Combat swimmer (Kriegsmarine)
The combat swimmers of the Kriegsmarine , also called sea fighters , were a type of weapon within the framework of the small combat units of the Kriegsmarine towards the end of the Second World War . They were mostly used in the context of the naval operational command, a form of command that is distantly related to today's specialized operational forces of the German Navy . Their last documented mission was on May 11, 1945.
First units
The first units of German combat swimmers were set up during the First World War , but not by the Imperial Navy , but by the German Army . Their main task was to sink enemy ships by attaching and detonating sticky mines and explosive charges . However, only one such operation is documented during the First World War: On August 17, 1915, the 2nd Reserve Company of the Pomeranian Engineer Battalion No. 2 attacked a Russian guard ship on the Memel near Kaunas . At night three combat swimmers detonated several explosive charges on the hull, which caused the ship to run aground.
In the Second World War, such combat swimmers were initially missing in the Navy. It was not until the middle of 1941 attacked the defense put II in Hamburg thoughts again the first two German "Marine commandos" (MEK) turned on and after models of the Italian Decima MAS on. These were given the names MAREI and MARKO . The combat swimmers were able to rely on a technical advantage until the end of the war. While the Allies were using a diving device developed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau , the Austrian diving pioneer Hans Hass, together with the Dräger company from Lübeck , which owned the patent for this device, developed a breathing device with a closed oxygen circuit, the so-called Dräger counterlung . Its advantage was that it worked in operation without any telltale air bubbles that could have been detected by attentive guards. The development and test series of the Dräger counterlung was almost complete in 1942, and a close friend of Hass, who later became a combat swimmer, Alfred von Wurzian , demonstrated the military value of the device in a demonstration to Naval Commander South Richard Rothe-Roth and the Commander of the Aegean Vice-Admiral Erich Forester on July 11, 1942 in front of the pier in the port of Piraeus . The navy reacted cautiously, and later demonstrations to representatives of the army also met with a lack of response. It was only when Wurzian approached Abwehr II representatives from Hamburg that the military use of combat swimmers with these devices was recognized and taken up. At that time, Abwehr II had five combat swimmers, including Friedrich Hummel, who, like his four comrades, came from the Brandenburgers . Wurzian was then taken over by Abwehr II as a future combat swimmer.
education
Another presentation of the Dräger counter lung and combat swimming properties in the Olympic pool in Berlin in the spring of 1943 to representatives of the Italian Decima MAS (X-MAS), including the Italian lieutenant captain Eugen Wolk, and defense officers finally brought the breakthrough. After the demonstration, Wolk invited Wurzian and Richard Reimann's (Ritchie) combat swimmers to Italy, where they were to receive their training as combat swimmer instructors as part of the X-MAS. Her training took place in Valdagno from May to September 1943 and was overtaken by the Cassibile armistice . Since von Wurzian and his assistant Reimann feared internment , they fled. However, when the two men arrived at the German lines, they learned that most of the X-MAS were loyal to the fascist Italian Social Republic (RSI) under Benito Mussolini , which was proclaimed on September 12, 1943 .
In December 1943 von Wurzian and Reimann finished their apprenticeship training in front of a German Abwehr examination board with a simulated combat exercise. The initial skepticism of the Kriegsmarine gave way immediately. Von Wurzian was therefore entrusted with the training of other German combat swimmers. The 30 prospective recruits arrived in Valdagno on January 4, 1944 and consisted of the best swimmer elite in the empire. Among them were swimming participants in the 1936 Summer Olympics such as Erwin Sietas , Herbert Klein , Heinz-Günther Lehmann and participants in the German swimming championships in 1939 such as Manfred Laskowski , but also the swimmer Walter Ernst . These men later formed the core of the training unit 700 of the K units. In March 1944, 10 members of the SS and 15 of the Abwehr joined this group . Thus, in addition to the Italian combat swimmers, members of the navy as well as the SS and the Abwehr served in this training command. The consequence of this was an internal power struggle for supremacy and leadership of the command. Wolk, on the other hand, could rub his hands. With the forced amalgamation of the three German opponents, his Italian "gamma combat swimmers" opened up new sources of supply at the expense of the Navy, Abwehr and SS.
