Flak battery Schweiburg
The heavy flak battery in Schweiburg was a bunkered position of the naval flak in the east of the Jade Bay during World War II .
Location and structure
The facility was located on the pasture between the Schweiburger mill and the customs house directly behind the sea dike near Schweiburg . It was secured in the middle on the lake side with a 2 cm flak stand , which was located on the dike. In the north of the facility, directly south of the mill, there was a building with common rooms, a kitchen, an officers' mess and a canteen. Connected to the south was a building with washrooms and shower rooms and a building with an office, non-commissioned officers' mess and accommodation for craftsmen and naval assistants as well as a reading room. There was a central roll call area that was connected to Deichstraße via a guarded path. There was a small guard house at the entrance to the site . Control room II was between the guardhouse and roll call area . The battery with the four flak bunkers was located south of the roll call area. Centrally between the bunkers was control room I. At the southern end of the facility was a machine bunker with emergency power generators and accommodation for Russian prisoners of war willing to help . About 250 meters east of the battery there was an ammunition bunker that was built in the style of an agricultural building for camouflage. In an outbuilding in front of this bunker there was a well and a water treatment system.
Organizational integration
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 anti-aircraft battery belonged to Marine Flak division 222, whose anti-aircraft sub-group command south was at Vareler Hafen.
history
occasion
For strengthening the air defense of the naval port of Wilhelmshaven were in August 1939 by the Marine Station of the North Sea in the Navy High Command (OKM) requested heavy anti-aircraft batteries. In September and October of the same year five complete heavy flak batteries arrived in Wilhelmshaven via the Reichsbahn . These were released due to the absolute air superiority of the air force during the attack on Poland . Three of the batteries were commanded to Marine Flaka Division 222 (M.Fla.A. 222). They were installed in Seefeld, Schweiburg and at the small Fort Blauhand. The Schweiburg flak battery was built together with the Seefeld flak battery .
Establishment and use
Before the batteries arrived, barracks were built. Since these did not offer enough space to accommodate the entire crew, the soldiers evaded until further barracks were built in nearby courtyards. The distance measuring device of the Schweiburg battery was too small for the heavy flak battery. That is why it was exchanged for a larger one shortly after the control center was set up by the Marine Artillery Equipment Office (MAZa.). At the beginning of October 1939, both batteries reported full operational readiness . Both the battery in Seefeld and in Schweiburg were manned by specially trained personnel from the start. Other batteries were equipped with reservists who had to complete further training. For this reason, parts of the teams were exchanged for other batteries. At the end of October 1939, an electric knife, four directional gunners , a gun leader and two loading gunners were detached from Schweiburg and exchanged for reservists. During the conversion work to the bunker battery in October 1941, the plan fire officer of Fort Schaar , Lieutenant Marine Artillery Kißing, Lieutenant Breuer took over command as chief of the Schweiburg battery. From the end of 1943, students from Löningen and Brake were deployed as naval helpers in the flak battery, they were initially housed in the light flak bunker. Russian prisoners of war willing to help were responsible for transporting the ammunition from the ammunition bunker to the guns. Compared to the fate of other prisoners of war, the work was easy and the food good.
In the summer of 1943, the battery's control center was moved to the 2 cm flak bunker behind the guard, as the distance measuring device was obstructed by powder fumes and dazzling effects during night-time battles. On March 19, 1942, the battery was inspected by the commanding admiral of the North Sea, Admiral Hermann Densch . On October 23, 1942, the German Bight Coast Commander , Rear Admiral Gustav Kieseritzky , inspected the Schweiburg Bunkerbattrie.
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Kills
On June 26, 1942, an aircraft was shot down by the Schweiburg flak battery and crashed near Neustadt / Rönnelmoor . On May 7, 1944, the battery managed to directly shoot down a B-17 Flying Fortress , which was flying from a low altitude from the direction of Brake on a north-west course. After a 10.5 cm salvo and uninterrupted 2 cm flak fire, the machine lost height and had to make an emergency landing on a meadow near Diekmannshausen . The ten American crew members were taken prisoner by the soldiers of the Schweiburg battery. After two injured people had been cared for, the prisoners of war were transferred to Jever Air Base on the same day .
