Friedrich Frisius

Friedrich Frisius
Born	(1895-01-17)17 January 1895 Bad Salzuflen
Died	30 August 1970(1970-08-30) (aged 75) Lingen
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Kriegsmarine
Years of service	1913–45
Rank	Vizeadmiral
Commands	Fortress commander Dunkirk
Awards	German Cross in Gold

Friedrich Frisius (17 January 1895 – 30 August 1970) was a German naval commander of World War II.

Life

Born in 1895 in Bad Salzuflen, Frisius entered the German Navy as a cadet in 1913 and was trained on the protected cruiser Victoria Louise just before the outbreak of the First World War. During the war he put in service on torpedo boats and cruisers and was promoted to Lieutenant, and in the inter-war period he commanded a torpedo boat as well as an assignment from 1919 to 1923 on the Baltic coastal defences, maintaining law and order in Germany itself and putting down Communist uprisings. He also joined the Abwehr's Foreign Department at the Reich Defence Ministry from 1929 to 1931 and from 1935 onwards (with a break to command two ships and for a role at the Naval Academy Mürwik).

By 1939 he was a staff-officer of the Hamburg Kriegsmarine Service Centre (one of the other Kriegsmarinedienststellen, which were responsible for troop movements and the use of merchant shipping for the war office), and later moved to the Boulogne Service Centre. He remained in the area as commander of the Boulogne's coastal defences, from 26 January 1941 onwards. From 16 December 1941 to 28 October 1944, he took over command of the defences of the whole Pas de Calais, though these were non-existent by 15 September 1944, when he was moved to command the Fortress of Dunkirk (Festung Duenkirchen). He was in command of German forces there throughout its long siege in 1944-45 (being promoted to Vizeadmiral (vice admiral) on 30 September 1944), and signed its unconditional surrender at the end of the war. He was held as a POW at Island Farm, the Special Camp 11 at Bridgend, from then until his release on 6 October 1947.

He died in Lingen in 1970.

Frisius is best remembered for his tenacious and effective defense of Dunkirk. Against a background of accelerating strategic collapse by the Germans, he maintained a level of morale and effectiveness in his troops resembling that of the much more capable pre-1943 Wehrmacht. The last German offensive operation in France was Frisius's counterattack against the encircling Allied troops on the night of 26/27 September 1944; while ultimately unsuccessful, it was strong enough to cause the Allies significant difficulties at the time. Dunkirk held out until 4 May 1945, just days before the general German surrender, and did not formally capitulate until the 9th.

Awards and decorations

• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st Class
• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
• German Cross in Gold (16 September 1944)<ref>Patzwall Scherzer 2001, p. 124.
• [[Marineartillerie-Kriegsabz (30.9.1944) Festung Duenkirchen

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.

External links

• Short biography