December 2nd, the establishment of which went hand in hand with the termination of his previous position. In February 1945 he became admiral of the Hamburg Navy Service . After the surrender , he was taken prisoner by the English, from which he was released at the end of 1946.

Actions during World War II in which Bütow was directly involved

As leader of the torpedo boats (FdT) he took part in the occupation of Norway (" Weser Exercise ") in April 1940 as part of Warship Group 4 , which occupied Kristiansand and Arendal . Its flagship was the torpedo boat "Luchs".

As FdT he was involved in the planning of the operation Sea Lion (invasion of England), which was not carried out , whereby his armed forces were supposed to cover the western (torpedo boats from Cherbourg ) and the eastern flank (speedboats from Holland and Belgium) of the landing company.

At the beginning of the Russian campaign in 1941 , his armed forces built the largest mine barrier in the Gulf of Finland .

Bütow's role at the end of the war

Shortly before the end of the war, in February 1945, Bütow became admiral of the Hamburg Navy Service. He was responsible for administrative matters on land, the control of merchant shipping and the provision and equipment of transport ships for military purposes. This included the already largely destroyed port of Hamburg. On March 22, 1945, the Führer order was issued , according to which the port should be made permanently unusable and the city should be defended to the last man. In agreement with the Hamburg combat commandant Major General Alwin Wolz , Bütow decided to prevent the execution of the order. With a high personal risk - if the order was refused to be shot - he pursued a kidnapping tactic by repeatedly calling for his superiors to be "paralyzed" instead of the ordered "destruction" of the port facilities and by submitting counter-presentations on the importance of the remaining transport infrastructure for the survival of the People pointed out and aimed at the overturning of the destruction order. For weeks he walked the fine line to become a refuser or saboteur .

On May 1, 1945, he risked open rebellion by reporting to the chief of naval warfare that he would not carry out the destruction order due to the enemy situation. He escaped the court martial due to the capitulation of Hamburg on May 3rd.

Awards

• Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class
• Cross of honor for front fighters
• Wehrmacht service award , 4th to 1st class
  • 1st class on April 1, 1939
• Medal in memory of October 1, 1938 on October 30, 1939
• Repeat clasp (1939) for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class (1914)
• Commemorative medal for the defense of Slovakia on March 14, 1940
• Slovak War Victory Cross , III. Class on March 14, 1940
• Finnish Freedom Cross , 1st class with swords on October 12, 1941
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on March 12, 1941 as sea captain and leader of torpedo and speed boats

In the press release on the award of the Knight's Cross on March 12, 1941 ("The Knight's Cross Bearers ...") it says:

“Captain Bütow, leader of the torpedo boats, did a great deal of service during the Norwegian company through personal commitment and cutting edge in the occupation and especially through the rapid landing of the landing troops despite strong resistance. Since the spring of 1940 he has been in charge of the use of speedboats in the western area and has thus played a decisive role in the great success of our speedboats. Captain zu See Bütow has personally led a number of successful patrols. "

swell

• Dallies-Labourdette, Jean-Philippe: German speed boats ; Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006; ISBN 3-613-02673-2
• Port in danger ; Hamburger Abendblatt dated April 9, 1955
• End without horror , Hamburger Abendblatt, May 6, 1965
• Jan Heitmann: Days between Death and Life , Hafenblick No. 9, Hamburg, September 2005
• Hans Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's admirals 1849-1945 ; Volume 1: A – C, Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück, 1988
• The knight's cross bearers of the German Wehrmacht 1939–1945 , Part VII: The surface forces of the German navy ; Volume 1: A-K; Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück, 1995