Paul Hundius

Paul Hundius (born February 2, 1889 in Gera , † September 16, 1918 in the English Channel ) was a German naval officer , most recently in the rank of lieutenant captain . He was one of the most successful submarine commanders during the First World War .

Life

Born as the son of a high school professor, Hundius joined the Imperial Navy on April 3, 1907 and initially received his basic training on the training ship SMS Moltke . He then graduated from the Kiel Naval School from April 1, 1908 to September 30, 1909 , where he was made an ensign at sea on April 21, 1908 . He was then transferred to the liner SMS Pommern . Hundius received his officer license as a lieutenant in the sea on September 28, 1910 . He then served on board the large cruiser SMS Hansa for a year and in March 1912 came as an officer on watch on the liner SMS Lothringen . It was here that he was promoted to lieutenant at sea on September 27, 1913 .

Hundius remained on board the ship of the line with the outbreak of World War I and volunteered for submarine weapons in July 1915 . At first he was available to the submarine department, was employed as an adjutant and then completed submarine training from September 1915 to April 4, 1916. On April 5, 1916, Hundius was given command of SM UB 16 . By August 1916 he was able to sink four vehicles with 7,179 GRT and raise a pinch . From October 13, 1916 to October 8, 1917 he was in command of the mine boat SM UC 47 on ten patrols. From his base in Flanders, he was able to operate 46 ships with a total of 57,570 GRT , including the British destroyer HMS, in operations in the Flamborough Head area, the English Channel, the Bristol Channel , the St. George's Channel , the Irish Sea and off Cornwall Sink Ghurka with 880 ts , as a direct hit or a mine hit.

On July 16, 1917, Hundius received his promotion to lieutenant captain and for his services in the same month the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords. On December 18 of the same year he put the modern UB-III boat SM UB 103 into service for the Flemish submarine flotilla , with which he was involved in six operations in the English Channel, the Irish Sea, the Bristol Channel and the Bay of Biscay and was able to raise 17 ships with 30,531 GRT off Northern Spain.

He left his base in Flanders for the last time on August 14, 1918. Just four days later, Hundius, the eighth and last submarine commander of the Flemish submarine flotilla, received the highest Prussian valor award, the order Pour le Mérite . The end of UB-103 could never be fully clarified. It probably ran into a sea ​​mine on September 16, 1918 and sank at the Dover mine barrier.

Hundius was able to sink 67 ships with a total of 95,280 GRT and one warship with 880 ts during 20 operations. Eight other merchant ships with around 14,000 GRT were temporarily decommissioned due to damage. The 6th U-Flotilla of the German Navy in World War II was named after him.

literature

• Bodo Herzog: Lieutenant Captain Paul Hundius. in: German Soldier Yearbook 1968. Schild Verlag Munich 1968.
• Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of World War I Volume 2: HO , Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, ISBN 3-7648-2516-2 , pp. 138-139