From here he moved to the Boulogne Service Centre and, on 26th January 1941, already in the rank of a Navy Captain, he became the commander of the local coastal defences. During the three following wartime years, from 16th December 1941 to 28th October 1944, he was assigned to Pas de Calais as the commander of its fortifications. His position was of major importance and of great impact on the German military strategy. Indeed, it was here that the main Allied blow was expected to strike hardest when the invasion to Europe was to come.

On 15th September 1944, when the coastal defences of Pas de Calais, which he still commanding, are non-existent for some months, he is assigned to command the Fortress of Dunkirk (Festung Duenkirchen). Only a few days before his new assignment, he and his strong garrison were completely enclosed by the Allies. Yet the port was to be held at all costs to tie down Allied units and to prevent them from using it. On 30th September 1944, Frisius was promoted to the rank of Vizeadmiral.

No more than a month afterwards, on 8th and 9th October 1944, the static siege task was taken over from the Canadian units by the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group under the command of Major-General Alois Liska, which besieged the energetic garrison until the end of the war.

By Operation Bluecher, the last desperate break-out attempt against the enemy lines on 5th May 1945, Frisius testified for the last time to his fanatic loyalty to Hitler and Nazi Germany, and although the attack was indeed very surprising to the British command (the bridges near the town were even blown up) and the German units were not to be dislodged from their newly gained positions until the end of hostilities, four days later, on 9th May 1945, Vizeadmiral Frisius handed the Fortress to the hands of General Liska at the Brigade Group's Headquarters at Wormhoudt.

He was taken prisoner immediately after he signed the unconditional surrender, spending a couple of post-war years at Island Farm, the Special Camp 11 at Bridgend, from where he was released on 6th October 1947.

Friedrich Frisius died 30th August 1970 in the town of Lingen (Ems) in Lower Saxony, Germany, in the age of 75.

Source: the Special Camp 11 and the Axis Biographical Research websites
Vizeadmiral Friedrich Frisius
Jan Hyrman

Friedrich Frisius was born on 17th January 1895 in the charming German township of Bad Salzuflen, which lies roughly halfway between Hannover and Dortmund (Nordrhein - Westfalen), but little is known about his childhood and youth. Yet we know that from the very beginning of his adult life, he was formed by his career with the Kriegsmarine, which he entered as a Kadett in 1913.
Friedrich Frisius
Courtesy of Axis Biographical Research
Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War he underwent a training on the protected cruiser Victoria Louise and during the four wartime years, during which he served on torpedo boats as well as cruisers, he became a Lieutenant of the Navy. His career went steadily upward, though.

Between 1919 and 1923 he was assigned to the Baltic coastal defences, where he, aside from other activities, took part in suppressing the Communist uprisings and in maintaining law and order in the heavily shaken post-war Germany. From September 1929 he went through a series of commanding and training posts in various assignments - and he commanded another torpedo boat.

From 1929 to 1931 he joined the Foreign Department of the military intelligence (the Abwehr) at the Reich Defence Ministry. Later, two further commanding assignments followed on ships and the Naval School at Muerwick, but in 1935, a Korvettenkapitaen at that time, rejoined the Abwehr.

From a Consultant he shortly became a Group Leader in the Foreign Dept. and he was to see the outbreak of the Second World War as a staff officer of the Hamburg Kriegsmarine Service Centre, which was, like the other Kriegsmarinedienststellen, responsible for providing merchant ships for the war effort and for the overseeing the supply chain and the preparation and movement of troops.