Adalbert von Blanc

Klaus Scholtz
Birth name	Adalbert Pierre Louis Karl Erich Johann von Blanc
Birth date	11 July 1907(1907-07-11)
Place of birth	Wilhelmshaven, Wittmund (district), Province of Hanover, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date	7 November 1976 (aged 69)
Place of death	Flensburg-Mürwik, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany
Allegiance	Weimar Republic National Socialist Germany West Germany
Service/branch	Reichsmarine Kriegsmarine Seegrenzschutz (BGS) German Navy (Bundeswehr)
Years of service	1926–1935 1935–1945 1951–1956 1956–1964
Rank	Oberleutnant zur See Fregattenkapitän Oberstabskapitän Flottillenadmiral
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of the Atlantic Operation Hannibal
Awards	Iron Cross German Cross in Gold Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves

Adalbert Pierre Louis Karl Erich Johann von Blanc (11 July 1907 – 7 November 1976) was a German naval officer, finally Flottillenadmiral (Rear Admiral, lower half) of the German Navy (Deutsche Marine) of the Bundeswehr until 1964. He was an active member of the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients.

Military career

Adalbert von Blanc joined the 2nd Baltic Sea Ship Division (II. Schiffsstammdivision der Ostsee) on 1 April 1926 and completed his maritime basic training on the sailing training ship “Niobe” and the cruiser “Emden”. From 1933 to 1938, von Blanc served in various positions on minesweepers, including from 1936 as commander of the boat M 110 of what was now the Kriegsmarine. On 1 November 1938, he became commander of a training company with the 13. Schiffsstammabteilung. In 1939, he was assigned to construction instructions of the auxiliary cruiser "Orion" (the original freighter "Kurmark" was converted to the Hilfskreuzer "Orion") and on 10 December 1939, he was named First Officer on the auxiliary cruiser.

On 30 March 1940, the first three German auxiliary cruisers (in addition to "Orion" and her sister ship "Widder" and the "Atlantis", which was the first to sail) left Kiel through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the North Sea. On 6 April 1940, the "Orion" left Germany with a crew of 376 to reach the Pacific through the Atlantic and around Cape Horn. Initially she was accompanied by the torpedo boats "Luchs" and "Wolf" and an S-boat flotilla. She then ran alone through the approach to Operation Weserübung (de) as the alleged Dutch freighter "Beemsterdijk" to Jan Mayen and then at the pack ice border through the Denmark Strait, disguised as a Soviet freighter, into the Atlantic. There she disguised herself as the Greek freighter "Rokos" and was supposed to try to sink ships in order to give the impression of a German ironclad that had escaped.

In May 1940, she met the old tanker "Winnetou" assigned to her in the Central Atlantic, which had called at the Canary Islands when the war broke out and was supposed to follow the auxiliary cruiser into the South Seas to ensure its supplies. With the help of its onboard aircraft, the "Orion" found the tanker that had left Las Palmas on 9 April 1940 ​​and had not yet reached the agreed meeting point due to its low top speed of 7 knots (kn). The ships passed the equator together and, when the weather was suitable, the auxiliary cruiser then took on 1,900 t of oil. The next meeting point was agreed to be the Maria Theresia Reef in the South Seas in two months.

The "Orion" disguised itself as the Brazilian "Mandu", passed Cape Horn on 21 May 1940 and headed for New Zealand. During the night of 13 to 14 June 1940, she laid mines off Auckland Harbor (New Zealand). Five days later, the passenger and mail ship "Niagara" hit one of the mines and sank without the cause being made clear. On board the "Niagara" was a top-secret large amount of gold bars from the Bank of England, which were intended as payment for war material from the United States, which had not yet entered the Second World War, and which were almost completely recovered at the beginning of 1941 in the deepest salvage at sea to date.

On 19 June 1940, after almost two months of searching, she found her second victim in the Norwegian motor ship "Tropic Sea". The now capered ship, which was on its way to the Panama Canal with a cargo of wheat for British accounts, was equipped for a journey to France with the help of the "Winnetou". Its captain, Fritz Steinkrauss, also took over the leadership of the prize, whose crew consisted of 17 men from the tanker "Winnetou"and eleven men of the Kriegsmarine. All 55 prisoners of the "Orion" came on board.

On 18 October 1940, the "Orion" met in Lamotrek, a coral atoll of three islands in the central Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean, with the auxiliary cruiser "Komet" and its supplier "Kulmerland" and formed the Far East Association (Fernost-Verband). All four German ships were disguised as Japanese, but both suppliers were called "Tokio Maru" without any visual reference to an existing ship, and the "Orion's" camouflage was very superficial except for the Japanese neutrality mark. The strange accumulation in the atoll was reported to the Japanese authorities by a passing Japanese passenger ship. The German ships then quickly went back to sea. The "Regensburg" went to Japan to obtain additional supplies and spare parts for the "Orion". The three other ships headed south in a wide reconnaissance chain to attack traffic from Australia and New Zealand across the Pacific. However, the success against the "Rangitane" (16,712 tons) on 27 November 1940 also led to a withdrawal from the warships and long-range flying boats that were immediately deployed on the British side.

On 5 January 1941, the "Ermland" also arrived in Lamotrek, to which the Orion handed over its remaining 183 prisoners. In mid-June 1941, the "Orion" left the Indian Ocean for the journey home. On the return journey, the ship managed to sink another freighter west of the Cape Verde Islands, it was the 12th ship (all together, the "Orion" sank 83,000 tons). The "Orion" returned to Bordeaux after a journey totaling 511 days and 127,337 nautical miles.

On 1 October 1941, Adalbert von Blanc was made available to the Commanding Admiral of the Baltic Sea Station and on 7 December 1941 was named 1. Admiral staff officer of the 2nd Security Division (2. Sicherungsdivision). In 1943, he became head of the 2nd Minesweeping Flotilla (2. Minensuchflottille) on 1 April 1943. In 1944, he became leader of the 2nd Security Division. In October 1944, he finally became head of the 9th Security Division. On 27 November 1944, he was responsible for transporting German troops to the Baltic Islands for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross. On 6 May 1945, he was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for the evacuation of troops and civilians from the Danzig area (from the Hela Peninsula in front of the Bay of Danzig). At the end of the war he was taken prisoner by the British was then transferred to the 1st Mine Sweeping / Clearance Division.

From August 1945 to the end of December 1947, von Blanc was Division chief of the 1st Mine Sweeping Division of the German Mine Sweeping Administration (GMSA) in Kiel-Friedrichsort. He commanded from March 1948 to June 1951 the Cuxhaven Mine Clearance Association of the Customs Border Protection and was then head of the school (Schul- und Reparaturgruppe des Seegrenzschutzes Cuxhaven und Kiel) of the Bundesgrenzschutz (See) until 31 December 1953. At the beginning of 1956, he briefly became chief of staff at the Coastal Border Guard Command.

On 1 July 1956, von Blanc was taken over as a sea captain by the newly founded Federal Navy, where he was initially commissioned as chief of staff to set up the naval training command in Kiel. On 1 October 1958, he became commander of the Minesweeper Command (Kommandeur des Kommandos der Minensuchboote). On 1 August 1961, he became commander of the Naval Training Command (Kommandeur des Kommandos der Marineausbildung) and was promoted to flotilla admiral on 8 September 1961. On 1 February 1962, von Blanc became commander of the Central Naval Command in Wilhelmshaven (Kommandeur des Zentralen Marinekommandos) and remained there until his retirement on 30 September 1964.

Reference in the Wehrmachtbericht (1944)

Date	Original German Wehrmachtbericht wording	Direct English translation
25 November 1944 (addendum)	In den sieben Wochen andauernden Kämpfen um die Insel Oesel und den letzten Gefechten auf Sworbe haben sich Sicherungsverbände der Kriegsmarine unter Führung von Fregattenkapitän Brauneis und Korvettenkapitän Kiefer beim Schutz der Küste durch erfolgreiche Abwehr überlegender sowjetischer Seestreitkräfte ausgezeichnet. Besondere Anerkennung verdienen hierbei die seemännischen Leistungen der Besatzungen unserer Kampffähren und Räumboote unter Führung des Chefs der 9. Sicherungsdivision, Fregattenkapitän von Blanc.	In the seven-week-long battle for the island Oesel and the last fight on Sworbe, security detachments of the Navy under the command of Lieutenant Commander Brauneis and Commander Kiefer distinguished themselves by successfully defending the coast against superior Soviet naval forces. Special recognition here deserves the maritime achievements of our combat crews of our combat ferries and minesweepers under the leadership of the chief of the 9th Security Division, Commander von Blanc.

Operation Walpurgisnacht (1945)

This performance – based on an initiative of the Naval High Command – was required of Rear Admiral Conrad Engelhardt, head of the Wehrmacht's maritime transport system, from January 15, 1945. The 46-year-old has two officers under his command who will take over the military security of the escape ships: the frigate captains Adalbert von Blanc and Hugo Heydel. The action takes place behind Hitler's back [...] and is covered by Navy Chief Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. [...] On March 25th, the passenger steamer “Ubena” with 4,000 people on board was the last German ship to leave the port of Danzig-Neufahrwasser. Actually only built for 500 passengers and crew members, the “Ubena” took people on board under Soviet fire. As the ship leaves the corpse-strewn quay, hundreds of refugees hang on large camouflage nets overboard. Sailors pick them up in the harbor waters, down to the last man on deck. Five days later the Wehrmacht had to give up the encircled Danzig. Tank units of the 2nd Soviet Shock Army move in and set the old Hanseatic city on fire. “Operation Walpurgisnacht” is planned for the night of April 4th to 5th. The code name stands for the evacuation of 30,000 civilians and 10,000 tank soldiers [note: the most wounded from the VII. Panzerkorps] from the Oxhöfter Kämpe, a ten-kilometer-long ridge north of Gotenhafen. Frigate captain Adalbert von Blanc, commander of the 9th Maritime Security Division, planned the operation down to the minute. In fact, it was possible to get 38,000 people and some military equipment to the Hela peninsula in just five hours of the night. Von Blanc, later a flotilla admiral in the Bundeswehr, is relieved to report that not a single refugee remained behind at Oxhöft. When the Soviets occupied the area after hours of fire preparation, they found nothing left except shot-up trees and dug up ground.

Heligoland (1950)

Von Blanc was forced to join the British controlled German Mine Sweeping Administration on 15 August 1945. He held command of the 1. Minenräum-Division (1st Mine Sweeping Division) in Kiel. When the administration was disbanded on 31 December 1947 and the POWs officially freed, von Blanc transferred to the follow organization called Minenräumverband Cuxhaven and became its chief.

With two waves of bombing raids on 18 and 19 April 1945, 1,000 Allied aircraft dropped about 7,000 bombs on the islands of Heligoland. The populace took shelter in air raid shelters. The bomb attacks rendered the island unsafe, and it was totally evacuated. From 1945 to 1952 the uninhabited islands fell within the British Occupation zone. On 18 April 1947, the Royal Navy simultaneously detonated 6,700 tonnes of explosives ("Operation Big Bang" or "British Bang").

The student Georg von Hatzfeld from Heidelberg together with his fellow student René Ledesdorff had occupied an isle of Heligoland on 18 December 1950 to save it from destruction by the British occupying forces. The two were joined by Hubertus Prince zu Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg on 29 December 1950. The number of occupants had grown to 13 when von Blanc was ordered by the British authorities to send two boats for the forcable evacuation of Helgoland.

Von Blanc refused to obey the order, even when he came under severe pressure and suspended from his command post. All Germans supported the young men. A legal proceeding against Blanc was initiated on 3 January 1951. The British court ruled that the order was not among his contractual obligations and he was re-instituted in his position as chief of the Minenräumverband Cuxhaven.

Family

Adalbert von Blanc was the son of Korvettenkapitän Louis Ferdinand von Blanc (b. 27 September 1878 in Berlin; ⚔ 28 August 1914) and his wife Gabriele Pauline, née Trapp von Ehrenschild (b. 27 October 1881 in Weimar). His grandfather was Admiral Louis Karl Emil von Blanc. One of his uncles was 1st Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich von Blanc (1885–1916) who fell during aerial combat (dogfight) over Verdun.

Promotions

Reichsmarine

• 1 April 1926 Matrose
• 12 October 1926 Seekadett (Officer Candidate)
• 1 April 1927 Gefreiter (Private)
• 1 April 1928 Fähnrich zur See (Officer Cadet)
• 1 Juli 1928 Obermaat (Chief Petty Officer)
• 1 Juni 1930 Oberfähnrich zur See (Senior Officer Cadet)
• 1 Oktober 1930 Leutnant zur See (2nd Lieutenant)
• 1 April 1933 Oberleutnant zur See (1st Lieutenant)

Kriegsmarine

• 1 April 1936 Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Captain)
• 1 April 1941 Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain / Lieutenant Commander)
• 1 April 1944 Fregattenkapitän (Frigate Captain / Commander)

Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz See)

• 1 July 1951 Stabskapitän (Staff Captain; Major)
• 24 June 1954 Oberstabskapitän (Senior Staff Captain; Lieutenant Colonel)

German Navy (Bundeswehr)

• 1 July 1956 Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea)
• 8 September 1961 Flottillenadmiral (Flotilla Admiral / Commodore / Rear Admiral)

Awards and decorations

Farewell visit from the commander of the Central Naval Command, Flotilla Admiral Adalbert von Blanc, to the mayor of Kiel in the town hall in 1962 before being transferred to Wilhelmshaven.

• Wehrmacht Long Service Award (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th and 3rd Class
  • 4th Class on 2 October 1936
  • 3th Class 1 April 1938
• Sudetenland Medal (Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938) on 20 December 1939
  • another source states, he received instead the Memel Medal (Medaille zur Erinnerung an die Heimkehr des Memellandes)
• Iron Cross (1939), 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class on 15 September 1940
  • 1st Class on 17 October 1940
• Auxiliary Cruiser War Badge (Kriegsabzeichen für Hilfskreuzer) on 23 August 1941
• Minesweeper War Badge (Kriegsabzeichen für Minensuch-, U-Jagd- und Sicherungsverbände) on 25 March 1943
• Reference in the Wehrmachtbericht (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtbericht) on 25 November 1944
• Navy Front Clasp (Marine-Frontspange) in 1945
• Cuff band "Kurland" (Ärmelband „Kurland“) in 1945
• German Cross in Gold on 11 September 1942 as Korvettenkapitän and 1. Admiralstabsoffizier (1. Asto) in the 2. Sicherungsdivision
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 27 November 1944 as Fregattenkapitän and commander of the 9. Sicherungsdivision
  • 866th Oak Leaves on 6 May 1945 as Fregattenkapitän and commander of the 9. Sicherungsdivision
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1964