In April 1944, the K-formations were set up and at the same time the Task Force and Training Command South was founded under the command of Lieutenant Heinz Schomburg. His attempt to integrate the combat swimmers into the K-formations failed because of the veto of the Abwehr, which now wanted to reap the fruits of their efforts, as well as the SS. Only after Vice-Admiral Hellmuth Heye asserted the sole responsibility of his K-formations for this special marine association this grievance was rectified. The special association was named Lehrkommando 700 . In the course of this, both von Wurzian and Hummel left the defense and were taken over as members of the Navy as a lieutenant and captain lieutenant in the K units. Wurzian became head of training for the 701 training command, while Hummel became the command for the 700 training command. However, in June 1944, Dr. Armin Wandel , a young submarine weapon medical officer, replaced. This transfer was in breach of the Geneva Conventions , which forbid medical officers to be appointed commanders of combat units. The transfer was based on Heye's decision to curtail the Defense’s influence in the area. As the area for combat swimmers in Valdagno soon became too small, another combat swimmer training camp was set up in May 1944. The chosen site was the monastery on the island of San Giorgio in Alga , at the gates of Venice , where the headquarters of the teaching command (Lehrkommando 700) was established. On October 21, 1944, the training commandos 700 and 704 were relocated to List . There, the combat swimmers trained the installation of mines on the discarded freighters Tampico and Kiria , which anchored there for this purpose. The training also included the use of explosives, hand-to-hand combat technology, and tough sports, shooting, swimming and diving training. In addition, there was intensive language training as well as learning foreign languages, preferably that of the opponent. In the course of the introduction of the organizational structure in the K-associations, San Giorgio in Alga was given the name Lehrkommando 701 , Valdagno became the Lehrkommando 704 , and a third training center, built in Bad Tölz , was given the name Lehrkommando 702 and was located in the SS Junker School there . With the introduction of the command structure for combat swimmers in April 1944, the previously mentioned naval action commands MAREI and MARKO of the Abwehr were now integrated into the K-units and were given the designation MEK 20 and MEK 60, respectively . Eleven other naval commandos followed later. The combat swimmers and their MEKs were ready for the first deployment.
Equipment and armament
The equipment of a combat swimmer consisted of a rubber suit 3 mm thick, with the top and pants separated from each other. The top with long sleeves had integrated gloves, the long trousers had integrated shoes. Wrists and ankles were made elastic. Both parts were connected to one another by means of a 25 cm or 35 cm wide rubber belt. The neckline was made tight. Underneath, the combat swimmer wore white woolen underwear, with the underpants being nicknamed "rompers" and, as a second layer, woolen underwear. In the winter months, another layer was worn between underwear and rubber suit as cold insulation. As a rule, the combat swimmer wore a canvas over the rubber suit for camouflage purposes , which he tied tightly around himself. White areas of the body such as the face have been blackened with fat cream and also darkened by a camouflage net. A black or dark green wool cap formed the end of the head.
Lead weights , which the swimmer wore in a belt around the waist, provided the necessary downforce. The equipment also included flippers , wrist compass , diving watch and diving knife . The actual "diving device Dräger", which was worn on the diver's chest, should only be used in the final phase of the attack. This way of carrying was due to the fact that the combat swimmers should mostly carry out their missions on their backs, swimming slightly to the side. About 200 to 300 meters from the target the combat diver had to stop all movement and, drifting with the current, approach the target. Ships were generally approached from the keel to look like flotsam. The combat diver was, apart from his diving knife, unarmed in action. The sabotage mine I (round), sabotage mine II (torpedo-like) and sabotage mine III (torpedo-like) were available as primary weapons, as well as a modified GS mine and the ammo package with 600 kg and the nyr package with 1,600 kg of explosives. A smaller variant was the "Sprengfisch" with 7.5 kg of explosives, which had the shape of a small-caliber mortar shell .
