1. Erhard Maertens or Eberhard Maertens was a German Vizeadmiral of the Kriegsmarine during World War II.
21 Facts About Erhard Maertens
1. 2.
Erhard Maertens was promoted to an officer candidate rank and sent to the German Imperial Naval Academy Naval Academy Murwik for Naval training until 30 September 1912.
3.
From 1 October 1912 to 7 October 1915, Erhard Maertens was posted to the liner Hessen to learn the sailing characteristics of large ships and their movements.
4.
On 8 September, Erhard Maertens started submarine and radio training, and later posted as a watch officer on the U-boat U-3 on 17 October 1915.
5.
Erhard Maertens completed his submarine training on 26 February 1916, promoted on 22 March 1916 to Oberleutnant zur See, and was posted to U-boat U-47 as the watch officer the day after.
6.
On 1 March 1921, Erhard Maertens was ordered to be acting leader of the service office at Konigsberg.
7.
On 1 January 1921, Erhard Maertens was promoted to captain lieutenant.
8.
Erhard Maertens was then posted to the Bureau of Inspection of the torpedo Service in Kiel as Director of Staff until 30 September 1937.
9.
From October 1937 to April 1939, Erhard Maertens was Director of Staff of Inspections in Naval Signals and, order again, on a temporary basis, to be Acting Inspector of Naval Signals from May 1938 to March 1939.
10.
Erhard Maertens then became leader and subsequent Commander of the Communication Test Institute of the OKM from 28 April 1939 to 18 November 1939.
11.
Erhard Maertens was again promoted to Director of the Technical Signals Affairs in the Naval Weapons Office in the Oberkommando der Marine from 19 November 1939 to 15 June 1941.
12.
On 1 July 1940, Erhard Maertens was promoted to rear admiral, Konteradmiral, and on 1 September 1942, promoted to Vizeadmiral.
13.
From 6 May 1943 to June 1943 Erhard Maertens was Acting Shipyard Director of the Kriegsmarine shipyard in Kiel.
14.
Erhard Maertens was a career navy signals officer who was promoted to the Director of the Naval Intelligence Command in June 1941.
15.
Konteradmiral Erhard Maertens, coming to the aid of his subordinate, stated that four events would need to occur, which would make it highly unlikely:.
16.
Erhard Maertens believed that these events were taken alone were unlikely, but when combined would be impossible.
17.
Erhard Maertens was ordered to lead a formal enquiry into the "control and investigation of own processes" following the August 1941 capture of the U-boat U-570, a potential leak of German secure communication details.
18.
Erhard Maertens concluded that having enough time to drench the documents would be unlikely, making their water-soluble ink unreadable.
19.
Erhard Maertens noted that the U-boat U-111 had detailed a meeting point in a message transmitted on 23 September 1941, which was four days before the ambush.
20.
Erhard Maertens again assured Donitz and exculpated the Enigma cipher machine security.
21.
In early May 1943, Erhard Maertens was fired by Donitz for reasons that was beyond his fears about crypto-security and sent him to run the Kriegsmarine shipyard in Kiel.