He joined the Imperial German Navy as an officer cadet in 1917 and served on a heavy cruiser in World War I. Puttkamer enlisted during World War I on 2 July 1917 as a volunteer in the Imperial Navy's ' Seeoffizierslaufbahn regiment.

[1] Immediately prior to the outbreak of World War II in Europe, he was the captain of a destroyer.

This force was commanded by officers in their World War I uniforms and old service pistols with farmers without weapons, only armed with their Volkssturm armbands.

After the unit was unable to reach the city of Schneidemuhl to obtain arms and when their train took Soviet tank fire, Puttkamer returned his men to their village and determined that they were not going to throw lives away and "put away the old uniform, which become dishonored 'under these Hitlers and Himmlers'".

"[5] On 20 April, Puttkamer, Dr. Theodor Morell, Dr. Hugo Blaschke, Albert Bormann, secretaries Johanna Wolf, Christa Schroeder and several others were ordered by Hitler to leave Berlin by aircraft for the Obersalzberg.