Commando operations
Most of the combat swimmers' operations were carried out as part of the operations of the Marine Einsatzkommandos (MEK), whereby the MEKs viewed themselves as command and naval shock troops. In their ranks therefore not only combat swimmers, but also served beaver - and lenses pilots and experienced front foot soldiers and pioneers . However, the combat swimmer's missions were too closely intertwined with the MEKs to be considered separately. The main problem with the first missions of the combat swimmers was that the main focus of the training had been in the mining of ships. In practice, however, the primary task of the sea fighters was to mine and destroy bridges. At the time of the Allied landing in Normandy , the combat swimmers, which at that time numbered 30 men, were not yet used.
France
The York Bridge pontoon bridge over the Orne on July 18, 1944
| date | 22./23. June 1944 |
|---|---|
| place | Orne Canal ( France ) |
| output | allied victory |
| consequences | Destruction of two bridges over the Orne |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Hans Prinzhorn |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 6 combat swimmers | |
| losses | |
|
1 combat swimmer |
|
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The first use of combat swimmers took place on the night of June 22nd to 23rd, 1944 as part of the MEK 65 in the course of the Battle of Caen . It concerned the intended destruction of two bridges about 6 km northeast of Caen. It was the bridge "Pont de Ranville" (better known under the name Pegasusbrücke ) over the Orne Canal and the river bridge "Pont d´Heronville" ( Horsa Bridge ) near Ranville . Within a few days, more than 10,000 Allied soldiers and vehicles had crossed these bridges. Due to the massive anti-aircraft protection of these bridges, their destruction by the air force was impracticable. The army pioneers who were hastily summoned also failed. For this purpose, the small arms command sent the MEK 60 under the leadership of Hans-Friedrich Prinzhorn and ten combat swimmers. Due to a traffic accident, however, four combat divers suffered injuries and were subsequently unable to participate in the mission. Von Wurzian was also on the spot, but had a deployment ban imposed by Heye. The bridges were to be destroyed by means of two modified torpedoes , each weighing 800 kg. The start of operations was set at 11:00 p.m. and the torpedo time fuses were set and armed accordingly to 05:30 the following day. The intended torpedoes, however, were balanced for salt water, so that both immediately sank to the bottom in fresh water. This led to considerable delays in deployment for both groups, as empty petrol cans first had to be organized to give the torpedoes the necessary buoyancy.
The first group, consisting of Sergeant Karl-Heinz Kayser, Funkmaat Heinz Bretschneider and Corporal Richard Reimann, climbed into the canal at Merville-Franceville-Plage shortly after midnight . Their destination was the canal bridge "Pont de Ranville" 12 km away. Due to a slight countercurrent and leaking petrol cans, the approach of the first group was difficult. The group passed, as indicated on their mission cards, unnoticed by a bridge occupied by the Allies and approached the second, their actual destination. Once there, they attached their explosive device to the central pillar and returned to their waiting team four hours later without any particular incident. The operations management was very surprised that the group had covered their 24 km (12 km there and back) so quickly. Could the wrong bridge have been mined? The investigations confirmed the suspicion. On the present general staff map, two bridges had to be passed and the third to be mined. In a comparison with the maps of the combat swimmers, one of these bridges was missing, so that the second instead of the third bridge was accidentally mined. It collapsed punctually at 5:30 a.m. after the explosive charge detonated.
The second group, which targeted the "Pont d´Heronville", consisted of Oberleutnant zur See Sowa, Oberfähnrich Albert Lindner and Ensign Ulrich Schulz and could also start only after a considerable delay. However, she suffered from another problem that shortly after the operation began, Sowa's nerves ran through. Due to severe pain in his foot, which had been caused by too tight swim fins, he stopped the mission and could not be moved to continue. However, the two remaining combat swimmers carried out their assignment, overcame a wooden barrier and attached their explosive charge to the target bridge. However, they had to fight a stronger current on their way back, so that they soon fell behind their schedule and finally had to continue their march back ashore. So the two were not far away when their mine detonated. The Allies then began a large-scale search for the saboteurs , and only with a lot of luck did the two manage to reach their own lines the next day. Sowa, on the other hand, worried about the two missing persons, went into the river on his own to look for his overdue comrades, was discovered by search parties and seriously wounded in the subsequent exchange of fire. He succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards in captivity. Overall, the first use of the combat swimmers was successful, even if the company was only partially successful.
