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Born	30 Jun 1913		Altona
Died	24 Aug 1943	(30)	Central Atlantic, aboard U-185

Ranks 1 Apr 1933 Offiziersanwärter 1 Jul 1934 Fähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1936 Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Oct 1936 Leutnant zur See 1 Jun 1938 Oberleutnant zur See 1 Mar 1941 Kapitänleutnant Decorations   Iron Cross 2nd Class   Iron Cross 1st Class 6 Nov 1943 German Cross in Gold (posthumous)

Horst Höltring joined the German Navy (Reichsmarine) in 1933. He went through U-boat training from March to Oct 1940. On 13 Nov 1940 he was given command of the small "duck" U-149, a training boat. He served on the boat for more than a year, giving up command on 30 Nov 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

From Dec 1941 to Jan 1942 he went through U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) in preparation for his next command. On 8 Jan 1942 Kptlt. Horst Höltring commissioned the new type VIIC boat U-604 at Hamburg (Busch & Röll, 1999).

U-604 went out on 7 patrols, spending 203 days at sea. 6 ships were sunk for almost 40,000 tons (Rohwer, 1998). On the 7th patrol the boat was lost.

Loss of his boat and death of Horst Höltring
Horst Höltring survived the loss of his boat, the U-604 on 11 Aug 1943 after being badly damaged by 2 American aircraft (Niestlé, 1998). His entire crew of 45 men was rescued by 2 German U-boats. He died with 13 of his men when the boat that rescued half of his crew, U-185 (Kptlt. August Maus), was sunk 13 days later (Niestlé, 1998).

According to survivors when the U-185 was fatally hit and chlorine gas spreading through the boat Höltring, himself wounded, jumped from his bunk with a pistol and ran to the forward torpedo room. In there two badly wounded men from his U-604 begged him to shoot them [to avoid drowning or suffocating] which he did for them and then took his own life as well (Blair, 1998). 14 men from U-604 died on the U-185 (Niestlé, 1998).

U-172 (Kptlt. Carl Emmermann) rescued the other part of Höltring's crew and reached port with them at Lorient, France on 7 Sept 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1997).

Sources

Blair, C. (1998). Hitler’s U-boat War. The Hunted, 1942-1945.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Niestlé, A. (1998). German U-boat losses during World War II.
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

About ranks and decorations
Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.

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