Hans Walther (Rear Admiral)

Hans Walther

Hans Walther (* 25. December 1883 in Patschkau ; † 4. January 1950 in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein ) was a German U-boat - commander in World War I , editor in chief of the Kieler Zeitung and rear admiral in World War II .

Life

Walther joined the Imperial Navy on April 1, 1902 . After his basic training and on board the training ship Stosch , he graduated from the naval school . He then performed his service on the liner Alsace , advanced to lieutenant at sea at the end of September 1905 and came on board the liner Prussia in October . There he was promoted to first lieutenant at sea at the end of March 1908 , was a company officer in the I. Torpedo Division in Kiel from October 1908 to September 1910 and was also temporarily employed as a watch officer on the torpedo boats S 144 and S 145 . He was then used in the same capacity in the I. Werftdivision until he was given an on-board command as a torpedo officer on the Geier at the end of April 1911 . With the small cruiser , Walther moved to the East African station and ran into the Mediterranean at the end of October . From Port Said , Walther started his journey home to Germany at the end of May 1912. After serving as a company officer in the 1st Sailor Division , he was placed at the disposal of the torpedo inspection department on October 1, 1912 and completed a submarine training course, during which he was promoted to lieutenant captain.

During the mobilization on the occasion of the First World War , Walther came on board the small cruiser Augsburg as a watch and torpedo officer and took part in the bombardment of the Russian port of Libau and various mining companies in the Baltic Sea . At the end of February 1915 he was briefly at the U-Boat School and was in command of U 17 from March 8 to December 26, 1915 . On January 1, 1916, he was given instructions for building instructions on the new U 52 boat, which is currently being completed, at the Germania shipyard . When it was commissioned, Walther was appointed commander of this submarine on March 16, 1916 . The boat assigned to the 2nd submarine flotilla was able to sink the British light cruiser Nottingham by three torpedo hits on August 19, 1916 . After he had already received both classes of the Iron Cross , Walther was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords for this act . In another undertaking he succeeded in sinking the French liner Suffren , which came from the Mediterranean, in international waters off Portugal . At the suggestion of the Admiral's staff, Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded him the highest Prussian honor for bravery, the order Pour le Mérite, on January 9, 1917 . In addition to the British submarine C 34 , whose only survivor was able to save U 52 , Walther sank another three auxiliary war and 27 merchant ships .

On October 2, 1917, he was appointed chief of the U-Flotilla Flanders I , which was stationed in occupied Bruges . After the port was evacuated due to the war in the autumn of 1918, he was available to inspect the submarine system and was entrusted with handling work at the end of the war .

Walter was taken over into the Reichsmarine and used as a consultant in the inspection of torpedoes and mines. At the same time he was temporarily head of the printing management of the naval station of the Baltic Sea as well as to the staff of the commander of the naval forces of the Baltic Sea and as commander of the former cruiser Berlin used as a barge . At the beginning of March 1921 he was promoted to corvette captain and from April 1923 to the end of December 1924 he worked as a department head in the naval department of the naval command . Walther was then appointed director of the equipment and torpedo department at the Wilhelmshaven naval shipyard . On October 7, 1925, he was transferred to Kiel as welfare officer of the Baltic Sea Naval Station and in this capacity he was promoted to frigate captain on April 1, 1928 . Walther retired from active service on September 30, 1929 and was given the character of a sea ​​captain .

After his departure , Walther worked as a journalist and was editor-in-chief of the Kieler Zeitung.

On October 1, 1936, Walther was reactivated as an electric officer with his rank as sea captain with seniority from April 1, 1935. He held the post as group leader marine at the military replacement inspection in Koblenz and received the character of rear admiral on August 27, 1939 on the occasion of the so-called " Tannenberg Day ". During the Second World War, he was transferred to active troop officers on January 1, 1941, with the award of the patent for his rank, and appointed commander of the Essen I military district command. On August 31, 1942, he was again removed from service and one day later made available to the Navy without any further mobilization use .

literature

• Dermot Bradley (eds.), Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945. The military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with admiral rank. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-2482-4 , pp. 508-509.
• Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 , pp. 484-486.
• Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order »pour le mérite« in the world war. Volume II: M-Z. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 463-464.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johan Ryheul: Naval Corps from 1914 to 1918. Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0541-X , p. 255.