The MEK 60 under Prinzhorn was used for another K operation just a month later after its first combat mission on the Orne. In July 1944, eight combat swimmers of the K-formations, led by Orlowsky, blew up the Orne locks . At the end of August 1944, the combat swimmers under Prinzhorn received another combat assignment when British troops had taken Vasouy with the bunker coastal battery "Bac du Hode", a battery with 15 cm guns. The hastily retreating German units had no more time to blow up the three guns and ammunition of this battery , so that they now threatened the port of Le Havre , only 7 km away , which was still being defended by German troops. A hurriedly assembled marine raiding party failed because the guns detonated and was wiped out in the ensuing battle. Prinzhorn and a small commando selected by him crossed on August 26, 1944 with two boats of the lens type . They placed their explosive charges directly in the gun barrels and next to the ammunition boxes and were thus able to render the guns unusable.
The MEK 60 was involved in 24 missions until the collapse of the German fronts in France. On August 30, 1944, members of the MEK 60 in cooperation with the MEK 65 in Fécamp blew up the beavers and torpedoes of the K-Flotilla 261 after their deployment. After that, the activities of the MEKs shifted to the Dutch area. Considerations that in the course of Operation Pluto laid pipelines in the Channel by combat swimmers means Nipolit to drill to break or the pipes were abandoned.
Belgium / Netherlands
In the course of further activities of the MEKs in Belgium and the Netherlands , the Kreuzschanzschleuse of the port of Antwerp was destroyed on the night of September 16-17, 1944 as part of the Bruno company . Furthermore, on September 20, 1944, the combat swimmers destroyed a German mine sweeper in front of Fort Philip, which could no longer be sunk before the evacuation, as well as a bridge south of Eindhoven and several Scheldt buoys.
Bridges of Nijmegen
The Nijmegen Railway Bridge, 1897
| date | September 28, 1944 to January 13, 1945 |
|---|---|
| place | Nijmegen ( Netherlands ) |
| output | allied victory |
| consequences | Destruction of the railway bridge. Slight damage to the road bridge |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| losses | |
|
6 combat swimmers in captivity |
|
On September 17, 1944 began under Bernard Montgomery , the Operation Market Garden . The aim of the Market sub-operation was to occupy the important Dutch bridges near Eindhoven , Nijmegen and Arnhem . By September 20, 1944, the undamaged bridges near Eindhoven fell into Allied hands. The bridges of Nijmegen were also occupied undamaged by US units of the 82nd US Airborne Division . The occupation of the Rhine bridge near Arnhem failed due to the strong resistance of the German troops. The MEK 65, under the command of Karl-Ernst Richard, was already operating as a reconnaissance unit at 's-Hertogenbosch and soon received the order from the command of the small combat units to destroy the river crossings at Nijmegen. This concerned the Nijmegen railway bridge and the associated road bridge over the Waal . For this purpose, the MEK 65 was reinforced by the nearby MEK 60 under Hans-Friedrich Prinzhorn.
While Richard favored the use of combat swimmers to destroy the bridge, Prinzhorn pleaded for the use of lenses , as in his opinion the use of combat swimmers was excluded due to the strong current of the Waal and a sharp bend in the river before the goal. Two torpedo mines with 600 kg (1.2 t total weight) of explosives each were to be used as an explosive device. Other sources mention the use of 1.5 t. The torpedo mines were 5 meters long, had a diameter of 56 cm and could be flooded and thus sunk at the push of a button. Richard and Prinzhorn put a pair of mines on the railway bridge and two pairs of mines on the more solid road bridge. For this purpose, the pair of mines should be trusted on the approach and only separated shortly before their destination. In order to enable the pillars to be detonated “professionally”, both mines were connected to one another with a 15-meter-long solid rope. The length of the rope was measured so that both mines could wrap around the bridge pillar on the left and right.
