Otto von Bülow (officer)

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Otto von Bülow (born October 16, 1911 in Wilhelmshaven ; † January 5, 2006 in Wohltorf ) was a German submarine commander in World War II and a sea captain in the German Navy .

family

Otto came from the Mecklenburg nobility of the von Bülow family and was the son of the sea captain Otto von Bülow (1874-1930) and his wife Johanna, née Meyer (1883-1937).

On June 5, 1937, he married Helga Christiansen (born April 2, 1914 in Rødding , Denmark ) in Bremen .

Military background

Bülow joined the Reichsmarine on April 1, 1930 as a sea ​​officer candidate and initially completed infantry training in the 2nd Division of the Baltic Sea Ship Mastery Division in Stralsund . Bülow completed his on-board training from July 1930 on the Niobe and from October to the beginning of 1932 on the light cruiser Emden . Further training courses followed in Stralsund and, between 1932 and 1933, the main course for ensigns at the Mürwik naval school .

In 1933, Bülow was transferred to the ironclad Germany , where he served as division lieutenant and battery commander from April 1, 1934 . In September 1935 he changed as a company officer and company commander of Fla-Company / VI. Marine artillery department to Emden . In the years 1937–1939 Bülow led as a division officer of the I.WO and Flak-AO on the ship of the line Schleswig-Holstein and from 1939–1940 as the company commander of the naval artillery department and commander of the naval flak department in Pillau .

From April 1940 Bülow switched to the submarine weapon, completed training and courses and was appointed commander of U 3 (21st submarine flotilla ) on November 11, 1940 . On August 6, 1941, he was finally given command of the newly commissioned U 404 (6th U-Flotilla), with which he sank 15 ships, including a British destroyer , and damaged 2 ships. Bülow was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 20, 1942 . On September 1, 1943, he was appointed flotilla chief of the 23rd U-Flotilla in Danzig . In April 1945 he was again briefly charged with command of U 2545 (31st U-Flotilla), but in the same month he was transferred to Naval Storm Battalion I in Neustrelitz , Plön and Mürwik .

Bülow was taken prisoner by the British in May 1945 , from which he was released in August. He joined the Bundeswehr in 1956 , was commander in Bremerhaven from 1956 to 1959 , and then until 1962 in command of the destroyer Z 6 . In 1963 he was given command of the 3rd destroyer squadron.

After that, Bülow taught at the command academy of the Bundeswehr / Navy Department in Hamburg-Blankenese until 1965 . Bülow was commander and site commander of Hamburg from 1965 to 1970 .

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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. 251.
personal data
SURNAME Bülow, Otto von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, submarine commander in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilhelmshaven
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 2006
Place of death Wohltorf