Erich Bey

Infobox Military Person
name=Erich Bey
born=birth date|1898|3|23|df=y
died=death date and age|1943|12|26|1898|3|23|df=y
placeofbirth=Hamburg
placeofdeath=Atlantic Ocean
coord|72|16|N|28|41|E|


caption=
nickname=
allegiance=flagicon|German Empire German Empire (to 1918)
flagicon|Germany Weimar Republic (to 1933)
flagicon|Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
branch=navy|German Empire
navy|Weimar Republic
navy|Nazi Germany
serviceyears=1916 – 1943
rank=Konteradmiral
commands=4. Zerstörerflottille
unit=
battles=World War I
World War II
*Battle of North Cape
awards=Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
laterwork=

Erich Bey (23 March 1898 – 26 December 1943) was a German naval officer who most notably served as a commander of the Kriegsmarine's destroyer forces and commanded the battlecruiser "Scharnhorst" in the Battle of North Cape on 26 December 1943, during which the German ship was sunk. He was killed during that action.

Military career

Bey joined the Kaiserliche Marine on 13 June 1916 and served in its destroyer arm. Following the end of World War I, Bey stayed in the weakened German Navy, now known as the Reichsmarine. He continued his career with the rise of the Nazi Party in power in Germany, and by the start of World War II was a Commander.

As a Commander in the Kriegsmarine, Bey led the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, consisting of the destroyers "Bernd von Arnim", "Erich Giese" and "Erich Koellner", as part of Commodore Friedrich Bonte's force that carried General Eduard Dietl's mountain troops for the occupation of Narvik during the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940. In the following Battles of Narvik on 10 April and 13 April, Bey distinguished himself by leading a small group of destroyers in a brave though doomed action against a superior Royal Navy force that included the battleship HMS "Warspite". Due to his distinguished service at Narvik, Bey was awarded with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 9 May 1940. The next day he was promoted to Captain and appointed commander of the German destroyer force ("Führer der Zerstörer"), succeeding Commodore Bonte, who had been killed on 10 April in the first Battle of Narvik.

Captain Bey then commanded the destroyer screen protecting the ships of the Brest Group ("Scharnhorst", "Gneisenau", "Prinz Eugen") during Operation Cerberus (the “Channel Dash”) in February 1942.

Promoted to Rear Admiral, on 25 December 1943, Bey led a task force consisting of the battlecruiser "Scharnhorst" and the destroyers Z29, Z30, Z33, Z34, and Z38 out of Alta Fjord in Operation Ostfront. Intending to intercept the Allied Convoy JW-55B en route to Murmansk, but with his ship’s radar destroyed by lucky shot fired British screening force, Bey encountered a superior Royal Navy force led by the battleship HMS "Duke of York". In the ensuing Battle of North Cape, the "Scharnhorst" was sunk after a long battle. Of her crew of 1,968, Royal Navy vessels fished 36 men alive from the icy sea, not one of them an officer. Bey was reported as having been seen in the water but was not rescued.

Bey received the admiration of his British counterpart, Admiral Bruce Fraser, who commander the British force during the Battle of North Cape, for his brave command against the superior odds. When Admiral Fraser briefed his officers on board "Duke of York" later on the evening of 26 December 1943 he said: "Gentlemen, the battle against "Scharnhorst" has ended in victory for us. I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as "Scharnhorst" was commanded today".

Awards

* Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class
* Hanseatic Cross, Hamburg
* "Preußische Rettungsmedaille am Band"
* Cross of Honor
* "Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung IV. bis II. Klasse"
* Memel Medal
* Sudetenland Medal
* Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (9 May 1940)
* Destroyer War Badge
* Narvik Shield
* Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht on 27 December 1943

References

* [http://www.ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de/Kriegsmarine/B/Bey-Erich.htm Erich Bey at the German Knight’s Cross recipient site] de icon
* [http://www.nuav.net/personalitiesb.html Persons involved with Norway during WWII]
*Claasen, A.R.A.: "Hitler's Northern War: The Luftwaffe’s Ill-Fated Campaign, 1940–1945". Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001. ISBN 0-7006-1050-2 pp. 92–93, 230–232
* Range, Clemens (1974). "Die Ritterkreuzträger der Kriegsmarine". Stuttgart, Germany: Motorbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-87943-355-0.