The operations management was taken over by Friedrich Hummel, who is now again working for the defense. His first reconnaissance mission consisted of a simulation of the attack by two combat swimmers, in which he himself was present. The mission was successful, but confirmed the current that Prinzhorn feared was too strong. Hummel therefore decided on a combined use of assault boats and combat swimmers. The assault boats were supposed to attract the enemy's defensive fire by a frontal attack on the bridges and thus give the combat swimmers the opportunity to plant the mines. The then scheduled further reconnaissance mission by means of two assault boats by Hummel personally ended in a scandal. The boats were discovered and attacked early on by the Americans because of their engine noise, with one crew member being killed in the subsequent shelling. At the same time, the incident warned the Allies about a possible German attack. The Americans then stepped up their patrols on both sides of the Waal and illuminated the river and the bank areas with powerful searchlights at night . An order was also issued to immediately fire on suspicious movements. Successful destruction of the bridge by combat swimmers appeared to be seriously endangered after Hummel's mission and led to the consideration of having the bridge destroyed by the air force, which was not possible due to the shortage of fuel. On the other hand, the preparations of the combat swimmers had already progressed so far that on the night of 28 to 29 September 1944 the operation began with twelve combat swimmers.
The twelve combat swimmers were divided into three groups of four people each. The 1st group around Bretschneider climbed into the Waal about 10 km above the bridge and, after overcoming an Allied pontoon bridge under construction, approached to about 300 meters of the Nijmegen railway bridge and cut the lines of the mines they were carrying. Held together by the central rope, the mine package wrapped itself around the pillar of the railway bridge as planned. There the mines were flooded and sank to the bottom of the river. The quartet then let themselves be carried away by the current and crossed into the Rhine to be drifted from there to the German lines. These were made visible by white tracer bullets fired sporadically. However, the four combat swimmers were separated. Olle and Wolchendorf were later sighted by British guards and were captured. Jäger and Bretschneider reached the German lines the next day and were awarded the German Cross in Gold for their work. The mines explosion at 6:30 a.m. destroyed the main central arch of the bridge.
| Rank | Surname |
|---|---|
| Radio mate | Heinz Bretschneider |
| Corporal | Walter Hunter |
| Corporal | Gerhard Olle |
| Corporal | Adolf Wolchendorf |
| Rank | Surname |
|---|---|
| SS-Untersturmführer | Walter Schreiber |
| Boatswain's mate | Henze |
| Sergeant | chandler |
| Sergeant | Kammhuber |
The second group, led by Walter Schreiber, with the aim of destroying the road bridge near Nijmegen , was driven to the bank's edge shortly after its start in the aforementioned sharp bend in the river, including its mines, and stranded there. Only after arduous attempts could the mines be swum free again. During this time the 3rd Combat Swimmer Combat Group, which had also been driven to the bank, was discovered by members of the 5th Battalion (Gloucester) and involved in a firefight. One combat swimmer was killed and two wounded. The three survivors were captured but were still able to flood their mines, which then exploded without causing any damage. Meanwhile, the 2nd group was drifting towards the road bridge when they too were discovered and taken under fire. This and the excessive current prevented the mines from being precisely positioned on the bridge piers. When the four realized the hopelessness of their company, they flooded their mines near the road bridge. The explosion that followed tore a 25-meter hole in the road bridge, but it didn't collapse. Like the group around Bretschneider, the four allowed themselves to be driven under the road bridge and later crossed into the Rhine. Henze was captured while trying to get ashore. Schreiber, Krämer and Kammhuber reached their own lines.
The partial success of the combat swimmers meant that on the night of October 15-16, 1944, the MEK 60 again attacked the Nijmegen road bridge. The plan stipulated that two lenses , each with a mine in tow, would hand them over to two provided martens when they arrived from Zaltbommel . The takeover of the mines also went smoothly. However, the operation failed when the boats were discovered 9 km from the road bridge. Another unsuccessful attack took place on the night of October 23rd to October 24th, 1944. In November 1944, the previously used MEKs 60 and 65 were replaced by the MEK 40. Attack attempt was given up on November 14, 1944. In December 1944, due to the flooding of the Rhine, all actions of the K-associations were stopped.
