Ritterkreuzträger of Schnellbootwaffe (Fast Attack Boats)

The Schnellbootwaffe formed a specialized branch of the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War, comprising fast attack craft known as Schnellboote or S-Boote that the Allies termed E-boats. Originating from secret development under the Reichsmarine in the early 1930s to circumvent Treaty of Versailles restrictions, the force expanded after 1935 with the first operational units organized into Schnellbootflotillen such as the 1. Schnellbootflottille. These wooden-hulled boats, typically 32 to 35 metres long and powered by three Daimler-Benz diesel engines, achieved speeds exceeding 40 knots and carried two 533 mm torpedo tubes along with increasing anti-aircraft armament including 20 mm and 37 mm guns. Organized primarily into flotillas of six to ten boats supported by Begleitschiffe, they operated under the Führer der Schnellboote, a post held from 1942 by Kapitän zur See Rudolf Petersen. Their main theatres included the English Channel, North Sea, Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Sea, where they excelled in nocturnal hit-and-run attacks on coastal convoys, minelaying and occasional troop insertions. Early successes came during the Norwegian campaign and the evacuation from Dunkirk, followed by sustained operations against British coastal shipping that earned the waters the nickname E-boat Alley. Tactics evolved to include the Stichansatz group approach, allowing coordinated torpedo runs that sank or damaged numerous merchant vessels and warships. Over the course of the war approximately 230 Schnellboote entered service and claimed the sinking of around 101 merchant ships totalling over 214,000 GRT together with a dozen destroyers, multiple minesweepers, landing craft and other vessels. From 1943 onward intensified Allied air superiority and radar reduced their effectiveness, yet they continued aggressive sorties including attacks during Exercise Tiger and the Normandy landings. Later classes such as the S-100 featured armoured bridges and heavier armament while remaining highly manoeuvrable. By May 1945 surviving units of various Schnellbootflotillen gathered in the Geltinger Bucht for final mustering under Petersen before surrender.

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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


Korvettenkapitän Werner Töniges (1910-1995) was born on 7 January 1910 in Oberhausen as the son of a mining director and transferred from the Handelsmarine to the Kriegsmarine in 1935, receiving promotion to Leutnant zur See in 1937. He served aboard the Panzerschiff Admiral Graf Spee during the Spanish Civil War before transferring to the Schnellbootwaffe, where he commanded the boats S 24, S 26 and later S 102 of the 1. Schnellbootflottille. In the early months of the Second World War he conducted numerous Feindfahrten in the English Channel, achieving several sinkings that earned him the Eisernes Kreuz second and first class in 1940. On 25 February 1941, after completing eighty-eight combat patrols as Oberleutnant zur See und Kommandant of S 102, he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes for his successes against Allied shipping, which by that time included several freighters and steamers. Continuing operations with the same boat, Töniges later transferred with elements of the flotilla to the Black Sea, where he sank additional Soviet vessels, among them the passenger ship Belostok and other transports evacuating troops from Sevastopol and the Taman Peninsula. By the autumn of 1942 his cumulative record stood at eighteen war and merchant ships plus two U-Boot-Jäger sunk for a total of approximately 86,200 BRT after 281 Feindfahrten. For these achievements he received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 13 November 1942 as Kapitänleutnant, becoming the first Schnellboot-Kommandant to earn this distinction. Shortly beforehand he had been posted as Kompaniechef to the 1. Abteilung of the Marineschule Mürwik in Flensburg-Mürwik, where he also received the Schnellboot-Kriegsabzeichen mit Brillanten. From September 1943 he served as Ausbildungsoffizier and Referent in the Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine and was promoted to Korvettenkapitän on 1 January 1945. After the war he worked as an independent merchant in Witten and died in Essen on 25 January 1995.

Source :
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Tr%C3%A4ger_des_Ritterkreuzes_des_Eisernen_Kreuzes_der_Schnellbootwaffe