Battery Horumersiel

The location of the Horumersiel battery was on the sea dike in the lower end of the picture.

The battery Horumersiel was a ver bunker th position during the first- and World War II to combat sea and air targets in the north of Wilhelmshaven .

location

The facility was located on and in the sea dike behind today's “Am Huf” street in Horumersiel.

history

First World War - Sea target battery

occasion

To protect the imperial navy stationed in Wilhelmshaven, numerous forts and coastal batteries were built around the naval site before the First World War. The system was used to defend ships in the mouth of the Jade . The Sielbatterie was one of four battery positions to protect the city of Wilhelmshaven, three other forts were in Schillig . They carried the name Wiesbaden battery , dike battery and Watt battery .

construction

The coastal battery in Horumersiel was built at the beginning of the First World War. Four guns had been set up on concrete foundations in a row at a distance of 20 meters. The guns were at the back of the dike and had a steel platform surrounding them. The accommodation bunkers for the crews were embedded in the dike between the guns. In the middle between the gun positions there was a platform for the control room with a range finder.

expansion

During the Weimar period , guns with the caliber 8.8 cm C / 13 and 10.5 cm C / 16 from the First World War were used. The Navy occupied the fortifications from 1933 onwards for courses and maneuvers with 8.8 cm type C / 30 guns . The battery was not prepared for an emergency because its gun emplacements were in poor condition and the aiming and aiming equipment was out of date.

World War II - Heavy Flak Battery

Organizational integration

Position of the flak batteries in the Wilhelmshaven section

The German Bight Coast Commander was responsible for the coastal defense . The battery belonged as part of the II. Marine Flakbrigade to the Wilhelmshaven section. The flak battery belonged to Navy Flak Division 282, whose Flakuntergruppenkommando Nord was in Hooksiel .

modification

In the summer of 1939, the conversion to a heavy flak battery began. About 15 meters behind the dike, two gun bunkers , control room 1 and a machine bunker were built. Control room 2 was built to the north of the battery in the dike. The two middle gun positions were demolished and replaced by new buildings. Four 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns were mounted on the high-level gun bunkers. The old gun stands on the outside of the battery were armed with 2 cm flak for self - protection. Both control centers had a distance measuring device and a flak command device 36. The old ammunition bunker in the sea dyke was still used.

commitment

At the beginning of the war the battery was ready for action, but the construction work was not yet completed. The battery was first used on September 4, 1939. An aircraft was badly damaged and had to make an emergency landing near the Stumpenser Mühle. However, it was an allied machine of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 type . The battery was equipped with a Würzburg type radar on September 19, 1942 . Two months later, 8.8-cm guns were converted to 10.5-cm guns with a shield. Until the end of the war, only the light weapons and the radar device (to a FuMG 201 Tyo 41 G) were exchanged.

post war period

After the capitulation, soldiers from the Mellum battery and the troops from the surrounding spotlights had to be accommodated in the Horumersiel battery, which was far too small for this purpose , on the orders of the occupying forces . The battery was blown up by Canadian pioneers in late summer 1945 . Today only remains of the foundations of the gun bunkers and control room 1 can be seen. A farm building was not blown up and is now used as a residential building.

literature

• Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939-1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade. Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999, ISBN 3-9806885-0-X , p. 196f.

Web links

• Flakbatterie Horumersiel on www.luftschutzbunker-wilhelmshaven.de, with historical and current photographs.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon SZ . S. 52 f .
2. ↑ Nordwest-Zeitung: First World War Horumersiel / Schillig: Ammunition rolled up to the coast. February 28, 2014, accessed April 9, 2019 . 
3. ^ ^{A b c d e} Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939–1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade . Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999, ISBN 3-9806885-0-X , p. 196 f .
4. ^ Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939-1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade . Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999, p. 48 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 41 ′ 17.2 "  N , 8 ° 1 ′ 9.5"  E