It was not until the night of January 12 to 13, 1945 that the MEK 40 started again to initiate the destruction of the road bridge. In order to remove the network barriers that the Allies had set up in the meantime, the MEK 40 deployed a total of 54 drifting mines in a first wave of attacks. They were followed in a further wave by 17 micro-submarines of the beaver type , each carrying 272 kg of explosives as mines. But this attempt also failed. Seven beavers got stuck on the approach in the mud of the Waal. The remaining eight beavers continued their attack. Two beavers collided in the murky water and were lost, as were two others due to fire. The four remaining boats returned with no success. After that, the Nijmegen road bridge lost its strategic importance. There were no further K missions against her.
Remagen Bridge
The Remagen Bridge in March 1945
| date | March 12, 1945 to March 17, 1945 |
|---|---|
| place | Remagen ( Germany ) |
| output | allied victory |
| consequences | Collapse of the bridge |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
The destruction of the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen also played an important role in the MEK operations on the western front. The US 9th Panzer Division occupied it intact on the afternoon of March 7, 1945. The main detonation of the bridge by German pioneers, which had previously been scheduled at 4 p.m., failed because the fuses were cut. Just 24 hours after its capture, 8,000 American soldiers had crossed the Rhine . German artillery bombarded the bridge for several hours without causing it to collapse. Hitler then ordered their destruction from the air. But even the air force did not succeed in making the bridge impassable. Vice-Admiral Heye, who was exposed to serious allegations from Colonel-General Alfred Jodl , also came under suspicion , who stated:
“During the presentation of the western situation, the chief of the Wehrmacht command staff mentioned that two naval detonators were deployed to destroy the Rhine bridge near Remagen, which fell intact into enemy hands. Inquiry with the admiral of the small combat units Heye showed that nothing is known about this operation. Clarification of the matter is ordered. "
Heye was able to get out of the affair, however, by rejecting the accusations regarding his inaction and instead presenting his own plan of attack in a situation report on March 9, 1945. The task force set up for this purpose (code name "Puma") consisted of twelve combat swimmers under the leadership of Oberleutnant zur See Erich Dörpinghaus († March 30, 1945 in Aschaffenburg) with four TMC mines, two groups of lens type explosives with eight TMB each -Mines, 100 ball mines and a 1,200 kg main mine were equipped. These arrived in Remagen on March 8, 1945. The local commander of the operation was Hans Bartels . However, the attack date set for the next day had to be postponed. The arrival of reinforcements for the "SS-Jagdverband Donau" with 11 combat swimmers forced the attack date to be postponed to March 12, 1945.
When the combat swimmers were preparing for their mission in strict secrecy at Lohmannsheide , they were sighted by the Allies and disturbed by artillery fire so that the mission had to be aborted. Bartels recognized the pointlessness of a second attempt, since on March 11, 1945 two temporary bridges, one about 8 km upstream (load capacity 25 t) and another pedestrian bridge a few hundred meters below the Remagen bridge, went into operation. The use of drifting mines that he directed failed. The KdK finally requested the use of the "Maiale-Gruppe Lehmann", the only German K-Association that had been set up on the Italian manned torpedoes of the SLC type . Lehmann's group arrived in Remagen on March 17, 1945. On that day the SS throwing division 500 fired eleven V2 from Hellendoorn in the Netherlands in the direction of the bridge, which finally collapsed that day; however, the causality of the long-range fire could never be fully confirmed. After the collapse of the bridge, seven SS combat swimmers under the command of Untersturmführer Schreiber set out on the night of March 17-18, 1945 to fight the pontoon bridge near Linz on the Rhine, which was 1.7 km away by water . The water temperature of the Rhine was just 7 ° C, which meant that two combat swimmers froze to death on their way. Two more fell through enemy fire and the remaining three, including their head of operations Schreiber, were captured.
