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Concept
Adalbert Zuckschwerdt
Summary
Adalbert Zuckschwerdt (1 January 1874 – 1 July 1945) was captain (Korvettenkapitän) of the German raider SMS Cormoran, which sailed from the German Colony of Qingdao, China, until she was finally docked and interned at Guam by the Americans. Zuckschwerdt preempted the confiscation of his ship by the Americans by igniting preplanted explosives and scuttling her in Apra Harbor. Seven of the German sailors on board died, and Zuckschwerdt spent the rest of the war as a POW.
Zuckschwerdt joined the Imperial German Navy on 4 April 1893 and served in different positions on land and sea. From 1902 to 1904 he served as navy officer in the German Colony Kiautschou Bay concession. Thereafter he was appointed as a gunnery officer (Artillerieoffizier) on and , followed by an appointment as executive officer (Erster Offizier) and as a gunnery officer (Artillerieoffizier) on . On 12 February 1913 he travelled to Sydney to take the command of the gunboat SMS Cormoran. He was involved in a raid against indigenous peoples on the German-occupied Bougainville Island in February 1914 and afterwards sailed onwards to Qingdao. He arrived at the city harbour on 30 May 1914. At the beginning of World War I Zuckschwerdt's ship was decommissioned and he and his crew switched to a newly commissioned German Raider, a former civil vessel, captured by the German Cruiser shortly before. The new ship was also named SMS Cormoran.
Zuckschwerdt was set free in 1919 and returned to Germany, where he got promoted to the rank of Fregattenkapitän. After being shortly dismissed he joined the newly founded Reichsmarine (the German Navy in the Weimar Republic). On 19 February 1920 he received the promotion to the rank of Captain at sea (Kapitän zur See).
When German forces occupied France during World War II, Zuckschwerdt, by then in his late 60s, was appointed harbour commander of Nieuwpoort and later of Calais. On 23 February 1941 he was appointed Kommandant der Seeverteidigung (Commander of Coastal Defense) at Loire water mouth and later at Languedoc.
Official source
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