Class 520
| Barbel class | |
|---|---|
 Landing craft flounder , salmon and sturgeon on the beach, 1966 |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Multipurpose landing craft |
| units | 22nd |
| Shipyard | |
| period of service |
since 1964 |
| home port | Eckernförde |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
403 t |
| length |
40.04 m |
| width |
8.80 m |
| Draft |
1.59 - 2.01 m |
| crew |
17 men |
| drive |
|
| speed |
11 - 12 kn |
| Range |
2200 nm at 8 kn |
| Armament |
two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns (BK 20) |
| radar |
Navigation radar |
| Bow hatch |
hydraulic |
| Tailgate |
mechanically |
| open transport deck |
at least 140 t load capacity (loading capacity for 3 heavy tanks or several military vehicles); can be used as a pontoon bridge element |
| Mine-laying ability | |
The class 520 multi-purpose landing craft (MZL) were built by the Howaldt shipyard in Hamburg from 1964 to 1966 . The boats are also known as the barbel class and are classified as Landing Craft Utility (LCU) in NATO parlance .
Units of class
The German Navy originally * had a total of 22 MZLs, which, with the exception of the boats bottlenose dolphin and dolphin , were baptized with fish names:
- L 760 flounder
- L 761 carp
- L 762 salmon
- L 763 roach
- L 764 rays
- L 765 loop
- L 766 sturgeon
- L 767 Bottlenose Dolphin
- L 768 Catfish
- L 769 pikeperch
- L 788 butt
- L 789 bream
- L 790 barbel
- L 791 dolphin
- L 792 cod
- L 793 whitefish
- L 794 trout
- L 795 Inger
- L 796 Mackerel
- L 797 Moray Eel
- L 798 whitefish
- L 799 Salm
construction
The boats are built very flat in steel construction. The hull is divided into twelve watertight compartments, the superstructures, initially with an open upper control stand, are on the starboard side . There is a flap fore and aft , the front hydraulically and the aft mechanically operated. The flaps are designed in such a way that a boat can be hooked in aft and one can move from one boat to the other. A stern anchor with a weight of 454 kg is mounted on the starboard side aft, which can be used to pull the boat off the beach after landing; the maximum pulling force is 12 tons.
The boats have three ballast tanks , 29 m³ aft, 30 m³ amidships, and 16 m³ forward. The two fuel tanks Bb 20,000 liters, Stb 10,000 liters, the fresh water tank 10,000 liters. The black water cell holds 10,000 liters
Floor plan
From aft to forward:
| Section I. | Steering gear room |
| Section II | Ballast water cell 29 m³ |
| Section III | Stern anchor winch space and lubricant and waste oil tank 690 liters each |
| Section IV | Engine compartment |
| Department V | E-Werk |
| Section VI | Fuel tanks 1 × 10,000 and 1 × 20,000 liters, 1 × 10,000 liters of black water |
| Section VII | Ballast tank 30,000 liters, a drinking water tank 10,000 liters, provisions load |
| Section VIII | Commander's Chamber, STB Chamber (Ship's Technical Boatswain), mess, guest chamber, compass room |
| Section IX | NCO's chamber, seaman's Hellegat and ammunition chamber |
| Department X | Crew deck |
| Section XI | Bow ramp engine room |
| Section XII | Ballast water cell 16 m³ |
The side superstructures on deck contain the toilet, companionway to the engine room, wash room, galley , lower and upper control stand , radio room, fender load , paint load and a load for lashing material. A 20 mm anti-aircraft gun (BK 20) was mounted in front of the lower control station and on the aft B-deck. The upper control stand was initially an "open bridge" that could be covered with a tarpaulin. It was not until 1973/74 that the bridge houses were closed when the shipyard was idle, which allowed the installation and unimpaired use of nav radar, Decca device and chart table.
Technical equipment
- 2 ballast pumps each 50 m³ / h, 1 fire pump with 25 m³ / h, 1 water jet pump , as bilge pump , with 10 m³ / h. The rowing machine is operated hydraulically by hand, max. Pressure 90 bar. The hydraulic system for the bow ramp is driven by a 17.6 kW electric motor with a maximum of 140 bar.
- The two generators can be connected together and supply the vehicle electrical system with 440 V / 60 Hz, 115 V / 60 Hz and 24 V direct current. A 24 volt / 152 Ah battery is available for emergency lighting and emergency transmitters. A 24 V / 165 Ah battery is the starter battery for all engines, another 24 V / 152 AH battery supplies the engine monitoring, the nautical instruments, the navigation lights, the transparent windows and the signal systems with power.
- The hydraulic system for the stern anchor winch works with a pressure of 250 bar. The stern anchor is attached to a steel cable, the winch is in section III below deck.
- When they were put into service, the boats only had a gyro compass and a portable radio, later a larger radio was installed. In the years up to 1973 the boats were rebuilt and given a fixed control stand, and they were also equipped with radar devices .
Technical specifications
- Length: 39.90 m
- Width: 8.80 m
- Draft: front 1.80 m, rear 2.40 m
- Load capacity: 170 tons
- Displacement: 403 tons max.
- Crew: 17
- Drive: 2 × MWM Trhs 518 V 12, 510 PS at 1,500 rpm
- E-diesel: 2 × MWM 518 rhs 4-cylinder 98 hp at 1,250 rpm at 60 Hz
- Armament: a 2 cm cannon, later two 2 cm cannons
- Speed: 10.5 kn max. (Was limited to 10 kn = 1,300 revolutions in the mid-1970s, as the shaft packing glands were damaged too often)
crew
The commander of a landing craft is a chief or captain . Only on the four division boats of the landing craft squadron was the commander an officer with the rank of a lieutenant captain or first lieutenant in the sea (the commander's boat was L 791 Delphin ). In addition, there is a technical boatman (STB), up to seven mates (always a catering mate, a deck mate and a navigation mate , on division boats also a radio mate and a signal mate , temporarily and depending on the general personnel situation of the Federal Navy, a Mot-Uffz and an E. -Uffz) and nine teams . Medical personnel were sometimes embarked on training trips.
