Landungsbrückengerät sea snake

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The Landungsbrückengerät Seeschlange was a floating pier of the Wehrmacht , which could be put together from individual parts, depending on requirements in different sizes, and its individual parts were also motorized and used as ferries.

history

In 1940 the Heereswaffenamt placed an order with the Schichau shipyard in Königsberg for a floating pier for unloading ships on the free coast or in destroyed ports.

The main component was a 15-meter-long floating lane with strong side protection so that vehicles could not slide off the lane into the water. Each of these pieces of carriageway had a width of 5.05 meters with a total width of 5.80 meters and a weight of 17 tons. These floating lane sections could be coupled to each other in any length in order to lead far enough away from the beach that sufficient water depth was reached for the ships to be unloaded. Pieces of 15 × 6.05 meters without side protection and weighing 25 tons, which served as feeders and unloading points, could be attached to these parts of the road. The sea ​​snake sections could be divided into two halves so that they could be transported by train.

On March 1, 1941, troop trials of the first sea ​​serpent began in Le Havre on the French Channel coast and, in collaboration with the Navy, the ongoing improvement of this prototype began .

The first use of Sea Snake Landing Bridges was planned on the African coast to unload ships for the Africa Corps . During the transport of the first sea ​​snake parts to North Africa, however, this pioneering landing technology was planned for the landing on Malta planned for June 10, 1942 as a temporary ferry for heavy loads. Since the Hercules company was canceled, the sea ​​snake parts were again free for transport to Africa.

Two sea ​​serpent landing bridges, each 150 meters long and one piece of landfall each, were on their way to Africa when the British offensive Operation Supercharge began in Egypt at the end of October 1942 and the rapid retreat of the Africa Corps began, thereby transferring the sea ​​serpent devices to North Africa was no longer carried out. As a result, sea ​​snakes and their parts, which were made mobile by motors, were used as ferries in Italy and the Baltic Sea .

Sea snake parts used as a ferry became particularly important for the Hannibal company in the spring of 1945 when it was rescuing the German population from the advancing Red Army . So commuted sea snakes -Fähren between Pillau and Neutief and transported it to the 300,000 people according Neutief.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Brustat-Naval: Rescue company . Bastei Lübbe publishing house, Bergisch Gladbach 1987. ISBN 3-404-65040-9 . Page 104
  2. ^ Helmut Blocksdorf: Pillau - Chronicle of a downfall . Verlag Mittler, Berlin / Bonn 2000. ISBN 3-8132-0722-6 . Page 69
  3. ↑ MARINE-RUNDSCHAU Born 1972, Issue 10, Article: Amphibian in Germany by Randolf Kugler. Publishing house Mittler & Sohn, Herford. Page 585

literature

Randolf Kugler: Landings in Germany since 1900 . Verlag Oberbaum, Berlin 1989. ISBN 3926409525 .