3. Outpost Flotilla

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The 3rd outpost flotilla was a naval unit of the German Navy during World War II .

history

Lineup

The flotilla was set up in September 1939 as part of the mobilization of the Wehrmacht and was part of the 3rd Security Division and later the 9th Security Division . It was made up of nine deep-sea fishing vessels that had been recalled from their fishing grounds near Iceland at the beginning of September 1939 . On September 4, the boats with the Kriegsmarine IDs VP 301 to VP 309 were put into service in Warnemünde and Kiel . After slight modifications and the armament with an 8.8 cm gun on the forecastle , a 2 cm anti-aircraft gun and machine guns , the boats were ready for use on September 30, 1939. In the following years, water bombers were with the associated water bombs and equipment for submarine taken -Search on board and reinforces the Flakbewaffnung of boats.

1939-1942

The area of ​​operation of the flotilla was the Baltic Sea from October 1939 to March 1940, in particular monitoring the Oresund between Denmark and Sweden against the passage of opposing merchant ships or ships with contraband . In April 1940, the flotilla took part in the invasion of Norway ( Operation Weser Exercise ), securing the transport of troops and materials from Germany to Norway. The flotilla carried out these convoy safeguards to Norway until August 1940.

At the beginning of September 1940 the flotilla moved to the Channel coast for the planned invasion of England ( Operation Sea Lion ) . During their time on the French coast, the flotilla drove escort guards to Bordeaux . In order to compensate for losses incurred and to strengthen the flotilla, the boats VP 310 to VP 314 were assigned to it on June 1, 1941 , giving the association eleven outpost boats .

At the beginning of June 1941, the flotilla was relocated to the Baltic Sea to Gotenhafen for the imminent attack on the Soviet Union , during which the boats drove escort security for supplies. In the spring of 1942 the flotilla was deployed on the Dutch coast, but moved back to the Baltic Sea in June 1942. There she drove escort from Gdansk to Finland and into the Gulf of Finland and was strengthened by the minesweepers M 1806 and M 1808 and the outpost boats Vp 1707 and Vp 1708 .

1943-1945

After a major overhaul of the boats in the first few months of 1943, the flotilla was used in the Gulf of Finland to hunt down Soviet submarines that could attempt to break the submarine network blockage that had been laid across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki to Reval in order to get into to get to the Baltic Sea. At the same time, boats of the flotilla continued to be used to secure convoy.

On August 18, 1943, the VP 316 , built in the Netherlands as an outpost boat, was incorporated into the flotilla. It was sunk by an air torpedo on September 25, 1943 during a British air raid while it was being transferred from Holland to the Baltic Sea as an escort vehicle for convoy 1177 along the North Sea coast.

During the icing of the Baltic Sea in the winter of 1943–1944, the boats of the flotilla were completely overhauled, and the first overtaken boats were again at the submarine network barrier in the Gulf of Finland or were under escort from mid-February 1944.

After VP 317 had joined the flotilla, a number of different small warships were assigned to the flotilla from mid-1944 to defend against the intensified Soviet light naval forces and fighter aircraft. Finally, at the end of 1944, the flotilla comprised 28 small ships. At the beginning of 1945 the artillery carriers were withdrawn from the flotilla and used for bombardments by Soviet troops on the Baltic coast.

In the second half of 1944, the Wehrmacht began to withdraw from the Baltic Sea, thereby supporting the 3rd outpost flotilla in repatriating German troops and civilians from the eastern Baltic Sea, until finally in 1945 the flotilla evacuating the German population across the Baltic Sea ( Company Hannibal ) was used.

The last war mission of the flotilla took place on May 8, 1945 as security for the last convoy with refugees from Hela to the west.

The boats of the flotilla

number Ship name tonnage Commissioning out of service (retired) / sunk (†) annotation
V 301 Weser 639 GRT 09/27/1939 † November 21, 1939 Langeland Run into German mine, lifted, March 15, 1941 back to owner
V 302 Bremen 408 GRT 09/20/1939   1945 back to the pre-war owner
V 303 Tannenberg 464 GRT 09/23/1939 † January 5th, 1941 lifted, repaired, returned to the pre-war owner in 1945
V 304 Wroclaw 296 GRT 09/30/1939 † September 17th, 1940 IJmuiden stranded on harbor blocking blocks
V 305 East Prussia 422 GRT 09/30/1939 from February 15, 1944 becomes Vs 518; 1945 back to the pre-war owner
V 306 Fritz Hincke 391 GRT 09/23/1939 † January 5th, 1941 in front of IJmuiden British mine
V 307 Württemberg 425 GRT 09/25/1939   1945 back to the pre-war owner
V 308 Oskar Neynaber 337 GRT 09/17/1939 † September 23, 1941 near Hogland , Gulf of Finland Torpedo hit by a Soviet speedboat
V 309 Martin Donandt 391 GRT 09/28/1939 † October 28, 1941 in front of Libau soviet mine
V 310 Rosemary 296 GRT 04/29/1941   1945 back to the pre-war owner
V 311 Osdorf 247 GRT 04/20/1941   1945 back to the pre-war owner
V 312 Hanseatic 306 GRT 05/03/1941 † 08/28/1942 before Reval Accumulated on underwater rocks
V 313 Eifel 290 GRT 04/20/1941   1945 back to the pre-war owner
V 314 Heinrich Lehnert 269 ​​GRT 04/27/1941 from October 1st, 1943 becomes Vs 314
V 315 Bris (RT-25) 589 GRT 02/03/1942 † March 12th, 1945 in front of Rixhöft New building for the Soviet Union, confiscated by the Navy in June 1941; sunk after collision
V 316 New building 538 600 GRT August 18, 1943 † September 25th, 1943 in front of Den Helder New building for the Soviet Union, taken over by the Navy in June 1941; sunk by British air torpedo
V 317 Vega 337 GRT 04/27/1944   1945 back to the pre-war owner

Vehicles that have been operational at times:
Outpost boats V 1707, V 1708, V 1803, V 1809 ,
minesweepers M 1806 , M 1808 ,
test boat Gauleiter Bürkel ,
light artillery carrier Beatrix ,
heavy artillery carrier Helene, Joost, Kemphan, Nienburg, Baltic Sea, Paraat, Polaris, Soemba , Trompenburg, West Flanders , F 10
fleet attendants , torpedo boats T 123 , T 196 , artillery school boat Fuchs .

Flotilla Chiefs

Reserve officers were reactivated as flotilla chiefs.

From To Rank Surname
September 1939 November 1939 Corvette Captain dR Bracklo
November 1939 November 1943 Corvette Captain dR Drenckhan
November 1943 May 1944 Captainleutnant d. R. Suhl
May 1944 May 1945 Corvette Captain dR Böttger

literature

  • Werner Korthals: ... your calls for help were suffocated in the sea. Outpost boats, the indispensable units of the Kriegsmarine in World War II . Schüz: Ötigheim 1988, ISBN 3-925418-11-3 .
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German Warships 1815-1945, Volume 8. Bernard & Graefe: Koblenz 1993, ISBN 3-7637-4807-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Outpost boats 1939–1945 . Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, online at wlb-stuttgart.de.
  2. ↑ Werner Korthals, 1988, page 14
  3. ↑ Werner Korthals, 1988, page 194
  4. ↑ Werner Korthals, 1988, page 195