Otto Schuhart

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Otto Schuhart (born September 4, 1909 in Hamburg , † March 10, 1990 in Stuttgart ) was a German naval officer . During the Second World War , as a submarine commander , he succeeded in sinking an aircraft carrier , the HMS Courageous, for the first time .

Life

Schuhart joined the Reichsmarine on April 1, 1929 with Crew 29 . After the infantry training on the Dänholm and on-board training on the sailing training ship Niobe , courses followed at the Naval School Mürwik in Flensburg - Mürwik . He completed his on-board training on the light cruiser Emden ( Madeira , Caribbean Sea , United States and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ) and the light cruiser Karlsruhe . 1931/32 weapons and intelligence courses followed. In 1932 he became a division lieutenant on the Schleswig-Holstein liner . After serving as a company officer in the 2nd Marine Artillery Department, he was flag lieutenant in the Weddigen U-Flotilla in 1936/37 . After further courses and commands, he came to U 25 as an officer on watch . In 1938 he represented the commander of U 8 in the submarine school. In December 1938 he took command of U 25 in Wilhelmshaven .

In 1939 he became the commander of U 29 , with whom he had his greatest successes after the start of the Second World War. On seven ventures he sank eleven ships with a total tonnage of 62,765 GRT and the British aircraft carrier Courageous with 22,500 t. For his sinking he was awarded the Iron Cross II and First Class on his return, but was not celebrated as a hero. In the immediate German reporting he even remained anonymous. After he was relieved from U 29 on January 1, 1941 , he spent almost four years at the submarine school in Pillau . In 1943/44 he was commander of the 1st U-Training Division and chief of the 21st U-Flotilla stationed there . On September 21, 1944 he was transferred to the Mürwik Naval School . At the end of the war he was commander of the naval rifle battalion "Schuhart". From August to December 1945 he was a department head at the German mine clearance service .

In 1955 he joined the German Armed Forces and served there in various positions: head of examinations at the officer applicant test center in Cologne, head of training and commander of the naval base in Mürwik. On September 30, 1967 Otto Schuhart retired with the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class. He died in Stuttgart at the age of 80.

Promotions

Awards

See also

literature

  • Busch / Röll: Der U-Boot-Krieg Volume 1 U-Boot-Kommandanten ISBN 3-8132-0490-1
  • Busch / Röll: Der U-Boot-Krieg Volume 5 Knight's Cross Bearer ISBN 3-8132-0515-0
  • War diary (KTB) U 25, U 8, U 29
  • Thomas Riederer: War hero - cinema hero. Günther Prien as an example of heroic masculinity in the Nazi state and earlier Federal Republic. Studies on Contemporary History, Volume 103. Verlag Dr. Kovač Hamburg 2017, pp. 15–35. ISBN 978-3-8300-9413-5 .
  • Hans-Joachim Röll: Corvette Captain Otto Schuhart - U 29 reports: British aircraft carrier "Courageous" sunk . Flechsig 2013. ISBN 978-3803500380 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas Riederer: War hero - cinema hero. Günther Prien as an example of heroic masculinity in the Nazi state and earlier Federal Republic. In: Studies on Contemporary History . tape 103 . Publishing house Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8300-9413-5 , p. 15-29 .
  2. ↑ 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. 688.
personal data
SURNAME Schuhart, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1990
Place of death Stuttgart