Base north

The north base was a secret and only briefly used base of the German navy on Soviet territory during World War II . It was located in the fjord Sapadnaja Liza west of Murmansk on the Barents Sea and on the north coast of the Kola peninsula in the far north of Russia . The establishment of the base began in December 1939 and was canceled in April 1940 a few months after the occupation of Norway by the Wehrmacht ( Operation Weser Exercise ).

history

The signing of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact on August 24, 1939, was followed by the German-Soviet border and friendship treaty on September 28, 1939, after the joint occupation and partition of Poland . On this occasion, the German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop asked whether the Soviet Union could provide the Navy in Murmansk with a base for repairing and supplying submarines . This was in principle promised in return for the technology transfer to be performed . Concerned that such military support for Nazi Germany might become known, the Soviet government was not prepared to set up a German base in a busy port like Murmansk. In October, after further negotiations, it therefore offered the Sapadnaya Liza Bay on the south bank of Motovsky Bay . There was no maritime or other infrastructure there, but the fjord had the advantage that activities there could not be kept secret, and the navy accepted the offer. The fjord winds about 7 nautical miles in a south-westerly direction into the interior of the Kola Peninsula, and the German naval attaché in Moscow reported after a visit in November 1939 that the 80 to 100 m high rocky cliffs gave every view of the interior of the fjord prevented, both from the sea and from the Finnish border, which was then about 25 km away .

The establishment of the planned base then proved to be extremely difficult. The construction of extensive permanent facilities was not possible for political and logistical reasons, and in autumn 1939 it was not even urgent. At first it was a matter of providing a minimum of fuel, oil and other supplies in the bay (which would have been possible with the relocation of German merchant ships lying in Murmansk), because Rear Admiral Dönitz , commander of the submarines , wanted to be in the third week of November have an initial submarine supply carried out. This did not happen, however, because on the one hand the Soviets delayed this with objections and excuses and, on the other hand, Donitz was ultimately not satisfied with a one-off supply action.

First of all, the Navy therefore had the supplies needed to supply submarines brought to Murmansk and reloaded onto some of the German merchant ships that were moored there.

It was not until December 1, 1939 that the two HAPAG ships Phenicia (4124 GRT) and the Cordillera (12.055 GRT), a passenger ship intended as a barge , were the first ships to move from Murmansk to Sapadnaya Liza, where they arrived the following day. The fish steamer Sachsenwald (639 GRT), which arrived from Germany in Murmansk at the end of November and was laden with important equipment and material , did not follow until December 9th, as it had been held up in Murmansk by bureaucratic obstacles.

The anchorage assigned to the ships by the Soviets, however, turned out to be unsuitable, with poor subsoil and little protection against the storms that often occur at this time of year. The Cordillera , whose high superstructures offered the strong gusts in the fjord plenty of attack surface, therefore ran back to Murmansk in December and was finally back in Hamburg on February 8, 1940 . More seriously, the establishment of effective communication links between Germany and Base North proved to be very difficult in the face of sluggish Soviet resistance. It was only with Jan Wellem , who was converted into a so-called base ship by the Navy in autumn and winter 1939 , which sailed from Kiel to Murmansk on January 20, 1940 , arrived there on February 4 (with the base commander on board) and then finally to the base Moved north, the necessary equipment could be delivered.

After all, the Phenicia , which had taken over 900 tons of material in Murmansk from St. Louis , also located there, had sufficient supplies on board for the first submarines, and Base North was basically ready for use by January. The decryption codes for radio messages transmitted from Norddeich had been brought by the Sachsenwald , and with the Jan Wellem came the necessary additional naval personnel of technical specialists. Towards the end of February, the former was whaling boat Wiking V of Jan Wellem allocated and used as a transport boat in the base and from there north to Murmansk.

Although both sides attached great importance to absolute secrecy, there were already at the end of December in Western European media - the Danish Nationaltidende , the French Paris-Soir and a French radio station - the first reports about a German submarine base in the Soviet Union, albeit with incorrect location information. Although these reports were denied by the German side as unrealistic rumors, they nonetheless caused concern on the Soviet side, especially since during the Winter War (November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940) there were fears that Great Britain might come to Finland 's aid and the German ships discover. After the Swedish Stockholm Daily Press also spoke of a German submarine base in the Soviet Union in March 1940 , the Soviets proposed a move to Iokanga Bay , under the pretext that Allied aerial scouts could discover the German ships in the Sapadnaja Liza , around 300 km east of Murmansk, which the Navy declined.

The End

With the German occupation of Norway on April 9, 1940 with the invasion of the most important ports , the Northern Base lost its strategic importance and was then only a symbol of Soviet-German military cooperation. In mid-June 1940, the Phenicia was the last German ship to leave the Sapadnaja Liza. On September 16, 1940, Grand Admiral Raeder wrote a letter to thank the Soviet People's Commissar of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai G. Kuznetsov , for the support he had provided up to that point and finally renounced any further use of the base.

