Unit landing craft

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The unit landing craft , including unit landing boat was a landing craft of the armed forces for troop and supply landings or Ablandungen on rivers, lakes and open coast.

development

The experience with the pioneer landing craft , naval ferry boats and other landing craft was used in all parts of the Wehrmacht as a replacement for all earlier landing craft as a joint design by the engineering office 'Rhein', the shipbuilding commission and Krupp Stahlbau as an attempt to meet all demands of the Wehrmacht parts in a landing craft unite, designed the standard landing craft. The standard landing craft consisted of twelve sections suitable for rail loading, fore and aft divided into six sections that could be connected with pin couplings, a bow ramp for loading and unloading, an armored steering position at the stern and had a dinghy and three life rafts.

construction

The order for four boats was placed on March 6, 1944. Krupp Stahlbau Rheinhausen delivered standard parts and the Bodan shipyard in Kressborn am Bodensee special parts. The pioneer landing craft 45 / I, with the ability to transport Tiger tanks - the heaviest German tank type - was made from series parts for EL 1 and was laid on August 31, 1944 at the SCHIMAG company in Mannheim. The pioneer landing craft 45 / II was made of parts from EL 2 on December 11, 1944 at the Klotzwerft in Swinoujscie.

The parts for EL 3 were in November / December 1944 at the Klotzwerft in Stettin on slip for prefabricated construction in the version NL as a prototype of the supply landing boat of the Kriegsmarine . The parts of EL 4 were to be assembled at the Klotzwerft in Stettin in the AL version as an artillery landing boat without a bow ramp, but with a normal ship's bow and strong artillery for the protection of guided ships and for land target bombardment, but the work was no longer started.

Use and end

The pioneer landing craft 45 / I (EL 1) became unfinished US prey on March 28, 1945. The pioneer landing craft 45 / II (EL 2) was in use in April / May 1945 without a bow ramp, but with a fixed bow with a crew from the shipyard in the Stettiner Haff . In May 1945 it became British booty in Kiel. The fate of EL 3 is unknown, but it is unlikely to have been completed.

Technical specifications

The pioneer landing craft 45 measured 41.16 m in length and 8.23 ​​m in width with four Deutz diesel engines with a total of 500 HP for 10.2 knots with a load capacity of 120 tons with a crew of 28. The following armament was planned: a 7.5 cm anti-tank gun, a 3.7 cm anti-aircraft gun, two 2 cm anti-aircraft guns and two 8.6 cm rocket launchers for air defense against low-flying aircraft.

The standard landing craft of the NL version for the Navy was identical in construction to the Pioneer Landing Craft 45. The marine version AL was largely identical in construction to the NL version and was supposed to have two 10.5 cm guns, two 3.7 cm anti-aircraft guns, two 2 cm Carrying flak and four three-inch missile launchers and having a crew of 47 men.

Counter-proposal from the Bodan shipyard

On December 9, 1944, the Bodan shipyard submitted a counter-proposal to the standard landing craft, which was largely the same as the standard landing craft in terms of its basic structure, sectional construction, load capacity of 120 tons and armament, but was only 30 m long instead of 41 m . In 1953, the Bodan shipyard, together with the Oberwinter shipyard, further developed this design for the French Rhine flotilla into the Chaland Type L 901 .

swell

  • Erich Gröner: Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe 1815-1945 , Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1990 Volume 6, Pages 213-214 and Volume 7
  • Randolf Kugler: Landings in Germany since 1900 . Verlag Oberbaum, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3926409525 , page 681.