Ulrich Kessler


Ulrich Otto Eduard Kessler was a German general in the Luftwaffe during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, awarded by Nazi Germany to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.
Prior to the War Kessler had been in the Navy. He served as German Naval Attaché to the disarmament conference in Geneva, where he claimed to have befriended US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson.
Ulrich Kessler was captured on 15 May 1945 while on board by a 15-man boarding party from the destroyer. He was returning to active duty as Chief of the Luftwaffe-Liaison-Staff Tokyo and Air-Attache at the German Embassy in Tokyo. According to U-234's captain, Johann-Heinrich Fehler, who erroneously calls him 'Kassler', Kessler made his anti-Nazi views clear to Fehler from early on. On the voyage, according to Fehler, relations between Kessler and a convinced Nazi passenger, a naval judge called Nieman, became very strained.

Awards and decorations