Ralph Wenninger

Ralph (Rudolf) Wenninger (born April 22, 1890 in Munich ; † March 13, 1945 in Meran ) was a German aviator general in World War II .

Life

origin

Wenninger was the son of the later Bavarian Lieutenant General Karl Ritter von Wenninger .

Military career

Wenninger occurred on April 3, 1907 as a midshipman in the Imperial Navy one, initially completed his basic training before his board training in the training ships Freya and Charlotte received. Wenninger came to the Mürwik Naval School on April 1, 1908 , where he was appointed ensign at sea shortly afterwards . He then took a three-month course at the ship artillery school and on the torpedo training ship Württemberg . This was followed by another infantry training with the II. Sea Battalion until September 30, 1909. Wenninger then emigrated to East Asia in order to be on duty on the great cruiser Scharnhorst from November 26, 1909 . Here he was promoted to lieutenant at sea on September 28, 1910 . After serving on the station ship , he returned home on November 14, 1911 and was initially assigned to the I. Ship Division as a company officer. From April 1, 1912 to September 12, 1913, he served as a company officer of the 5th Ship Artillery Department and was then transferred to the Aviso Pfeil as a watch and radio officer and, on September 27, 1913, as a first lieutenant at sea . There he remained after the outbreak of the First World War until November 30, 1914 and then came to the ship of the line Kaiser Friedrich III in the same function .

Wenninger then reported about the submarine weapon and completed appropriate training from January 13 to March 26, 1915. He initially acted as the commander of the school boats UB 9 and UB 11 and then of UB 17 until July 2, 1916 . His service was briefly interrupted by a building instruction for the new UC 17 submarine at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg , whose first commander he became after it was commissioned on July 21, 1916. He was subsequently used by boat in the Flemish submarine flotilla . After taking over UB 55 on June 15, 1917 , he was promoted to lieutenant captain on November 16, 1917 as one of the youngest officers in the Imperial Navy .

With the submarines under his control, Wenninger succeeded in sinking a total of 97 merchant ships with 100,306 GRT by the end of the war . He is one of the most successful submarine commanders of the First World War. For his work, he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with swords, the U-Boat War Badge , the Bavarian Military Merit Order IV Class with swords and the Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg and Bremen. In addition, Wenninger was awarded the highest award for bravery in Prussia, the Order Pour le Mérite , on March 30, 1918 .

His boat ran out of Zeebrugge on April 22, 1918 for another patrol and collided with a sea ​​mine . As a result, the submarine sank. Of the 29-person crew, only six people, including Wenninger, were able to save themselves. They were rescued by British naval forces and became a prisoner of war .

After his release on October 23, 1919, Wenninger was initially made available to the Kiel command office. He then joined the III in January 1920 . Marine Brigade and served as a company commander until May 31, 1920 .

Wenninger joined the Provisional Reichsmarine on June 1, 1920 , where he was initially assigned to the Ship Cadet Division of the Baltic Sea Naval Station. From July 12, 1920 to November 9, 1921 he acted as chief of the 6th minesweeping semi-flotilla. For a short time, from August 1 to August 22, 1920, he was appointed company commander of the ship cadets of the III. Minesweeping flotilla. In November 1921 and from January 4 to April 1, 1922, he commanded the Thetis ship cadets and was temporarily in charge of the 5th minesweeping half-flotilla from November 14, 1921 to January 3, 1922. After the Thetis was put back into service, Wenninger was used as a navigational officer on the small cruiser . He then came on September 15, 1924 for three months as 2nd Admiral Staff Officer in the staff of the Baltic Sea Station, where he was subsequently adjutant and as such promoted to Corvette Captain on April 1, 1926 . On October 1, 1927, he began his service on board the small cruiser Berlin , where he held the position of first officer until March 27, 1929 . During this time he also took part in the last foreign voyage of the ship to East Asia and Australia . After being decommissioned, he was transferred to the Kiel Naval Arsenal . Here he stayed only briefly and on April 3, 1929 was assigned to the department head of the air raid protection group (LS) of the naval command office. From September 24, 1929 to 1930 and from July 1, 1930 to September 29, 1931, Wenninger was made available to the chief of the Baltic Sea naval station or the chief of the naval command office. He then spent a year Officer in the Defense Ministry in Berlin before he as commander the position assumed (since October 1, 1931) on 1 October 1932 department head of the air defense group of the Navy Command Office. After working there for six months, he became Chief of Staff of the Air Protection Group in the Reichswehr Ministry. At the same time he was promoted to captain at sea on April 1, 1934, he then moved to the central department and joined the Air Force on October 1 of the same year . Here he held the rank of colonel and was used in the Reich Ministry of Aviation until March 31, 1936 . From April 1, 1936 to September 3, 1939 Wenninger was used as an air force attaché at the German embassy in London and in the meantime promoted to major general on March 1, 1936 and lieutenant general on March 1, 1938. At the same time, he also served as an air force attaché at the German embassies in The Hague and Brussels until May 31, 1940 .

After the outbreak of the Second World War and the occupation of the Benelux countries, Wenninger returned home, was employed in the General Staff of Air Fleet 2 until June 4, 1941 , and was promoted to General of the Aircraft on November 1, 1940. This was followed by an assignment in the General Staff of Air Fleet 3 until September 18, 1941 and then in the staff of the Commander-in-Chief South.

literature

• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Volume 3: Odebrecht to Zoch. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-2209-0 , pp. 567-569.
• Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume II: M-Z. Bernard & Graefe publishing house, Berlin 1935, pp. 489-490.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johan Ryheul: Naval Corps from 1914 to 1918. Verlag Mittler & Sohn GmbH 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0541-X , p. 82.
2. ^ Reichswehr Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1932, p. 42.