Anti-aircraft battery Rüstersiel

The Rustersiel flak battery was located on the Kniphauser dike, which can be seen as a row of trees in the right-hand area of ​​this picture. The exact location was in the middle of the last section after the bend of the dike.

The heavy anti-aircraft battery Rüstersiel was in World War II, a verbunkerte position of naval flak in the north of Wilhelmshaven .

Location and structure

The anti-aircraft battery Rustersiel was located near the then Hörn station of the Wilhelmshaven suburban railway . The facility was located in the Kniphauser dike. Two guns and the control center were embedded in the dike. There was another gun in front of and behind the dike. The battery was defended against low-flying attacks with two 2-cm anti-aircraft guns , which secured the system to the south and north on the dike. The accommodations for officers and men were built in barracks directly behind the dike on the Fedderwardergroden side .

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 the Marine Flak division 212, whose Flakuntergruppenkommando center was on the Fortification Road in Wilhelmshaven.

history

The flak battery was installed in an old fortification from 1914/18 in the Kniphauser dyke after 1933. The system was armed with four 10.5 cm anti-aircraft guns . The guns were made ready in August 1938 during the occupation of the Sudetenland by the Wehrmacht . The battery was ready for action from August 1939 to August 1944. Since the Geniusbank battery with its larger 12.8 cm guns could cover the shooting range of the Rüstersieler Battery, the facility was abandoned in 1944. After the floating anti-aircraft battery Medusa was damaged in an attack on April 19, 1945, there were plans to make the anti-aircraft battery Rustersiel clear with the ship's guns. However, these plans were no longer implemented.

post war period

The crews of some of the surrounding flak batteries, as well as those of the Medusa, had to evacuate their intact batteries by order of the occupying forces and arrive at the armored armored vehicle. Hardly anything of the complex has survived today. A bunker of the fortification from 1914/18 was demolished in 1982 on a property at the dike breakthrough. The battery's farm building about 250 meters north still exists.

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. 117f.

Web links

• Flak battery Rüstersiel on www.luftschutzbunker-wilhelmshaven.de, with photographs.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} 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. 117 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 ° 34 ′ 43.8 "  N , 8 ° 6 ′ 17.1"  E