German mine clearance boats

Aldebaran class R-boat

Pre-war boats	60 t R 1 - R 16	115 t R 17 - R 24	110 t R 25 - R 40
Construction year:	1929-1934	1934-1938	1938-1939
Builder:	Abeking & Rasmussen; Lürssen
Technical specifications
length	26 m	37 m	35.4 m
Width:	4.4 m	5.5 m	5.6 m
Draft:	1.2 m	1.3 m	1.4 m
Displacement:	60 t	115 t	110 t
Armament:	1 to 4 × 20 mm flak
Drive:	2 MWM - diesel engines additionally 714th  PS	2 MAN or MWM diesel engines with an additional 1836 hp
	1 auxiliary diesel; 1 Deutz diesel generator
Speed:	17 kn	21 kn	21 kn
Bunker capacity: Range: .	6 m³ 800  nm at 15 kn	10 m³ 1100 nm at 15 kn	10 m³ 1100 nm at 15 kn
Crew:	18th	34	34

War boats	Aldebaran class ex R 41 - R 129	Capella class ex R 130 - R 150
Construction year:	1939-1944	1943-1944
Builder:	A&R; Burmester Shipyard ; Schlichting
Technical specifications
length	37.8 m	41.1 m
Width:	5.8 m	as before
Draft:	1.4 m	1.6 m
Displacement:	125 t	150 t
Armament:	1 × 20 mm Oerlikon flak	1 × double mount 20 mm Oerlikon
Drive:	2 MAN diesel engines add. 1836 HP 1 auxiliary diesel; 1 Deutz diesel generator
Speed:	20 kn	19 kn
Bunker capacity: Range: .	10 m³ 1100 nm at 15 kn	11 m³ 1000 nm at 15 kn
Crew:	34	38

Under Räumbooten (also shortened R boats course) is manoeuvrable small boats for clearing minefields in coastal waters, in estuaries and in shallow waters.

development

The type was mainly developed in Germany after the intensive use of sea ​​mines during the First World War had revealed the need for defense vehicles that could not be met by the few seaworthy special minesweepers . For the clearing of mines in the coastal apron mainly converted boats like tugs and fishing vessels were used. From 1915, the Imperial Navy developed motor-driven so-called F-boats ( F- level mine clearing boats) especially for shallow mines .

After the First World War, it was the task of the Reichsmarine to clear mines from the sea routes in the German area of ​​responsibility. In the winter of 1919/20 alone, over 100,000 mines were cleared. It was for the most part moored mines , but in view of newly developed or under development Mine species such as underground mines, magnetic mines , electromagnetic mines, acoustic mines etc. special boats were needed and, in the shipbuilding industry in order. Vehicles that were as non-magnetic, agile as possible and not too big for use in coastal waters were required.

The type of clearing boat was designed in the 1920s mainly by the Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) shipyard in Lemwerder, and the first boats were made in 1929–1934 (R 1–8) by Lürssen and A&R (R 9–16 ) built.

The type of boat delivered by the two shipyards largely met the requirements of the Imperial Navy. Most of the boats were made of wood, some (R 8, R 17–24) were fitted with the new Voith Schneider drive  (VS). They were very agile and very powerful in front of the clearing gear . The demand for non-magnetic materials for the engines etc. could only be realized after the Second World War for the Schütze class of speed minesweepers . However, the vehicles were equipped with an MES system , which greatly reduced the inherent magnetic field.

The first boats displaced 60 t and were in a composite structure ( steel joists with wooden planking ) carried out, it had MWM - diesel engines with a total of 714 PS on two screws or Voith-Schneider propeller.

R 17–24 (all A&R) with 115 t displacement and 1836 hp followed in the years 1934 to 1938.

R 25 - R 40 followed in 1938/1939, 110 t displacement with screw drive. All boats were equipped with an air-cooled Deutz diesel generator to generate electricity for clearing magnetic mines . This was installed in a housing on the upper deck.

With the beginning of the Second World War, the building program was greatly expanded, and by the end of the war a total of 424 clearing boats had been built, all essentially based on the same predecessor type. A large number of the boats were equipped with conventional propellers due to a lack of armor-related material, but R 41 - 150 were fitted with VS propellers. The construction yards were A&R Lemwerder, the Burmester shipyards in Bremen- Burg and in Swinemünde and the Schlichting shipyard in Travemünde .

use

R-boats in action off the French coast

USN 148 Algol on the hook from Langen Heinrich , Destroyer Quay (1953)

The R-boats proved to be extremely robust and versatile. Due to the increasing lack of powerful ships in the Navy, the clearing boats often performed tasks during the war for which they were never intended. They were often used to secure convoy, as an outpost, for patrols or for sea rescue.

The 16 small pre-war boats built for the first time were relocated to inland waterways and overland in the Mediterranean during the war . None of the boats survived the war.

About 140 of the larger boats survived the war and went to the Allies as spoils of war. The USA received 48, the USSR 45, Denmark 24, Great Britain 11, the Netherlands 8 and Norway 4. The boats were partly still used there and partly passed on to other allies. So received z. B. Italy and Yugoslavia boats.

