Wolfgang Hirschfeld
Wolfgang Hirschfeld (* May 20, 1916 ; † April 24, 2005 ) was a soldier in the Navy during World War II and most recently chief radio master on the U-boat U 234 . He was best known for his diary entries .
Wolfgang Hirschfeld joined the Navy in December 1935 and initially received his basic infantry training in Stralsund . After he had completed this, he came to the radio operator course in Flensburg - Mürwik and then to the observation service for Poland and the Soviet Union . From 1937 he worked as a radio operator on clearing boats and minesweepers and after successfully completing the NCO courses at the outbreak of the Second World War, he served on the Pfeil torpedo intercept boat , the old former torpedo boat T 139 .
After he was assigned to the submarine weapon in 1940 , he took some courses and then began his service on the U 109 submarine . U 109 was a type IXB submarine and was put into service on December 5, 1940 at the Deschimag AG Weser shipyard in Bremen under Lieutenant Captain Hans Georg Fischer. Under Kapitänleutnant Fischer, Hirschfeld completed his submarine training and his first patrol, which began on May 6, 1941 from Kiel and ended in Lorient with the 2nd U-Flotilla.
After successfully completing the first patrol, Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt took command of U 109 . Under the command of Kapitänleutnant Bleichrodt, Hirschfeld took part in five other patrols until he left U 109 in October 1942 and was temporarily declared unfit for submarines due to a skin disease.
In July 1943, Hirschfeld was assigned to the platoon leader and then to the chief radio master course in Flensburg-Mürwik, before he was assigned to U 234 as station manager in January 1944 . With U 234 he ran out on his last patrol in April 1945, witnessed the surrender there at sea and became an American prisoner of war . In April 1946 he went back to Europe with 1,800 other prisoners of war, was interned again in Brussels and finally released home in May 1946.
Hirschfeld kept diary-like records throughout his military service, although this was forbidden. These records, which are an important source of the situation of German submarine crews, have been preserved and have been published in diary form under the title “Feindfahrten”. "The Last Boat" followed later.
Works
- The Last Boat - Atlantik Farewell , 1982, ISBN 380041192X
- Patrols. The log of a submarine radio operator , 1989, ISBN 3453020510
Web links
- Literature by and about Wolfgang Hirschfeld in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hirschfeld, Wolfgang |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German soldier in the Kriegsmarine in World War II |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1916 |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 24, 2005 |