Wartime Service, Promotions and Decorations

Friedrich Mumm's wartime service is summarized below.
 
 
Date
Activity/Command
Location
 
   
 
15 Jan 15
 Born to Emil and Magda Mumm Pahlen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
 
   
 
1 Apr - 30 Sep 35
 Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst = Voluntary Labor Service  
 
   
 
3 Apr - 13 Jun 36
 Offiziersanwärter - Began active Kriegsmarine service with basic military training at II Schiffsstammabteilung of the Ostsee Stralsund, Germany
 
 
 
   
 
14 Jun - 12 Sep 36
 Training on sailing vessel GORCH FOCK  
 
   
 
10 Sep 36
 Promoted to Seekadett  
 
   
 
13 Sep 36 - 30 Apr 37
 Training on cruiser EMDEN  
 
   
 
1 May 37
 Promoted to Fähnrich zur See  
 
   
 
1 May - 27 Nov 37
 Academic training at the Naval Academy Flensbug-Mürwik, Germany
 
 
 
   
 
4 Apr 38
 Began service on cruiser ADM. GRAFF SPEE North Atlantic
 
   
 
1 Jul 38
 Promoted to Oberfähnrich zur See  
 
   
 
1 Oct 38
 Promoted to Leutnant zur See  
 
   
 
13 Nov 39
 Awarded Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (Iron Cross 2nd Class)  
 
   
 
13 Dec 39
 Battle of the River Plate off Uruguay
 
   
 
18 Dec 39
 Cruiser ADM. Graf Spee scuttled - crew interned in Buenos Aires, Argentina Montevideo, Uruguay
 
   
 
6 April 40
 Escape from internment Buenos Aires, Argentina
 
Returned to Germany via Valparaiso, Chile - Lima Peru - Los Angeles and Honolulu, United States - Yokohama, Japan - Vladivostok to Moscow, Soviet Union
 
29 July 40
 Arrived in Germany Berlin, Germany
 
   
 
1 Oct 40
 Promoted to Oberleutnant zur See  
 
   
 
15 Oct 40 - 2 Mar 41
 U-boat Officer training Pillau (now Baltiysk, Russia)
 
 
 
   
 
3 Mar - 3 Apr 41
 Assigned to U-564 as First Watch Officer - Baubelehrung U-Boote at the Blohm & Voss Shipyard Hamburg, Germany
 
 
 
   
 
4 Apr -16 Jun 41
U-564 workups Baltic
 
   
 
17 Jun -27 Jul 41
 U-564's first patrol North Atlantic
 
   
 
16 - 27 Aug 41
 U-564's second patrol North Atlantic
 
   
 
29 Aug 41
 Awarded U-Boots-Kriegsabzeichen 1939 (U-boat War Badge 1939)  
 
   
 
16 Sep - 1 Nov 41
 U-564's third patrol North Atlantic
 
   
 
4 Nov 41
 Awarded Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse (Iron Cross 1st Class)  
 
   
 
3 Apr - 15 Nov 41
 U-boat Commanding Officer training Pillau
 
   
 
16 Jan - 24 Jul 42
 Command of U-52 (a training boat in the 26. Flotille)  
 
   
 
26 Feb 42
 Awarded Flottenkriegsabzeichen (High Seas Fleet War Badge)  
 
   
 
25 Jul 42
 Assumed command of U-594 St. Nazaire, France
 
   
 
4 Aug - 28-Sep-42
 U-594's third war patrol North Atlantic
 
   
 
30 Dec 42 - 18 Feb 43
 U-594's fourth war patrol North Atlantic
 
   
 
1 Feb 43
 Promoted to Kapitänleutnant  
 
   
 
23 Mar - 14 Apr-43
 U-595's fifth war patrol North Atlantic, en route the Mediterranean
 
 
 
   
 
23 May - 5 Jun 43
 U-595 sixth and final war patrol  
 
   
 
5 Jun 43
 Died (age 28) - U-594 was attacked and sunk by a British Hudson of 48 Squadron West of Gibraltar

 

Above:  Friedrich Mumm's Kriegsmarine Erkennungsmarke/Hundemarke = Identity Disc/Dog Tag  - size 32 mm by 50 mm made of anodized Aluminum   - identifies him as Seeoffizier (an officer of the line) and by his Naval Academy Class graduation year 1936.  A cord was normally attached to the top side through the two holes.  In the event of death, the top half remained with the body, the bottom half was broken off and retained by the unit for processing.
 
Below:  A photo signed by 26. U-flottille Commander and Knight's Cross winner Korvettenkapitän Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen.  Friedrich Mumm was assigned to the 26. U-Flottille (a training flotilla based in Pillau) for his U-boat Commanding Officer training during the period specified.

     
 
To Oberleutnant zur See
  
 
Friedrich Mumm
  
 
In grateful memory of shared
work for the Ubootswaffe.
  