The German mine clearance service , which emerged from the Navy , used the boats to clear the mines in the Baltic Sea , the German Bight and the Norwegian waters. Some boats were handed over to the water police of the federal states in the west and were used up there. A boat ( R 406 ) was converted into the Arngast passenger ship for island service in the Jade Bay and to Heligoland in 1948 . In 1951 it was reactivated for the clearance service at the LSU ( R 154 ) and later came to the German Navy at the naval location school as OT 2 .

designation

"Flat-going minesweeper" FM 38 of the Imperial Navy

In the German navy it was not customary to name boats until the end of the Second World War. Some of the crew gave their boat unofficial names, which were not included in naval documents. The current practice of naming boat classes after the name of the first units put into service only came into use after the war and was only introduced by the German Navy after its establishment. The clearing boats did not originally have the class names mentioned here. The boat classes, none of which survived the war, are not discussed below.

Clearance boats of the German Navy

After the founding of the German Navy in 1956, the clearing boats of the German Mine Clearance Service and other sea associations that existed in the post-war period were taken over with the majority of the crews. The German Navy received a total of 26 of the former naval clearing boats from the Allies. Of these, 20 were put back into service as 1st and 3rd Mining Squadrons (MSG).

The 1st MSG initially consisted of boats of the 150 t R-boat type of the Capella class . The 3rd MSG received boats of the Aldebaran class , which were 4 m shorter and 25 t lighter, but otherwise technically the same. The two minesweeping squadrons were the first fully operational units of the German Navy assigned to NATO . In the years up to 1960, both squadrons were constantly involved in mine clearance tasks, including a. the sea areas around Fehmarn as well as the Øresund and the Belte were cleared of mines.

Six other boats were used as school boats, with the designation OT 1 at the naval location school , as UW 4 , UW 5 and UW 6 at the naval underwater weapons school and as AT 1 and AT 2 at the naval artillery school.

The mine clearance boats were decommissioned until 1963. Some of them were still used in the German Navy for some time for training purposes, such as the Capella at the Technical Naval School II in Bremerhaven . The rest were weeded out and sold. Some of them were acquired by naval comradeships as home ships.

The German Navy replaced the clearing boats with the "fast minesweepers" of the Schütze class . They were slightly larger, faster and more heavily armed, but in terms of their concept they corresponded to more advanced mine clearance boats.

Clearance boats of the People's Navy

Clearing boats type R 218
Construction year:	1944-1945
Builder:	Burmeister and Abeking & Rasmussen
Technical specifications
Length:	39.5 m
Width:	5.72 m
Draft:	1.8 m
Displacement:	131.4 t
Armament:	2 × 20 mm flak
Drive:	2 MWM diesel engines
Speed:	19 kn
Crew:	31

The maritime police of East Germany was in 1950 six minesweepers type R-218 from the Soviet Union . These were six former clearance boats of the Kriegsmarine type 43, which had been built at the Burmester shipyard in Burglesum or in Swinemünde and at Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder and which had fallen to the Soviet Union as spoils of war according to the Potsdam Agreement . When they were handed over to the maritime police, the boats were in poor condition and had to be completely overhauled.

From September 1952 to November 1953 they performed clearing tasks on the approach to the Peene , the Greifswalder Bodden and to Saßnitz . They were then used as school boats until they were decommissioned in 1956.

Clearing boats type R 218
Construction no.	Board number		in service	off-duty	Whereabouts
	until 1955	from 1955
R1	511	811	May 29, 1950	1956	Sunk with gas grenades on March 28, 1957 northeast of Rügen in Adlergrund.
R2	512	812	May 29, 1950	1956	canceled
R3	513	813	May 29, 1950	1956	canceled
R4	514	814	May 29, 1950	1956	canceled
R5	515	815	May 29, 1950	1956	canceled
R6	516	816	May 29, 1950	1956	Delivery to GST , boat name FREUNDSCHAFT, canceled in 1959

Clearance boats type Schwalbe Projekt 508
Construction year:	1953-1958
Builder:	Thälmann shipyard and yacht shipyard in Berlin
Technical specifications
Length:	28.74 m
Width:	4.45 m
Draft:	1.13 m
Displacement:	63.3 t
Armament:	1 × double mount 12.7 mm 1 × double mount 25 mm
Drive:	2 6VD224 diesel engines
Speed:	11 kn
Crew:	12

In September 1950, the maritime police placed an order with the Central Design Office in Berlin for the development and construction of a clearing boat. The development and manufacture of the Schwalbe type clearing boats (Werf project number 508) took place in the Thälmann shipyard in Brandenburg / Havel. The first six boats were manufactured in 1953 and 1954 without artillery armament and clearing equipment. The marine hydrographic service received these six boats as navigation mark control boats. In July 1950, the marine hydrographic service was subordinated to the Maritime Police Headquarters. The engineering office Stralsund, which had relocated to Wolgast , was commissioned to work with the Berlin Yacht Shipyard to prepare for a large series of Schwalbe-type clearing boats.

