Kriegsmarine Admirals ID thread and private collection photos Database

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Portrait of Vizeadmiral Leo Kreisch (1895-1977). His career during WW2:
-1st Admiral-Staff-Officer with the Staff of the Naval-Station of the Baltic Sea (29 September 1937-30 September 1939)
-At the same time, Acting-Chief of Staff of the Naval-Station of the Baltic Sea (21 June 1939-12 July 1939)
-Chief of the Military Department of the Office-Group U-boat-Affairs, Naval-Warfare-Command, OKM (01 October 1939-07 August 1940)
-Commandant of the Light Cruiser „Nürnberg“ (08 August 1940-25 March 1941)
-Commandant of the Heavy Cruiser „Lützow“ (28 March 1941-03 July 1941)
-Chief of the Naval-Instruction-Command Romania (04 July 1941-17 November 1941)
-Acting-Commandant of the Heavy Cruiser „Lützow“ (18 November 1941-26 January 1942)
-Leader of U-boats Italy (27 January 1942-12 August 1943)
-Leader of U-boats Mediterranean (13 August 1943-25 January 1944)
-Leader of Destroyers and also Sea-Commander in the Area of the Danish Islands then of Swinemünde (26 January 1944-29 May 1945)

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Konteradmiral Leo Kreisch on board a ship, date and place unknown.

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Kapitän zur See Wilhelm Matthies, Commander of the 1st Naval-Flak-Regiment (04 January 1940-30 April 1942), wearing the field grey Naval Artillery uniform, photographed in 1940.
A U-boat veteran from WW1, he was promoted to Konteradmiral on 01 February 1943 and on 29 February 1944 he was awarded the German Cross in Gold.

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Vizeadmiral Werner Löwisch (far right in the 1st and in the middle in the 2nd photo), Commander of the German Naval Command Italy (17 July 1944-31 December 1944), visiting the Kriegsmarine Arsenal in Venice, Italy, summer 1944.

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Max Peters, Arsenal-Commandant of the Kriegsmarine-Arsenal Gotenhafen (10 January 1944-28 March 1945).

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Konteradmiral Hermann von Fischel, Commander of Armoured-Ships (25 November 1936-08 February 1938). At the same time he was also the Commander of the German Naval-Forces at Spain at four different occasions: 16 December 1936-19 March 1937; 14 May 1937-22 June 1937; 08 September 1937-07 October 1937 and 08 February 1938-13 March 1938. His flagship at this time was the „Deutschland“.

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Launching of the Panzerschiff „Admiral Graf Spee“ at the Naval Shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, 30 June 1934.
1: Vizeadmiral Emil Heusinger von Waldegg, Chief of the General Naval Office, Naval Command (15 November 1930-26 September 1935)
2: Kapitän zur See Willy von Nordeck, Chief of the Central-Department of the Naval-Shipyard Wilhelmshaven (05 October 1932-29 September 1935)
3: Huberta von Spee, the daughter of Vizeadmiral Maximilian von Spee, the ship's namesake. She christened the ship.
4: Vizeadmiral Richard Foerster, Fleet-Chief, Fleet-Command (22 September 1933-20 December 1936)
5: Kapitän zur See Werner Grassmann, Chief of the Shipyard Department of the Naval Command (01 July 1933-30 September 1934)

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

German and British naval officers on board the Panzerschiff „Deutschland“ at Gibraltar, end of May 1937. This photo was taken some time after the „Deutschland incident“ which occured on 29 May 1937. While moored in port of Ibiza, the „Deutschland“ was attacked by Spanish Republican bombers (a pair of Soviet-built SB-2 bombers, secretly flown by Soviet Air Force pilots), which bombed the ship. Two bombs struck the ship; the first penetrated the upper deck near the bridge and exploded above the main armored deck while the second hit near the third starboard 15 cm gun, causing serious fires below decks. The attack killed 31 German sailors and wounded 74. The ship then proceeded to Gibraltar, where the British Military Hospital treated the wounded sailors and where the dead were buried with full military honors. However, ten days later the dead were exhumed and returned for burial in Germany.
Second from the left is Konteradmiral Hermann von Fischel, Commander of Armoured-Ships (25 November 1936-08 February 1938) and at the same time the Commander of the German Naval-Forces at Spain (14 May 1937-22 June 1937).
Third from the left is Kapitän zur See Paul Fanger, the Commandant of the „Deutschland“ (30 September 1935-02 September 1937).

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Group photo of the Instruction Staff for Luftwaffe Matters (Lehrstab für Luftwaffenfragen/Luftwaffenlehrstab), Berlin, 1943. Sitting in the middle is Admiral z.V. Gottfried Hansen, Head of the Instruction Staff for Luftwaffe Matters (17 November 1941-18 June 1943).
In March 1937, the Instruction Staff for Luftwaffe Matters was set up in Berlin. It moved to Kiel on 24 June 1937, where it was assigned to the Inspection of Naval Artillery. On 14 February 1938 it was subordinated to the Inspection of Training Affairs of the Navy and attached to the Naval Academy. On 1 September 1940 the staff was again transferred to Berlin and was again directly subordinate to the High Command of the Navy (OKM) there. In the autumn of 1944 the training staff was considerably reduced in size. This remaining staff moved to the Kiel area in March 1945 and on 14 April 1945 to Dobersdorf, where it was disbanded after the German capitulation.
It's main task was to improve cooperation between Naval Air Forces (Marineluftstreitkräfte)/Sea Air Forces (Seeluftstreitkräfte)/Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. This instruction staff was used to instruct naval units on Luftwaffe (Air Force) matters and Luftwaffe units on naval matters. Among other things, the following topics were worked out and given to the participants of the training courses and/or later issued as regulations or instructions:
- Navigation at sea (the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe had different navigation principles)
- Reconnaissance of enemy naval forces
- Securing one's own naval units from the air
- Radio communication and reporting
- Exchange of signals between the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine
- Air combat tactics and/or naval combat tactics
- Structure and organization of the individual units
- Subordination relationships (some Naval Air Forces were subordinate to the various Naval High Commands)
- Structure and organization of the maritime emergency service (the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine were equal partners)

[Kriegsmarine Admiral]

Admiral z.V. Gottfried Hansen (right), Head of the Instruction Staff for Luftwaffe Matters (17 November 1941-18 June 1943) with his son Hans (left) (born in 1919) in Paris, date unknown.