Commander of the Naval Defense

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Motor vehicle stand of a sea commander
Maritime Defense Elbe-Weser (1944)

A commandant of the sea defense , abbreviated to Seekommandant (SeeKo), was a regional coastal commander in command of the German navy during World War II . The naval commanders were regularly officers in the rank of rear admiral or a sea ​​captain . In some cases, officers in the ranks of corvette captain and frigate captain were used as sea commander. They were subordinate to the area commanders for the respective area of ​​operation.

The naval commanders were subordinate to harbor protection boats, workshop ships and shore facilities of the Navy including the port and fortress commanderships in their area of ​​responsibility. For example, the sea ​​commander Elbe-Weser , Rear Admiral Rolf Johannesson , was responsible for the four sections Helgoland , Wesermünde - Bremerhaven , Cuxhaven and Brunsbüttel , whose commanders were appointed fortress commanders in February 1945. After the end of the war, the Allies entrusted some of the naval commanderships in the German Reich with administrative tasks to dissolve the navy for some time before they were dissolved.

Maritime command offices

Corresponding to the great length of the coast, which Germany temporarily occupied during the war, a large number of sea command offices were established. While commanders of the naval defense were established in the occupied territories as early as the spring of 1940, this did not happen in the German coastal waters until November 1944.

Sea commanders in the Reich territory from 1944

North Sea
Baltic Sea

Sea commanders in the occupied territories in the Baltic Sea region from 1941 to 1945

Sea commanders in Denmark from 1944

Sea commanders in Norway from 1940

Listing in north-south direction

Military port organization

The tasks of the sea commanders included the operation of the military and civil ports in their area of ​​responsibility.

Port managers

In principle, all nautical movements in seaports used by the military had to be recorded and carried out in a coordinated manner. This affected both military and civil ship traffic in the port area. For this purpose, the posts of port captains and commanders were established and occupied by the navy. This applied to the occupied territories and partly to the German North and Baltic Sea coasts. So were z. B. set up military port captains for Emden , Helgoland , Kiel and Travemünde and subordinate to the respective area commander.

In addition, a port surveillance center was usually set up.

Port captain

The port captain (haka) was a civilian in peacetime , whereas the port commander was usually an officer . This post was basically intended for smaller war ports, but was z. Sometimes used synonymously for the post of port commander in larger ports.

The post was mostly occupied by an older naval officer.

Port commander

A port commander (Hako) was used for larger ports. This was superior to the port captain. The port commander had a small staff. The following organization existed by default:

  • Port commander
  • Port captain
  • 1 engineer officer
  • Sub-staff of 30 nautical and technical NCOs
  • 200 men

The port commander could also have the role of port captain. The port commander, like the port captain, usually had the rank of corvette captain.

From April 1940, a large number of offices were set up, which were initially referred to as port commanders, but were renamed a short time later. This includes B. the port commander Drontheim , who a short time later formed the sea ​​commander Drontheim , or the port commander Kristiansand-Süd .

Harbor protection flotilla

A port protection flotilla consisting of former loggers (small sailing ships ) at sea, probably Denmark, around 1940

To secure the ports, small civilian vehicles were grouped in port protection flotillas. These flotillas mostly consisted of lightly armed former fishing boats ( war fishing cutters ), which were only partially seaworthy. The commander of a port protection flotilla usually had the rank of a corvette captain.

Since the end of January 1941, the port protection flotillas were officially allowed to receive the pennant for the downing of enemy aircraft by the navy .

In November 1943 the security associations for the individual areas consisted of the following port protection flotillas:

In the German ports, the port protection flotilla Cuxhaven (for the first time with the North Friesland coast commander ), the port protection flotilla Wilhelmshaven (first with the coast commander East Friesland ) and the Borkum port protection flotilla (first with the coast commander East Friesland) were established. Until 1940 there was a port protection flotilla Warnemünde with the coastal commander in charge of the western Baltic Sea , which was converted into a port captain of Warnemünde .

Harbor protection flotillas have also been set up for the occupied territories.

Famous pepole

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Example of the structure of a large sea command
  2. ^ Rolf Johannesson: Officer in a critical time. Mittler, Herford et al. 1989, ISBN 3-8132-0301-8 .
  3. ^ Walter Lohmann, Hans H. Hildebrand. The German Navy 1939-1945 . Compilation in three volumes. OO 1956. Volume II, main chapter XIII, chapter 2, p. 10 f.
  4. ^ Walter Lohmann , Hans H. Hildebrand. The German Navy 1939-1945 . Compilation in three volumes. OO 1956. Volume I, main chapter IX, chapter 6, p. 1 f.
  5. ↑ Jak P. Mallmann Showell: Hitler's Naval Bases: Kriegsmarine Bases During the Second World War . Fonthill Media, January 21, 2017 ( google.de [accessed March 30, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Thomas Houlihan: War language . Lulu.com, 2009, ISBN 978-0-578-01849-2 ( google.de [accessed March 30, 2020]).
  7. ^ Karl Klee: Documents on the company "Sea Lion": the planned German landing in England in 1940 . Musterschmidt-Verlag, 1959 ( google.de [accessed on March 30, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Germany High Command of the Wehrmacht, Helmuth Greiner, Hans Adolf Jacobsen, Percy Ernst Schramm: War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (Wehrmacht command staff) 1940-1945 . tape 6 . Bernard & Graefe, 1963, p. 1472 ( google.de [accessed on March 30, 2020]).
  9. ↑ Germany High Command of the Wehrmacht, Helmuth Greiner, Hans Adolf Jacobsen, Percy Ernst Schramm: War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (Wehrmacht command staff) 1940-1945 . tape 6 . Bernard & Graefe, 1963, p. 1471 ( google.de [accessed on March 30, 2020]).