Otto Wishes (naval officer)

Otto Wünsche (born September 28, 1884 in Duisburg , † March 29, 1919 in Kiel ) was a German submarine commander in the First World War .

Life

After finishing school on April 1, 1902, Wünsche joined the Imperial Navy as a member of Crew 4/02 . He completed his basic training and attended the naval school . On April 11, 1903, he became an ensign at sea . He was promoted to lieutenant at sea on September 29, 1905. On March 30, 1908, he was promoted to first lieutenant at sea .

On October 1, 1913, Wünsche was transferred to the submarine department and received appropriate training there. As a lieutenant captain , he was in command of the U 25 submarine from May 9, 1914 , which he commanded from the outbreak of World War I until September 15, 1915. He then commanded U 70 from September 22, 1915 to September 15, 1917 and U 97 from October 14, 1917 to January 12, 1918 . He succeeded in sinking a total of 76 ships with a total of 152,340 GRT as well as a British sloop of 1290 t and damaging six other ships with a total of 25,317 GRT. On December 20, 1917, he was awarded the highest Prussian honor for bravery, the Order Pour le Mérite . Before that, Wünsche had already received both classes of the Iron Cross and, on May 14, 1917, the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords. In the last month of the war he was in command of U 126 from October 7 to November 11, 1918 .

After the end of the war, wishes fell ill and was given leave of absence on November 23, 1918.

Honor

The German Navy named a submarine support ship launched in 1940 after him; see Otto Wünsche (Schiff, 1940) .

literature

• Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2011. ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 . Pp. 568-569

Web links

• Otto Wünsche on uboat.net