Klaus Bargsten

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Klaus Bargsten

Klaus Bargsten (born October 31, 1911 in Bad Oldesloe ; † August 13, 2000 in Bremen ) was a German naval officer (most recently captain lieutenant ), submarine commander and knight's cross.

Life

Origin and civilian career

Bargsten was the son of a wealthy landowner. After completing his school education, Bargsten went to the merchant marine , where he acquired his patent as a nautical officer . He then drove for the North German Lloyd on various cargo ships as well as on the passenger ship Europa . He was temporarily a member of the NSDAP , but then resigned.

Military career

On April 3, 1936, he joined the Navy as an officer candidate . Due to his already existing qualification as a ship's officer, he was integrated into Crew 35 , so he did not have to relearn basic and nautical content and was promoted more quickly than other candidates who had entered at the same time. He was promoted to ensign at sea on July 1, 1936 and served, among other things, on the Aviso Grille . On January 1, 1938, he was promoted to senior ensign in the sea and on April 1, 1938 to lieutenant in the sea . In April 1939 he reported to the submarine weapon and was then sent to the submarine school in Neustadt for training . In August 1939 he switched to the U 6 school boat under Lieutenant Joachim Matz as an officer on watch . During the German invasion of Poland , the boat was in position in the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat from August 30, 1939 to September 13, 1939 . After another short outing with U 6 , Bargsten was promoted to lieutenant at sea on October 1, 1939, and was initially transferred to the Neustadt submarine school as a platoon leader . From November 1939 he served as an adjutant in the submarine school flotilla (USFl.) And then from January 1940 in the same function at the submarine school in Neustadt under corvette captain Hans Ibbeken .

After taking part in the building instruction in March 1940, he became the first watch officer on the U 99 , which was put into service on April 18, 1940, under Lieutenant Otto Kretschmer . On this boat he took part in seven mission trips from June to December 1940. For the successes achieved on these ventures, he was awarded the Iron Cross II. Class on July 23, 1940 , the U-Boat War Badge on August 10, 1940 and the Iron Cross I Class on September 25, 1940.

Commander of U 563

From January 5 to February 16, 1941 he took part in the commanders' shooting course in the 24th U-Flotilla in Memel . He was then assigned to the building instruction for the new U 563 launched on February 5th , which he put into service on March 27th, 1941 as a commander . After completing the training trips, the boat served as a front boat in the 1st submarine flotilla from July 1, 1941 . On July 10th it moved from Kiel to Elsinore and then on July 27th / 28th to Bergen on the west coast of Norway .

On July 31, the boat left Bergen for its first large enterprise, in which it was involved in a total of three successive pack attacks on Allied convoys , but without achieving a sinking success. After 42 days at sea, the boat entered Brest on September 10th .

On his second venture, from October 4th to November 1st, 1941, the boat belonged to the pack “Breslau” (October 4th - 29th, 1941), whose five boats fought with the security forces of convoy HG 75. Bargsten scored two torpedo hits on the British destroyer HMS Cossack on the night of October 24 , killing 159 crew members. U 563 returned to Brest on November 1, 1941.

After departing from Brest on November 29 for its third venture was U 563 on November 30 in the Bay of Biscay by a British bomber of the type Armstrong Whitworth Whitley surprised and badly damaged by the dropping of depth charges and after surfacing with the board-MG shot at. Bargsten was seriously wounded here. Bargsten managed to return to Lorient on December 3rd , but the damage to the boat was so severe that it was ordered to Germany for repairs.

The submersible boat left Lorient on January 21, 1942 and reached Bergen, Norway 14 days later on February 3. U 563 left Bergen on February 7th and arrived in Hamburg on February 11th. Bargsten went on convalescence leave and on March 15, 1942, gave up command of U 563 .

Commander of U 521

From April 1 to June 2, 1942, Bargsten took part in the building instruction for the new boat U 521 at Warship Construction Instruction Department 8 , and on June 3 he put this boat into service as commander. On August 1, 1942, he was promoted to lieutenant captain. After completion of the test and training runs with the 4th U-Flotilla from June 3 to September 30, 1942 , U 521 ran from Kiel on October 3, 1942 for its first venture. The boat survived the attack by a Lockheed Hudson on October 31 with only minor damage. On the morning of November 2, the boat sank the British freighter Hartington about 400 nautical miles south of Cape Farvel ( Greenland ) . Around noon the following day, U 521 torpedoed the American tanker Hahira , which was loaded with 9,000 tons of heating oil and which was finally sunk by U 521 a few hours later . Both ships belonged to convoy SC-107, which was sailing from New York to Great Britain . On December 8th, the submarine arrived in Lorient , the base of the 2nd submarine flotilla commanded by Corvette Captain Viktor Schütze .

In mid-November belonged to U 521 to the group of 13 boats submarine group viper that lurked ONS-144 south of Greenland on the convoy with 33 ships. Bargsten discovered the convoy on November 15 and tried to bring the other submarines in the group. However, these signals were incomplete or were not received, so that U 521 initially remained alone with the convoy. Most attacks on the convoy were unsuccessful.

