Marine Corps Flanders

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The Marine Corps Flanders was a major German military organization during the First World War . The name was derived from the Belgian part of Flanders , where the coastal protection corps was formed. It was also responsible for naval and air operations from Flanders in the English Channel to the Irish Sea . Commanding admiral was Ludwig von Schröder from its foundation until December 1918 . The Marine Corps Flanders was subordinate to the Navy in terms of its disposition and disciplinary law, but was incorporated into the overall strategy of the Army through corresponding orders. As a sub-unit of the Navy, it had its own naval and air forces.

Admiral Ludwig von Schröder

List, structure and use

Officers and men of the sea battalion and the naval division off Antwerp 1914/15
A land victory of German naval troops in Flanders. Contemporary depiction by Georg Hänel . Illustrirte Zeitung 1916

Immediately after the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Imperial Navy set up a naval brigade from the three existing sea ​​battalions and the sailors artillery , which in the same month expanded to become a Marine Division and, on November 29, 1914, transformed into the 1st Marine Division as it was renamed has been. After the 2nd Marine Division had been set up on November 8, 1914 , both units were combined in the Marine Corps Flanders on November 15 . In addition to personnel from the Imperial Navy, the corps also consisted of land defense units of the IX. Army Corps in Altona and the X Army Corps in Hanover .

The corps was largely recruited from excess seafaring personnel in the Imperial Navy. This surplus of personnel was due to the compulsory military service that also applies to the Imperial Navy . As a result of the mobilization , many reservists had been drafted who could not find use on the floating units.

On June 1, 1917, the 3rd Marine Division was set up. In addition to three marine infantry regiments, it was made up of hussars from Hussar Regiment No. 7 , engineers and field artillery . She was directly subordinate to the Supreme Army Command .

Most recently, the Marine Corps was subordinate to the Army Group "Crown Prince Rupprecht" . The corps was probably disbanded in early 1919; However, at the latest with the establishment of the Provisional Reichsmarine on April 16, 1919.

Seaplane

At the end of 1914, the aviation command of the Marine Corps was established under Captain Hans Herr , and on December 7th, the Zeebrugge sea air station was established. In 1915, two Navy Land Aviation Departments were formed, which were later renamed Navy Field Aviators. On December 21, a British coastal town, Dover , was bombed for the first time, and in 1916 also London .

In June 1917 the sea pilots were divided as follows:

Commander : Corvette Captain Gerhard Stubenrauch (1880–1931)

  • Sea flight station Flanders I - Zeebrugge (first lieutenant in the reserve Friedrich Christiansen ), 35 C aircraft
  • Flanders II Seaplane Base - Ostend, 16 C aircraft
  • Seefrontstaffel Nieuwmunster, 18 fighters
  • Group commander of the coastal pilots (Corvette Captain Franz Schröter)
    • Küsta I - Zeebrugge
    • Küsta II - Ostend
    • Küsta III - Uitkerke
    • Küsta IV - Uitkerke
    • Schusta I - Uitkerke
    • Schusta II - Uitkerke
  • Navy hunting party
    • Jasta I - Jabbeke
    • Jasta II - Jabbeke
  • I field - Vlissegem , 6 planes
  • II field - Gistel, 6 aircraft
  • Squad leader of the radio controlled weapon (captain lieutenant of the reserve of Ketelhodt)
    • Remote control train I, two remote control boats and a remote control airplane
    • Remote control train II, as well

Submarines

With the arrival of U 12 in Zeebrugge on November 9, 1914 , the submarine warfare supported by Flanders began in the English Channel and in the Irish Sea. On March 29, 1915, the " U-Flotilla Flanders " was formed. In October 1917 the flotilla was divided (I and II). On March 29, 1915, Korvettenkapitän Karl Bartenbach (1881–1949) became the leader of the Flanders submarine . Both flotillas sank 2,554 ships or vehicles and lost 80 submarines with 145 officers and more than 1,000 men. They were dissolved in October 1918 and the units relocated to Germany.