At the end of March 1945, the operations of the K units in the area of Army Group H were largely stopped due to the development of the situation. On April 20, two combat swimmer groups were relocated to the Magdeburg area in order to be used there against existing Elbe crossings. Of these operations, if they still existed, no circumstances have become known. One of the last missions of combat swimmers on the western front, in which the MEK 60 was involved, dates from April 29, 1945. Its aim was to destroy bridges in the Bremen - Lauenburg area in order to sabotage an Allied bridgehead there. It is not documented whether this command was still executed.
Eastern front operations
There are no detailed reports on the numerous operations by combat swimmers on the Eastern Front as part of the MEKs in 1944. The main part of their missions concerned the mining and demolition of bridges along the Danube and the Vistula , for example within the framework of Army Group A in early December 1944, which intended to destroy two Vistula bridges with 84 lenses . However, the operation with the code name Lucie could not be carried out due to ice formation on the river and was ultimately canceled entirely. Other missions of the MEK 71 in the area of Army Group South concerned bridge missions in the Budapest area and lens missions on Lake Balaton ("Sonderkommando Bald"), later also in Zagreb . The MEK 85 set up in January 1945 with a staff of 90 was immediately sent to Swinoujscie to be deployed there on the lower reaches of the Oder or in the Oderhaff .
The requirement of combat swimmers on the Eastern Front was incumbent on the "Kampfschwimmergruppe Ost" (Combat Swimmer Group East) due to the increasingly frequent requirements of K associations. This had been set up on February 25, 1945, consisted of the personnel of the former training commando 700 and was under the command of Lieutenant Frederick Keller, who was also assigned the MEK 85 and the "Rübezahl Sonderkommando". The MEK 85 was involved in the unsuccessful demolition of a bridge over the Oder on February 25, 1945 near Vogelsang ; this bridge was then destroyed by lenses on March 13th . Information on the exact number of deployments of the K-units and their composition was lost due to the war. On April 24, 1945, combat swimmers were still deployed against bridges in the Nipperwiese and Fiddichow areas and in Stettin . On May 11, 1945, two combat swimmers were preparing to blow up another bridge over the Oder in Stettin when they heard from civilians that the war was over. On the whole, however, the combat swimmers' missions were militarily useless due to the numerous pontoon bridges formed by the Soviet armed forces . The combat swimmers were only able to prevent or delay breakthroughs or crossings at certain points, but this did not stop the opponent at all or only for a few hours.
Southern front operations
The MEKs 20, 71 and 90 acted in the area of the Commander-in-Chief South . Only very few missions of the MEK 20 were known from mid-1944 until the end of the war. It was located in the Split area in September 1944 and was withdrawn from the Dalmatian islands in spring 1945 . Nothing is known about his whereabouts at the end of the war. The MEK 90 had been involved in heavy fighting in the Dubrovnik and Metkovic area since September 1944 . He then withdrew via Trieste - Mostar - Agram to Vienna and then to Lübeck , where it was no longer used until the end of the war. The MEK 71 was the most active task force on the Adriatic and operated in the area of the Croatian and Yugoslav island chains, most of which were still in German hands. From December 1944 to the end of April 1945, the combat swimmers of this unit were active on the entire coast of Dalmatia and carried out numerous reconnaissance missions in enemy ports, but also acts of attack and sabotage against road and railway bridges, warehouses and storehouses, fuel depots and lights and floods - and radar masts. They were mostly supported by speed boats of the Kriegsmarine, including S 33 , S 58 , S 60 and S 61 of the 1st Schnellboots-Division. In December 1944, the MEK still had 48 soldiers. After the evacuation of the Balkans, MEK 71 continued its activities on the east coast of Italy. There most of the members of the unit were taken prisoner of war on May 8, 1945.