Construction of the second construction began in 1954 in the Berlin yacht yard. Here, too, the first six unarmed boats went to the maritime hydrographic service as navigation mark control boats. The yacht yard Berlin built another 36 clearing boats from 1955 to 1958. In 1965 nine boats were handed over to the 6th Coastal Border Brigade (GBK) after the clearing equipment had been dismantled and a second gun had been installed behind the bridge . The decommissioning of the first clearing boats began in 1968, the last clearing boat was taken out of service in October 1981.

The clearing boats with the project / construction numbers 508/1 to 508/6 and 8/1 to 8/6 were used without armament from 1953 to 1955 by the marine hydrographic service as navigation sign control boats.

Clearance boats type Schwalbe Projekt 508
Construction no.	Surname	in service	off-duty	Whereabouts
7th	Aue	June 1, 1955	1st December 1968	canceled
8th	Zwickau	June 17, 1955	1st December 1968	canceled
9	Freiberg	June 17, 1955	September 30, 1965	canceled
10	Senftenberg	June 17, 1955	June 16, 1968	canceled
11	Forest	June 17, 1955	December 30, 1971	1965/66 school boat, broken off
12	Were	July 1, 1955	February 10, 1973	1965/66 school boat, from 1969 6th GBK
13	Meissen	September 14, 1955	July 15, 1981	canceled
14th	Goerlitz	September 24, 1955	June 10, 1968	canceled
15th	Kamenz	October 14, 1955	2nd November 1970	1963/64 school boat, broken off
16	Prenzlau	October 26, 1955	circa 1964	Conversion to a guard boat for Tanzania: "SALAAM"
17th	Eisenach	November 16, 1955	2nd November 1970	1963/64 school boat, broken off
18th	Gotha	1st December 1955	June 10, 1968	1963/64 school boat, broken off
19th	Jena	April 2, 1956	June 15, 1968	canceled
20th	Greiz	April 2, 1956	May 15, 1981	canceled
21st	Pössneck	April 2, 1956	September 14, 1981	canceled
22nd	Eisleben	April 2, 1956	1st December 1968	until 1985 houseboat in the WTZ, broken off
23	Koethen	April 24, 1956	October 24, 1981	canceled
24	Time	April 24, 1956	1st December 1968	canceled
25th	Borna	June 26, 1956	April 21, 1971	from 1965 6th GBK, canceled
26th	Spice up	June 26, 1956	April 21, 1971	1963 school boat, from 1965 6th GBK, broken off
27	Torgau	June 26, 1956	April 21, 1971	from 1965 6th GBK, canceled
28	Calbe	June 26, 1956	April 21, 1971	from 1965 6th GBK, canceled
29	Stendal	July 12, 1956	April 21, 1971	from 1965 6th GBK, canceled
30th	Castle	July 12, 1956	April 21, 1971	from 1965 6th GBK, canceled
31	White water	August 9, 1956	February 10, 1973	canceled
32	Weimar	December 22, 1956	February 10, 1973	canceled
33	Anklam	December 22, 1956	October 15, 1974	from 1965 school boat, canceled
34	Luckenwalde	5th February 1957	August 21, 1974	to Peenewerft Wolgast, canceled
35	Brandenburg	February 26, 1957	February 10, 1973	canceled
36	Nauen	March 20, 1957	December 30, 1971	from 1964 school boat, canceled
37	Guestrow	June 2, 1957	December 30, 1971	from 1969 6th GBK, canceled
38	Sternberg	5th June 1957	1st February 1963	September 1962 collision with British freighter Abbotsfjord and sunk
39	Hagenow	July 11, 1957	February 10, 1973	from 1969 6th GBK, canceled
40	Ilmenau	August 24, 1957	circa 1964	Conversion to a guard boat for Tanzania: "ARAKA"
41	Meiningen	September 21, 1957	April 30, 1969	canceled
42	Sonneberg	17th January 1958	August 21, 1974	to Peenewerft Wolgast, canceled

See also

• Anti-mine vehicles of the German Navy
• List of ships of the Bundeswehr
• Anti-mine vehicle

literature

• Köhler's fleet calendar 1960 and 1961
• Erich Gröner: The ships of the German Navy and Air Force 1939-45 . Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1954
• Hans Mehl, Knut Schäfer: The naval forces of the NVA . Motorbuchverlag special, 2004

Web links

Commons : German mine clearance boats  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fritz E. Giese: Brief history of the German fleet . Wiesbaden undated, p. 138
2. ↑ german-navy.de
3. ↑ The use there in the post-war years, is described in detail in mandors.de described
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Manfred Röseberg: Ships and Boats of the People's Navy of the GDR . 2nd revised edition. Ingo Koch Verlag, Rostock 2002, ISBN 3-935319-82-7 .
5. ↑ Räumboot Typ R-218 on the pages of parow-info.de