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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.
Kapitänleutnant Siegfried Wuppermann (1916-2005) was born on 15 December 1916 in Berlin as the son of a bank director and joined the Kriegsmarine on 3 April 1936, serving as Seekadett aboard the Emden from September that year before becoming Adjutant to the 1. Schnellboot-Flottille in April 1938 and later to the U-Boots-Schulflottille. From March 1939 he commanded Schnellboot S 20 and then S 25 in the 1. Schnellboot-Flottille, taking part in patrols during the Invasion of Poland in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and English Channel as well as in the Norwegian Campaign, for which he received the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 20 April 1940 and the 1. Klasse on 28 May 1940 after sinking the French destroyer Sirocco and a tanker. Promoted to Oberleutnant zur See on 1 October 1940, he transferred to the 3. Schnellboot-Flottille, assumed command of S 60 on 21 December 1940 and briefly acted as Chef of the flottille in February-March 1941. On 7 March 1941 near Great Yarmouth he led attacks that sank two destroyers, two freighters and a tanker; during Operation Barbarossa with S 60 he sank the cargo ship Gaisma on 21-22 June 1941, the Soviet submarine S 3 two days later and, with other boats, two destroyers and a torpedo boat on 27 June, actions for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 3 August 1941 as Kommandant of S 60. From October 1941 he commanded S 56 in the Mediterranean, where on 14 June 1942 he torpedoed and severely damaged the British cruiser Newcastle, sank several patrol vessels and, during the fall of Tobruk on 21 June 1942, destroyed numerous ships including freighters and landing craft; these further successes earned him the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 14 April 1943 as the 226th recipient while still Oberleutnant zur See and Kommandant of S 56, along with the Schnellboot-Kriegsabzeichen mit Brillanten. Promoted to Kapitänleutnant on 1 April 1943, he later served as Ausbildungsleiter, Chef of the 21. and 22. Schnellboot-Flottille, in the Stab of the Führer der Schnellboote and finally as Chef of the 1. Schnellboot-Division in the Adriatic until the end of the war, after which he was released from captivity in June 1946 and later reached Fregattenkapitän der Reserve in the Bundesmarine; he died on 15 April 2005 in Osnabrück.
Korvettenkapitän Friedrich Kemnade (1911-2008) was born on 12 December 1911 in Schwarmstedt near Hanover and joined the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1931 as a naval officer candidate. After training he served on cruisers including Karlsruhe, Königsberg, Nürnberg and Emden, where he was I. Torpedooffizier and Adjutant at the outbreak of war and was promoted to Kapitänleutnant. From mid-May 1940 he commanded the 3. Schnellbootflottille, operating in the North Sea, Baltic, English Channel and from 1942 in the Mediterranean. On 11 September 1940 he was seriously wounded aboard S 13 during a British air raid on Vlissingen. Under his leadership the flotilla conducted 171 sorties, sinking, damaging or capturing some 70 warships including two cruisers, 14 destroyers and several submarines as well as twelve merchant vessels of about 100000 GRT. The Ritterkreuz was awarded on 23 July 1942 for Mediterranean successes, including the attack on a British convoy in which two cruisers were torpedoed, one probably sunk, plus earlier sinkings of a destroyer, escort, submarine chaser and 15000 GRT of shipping off the Libyan coast. Promoted to Korvettenkapitän, he received the Eichenlaub on 27 May 1943 as the 249th recipient for continued outstanding leadership, especially in supporting the Tunisian bridgehead after the Allied landings in North Africa, where his flotilla was the first German-Italian naval unit to raise the flag in Tunis and Bizerta and secure supply lines while inflicting heavy losses. From July 1943 he served as Referent in the Seekriegsleitung. After the war he worked in insurance until joining the Bundesmarine on 1 April 1956 as Fregattenkapitän, later rising to Konteradmiral and holding posts including commander of the Schnellbootflottille, Befehlshaber der Seestreitkräfte Ostseezugänge and Befehlshaber im Wehrbereich I before retiring on 30 September 1970. He died in Hamburg on 29 January 2008.
Source :
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Tr%C3%A4ger_des_Ritterkreuzes_des_Eisernen_Kreuzes_der_Schnellbootwaffe
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