On January 7, 1943 U 521 ran from Lorient to another operation, from which it returned on March 26. Bargsten got two sinkings, in which he killed 43 people. On February 8, 1943 in the Canary Islands , the British submarine hunters HMT Bredon and on March 18, 1943 on its maiden voyage located US Frachtdampfer Molly Pitcher from the convoy UGS-2, which is already on the eve of U 167 badly damaged and then abandoned by its crew.

After a home leave in Bremen, Bargsten returned to Lorient on April 29, 1943. On April 30, 1943, he was awarded the Knight's Cross, which was presented to him on May 2, 1943 by Corvette Captain Hans Rösing. Just three days later, on May 5, 1943, Bargsten left Lorient with U 521 to wage a trade war off the US east coast. On June 2, underwater about 150 nautical miles southeast of Delaware Bay and Cape May , the boat was located at 12.30 p.m. by the American submarine hunter PC-565, which was securing convoy NG-365 to Guantanamo , by sonar and located at 12.39 p.m. attacked with depth charges. The depth charges caused serious damage, including flooding. When he came through the hatch onto the bridge immediately after surfacing , the boat was shot at by the PC-565 , which was only about 350 m away . Then the submarine hunter took a ramming course on U 521 , while at the same time the corvette USS Brisk (PG-89) came to support. Bargsten, who said he wanted to prevent the Americans from taking the boat, ordered the boat to be flooded and abandoned, but U 521 sank - probably because of the damage it had suffered - so quickly and before it could be rammed that no one escaped the crew could save, at position 37 ° 43 '  N , 73 ° 16'  W . The only survivor of the 52-man crew was Bargsten himself, who was washed away from the tower.

PC-565 threw another water bomb about 100 m before the sinking point, observed large air bubbles, then took the bargest floating in the water on board.

Bargsten was initially interned in the US prison and interrogation camp in Fort Hunt and was held in Allied captivity until November 30, 1946. In this American interrogation camp in Fort Hunt he stated in June 1943 that one of the main lessons he learned from his missions was that “a decent tone” and “a little camaraderie” were a prerequisite for “the boats that were successful”. In the case of the sinking of his boat U-521, which he was the only one to survive, he admitted serious mistakes of his own. At the crucial moment he let the alarm messages from his chief engineer lead him to believe that there was no other way out than to bring the boat to the surface immediately and, although actually a calm and deliberate commander, he acted too hectically in this case . The sacrifice of a submarine crew is to be accepted in principle, since the fulfillment of military tasks has priority.

When he was invited to the meeting of the crew of the U-fighter PC 565 in 1975 , he accepted the invitation; Bargsten and the crew became friends.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ The Reich and Kriegsmarine offered merchant ship officers this opportunity. B. had already been used by Günther Prien or Wilhelm Schulz .
  2. ↑ Note at uboat.net , accessed on July 2, 2013.
  3. ↑ http://www.uboat.net/boats/patrols/patrol_1172.html
  4. ↑ http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/2362.html
  5. ↑ All other submarines in use had been withdrawn from the North Atlantic at this point in time to fight the Allied invasion fleet in North Africa ( Operation Torch ).
  6. ↑ On November 17th and 18th, other boats of the pack sank a total of six ships in the convoy and damaged one (ONS-144 at: uboat.net )
  7. ↑ http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/2641.html
  8. ↑ http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/2808.html
  9. ↑ PC-565 was christened USS Gilmer in February 1956 , but was laid up with the Atlantic Reserve Fleet since 1946 and was sold to the Venezuelan Navy in 1960 .
  10. ^ And accepted the death of crew members in the process; https://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/us-geheimakten-ueber-hitlers-soldaten-fotostrecke-107714.html
  11. ↑ The alleged discovery of the wreck by divers in 1991 at a depth of 70 meters near Point Pleasant (New Jersey) (Georg Högel: Emblems, Wappen, Malings deutscher U-Boats 1939 - 1945. 5th edition. Koehler, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , p. 117) must be strongly doubted, because that is around 300 nautical miles further north.
  12. ^ Felix Römer: Comrades. The Wehrmacht from within . Piper, Munich 2012, p. 179.
  13. ^ Felix Römer: Comrades. The Wehrmacht from within . Piper, Munich 2012, pp. 359-362.

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939–1945 - The knight's cross bearers of the U-boat weapon from September 1939 to May 1945 . ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0 .
  • Clemens Range: The knight's cross bearers of the Navy . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-87943-355-0 .
  • Bernard Ireland: The Battle of the Atlantic. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2003, ISBN 1-59114-032-3 , p. 171.
  • James E. Wise, Jr .: Sole Survivors of the Sea. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59114-943-9 , Chapter 13.
  • Felix Römer : Comrades. The Wehrmacht from within . With a foreword by Johannes Hürter . Piper, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-05540-6 , pp. 179, 311 u. 359-362.

Web links

Commons : Klaus Bargsten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Bargsten, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, submarine commander and knight's cross holder in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Oldesloe
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 2000
Place of death Bremen