Destroyers and torpedo boats

On April 28, 1915, the "Torpedo Boat Flotilla Flanders" was formed under Lieutenant Captain Kurt Assmann . It operated together with seaplanes and served to repel enemy invasion attempts, protect minesweepers and rescue crashed aircraft crews. They also operated offensively against Dover and the French coast. In mid-May 1918 the T-Flotilla Flanders consisted of two half-flotillas, the 1st under Lieutenant Hermann Densch and the 2nd under Lieutenant Günther Lütjens .

At the end of February 1916, a semi-flotilla of torpedo boat destroyers was formed under the command of Corvette Captain Paul Cleve , to which boats V 47 , V 67 and V 68 belonged. Immediately after the Battle of the Skagerrak , a second half flotilla was formed, which was briefly assigned to G 102 . The boats of the " Destroyer Flotilla Flanders " mainly waged a guerrilla war at sea to destroy British mines and blocking nets, especially those of the Dover Barrier , which hindered the use of German submarines. In some cases , they received significant reinforcements from the deep sea fleet (two complete torpedo boat flotillas were temporarily stationed in Ostend and Zeebrugge ) and carried out attacks as far as Calais and coastal bombardments. From 1917 a torpedo boat flotilla of the deep sea fleet with its modern and powerful boats was stationed in Zeebrugge and Ostend. At the end of September 1918, the ready-to-drive units were evacuated from Flanders; the large T-boats that were not ready to go were blown up, while the smaller and slower AI-boats were interned in the Netherlands .

Flanders minesweeping semi-flotilla

In mid-May 1918, it consisted of two groups with a total of seven old torpedo boats under the command of the Captain of the Sea of ​​the Schladebach Reserve and a boat division with an unknown number of fishing boats , tugs , barges and motor boats under the direction of the Corvette Captain of the Reserve Zedel.

Coastal batteries

The coastal batteries were divided into the coastal defense east and the coastal defense west . In the vicinity of Ostend there were also two anti-aircraft batteries, "Grand Duke" and "Friedrich". In addition, there were special batteries here, which were directly subordinate to the entry commanders: "Blücher", "Eylau", "Gneisenau I", "Seekamp" and "Württemberg". The batteries often bore the names of decommissioned floating units from which the guns came.

Coastal Defense East

  • "Kaiser Wilhelm" battery in Knokke am Zegemeer , four 30.5 cm guns , range 37,500 m.
  • "Hessen" battery in Uitkerke : four 28 cm guns, range 27,700 m.
  • "Braunschweig" battery in Knokke, four 28 cm guns.
  • "Hertha" battery in Wenduine, four 21 cm guns
  • "Schleswig-Holstein" battery, two 17 cm guns, range 24,000 m.
  • "Augusta" battery in Heist ( Duinbergen ), three 15 cm guns, range 24,000 m.
  • Battery "Hamburg" in Knokke, four 10.5 cm guns, range 12,700 m.
  • Battery "Bremen" in Knokke, four 10.5 cm guns.
  • Battery "Lekkerbek" in Knokke, two 8.8 cm guns, range 7,000 m.
  • Battery “Schützennest” in Knokke, six 5 cm guns, range 3,000 m.
Zeebrugge harbor protection group
  • “Friedrichsort” battery west of Zeebrugge , four 17 cm guns, range 21,300 m.
  • "Lübeck" battery in Zeebrugge, near the pier, two 15 cm guns, range 18,700 m.
  • Battery "Mole", three 10.5 cm guns, two 8.8 cm guns.
  • Battery “Kanal” in Zeebrugge, four 8.8 cm guns.
  • Battery “Leopold Canal” in Zeebrugge, two 5.2 cm guns, range 7,100 m.
  • Battery "Kaiserin" in the dunes of Blankenberge , four 15 cm guns, range 18,700 m.
Blankenberge harbor protection group
  • Battery “Groden”, four 28 cm howitzers , range 10,400 m.
  • Medium battery, three 10.5 cm guns, range 12,700 m.
  • "Hafen" battery, four 8.8 cm guns, range 7,000 m.

