The 12. Unterseebootsflottille was established on 15 October 1942 in the occupied French port of Bordeaux as a Frontflottille of the Kriegsmarine under the command of Korvettenkapitän Klaus Scholtz, who was later promoted to Fregattenkapitän and remained Flottillenchef until the unit’s dissolution. Subordinated to the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote West, the flotilla specialised in long-range operations and was equipped primarily with Type IXD2 boats for distant patrols, Type XB minelayers, Type XIV supply submarines known as Milchkühe, and a few Type VIIF torpedo transporters. Its principal operational areas lay in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, where its boats conducted the so-called Monsun missions, often supported by the supply vessels that formed a core element of the flotilla’s strength. Among the most notable boats assigned were U-181 under Korvettenkapitän Wolfgang Lüth, U-196 under Korvettenkapitän Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat, and U-198 under Kapitän zur See Werner Hartmann, all of which achieved significant successes on extended Feindfahrten lasting many months. The first German U-boat to enter the new Bordeaux bunker complex was U-178 in January 1943, after which the base became the main hub for these far-ranging operations. Following the Italian capitulation in September 1943 several captured Italian submarines, redesignated UIT-22, UIT-23, UIT-24 and UIT-25, were also placed under the flotilla for transport duties. Altogether some forty-six U-boats served with the 12. Unterseebootsflottille during its existence, the majority of which were eventually lost on operations. With the Allied advance into western France after the Normandy landings, most seaworthy boats departed Bordeaux for Norway or Germany in August 1944; the last vessels to leave were U-534 and U-857 on 25 August. The flotilla was formally disbanded that same month, and the remaining personnel of approximately 220 men under Fregattenkapitän Scholtz attempted to reach Germany overland but were captured by American forces on 11 September 1944.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BRILLANTENTRÄGER
Kapitän zur See Wolfgang Lüth (1913-1945) was born on 15 October 1913 in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, as a Baltic German, and after studying law for three semesters he entered the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1933 as an Offiziersanwärter. Following training on the sailing ship Gorch Fock and the cruiser Karlsruhe he transferred to the U-Bootwaffe in 1937, rising to Oberleutnant zur See by 1938 and serving as Wachoffizier on several boats before receiving his first independent command. In December 1939 he took command of U-9, a Type IIB boat, with which he conducted six Feindfahrten and sank seven merchant ships plus the French submarine Doris; he then commanded the Type IID boat U-138 on two patrols, sinking further vessels and earning the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 24 October 1940 as Oberleutnant zur See und Kommandant of U-138. Transferred to the long-range Type IX boat U-43, he completed five patrols between October 1940 and April 1942, sinking twelve ships for over 68,000 BRT and being promoted to Kapitänleutnant. In May 1942 he commissioned the large Type IXD2 boat U-181 and led it on two highly successful Feindfahrten into the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; on the first of these he sank twelve ships and received the Eichenlaub on 13 November 1942 while still at sea. The second patrol, lasting 205 days and ranking among the longest of the war, saw him sink a further ten ships, for which he was awarded the Schwerter on 15 April 1943 and, after additional successes, the Brillanten on 9 August 1943 as Korvettenkapitän und Kommandant of U-181, becoming the first Kriegsmarine officer to receive this highest grade of the Ritterkreuz. After returning to Bordeaux in October 1943 he was withdrawn from front-line service, later commanding the 22. U-Boot-Flottille and, from September 1944, the Marinekriegsschule Mürwik as Kapitän zur See. On the night of 13–14 May 1945, shortly after the German surrender, he was accidentally shot and killed by a German sentry near the academy when he failed to give the password, ending the career of one of the most decorated and successful U-Boot-Kommandanten of the war.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_U-boat_Flotilla
No comments:
Post a Comment