Application area
The landing craft of the Barbe class were designed for landing operations in the North and Baltic Seas and were intended for the transport of soldiers and military material in the coastal area. You can transport up to three large tanks . This ability became particularly important during landing operations. So boats were regularly z. B. equipped with anti-aircraft tanks " Gepard " to shield the operating room from air threats. Sea target shooting and landing fire support (Naval Gunfire Support) were also carried out with “Gepard” and “ Leopard 2 ”. Due to their flat design without a pronounced bow, they can only be used up to a swell of strength 5–6. The superstructures on the starboard side have a particularly restrictive effect, as there is no keel to oppose the wind drift. An unfavorable combination of wind and waves led to a serious damage to one of the boats in 1989 during a landing exercise in Denmark. The bow and stern ramps are designed for loads of up to 50 tons, so they can also accommodate heavy tanks. Due to their shallow draft, the boats can also pass through the river.
In addition to the task of the “classic” landing operations, the main use of the MZL was in the implementation of offensive and defensive mine operations. Around 1968, every active boat was equipped with a so-called “mine package”, a two-track rail system with a throwing boom on the tailgate, which could be assembled in-house using on-board resources. However, these mine packages were stored on land. The rails were attached to the lashing points (turtles) for vehicles on deck. With this system it was possible to load a considerable amount of ground and anchor lines and to throw them over the stern drains. These operations were usually carried out under radar guidance from a land radar station and generally at night. The aim was to close the Fehmarnsund-Fehmarnbelt-Trelleborg lines and the Baltic Sea accesses in the middle of the Danish islands in a relatively short time and close to the land for the enemy.
Training trips abroad led u. a. to central Sweden to Karlstad through Lake Vänern and on the Rhine to Mannheim and Strasbourg . In 1975 the entire squadron set sail with 17 boats from Borkum to visit the city of Caen in French Normandy at the beginning of June. Another training trip led the 1st Division, consisting of dolphins , trout , barbel , whitefish and cod , first to Borkum and Den Helder in 1985 and finally on the Seine to Rouen .
In June 1971 the 1st landing squadron, then consisting of a supplier of the Lüneburg class, two medium-sized landing units (crocodile and lizard) and ten boats of the barbel class, carried out an exploration and training trip from Borkum via Rotterdam roadstead, Antwerp roadstead, the Torbay , Weymouth Harbor , to Dublin . During this voyage, the smaller boats were loaded to the limit of their seaworthiness while circumnavigating " Land's End ". This trip was one of the reasons that led to a general renovation of these boats in 1973. The "Fahr-Brücke", which was previously protected with a tarpaulin, was permanently built over. In addition, because of an accident at MZL Schlei , the boats were given a magnetic compass that had not been available until then.
Structure, subordination and whereabouts
For the most part, the boats belonged to various associations and units of the amphibious group . From 1973 17 boats were subordinated to the 1st landing squadron in Borkum and from 1978 to the "landing craft group" in Kiel . The 1st landing squadron was divided into 3 divisions (1st and 2nd division 6 boats each, 3rd division 5 boats), with Delphin , Flounder and Schlei being the divisions' leader boats. With the move to Kiel and the renaming, the structure was also changed: 4 divisions were created, Zander was added as a division leader boat (1st division 5 boats, the others 4 boats each). Whitefish served as a doctor's boat, while the guest room on Delphin was developed as a command room . Two boats ( Butt and Brasse ) belonged to the beach master company and one ( Inger ) as a school boat to the seamanship training group; two ( Salm and Renke ) were in reserve in the naval arsenal Wilhelmshaven .
In 1992 eight boats were sold to Greece . The last five boats remaining in the German Navy were initially assigned to the flotilla of the mine forces and from 1995 to 1998 formed the 3rd minesweeping squadron in Olpenitz with the inland minesweepers . After that, the landing craft belonged to the 5th minesweeping squadron between 2002 and summer 2005, where, in addition to landing exercises, they mainly carried out material transports. At the time, they were also intended for mine-laying. Between 2001 and 2003 three of the five landing craft were decommissioned. Since 2005, the L 762 Salmon and L 765 Schlei have been in service with the Seebataillon in Eckernförde . L 769 Zander has been owned by the Mannheim Marinekameradschaft since July 2004 and is now called Götz von Mannheim .
With the dissolution of the Association of Specialized Forces on April 1, 2014, salmon and tench were placed under the Eckernförde naval base command. The loop was scrapped in 2017 at the Gebr. Friedrich shipyard in Friedrichsort ; it was supposed to be repaired, but due to the existing damage this measure would not have been economical. The propeller of the Schlei was on 2 September 2018, the city Gladbeck passed that since 1971 along with the "Marine camaraderie of 1907 Gladbeck e. V. “maintains a sponsorship for the multi-purpose landing craft of the Navy.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd-Michael Vangerow, Die Seemine - Your use from the perspective of a changed strategic maritime situation ; in: MarineForum 9-1996 p. 9ff
- ^ Siegfried Breyer, Gerhard Koop: The ships and vehicles of the German Federal Navy 1956-1976 . Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7637-5155-6
- ↑ Scrapping instead of repair. October 2, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Oliver Borgwardt: Propeller of the "Schlei" finds new home in the Nordpark. In: lokalkompass.de. Retrieved September 3, 2018 .
Web links
- Multi-purpose landing craft BARBE class (520) on www.marine.de
- 50 years of salmon and tench on www.marine.de