End of war
After the surrender of the German armies in the north, the soldiers of the battery were "captured" by Canadian troops. The troops explained the facts to the battery chief and asked the German soldiers to remain on the battery grounds. Initially, the battery chief retained his authority. Canadian troops arrived early in the morning on May 15 with trucks and took the German soldiers to a reception camp near Schweiburg.
Jewish gravestones
Gravestones from the Jewish cemetery near Varel were misused for the construction of the flak positions at Vareler Hafen and in Schweiburg. After the war they were brought back to their place in the cemetery by Varel students.
post war period
Between 1946 and 1949, many refugees who had arrived in Schweiburg from eastern Germany were initially housed in the battery buildings. The facility was later blown up. Today only the remains of the ammunition bunker and the bridges between the fields are preserved. The foundations of the blasted bunkers were covered with earth, the places can now be seen as small hills. Reinforced concrete rubble can be found in several places on the site.
Armament
The Schweiburg and Seefeld batteries were largely identical, their armament initially consisted of four 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns each . From the spring of 1941, the two batteries on the eastern edge of the Jade Bay were converted into bunker batteries; the conversion was completed at the end of March 1942. The high bunker guns were built about 50 meters behind the Schweiburger sea dike, they were about 7 meters high, so they had a clear view and field of fire over the dike. The shell of the four flak bunkers was completed by the end of January 1942 and each was armed with a 10.5 cm SK C / 32 anti-aircraft gun with a six meter diameter ceiling shield. Another flak bunker with a 2 cm weapon of the type C / 30 in a base was set up for self-protection . In September 1942, a Würzburg radio measuring device (radar) was set up in the field west of the ammunition bunker.
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. 140-143.
- Manfred Boog: Boys from Löningen in the war in 1944: as a naval helper in a 10.5 cm anti-aircraft battery in Schweiburg am Jadebusen, in: Volkstum und Landschaft: Heimatblätter of the Münsterland daily newspaper. Cloppenburg. Vol. 80, 2013, No. 177. pp. 14-24.
- Chronicle of the community of Schweiburg. Schweiburg March 1968, pp. 53, 59.
- Ulrich Leithäuser: Memories of the Leithäuser family. Self-published, Eutin 2010, p. 544 f.
Web links
- Flakbatterie Schweiburg on www.bunker-whv.de, with further historical and current pictures.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. 140-143 .
- ^ German prisoner-of-war camps S. Retrieved October 21, 2019 .
- ^ Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939-1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade . Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999, p. 48 .
- ↑ a b c d Manfred Boog: Löninger boys in the war in 1944: as a naval helper in a 10.5 cm anti-aircraft battery in Schweiburg on the Jade Bay . In: Volkstum und Landschaft: Heimatblätter of the Münsterland daily newspaper . tape 80 , no. 177 . Cloppenburg 2013, p. 14-24 .
- ↑ Simon Parry (Ed.): Wingleader Magazine . tape 10 , October 8, 2019, p. 35 ( issuu.com ).
- ↑ Ulrich Leithäuser: Memories of the Leithäuser family . Self-published, Eutin 2010, p. 544 f .
- ^ Nordwest-Zeitung: History of Hohenberge: Schoolchildren experience Jewish culture up close. December 3, 2015, accessed October 21, 2019 .
- ^ Chronicle of the community of Schweiburg . Schweiburg March 1968, p. 53, 59 .
- ↑ Schweiburg heavy flak battery. Retrieved October 21, 2019 .
- ↑ "In between" / Bunker in Weser-Ems-Land / Ammerland / Wesermarsch / Nordenham / Oldenburger Land - Hatten - Hude - Stuhr - Weyhe - Schönemoor - Wüsting - Wardenburg - Ganderkesee - Großenkneten - Huntlosen - Kirchweyhe - Dünsen - Wildeshausen - Hasbergen - Flak protection Bremen - air defense HB-Del air bases and deployment ports / Delmenhorst / Cloppenburg / Emsland / Grafschaft Bentheim / Nordhorn / Osnabrücker Land Nord / Oldenburger Münsterland / Diepholz. Retrieved October 21, 2019 .
Coordinates: 53 ° 23 '48.6 " N , 8 ° 15' 51.1" E