Hellmuth from Ruckteschell

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Hellmuth Max von Ruckteschell (born March 28, 1890 in Hamburg-Eilbek , † September 24, 1948 in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel ) was a German naval officer. During the First World War he commanded several submarines and during the Second World War two German auxiliary cruisers .

Life

Hellmuth von Ruckteschell was born as the second of 14 children of Pastor Nicolai von Ruckteschell and his wife, Baroness Catherina Helene von Engelhardt in Hamburg-Eilbek. One of his brothers was the sculptor and author Walter von Ruckteschell (1882–1941), his sister Karin the future deaconess in Kaiserswerth.

After graduating from high school, Hellmuth von Ruckteschell joined the Imperial Navy on April 1, 1909 as a midshipman. After completing his basic nautical training, he served in the rank of first lieutenant in 1916 as the first officer on watch on the submarines SM U 3 and SM U 57 . From 1917 he commanded the submarines SM UB 34 and SM U 54 . Von Ruckteschell left the navy on November 24, 1919. Since the victorious powers were looking for him for committed war crimes , Hellmuth fled from Ruckteschell to Sweden and later Finland . There he worked as a lumberjack. After a few years he returned to Germany under an assumed name in the mid-1920s. Here he completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and worked as a carpenter until the second half of the 1930s.

As a trained master carpenter and experienced submarine commander, Helmuth von Ruckteschell was promoted from the Navy to lieutenant captain ( d. R. ) in 1938 . With the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 he was called up and ordered on September 5, 1939 for building instruction (military advice) at the Bremen Navy Service . Between December 1939 and January 1940 he was in command of the Cobra, which was converted into a mine ship . After this miners' command, Ruckteschell returned to the KMD Bremen and until May 1940 he was given the building instruction for the secret project ship 21 (HSK 3) . The ship 21 was the formerly civil turbine ship Neumark . The cargo ship had been converted into a trading sturgeon cruiser under extreme secrecy since November 1939 and was given the name Widder . From January 16, 1940, von Ruckteschell was in command of the auxiliary cruiser "Widder" in the rank of corvette captain .

The Widder left the base under Hellmuth von Ruckteschell's command on May 5, 1940 and ran through the Denmark Strait into the open North Atlantic. In 180 days of action, a total of nine enemy ships were sunk in the mid-Atlantic and one raised as a prize. The total tonnage of the sunk and boarded ships was 58,644 GRT. On the occasion of the return of the auxiliary cruiser Hellmuth von Ruckteschell was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 31, 1940 . After working on the Widder , Ruckteschell was again used in building instruction. Until March 1942 he supervised the conversion of the former Polish freighter Bielko , meanwhile promoted to frigate captain . The Bielko was converted to the auxiliary cruiser Michel ( ship 28 / HSK 9 ) under Ruckteschell's guidance .

The auxiliary cruiser named after the Hamburger Michel ran under Ruckteschell's command on March 9, 1942 from Cuxhaven for combat use. The commercial junker operated in the South Atlantic, Antarctica and later in the Indian Ocean. Due to the overwhelming Allied superiority, the ship could no longer return to Europe and ran on March 1, 1943 in Yokohama in the allied Japan . In almost a year at sea, 14 enemy ships with a total of 94,273 GRT were sunk without a single loss of their own.

After arriving in Japan, Ruckteschell left Michel for health reasons. He suffered from a painful stomach ailment and severe migraines. The Michel left Yokohama under the command of Captain Günther Gumprich on May 21, 1943 for her second patrol. The auxiliary cruiser was sunk by the US submarine USS Tarpon on October 17, 1943 . From March 3, 1943, von Ruckteschell was employed as an assistant to the incumbent naval attaché in Japan . Military attaché at the German embassy in Tokyo had been Paul Wenneker (1890–1979) since 1940 . With the defeat of Japan in World War II and the occupation of the country by the Allied troops, Ruckteschell's mission in Tokyo was ended on May 8, 1945.

In May 1945 Hellmuth von Ruckteschell was taken prisoner by the British . In his hometown of Hamburg he was tried in a British military tribunal for several violations of international naval law. The court sentenced him to 10 years in prison for the proven sinking of merchant ships in international seas. Hellmuth von Ruckteschell died on September 24, 1948 in the Fuhlsbüttel prison .

Awards

literature

  • Jochen Brennecke: German auxiliary cruisers in World War II , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft MBH, Hamburg, 4th edition, 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0828-5
  • Klaus-Volker Giessler, The Institution of the Naval Attaché in the Empire, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein, 1976
  • Hans Hildebrand, formation history and staffing of the German armed forces. 1915–1990, Volume 2 (Marine), Biblio Verlag Osnabrück 2000
  • Law-Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Selected and prepared by The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume IX, London, HMSO. 1948. (English). CASE No. 55th TRIAL OF HELMUTH VON RUCHTESCHELL. BRITISH MILITARY COURT, HAMBURG 5TH TO 21ST MAY, 1947. ( PDF )
  • Marineattachés, Books LLC, Wiki Series, Memphis USA, 2011, pp. 27f.
  • J. Revell Carr: 13 million tons, 2500 ships, 50,000 lives , Mareverlag, 1st edition, 2004, ISBN 3-936384-90-8
  • Hans Jürgen Witthöft, Lexicon on German naval history, Köhlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford, 1977

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marineattachés, Books LLC, Wiki Series, Memphis USA, 2011, pp. 27f.
  2. ↑ At Navy cocktail receptions, Ruckteschell liked to shock blasé aristocrats with the jagged sentence: “ Permit Ruckteschell, Kaiserlicher Frigattenkapitän a. D. and master carpenter. ". (Brennecke: German auxiliary cruiser ... p. 8)
  3. ^ Jochen Brennecke: German auxiliary cruisers in World War II , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft MBH, Hamburg, 4th edition, 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0828-5
  4. ↑ The commanders of the German merchant sturgeon cruisers had some freedom. For example, in consultation with the crew, you could determine the name of your ship yourself. The name Michel irritated the high command, as the name seemed very provocative in the context of the German Michel . Certainly neither Ruckteschell nor the crew wanted to provoke. You meant the church in Hamburg, which was known by German seafarers at the time. (Brennecke: German auxiliary cruiser ... p. 315)
  5. ^ Hans Jürgen Witthöft, Lexicon of German naval history, Köhlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford, 1977
  6. ↑ Klaus-Volker Giessler, The Institution of the Naval Attaché in the Empire, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein, 1976
  7. ↑ Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Selected and prepared by The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume IX, London, HMSO. 1948. (English). CASE No. 55th TRIAL OF HELMUTH VON RUCHTESCHELL. BRITISH MILITARY COURT, HAMBURG 5TH TO 21ST MAY, 1947. ( PDF )
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Manfred Dörr: The knight's cross bearers of the surface forces of the Kriegsmarine , Volume 2: LZ, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996, ISBN 3-7648-2498-0 , pp. 185–187
personal data
SURNAME Ruckteschell, Hellmuth from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruckteschell, Hellmuth Max von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, submarine and auxiliary cruiser commander
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg-Eilbek
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 1948
Place of death Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel