Research for a Kriegsmarine death card

[WerderBremen]

Looking at a Kriegsmarine death card currently, and i am trying to identify the individual's ship. The card says he was killed on the high seas at Skagerrak on December 13, 1942. Now i know the battle of the Barrents Sea took place on the 31st of December, but i cant find any information of a ship sinking during the earlier part of December. Does anyone have any information at all on this?

[Simon O.]

I'll see if i can find it for you but have you looked up the name on the Volksbund database and does the card mention if he had a KM war badge of any sort?

From the place and date it sounds like it could be connected to either an allied air or u-boat attack against shipping running to or from Norway.

Unfortunately the vast bulk of published works dealing with the KM focus on the U-boat arm, the S-boote or the largest of the capital ships. The smaller vessels, from destroyers on down are relatively poorly covered even though they saw far more action then their brothers in the big ships.

[WerderBremen]

well he is listed on the volksbunde, but it is still very unclear as to what he was doing. No awards listed.

this is what is listed on his volksbunde page...

"Als gefallener Marineangehöriger ist sein Name entweder in dem U-Boot-Ehrenmal Möltenort bei Kiel an Wandtafeln oder im Marineehrenmal in Laboe in einem dort ausliegenden Gedenkbuch verzeichnet."

I have found that there was a very extensive torpedo boat training school going on in that area and in the Baltic from july 42 all the way until mid 43. I found a listing on the Torpedo boat "Greif", which placed it in Jutland (Skagerrak) for training at the time of this sailor's death.

[Simon O.]

That he's commemorated on one of the KM memorials indicates he was lost at sea rather than died and brought back to port.

No larger surface vessels or U-boats were lost at that time and no noteworthy engagements occured as far as i can tell. I think one of the smaller vessels, R-, UJ, VP-boote is most likely, perhaps even a merchantman.
The war diaries of either the commanding admiral of Denmark or the Norwegian West Coast would help i think though if it was just an accident you'd have to go down to the relevant flottilla war diary.

[Eric JB]

"Does anyone have any information at all on this?"

I don't know why the man's name and age is so secret for you.
You have the man's name, you have his age, you did find him on the Volksbund site, but you are leaving us in the dark here.

Why don't you make it easier for others, you ask for help but you are giving us not that much to work with, only a date (December 13 1942) and the location (Skagerrak).

Two answers from Simon already and I think that he is very kind spending his time for you, but you are really the one that can do better here !!!

Eric-Jan

[WerderBremen]

His name was no secret, i just didnt mention it. His name is Ludwig Blöchinger, age 21. Killed on the high seas on December 13th 1942.