Branch: Kriegsmarine
Born: 30 October 1897 in Angermünde, Brandenburg,
Germany.
Died: 18 November 1969 in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany.
Ranks:
Vizeadmiral 1 August
1944
Konteradmiral 1 March
1943
Kommodore
Kapitän zur See 1
November 1939
Fregattenkapitän 1
November 1937
Korvettenkapitän 1
October 1934
Kapitänleutnant 1
January 1928
Oberleutnant zur See
10 January 1921
Leutnant zur See 17
September 1917
Oberfähnrich zur
See
Fähnrich zur See 19
April 1916
Decorations:
Wound Badge 20 July 1944
Commands:
Prinz
Eugen
Takes command on 8 October 1942
Ends command on 28 February 1943
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Hans Erich Voß was born on 30 October 1897 in Angermünde,
Brandenburg, Germany and was a serving member of the Kriegsmarine
during World War II and managed to attain the rank of Vizeadmiral
and among the final occupants of the Führerbunker during
the battle of Berlin in 1945. Hans Erich Voß was also
one of the last people to see both
Adolf
Hitler and
Joseph
Goebbels alive prior to them committing suicide.
Hans Erich Voß graduated from the German Naval Academy
in 1917. And Hans Erich Voß served in the Reichsmarine
through the Weimar Republic and national socialist periods.
In 1942, Hans Erich Voß was the commander of the heavy
cruiser
Prinz
Eugen, and got together with
Joseph
Goebbels, the then Reich Propaganda Minister, when
Joseph
Goebbels and a party of journalists came for a tour of
heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen. And because of this meeting,
Joseph
Goebbels arranged to have Hans Erich Voß appointed
Naval Liaison Officer to
Adolf
Hitler's headquarters in March 1943.
Hans Erich Voß was present during the bomb plot against
Adolf Hitler
on 20 July 1944. Hans Erich Voß was in the conference
room at
Adolf
Hitler's Rastenburg HQ Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) as Kriegsmarine
representative. Approximately 1230 hrs as the conference started,
conspirator Claus von Stauffenberg made an excuse to use a
toilet facilities in
Wilhelm
Keitel's office where he used pliers to crush the end
of a pencil detonator inserted into a 1 kilogram block of
plastic explosive wrapped in brown paper. The detonator, which
comprised of a thin copper tube containing acid , took 10
minutes to silently eat through wire holding back the firing
pin from the percussion cap. The primed bomb was then placed
in a briefcase under a table around which
Adolf
Hitler, Hans Erich Voß and more than 20 military
officers had assembled. Between 1240 hrs and 1250 hrs the
bomb exploded, demolishing the conference room.
Whilst
Adolf
Hitler survived with minor wounds, 3 military officers
and a shorthand typist were fatally wounded and died soon
afterwards. Hans Erich Voß was also injured in the bomb
blast but he promptly recovered. Hans Erich Voß became
a recipient of the Wound Badge of 20 July 1944. At the start
his award class was given in black but then it was upgraded
to silver and eventually gold because he was injured a number
of times after the first award. Hans Erich Voß was the
only member of the Wehrmacht to have obtained all three badges.
In his capacity as Kriegsmarine Liaison Officer, Hans Erich
Voß went with
Adolf
Hitler,
Joseph
Goebbels, and there associates into the Führerbunker
under the Reich Chancellery building in central Berlin in
January 1945. In the closing months of the Third Reich, Hans
Erich Voß became a close confidante of
Joseph
Goebbels and his wife Magda Goebbels. Hans Erich Voß
was well aware that the
Joseph
Goebbels and Magda Goebbels had decided that they'd not
leave the bunker, but would kill their children and then themselves
once
Adolf
Hitler was dead.
Hans Erich Voß became a Russian POW. In August 1951,
Hans Erich Voß was prosecuted by the Russian authorities
on charges that he held a command post in
Adolf
Hitler's war fleet, and that was involved in an belligerent
war in violation of international laws and treaties. In February
1952, the Court Martial of the Moscow Military District sentenced
Hans Erich Voß to 25 years' imprisonment. By a decree
of the Praesidium of the Supreme Russian in December 1954,
nevertheless, Hans Erich Voß was released and handed
over to the East Germany authorities.
For a complete list of
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