Werner Fürbringer

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Werner Fürbringer (born October 2, 1888 in Braunschweig ; † February 8, 1982 there ) was a German naval officer. In World War I he reached the rank of lieutenant captain , in World War II he was promoted to rear admiral.

Life

Imperial Navy and First World War

Werner Fürbringer was born the son of a doctor and joined the Imperial Navy on April 3, 1907 as a midshipman . The training took place on the training ship SMS Charlotte . On April 21, 1908 he was promoted to ensign at sea . Until the outbreak of World War I, he served for one year on the large cruiser SMS Roon , two years on the large cruiser SMS Scharnhorst in East Asia and then two years on land guarding the German branch in Hànkǒu in China (today's Wuhan ). Back in Germany he was trained for service on submarines at his request . First he served on U 1 , then until 1915 on U 20 . During these years he was on 28 September 1910. Ensign and September 27, 1913 Lieutenant promoted.

On the first two patrols during the First World War, Fürbringer was a watch officer on U 20 under Walther Schwieger .

He then commanded the following submarines:

  • SM UB 2 from February 20, 1915 to March 7, 1916
  • SM UB 17 from March 10, 1916 to March 16, 1916
  • SM UB 39 from April 29, 1916 to November 7, 1916
  • SM UB 70 from November 22, 1916 to June 22, 1917
  • again UB 17 from June 22, 1917 to August 3, 1917
  • SM UB 58 from August 10, 1917 to February 7, 1918
  • SM UB 110 from March 23, 1918 to July 19, 1918

During this time, the submarines commanded by Fürbringer sank 101 ships with 97,881 GRT and damaged five more. On November 16, 1917, he was promoted to lieutenant captain .

On July 18, 1918, SM UB 110 was rammed and sunk on the east coast of England by the British destroyer HMS Garry . Fürbringer was taken prisoner of war with the survivors of his crew . In his memoir, published after the war, Fürbringer accused the Garry crew of firing pistols and machine guns at the unarmed castaways of his submarine, throwing coal at them and delaying relief efforts. In fact, at least 13 members of Fürbringer's crew were killed in the sinking of the submarine.

Between the wars and the Second World War

After the war, Fürbringer was initially made available to the newly founded Reichsmarine , but retired on March 6, 1920 and worked in the private sector in Hamburg until 1927 . Afterwards he was involved in the construction of Turkish submarines in The Hague and in early 1933 he was a submarine instructor in Turkey . On October 1, 1933, he was reactivated as a corvette captain and completed secret test drives in Finland . Subsequently, he was the trainer of the Neustadt submarine school in Holstein and in 1937, as captain at sea, the commandant of the school, then in the high command of the navy department head for exports, war equipment and inventions. On December 1, 1942, Fürbringer was promoted to rear admiral and inspector of the Wehr-Wirtschafts-Inspektion Ostland. Fürbringer left the Navy on June 30, 1943. For the last two years of the war he was inspector of the air raid protection of the Reichsgruppe Industrie .

family

Werner Fürbringer was married. His older brother Gerhardt Fürbringer (* July 13, 1884, † March 17, 1972) was also the submarine commander of the Imperial Navy. On June 23, 1915, he was taken prisoner by the British as commander of SM U 40 .

Awards

Publications

  • Alarm! Diving !! Submarine in battle and storm. Ullstein, Berlin 1933 (experience report). ISBN 978-0023535338 .

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Fürbringer: Alarm! Diving !! Submarine in battle and storm. Ullstein, Berlin 1933 (experience report). ISBN 978-0023535338 .
personal data
SURNAME Fürbringer, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1982
Place of death Braunschweig