In the last days of the war, the swimmers' associations, if they had not surrendered in the meantime, were relocated from one focal point to the next, provided one could still speak of a "relocation". Operational central leadership was no longer possible due to the interrupted communication channels, and the units mostly stranded somewhere between the fronts and remained there until their final defeat. Still others were hurriedly integrated into armed forces fighting on site and saw the end of the war there.
literature
- Lawrence Paterson: Weapons of Despair - German combat swimmers and micro-submarines in World War II . Ullstein Verlag , 1st edition, 2009, ISBN 978-3-548-26887-3
- Harald Fock: Naval small weapons . Nikol publishing houses, 1997, ISBN 978-3-930656-34-9
- Helmut Blocksdorf : The command of small combat units of the navy . Motorbuch Verlag, 1st edition, 2003, ISBN 978-3-613-02330-7
- Werner Rahn : German Marines in Transition - From a Symbol of National Unity to an Instrument of International Security . R. Oldenbourg Verlag , Munich, 2005, ISBN 3-486-57674-7
- Cajus Bekker : lone fighter at sea. The German torpedo riders, frogmen and explosive device pilots in World War II . Stalling-Verlag , 1968
- Paul Kemp: Manned torpedoes and small submarines . Motorbuch Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-613-01936-1
- Martin Grabatsch: torpedo rider , storm swimmer , explosive boat driver . Welserfühl Verlag, 1979
- Helmuth Heye: Marine-Kleinkampfmittel, in: Zeitschrift Wehrkunde , Issue No. 8, year 1959
- Jürgen Gebauer: Marine Encyclopedia . Brand Publishing House, 1998, ISBN 3-89488-078-3
- Richard Lakowski: Reichs- u. Navy - Secret 1919–1945 . Brand Publishing House, 1993, ISBN 3-89488-031-7
- Klaus Matthes: The seals - small submarines . Koehler Verlag , 1996, ISBN 978-3-8132-0484-1
- Manfred Lau: Ship deaths off Algiers . Motorbuch Verlag, 2001, ISBN 978-3-613-02098-6
- Michael Welham: Combat Swimmer - History, Equipment, Missions . Motorbuch Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3-613-01730-6
- Michael Jung: Sabotage under water. The German combat swimmers in World War II . Mittler, 2004, ISBN 978-3-8132-0818-4
- Michael Jung: agents under water. Ship targets in the sights of German combat swimmers . Mittler, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8132-0859-7
- Hitler's sea fighters: combat swimmers and torpedo men in World War II | Documentary , Bayerischer Rundfunk , 2014 [1]
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Lawrence Paterson: Weapons of Desperation - German combat swimmers and micro-submarines in World War II . Ullstein Verlag, 1st edition, 2009, ISBN 978-3-548-26887-3
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Helmut Blocksdorf: The command of the small combat units of the navy . Motorbuch Verlag, 1st edition 2003, ISBN 3-613-02330-X
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cajus Bekker: Lone fighters at sea: The German torpedo riders, frogmen and explosive devices in the Second World War . Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg 1968
- ↑ www.atlantikwall.fr
- ^ A b Cajus Bekker: Battle and sinking of the navy . Sponholtz Verlag, 1953
Remarks
- ↑ Friedrich Hummel was also known under the pseudonyms Wimmer , Hellmer and Wimmel and in 1945 was under the command of Otto Skorzeny in the rank of Hauptsturmführer . In the last months of the war he was the operational planner of the combat swimmers of the Reich Security Main Office , which were combined in the SS Jagdkommando Donau .
- ↑ Wolk was born in Tschenokow (Ukraine) to German-Russian parents. In 1917 his family returned to Germany due to the October Revolution . In the post-war chaos of 1918/1919, his family first moved to Constantinople and later to Rome. At the insistence of his father, Wolk joined the Naval Academy in Livorno , where he trained as a combat swimmer at the Decima MAS.
- ↑ In January 1945 this supply by pipeline was about 300 tons of fuel per day and later to more than 4,000 tons per day.
- ↑ Admiral Heye was so outraged by Hummel's failure that he immediately and subsequently removed all members of the Waffen SS from his K units.
- ↑ The names of the participants in the 2nd and 3rd groups differ in the literature. Blocksdorf explains in his book Das Kommando der Kleinkampfverbände der Kriegsmarine (p. 184) that the 2nd and 3rd groups consisted of Orlowski, Ohrdorf, Weber, Schmidt, Kolbruch, Dyck, Gebel and Halwelka, while Paterson was in arms of the Desperation names Schreiber, Henze, Krämer and Kammhuber as members of the 2nd group and not those of the 3rd group at all.