Horst Höltring

Horst Höltring (30 June 1913 – 24 August 1943) was a German U-boat commander[1] in World War II.

Horst Höltring
Born(1913-06-30)30 June 1913
Altona, Hamburg, German Empire
Died24 August 1943(1943-08-24) (aged 30)
Central Atlantic Ocean
Allegiance Weimar Republic
 Nazi Germany
Service/branch Reichsmarine
 Kriegsmarine
Years of service1933–43
RankKapitänleutnant
Commands heldU-149
U-604
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsIron Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, German Cross in Gold

Horst Höltring joined the Reichsmarine in 1933. He went through U-boat training from March to October 1940. On 13 November 1940 he was given command of U-149, a training boat. He served on the boat for more than a year, giving up command on 30 November 1941.[2] From December 1941 to January 1942 he went through U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) in preparation for his next command. On 8 January 1942 Höltring commissioned the Type VIIC U-604 at Hamburg. U-604 went on seven patrols, spending 203 days at sea. Six ships were sunk, totaling 40,000 tons.[3] On the 7th patrol the boat was lost. Höltring survived the loss of his boat on 11 August 1943 after she was scuttled following an attack by two American aircraft.[4] The entire crew of 45 men was rescued by two U-boats. Höltring died together with thirteen of his men when the boat that rescued half of his crew, U-185, was sunk 13 days later. According to survivors, when U-185 was fatally hit and chlorine gas was spreading through the boat, Höltring, himself wounded, jumped from his bunk with a pistol and ran to the forward torpedo room where two badly wounded men from U-604 begged to be shot to avoid drowning or suffocating, which he did, before taking his own life.[5] Fourteen men from U-604 died on U-185. U-172 had rescued the rest of Höltring's crew, and reached port with them at Lorient, France on 7 September 1943.

Summary of Career

Ships sunk
DateU-boatName of shipNationalityTonnageFate
27 June 1941U-149M-99 Soviet Navy206Sunk
25 August 1942U-604Abbekerk Netherlands7,906Sunk
27 October 1942U-604Anglo Mærsk United Kingdom7,705Sunk
30 October 1942U-604Président Doumer United Kingdom11,898Sunk
30 October 1942U-604Baron Vernon United Kingdom3,642Sunk
2 December 1942U-604Coamo United States7,057Sunk
23 February 1943U-604Stockport United Kingdom1,683Sunk

Awards
gollark: Or you can actually offer something much nicer and better in some way, a "killer app" for decentralized stuff, but if you do that and it's not intrinsically tied to the decentralized thing the big platforms will just copy it.
gollark: Yes, users are bad and won't care unless something directly affects them.
gollark: Also, in my experience the more privacy-friendly stuff also is more lightweight due to being designed with a mindset of doing it well and not adding excessive features, versus Facebook and whoever just using whatever allows them to get better time to market and shove in 2000 different weird features ~~stolen from~~ inspired by other platforms.
gollark: Social networks without E2E don't say "yes, we're not very secure, but [list of features that that allows us to provide we couldn't otherwise]".
gollark: That never happens.

References
  1. "Kapitänleutnant Horst Höltring". uboat.net. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  2. Busch, R.; Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
  3. Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.
  4. Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
  5. Blair, C. (1998). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunted, 1942-1945.

Bibliography
  • Busch, Rainer; Röll, Hans-Joachim (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II : a biographical dictionary. Translated by Brooks, Geoffrey. London, Annapolis, Md: Greenhill Books, Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-186-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.