Footnotes

^ With date of August 23, 1939.
↑ The Phenicia (III) was at 1928 Howaldt in Kiel with the hull number from 687 ran stack .
↑ The Cordillera after the outbreak of war was, without passengers, nor from the Caribbean through the Denmark Strait (5-8.Sept) reaches up to Murmansk and was since mid-September there firmly, along with more than a dozen other German merchant ships.
↑ The Sachsenwald should after their discharge, go fishing, go back to Germany, but the Soviets blocked the first and demanded that she should serve as Verbingsschiff between Murmansk and the base north. In the end she went and was then converted into a weather observation ship by the Navy .
↑ These included 6000 m³ of gas oil , 3000 m³ of heating oil , 180 m³ of lubricating oil , provisions for an ironclad for two months of trade war , four submarine equipment, eight provision equipment for type VII submarines , and a device for dispensing oil at sea via the Rear. ( Jan Wellem, at the Historical Naval Archive )
↑ The St. Louis (16,732 GRT) had also passed the Denmark Strait from September 4 to 8, 1939 and then reached Murmansk on September 11. She returned to Germany on January 1, 1940.
↑ built in 1929 by Smith's Dock in Middlesbrough ; 35.4 m long, 7.4 m wide, 250 GRT, diesel engine, 850 HP, maximum 12 knots ( construction list of the shipyard, construction numbers 879-881, 890, 891 ).
↑ Of the ships in Base North, only the Jan Wellem played a role in the occupation of Norway. It ran on the morning of April 6th, loaded with 5125 tons of heating oil, 5120 tons of gas oil, 700 tons of water, 170 m³ of lubricating oil and 500 tons of supplies, to supply the German destroyers to Narvik , where it arrived on the evening of April 8th. ( Jan Wellem, at the Historical Naval Archive )

literature

Michael Salewski: The Germans and the Sea: Studies on the German Naval History of the 19th and 20th Century, Part II. (Historical Communications, Supplement 45.) Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2002, ISBN 3-515-08087-2 (p 175–183: Base North: An almost forgotten episode from World War II )
Tobias R. Philbin III: The Lure of Neptune: German-Soviet Naval Collaboration and Ambitions, 1919–1941, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, 1994, ISBN 0-87249-992-8 (pp. 81–117: Chapter Five: Base North)
Edward E. Ericson: Feeding the German Eagle: Soviet Economic Aid to Nazi Germany, 1933-1941, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, ISBN 0-275-96337-3
Dieter Jung / Martin Maass / Berndt Wenzel: Tanker and supplier of the German fleet 1900–1980, Motorbuch Verlag, 1981, ISBN 3-879-43780-7 , pp. 421–424

69,415 32,245Coordinates: 69 ° 24 ′ 54 ″ N , 32 ° 14 ′ 42 ″ E

[1] With date of August 23, 1939.

[2] The Phenicia (III) was at 1928 Howaldt in Kiel with the hull number from 687 ran stack .

[3] The Cordillera after the outbreak of war was, without passengers, nor from the Caribbean through the Denmark Strait (5-8.Sept) reaches up to Murmansk and was since mid-September there firmly, along with more than a dozen other German merchant ships.

[4] The Sachsenwald should after their discharge, go fishing, go back to Germany, but the Soviets blocked the first and demanded that she should serve as Verbingsschiff between Murmansk and the base north. In the end she went and was then converted into a weather observation ship by the Navy .

[5] These included 6000 m³ of gas oil , 3000 m³ of heating oil , 180 m³ of lubricating oil , provisions for an ironclad for two months of trade war , four submarine equipment, eight provision equipment for type VII submarines , and a device for dispensing oil at sea via the Rear. ( Jan Wellem, at the Historical Naval Archive )

[6] The St. Louis (16,732 GRT) had also passed the Denmark Strait from September 4 to 8, 1939 and then reached Murmansk on September 11. She returned to Germany on January 1, 1940.

[7] uilt in 1929 by Smith's Dock in Middlesbrough ; 35.4 m long, 7.4 m wide, 250 GRT, diesel engine, 850 HP, maximum 12 knots ( construction list of the shipyard, construction numbers 879-881, 890, 891 ).

[8] Of the ships in Base North, only the Jan Wellem played a role in the occupation of Norway. It ran on the morning of April 6th, loaded with 5125 tons of heating oil, 5120 tons of gas oil, 700 tons of water, 170 m³ of lubricating oil and 500 tons of supplies, to supply the German destroyers to Narvik , where it arrived on the evening of April 8th. ( Jan Wellem, at the Historical Naval Archive )