Rudolf Schneider (naval officer)
Rudolf Schneider (born February 13, 1882 in Gera ; † October 13, 1917 in the North Atlantic ) was a German naval officer and submarine commander in the First World War .
Life
Rudolf Schneider was born in Gera , Thuringia , in 1882 (at that time part of the Principality of Reuss younger line ). He joined the Imperial Navy in 1901 as a midshipman and was promoted to lieutenant captain on April 25, 1912 . During the First World War, Schneider exercised command of two deep-sea submarines: first of the U 24 (August 1, 1914 to June 3, 1916) and later of the U 87 (February 26, 1917 to October 13, 1917). Schneider waged a trade war in the eastern North Atlantic for the British Isles . In doing so, he sank 45 ships from warring powers , but also from neutral states , with a total tonnage of at least 130,000 gross tons .
On January 1, 1915, the crew of U 24 under Schneider's command sank the British battleship HMS Formidable in the English Channel . It was one of the first nocturnal underwater attacks in naval history after the CSS Hunley was deployed in the American Civil War . Over 500 sailors were killed when the HMS Formidable sank .
On June 28, 1915, Schneider chased the mule transporter Armenian off the coast of Cornwall and sank it with artillery and torpedoes. 29 people, including US mule handlers, and 1,400 animals died in the sinking. Using the war diary kept by Schneider , the place of the sinking was determined and the wreck of the Armenian was found.
On August 19, 1915 Schneider ordered the torpedoing of the British passenger ship Arabic , which sank within ten minutes. Among the civilian deaths were again citizens of the United States , which at the time were still among the neutral nations . As in the case of the Lusitania affair , the sinking was followed by serious German-American tensions, which ultimately contributed to the United States entering the war on the Entente side .
Nevertheless, Schneider received the Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords on November 19, 1915 . He had previously received the Iron Cross, first and second class.
Circumstances of death
On October 13, 1917, Schneider was on a patrol with U 87 when he was washed overboard in stormy weather. The crew was able to throw him a lifebuoy and rescue him. The subsequent attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful, so that Schneider died on board. His body was given to the sea in a burial at sea between the Shetland Islands and Norway .
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - HMS Formidable (Engl.)
- ↑ www.uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Armenian (Engl.)
- ↑ Secret in the depths - The bone trail , ZDF documentation on the sinking and finding of the Armenians .
- ↑ www.uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Arabic (engl.)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schneider, Rudolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German naval officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 13, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gera |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 13, 1917 |
| Place of death | North Atlantic |