Advice for a Kriegsmarine officer

[Bernard]

Hello everybody,

I am currently trying to help my girlfriend's family tracing her grandfather's (on her father side) career in WW2. Her father remembers that his dad was on officer (he says Oberleutnant but isn't that an army rank ?) in the Kriegsmarine but knows no more about it. He is desperate to find anything about him as he died early (but after the war) and never said anything about his service.

Is it possible to find a personnal file in the archives or find someone who could help me based on a full name, place and date of birth (and death), and the fact that he served in the Kriegsmarine ? Where should I begin ? I, unfortunatly, don't have any unit or much to go on.

Thank you in advance for any help !

[hucks216]

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=64548

[glaser]

can you post his name, first name, place of birth and date of birth so that fellow KM collectors can try to look it up in their archives

[Simon O.]

Bernard

Oberleutnant is also a navy rank, the full title being Oberleutnant zur See


the same as a royal navy lieutenant, an Oblt.z.S. to give the correct abbreviation might have captained a u-boat, S-boat or minesweeper, just to name a few of the many job types the rank qualified for. Hopefully it gives you an idea of where he was on the rank ladder.

[luftkrieg]

can you post his name, first name, place of birth and date of birth so that fellow KM collectors can try to look it up in their archives

Agree. Please post as much information as you can/know to date.

Kind regards
Pierce

[Bernard]

Here are all the information we have on him so far.

Hermann Otto Rudolf GRIMM. He was born on 14 August 1914 in Groitzsch/Leipzig (his father was KIA in 1918). I also have the name of his parents. I don't know if it helps ? He died on 20 September 1979. He might have been, according to the family, a prisoner of war at the hands of the French. They don't know anything else.

I'd like to thank all who replied. It is so nice of you and it would be an amazing gift, especially for his son, to discover a bit more about this man.

[glaser]

His name is not listed in Vol III of the book DIE DEUTSCHE KRIEGSMARINE 1939-45 by W. Lohmann and H.H. Hildebrand, listing all the naval officers. That would have been to easy I guess. So we have to look elsewhere.

[Bernard]

Hi Glaser,

Is that an exhaustive book on the matter ?

[Simon O.]

The book Glaser refers to does not list all naval officers, not by a long way. He's also not listed in the 1944 KM officers rank list so that would suggest he was a reserve officer.

[Bernard]

Interesting and very possible indeed. What would be the next step ? We wrote to the German archives in Berlin but they might take up to a year to answer (argh !)

On an unimportant level I can add that his son (the dad of my gf) picked up sailing after the war because his dad loved it and apparently practised it in the KM.

[Simon O.]

To be honest it's going to be a case of waiting for the German archives to reply.

I checked the u-boat crew lists and there is a Hermann Grimm listed but with no rank so it could be anyone.

[Bernard]

I agree with you. I will wait for them and will bring back this post to life when I know more. If anybody has other information though, do not hesitate !