Nikolai Asmus Clausen

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Lieutenant Captain Asmus Nicolai Clausen, probably after being awarded the Knight's Cross.

Nikolai Asmus Clausen (born June 2, 1911 in Flensburg , † May 16, 1943 in the Atlantic west of Madeira ) was a German naval officer in World War II . He was promoted posthumously to captain of the corvette . On eight patrols as a submarine commander, he sank 23 ships with 74,813 GRT. If the actual tonnage of his sinkings had corresponded to his reports, Clausen would have been counted among the German submarines of the Second World War.

Military career

Clausen joined the Reichsmarine on October 15, 1929 and served there until September 26, 1930 in the 1st company of the 1st Marine Artillery Department. After his basic training, from October 15, 1929 to September 26, 1930, he was an auxiliary signal guest and transmitter of orders on the torpedo boat T 185 of the 1st Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla, where he was promoted to senior seafarer on October 1, 1931. He then returned to his parent company and was an officer candidate on the sailing school boat Orion from March 30 to June 15, 1933, as well as on several courses. From October 1, 1933 to July 8, 1934, Clausen was a training sergeant on the Gorch Fock , where he was appointed private sailor on October 1, 1933 and boatswain's mate on November 1, 1933. On September 22nd, 1934, Clausen became permanent staff on the Gorch Fock and was promoted to the position of auxiliary master boatman in the rank of chief helmsman there until September 27, 1935 .

On September 28, 1935, Clausen switched to the submarine weapon and completed various U-training courses by April 20, 1936. On April 21, 1936 he became head helmsman on U 26 . On March 9, 1937, Clausen completed a further course, in the course of which he was appointed ensign at sea on May 1, 1937 . After its termination on May 18, 1937, Clausen was transferred the next day to the armored ship Admiral Graf Spee , where he was deployed as a division lieutenant until March 27, 1938. Here he was promoted to Oberfähnrich zur See on October 1, 1937 and Lieutenant zur See on January 1, 1938. He was then until March 31, 1939 platoon officer in the 1st Naval Sergeant Training Department. On April 1, 1939, Clausen was promoted to lieutenant in the sea and command of the Frauenlob tender . He held this position until November 28th, with a three-month course interruption; After the outbreak of war on September 3, the boat was renamed the M 134 minesweeper and assigned to the newly established 4th minesweeping flotilla.

Patrols as a commander

U 37

  1. November 28, 1940 to January 7, 1941 (5 ships, plus two allied ships)
  2. January 30, 1941 to February 18, 1941 (3 ships of 4,781 GRT sunk)
  3. February 27, 1941 to March 22, 1941 (2 ships with 3,141 GRT sunk)

U 129

  1. July 27, 1941 to August 30, 1941
  2. September 27, 1941 to October 8, 1941
  3. October 21, 1941 to December 28, 1941
  4. 25 January 1942 to 5 April 1942 (7 ships with 25,619 GRT sunk)

U 182

  1. December 9, 1942 to May 16, 1943 (5 ships of 30,071 GRT sunk)

Submarine commander

He then returned to the submarine weapon and was 1st officer on watch on U 37 from November 29, 1939 to June 9, 1940 . He completed a commandant training from July 3 to August 14 and was briefly commander of U 142 on September 4, 1940 , with which he, however, did not leave for any patrol. On October 26th, he took over U 37 , with which he ran out to three enemy voyages by May 1941, where he sank twelve ships. One of them, the Spanish sailing ship San Carlo , which carried ballast, he sank - although it was a neutral nation's ship that was not involved in combat - on sight by artillery fire. Mistakenly attacked Clausen beyond the December 19, 1940, two Vichy French ships , the Rhône and the submarine Sfax , but what he was in the war diary of 37 U made no entry. On January 1, 1941, Clausen was promoted to lieutenant captain. On May 21, he became the commander of U 129 , with which he sank seven ships with 25,619 GRT on four patrols. On March 12, 1942, Clausen was named in the Wehrmacht report for his patrols in American waters and one day later he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .

After a building instruction for the U 182 under construction , Clausen became its commander on June 30, 1942 and ran out with him on a patrol from Horten to the South Atlantic. On this he was able to sink another five ships with 30,071 GRT. On 16 May 1943, U 182 by the US destroyer USS MacKenzie west of Madeira by depth charges sunk. There were no survivors. On April 5, 1945 Clausen was posthumously promoted to Corvette Captain with effect from May 1, 1945.

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. Mittler and Son, 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0509-6 .
  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted. Heyne , Munich 1998 ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Clay Blair, p. 290.
  2. ↑ Busch, Röll, Vol. 3, p. 39.
  3. ↑ The High Command of the Wehrmacht announces ... The German Wehrmacht Report, Volume 2 1942-1943 , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1982, ISBN 3-7648-1282-6 , p. 54.
  4. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 261.
personal data
SURNAME Clausen, Nikolai Asmus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German corvette captain
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Flensburg
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1943
Place of death Atlantic west of Madeira