Kalahari anti-aircraft battery
The heavy flak battery Kalahari was a bunkered position of the naval flak in Emden during the Second World War .
location
The battery was on the west pier.
history
The battery had existed since August 24, 1939. It was based on an older battery from the First World War . It was initially armed with three 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns and two 08 machine guns on the dike. On June 19, 1941, the crew of the Ostdüne battery was transferred to the Kalahari battery on Wangerooge . The barracks for the crews were insufficient and for this reason they were rebuilt by mid-November of the same year. In June 1941, the battery consisted of only two 10.5-cm guns , which were reported to be ready to fire on the day after the entry. A third gun followed on July 7, 1942. The fourth reached the battery on July 14. In the spring of 1942, a fire water pond was created. On April 28, 1943, the battery received a Würzburg type radar .
The battery was visited on September 26, 1941 by the Kiss Commander German Bight , Vice Admiral Bachmann . The successor Rear Admiral Kieseritzky inspected the battery in July 1942. The battery had an average crew of 100 men. By assignments to other departments of the navy or the army, around 260 men passed through the facility by September 1944. 13 Russian volunteers were deployed in the battery .
The entire battery, including guns and personnel, was relocated to the new Flakbatterie Kapelle in northeast Emden on June 1 and 2, 1943 .
literature
- Dietrich Janßen: Flak around Emden. Chronicle of the Marine Flak Department 236. Reports of the flak positions around the city of Emden from August 1939 to the end of 1944 and appendix, Emden 2001. ( online )
- Dietrich Janßen: Flak positions around the city of Emden, Emden 2003. ( online )
- Günter Wegmann: The end of the war between Ems and Weser 1945, 2nd edition, H. Th. Wenner Osnabrück 2000, p. 248.
Web links
- Flak battery Kalahari , on http://www.luftschutzbunker-emden.de.