 
16.11.41 – 31.3.42                Stockhausen
  
                                                              Korvettenkapitän and Chef der 26. Uflottille  
     

 

 

     
            [handwritten] and Crew 36, born 15 January 1915 in Pahen               St. Nazaire  
  Obltn. z. See Mumm                                                                          In the west, 4 August 1942  
  Kmdt, of an  
  Unterseebootes  [handwritten] (U-594)  
     
  Brief account of my war experiences so far.  
          When this World War broke out, the pocket battleship "ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE", on which I had already been ordered for 1 1/2 years, first for practical training as an Fähnrich, then as a Leutnant, was in the Central Atlantic.  We had put to sea and were suitably equipped so that when hostilities began, which we really did not believe would happen, we could carry out without delay the task envisaged for us of waging a trade war on the world's oceans.  Despite the difficulties of the Prize War, we succeeded in sinking a number of merchant ships in these vast sea areas of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans controlled by England and France.  Even if the enemy's tonnage was not severely reduced by these actions, the actual task of such operations, namely the disruption of enemy traffic and the tying up of a significant part of the enemy's armed forces at sea in distant sea areas, was completely fulfilled and had a particularly favorable effect on the conduct of the war as a whole.  
          After almost four months of voyage, the well-known naval battle with the English cruisers "EXTER", "AJAX" and "ACHILLES" broke out during an advance towards La Plata. Although our heavy artillery had already knocked out the strongest opponent "EXTER" after a short time, unfortunately we did not succeed in destroying or pushing back the two other cruisers, which proceeded at at superior speed, whereupon the Kommandant with his damaged ship decided to call, as it later turned out, at the nominally neutral port of Montevideo.  Unfortunately, this decision led to the tragic end of the proud and undefeated ship "ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE" and its Kommandanten.  The comrades who fell in the naval battle were buried in Montevideo. The crew was interned in Buenos Aires. Our relatives heard from us for the first time at the end of this year.  
     
     
Click the flag to view the above page from the original German KTB
     
 
- 2 -
 
     
          Concern for the homeland, which was in the midst of a hard struggle to finally liberate it, first from the repulsive English tutelage and later also from the Bolshevik danger, after Polish lust for power had been dealt with after a short struggle, in which the new German Wehrmacht faced its brilliant acid test best, let us German soldiers not rest here on the foreign continent.  At the beginning of April 1940, a number of officers managed to escape from the internment camp at an opportune moment and hid in the outskirts of the city.  In adventurous journeys I reached Chile with some comrades over the only pass in the north Andes and from there I got to Japan, partly by ship, plane or train via Mexico, North America, Hawaii.  After a short stay, the Siberian Express, that Bolshevik "luxury train" took us to Moscow in a 14-day journey, until we finally landed in Berlin by plane at the end of July of the same year and saw our homeland again after a year of war  
          Without having had even a short leave of absence at home, I continued my voyage westward, being posted to the Naval Headquarters on the Channel Coast in France. At the beginning of 1941, after a 1/4 year job, I began my U-boat training in Pillau. Under the then Knight's Cross holder, Kapitänleutnant Suhren, I experienced several particularly successful trips against England in the summer and autumn of this year on a submarine newly commissioned in Hamburg, which led to the award of the Oak Leaves to our commander.  
          After my own subsequent Kommandant training, I was Kommandant of a training boat in the Baltic Sea for 1/2 year and have just now taken over my own Front Boat on the Atlantic coast in order to set sail for the first operation on my own.  
     
     
     
     

 

Promotions and Decorations
       
  3 Apr 36   Offiziersanwärter
  10 Sep 36   Seekadett
  1 May 37   Fähnrich zur See
  1 Jul 38   Oberfähnrich zur See
  1 Oct 38   Leutnant zur See
  1 Oct 40   Oberleutnant zur See
  1 Feb 43   Kapitänleutnant
       
  13 Nov 39   Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (Iron Cross 2nd Class)
  29 Aug 41   U-Boots-Kriegsabzeichen 1939 (U-boat War Badge 1939)
  4 Nov 41   Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse (Iron Cross 1st Class)
  26 Feb 42   Flottenkriegsabzeichen (High Seas Fleet War Badge)
  Posthumously   U-boat front clasp - (Uboat combat Clasp) established 15 May 1944 

 

Base-Sailing-Races
DRL Sports Badge Bronze
1st Prize
U-Boot Frontspange
DRL = Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen
Oberleutnant zur See
Mürwik
U-boat Front Clasp in bronze
shoulder boards
S.S.S.W    26 Aug 37
(established 15 May 44)
German Reich Association for Physical Exercise
             
Base-Sailing-Races
1st Prize
U-Boots-Kriegsabzeichen 1939
Flottenkriegsabzeichen
Mürwik
U-boat War Badge 1939
High Seas Fleet War Badge
22.F.S.W    14 Oct 37
             
Cruiser Emden Pin
Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse
Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse
Iron Cross 2nd Class
Iron Cross 1st Class