Horst Höltring (30 June 1913 – 24 August 1943) was a German U-boat commander in World War II.[1]
Naval career
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 VIICU-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.
^Busch, R.; Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
^Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.
^Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
^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. ISBN1-55750-186-6.