Coastal Defense West

  • Battery "Germany" between Bredene and Klemskerke , also known as the "Jacobinessen" battery after the location of a farm, four 38 cm guns, range 38,000 m.
  • Battery "Pommern" in Koekelare , a 38 cm, range 47,000 m. The gun was originally intended for a unit of the Bayern class .
  • Battery “Tirpitz” near Stene, southwest of Ostend , four 28 cm, range 35,000 m.
  • Battery “Prussia” near Bredene, four 28 cm, range 27,400 m.
  • Battery "Hannover" near Vlissegem, three 28 cm, range 27,000 m.
Melee group Mariakerke
  • “Oldenburg” battery in Raversijde near Leffinge , four 17 cm, range 18,300 m. It was disguised as a single farmhouse or barn.
  • Battery “Gneisenau” in Ostend on the dike, four 17 cm, range 18,300 m.
  • Battery “Cecilie” in Mariakerke , four 15 cm, range 15,800 m.
  • Battery “Aachen” near Raversijde, four 15 cm, range 18,700 m. The battery that was blown up at the end of the war is now part of the Atlantic Wall open-air museum .
  • Battery “Beseler” in Mariakerke, four 15 cm.
  • Battery “Antwerp” in Raversijde, four 10.5 cm, range 12,200 m.
Ostend-Ost harbor protection group
  • "Hindenburg" battery, four 28 cm, model 1887, range 12,300 m.
  • Battery “Silesia”, four 17 cm, range 24,000 m.
  • “Ludendorff” battery, four 15 cm, range 18,700 m.
  • "Irene" batteries, three 15 cm, range 12,600 m.

Uniformity

The Marine Corps Flanders was initially equipped with very mixed uniforms . The marines wore the uniforms of the naval battalions, the sailors wore blue or white sailor gear, over which field-gray colored work gear was worn. In 1915, the corps was uniformly equipped with field gray uniforms, with which, however, naval rank badges were worn as shoulder pieces or sleeve stripes or in combination. The crews continued to wear the navy's headgear .

Commanders

literature

  • Knötel / Sieg: Colored Handbook of Uniform Studies. Volume 1, Grüter & Schul, Hamburg 1937, Reprint Weltbild Verlag GmbH , Augsburg 1996, p. 143f.
  • Keyword: marines. in: Author collective (ed.): Dictionary of German military history. Berlin ( Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic ) 1985, p. 514f.
  • Johan Ryheul: Marine Corps Flanders 1914–1918. ES Mittler & Sohn , Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0541-X .
  • Mark D. Karau: Wielding the Dagger. The MarineKorps Flandern and the German War Effort, Praeger, Westport, CONN 2003, ISBN 978-0313324758 .
  • Hugo von Waldeyer-Hartz: A man. Life d. Admiral Ludwig v. Schröder. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1934.
  • Edgar Graf von Matuschka: Organizational History of the Army from 1890 to 1918. in: Military History Research Office (Hrsg.): German military history in six volumes 1648-1939. Herrsching 1983, Volume V, pp. 157-279, here pp. 271ff.
  • Eberhard von Mantey : Our Navy in World War 1914–1918. Patriotic publishing house CA Weller, Berlin 1927.
  • Hermann Jacobsen: Defiant and loyal. Our navy fights on the coast of Flanders during the world war. Behr's publishing house, Berlin / Leipzig 1935.
  • Thomas Termote: Underwater War. Flanders submarine flotilla 1915–1918. Mittler, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8132-0959-4

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard P. Gros: The sea war. The war in the North Sea. Volume 7, critical edition 1997, p. 293.