Hooksiel anti-aircraft battery

The former Hooksiel anti-aircraft battery was located in Fort Hooksiel, which can be seen as a wooded area on the right edge of this picture

The heavy flak battery Hooksiel was a bunkered position of the naval flak in the north of Wilhelmshaven during the Second World War .

Location and structure

View over the Fortgraben to the former battery site

The Hooksiel anti-aircraft battery was in old Fort Hooksiel . It consisted of four artillery bunkers , which were arranged around the old infantry work of the fort. In the center of the guns was the control center . The Würzburg radar was in the north of the facility outside of the fortress.

Antiaircraft sub-group command north

The Flakuntergruppenkommando Nord and the headquarters company of Navy Flak Division 282 were located west of the Hooksiel 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 .

history

8.8 cm - field position in Fort Hooksiel

In October 1938, shortly before the occupation of the Sudetenland , a battery of 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns was built in makeshift positions in Fort Hooksiel . After the political situation had calmed down again, the armament of the battery was removed at the end of 1938. In August of the following year, the battery was again armed as a result of the mobilization. On October 8, 1939, three guns with a caliber of 8.8 cm were reported ready for action.

Expansion to a bunker battery

The battery was converted into a bunkered flak battery in the spring of 1940. It resembled the batteries in Sillenstede and Hohemey . The work was finished at the end of 1940. The battery was now armed with four 8.8-cm anti-aircraft guns and two 2-cm anti-aircraft guns. The conversion to 10.5 cm guns must have been done before 1942 . About a third of the crew was assigned to the Mellum flak battery in June 1942 , which would soon be completed. In the same year a wireless measuring device in Würzburg was installed. On June 30, 1942, the Hooksiel battery shot down a Stirling I bomber that made an emergency landing in Bensersiel .

post war period

Today the Hooksiel tourist information center is located on the site of the fort and the flak battery. Most of the dig has been preserved.

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 , pp. 191f.

Web links

• Hooksiel anti-aircraft battery at www.luftschutzbunker-wilhelmshaven.de, with photographs.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{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. 191 f .
2. ^ Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939-1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade . Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999, p. 48 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 38 ′ 1.4 "  N , 8 ° 1 ′ 36.9"  E