Bremerhaven naval base

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bremerhaven naval base was a base for German naval forces in the city of Bremerhaven .

History until 1956

Imperial Fleet

Ships of the Reichsflotte in the roadstead of Bremerhaven (1848)

After the German Revolution of 1848/1849 , the Frankfurt National Assembly decided to build a German Navy. The main base of this imperial fleet was set up in Bremerhaven. This so-called Seezeugmeisterei was responsible for construction management, arsenal and storage management, medical services, naval education and the part of the marine corps that was not on board. It existed until the fleet was dissolved in 1853.

Imperial Navy

Before the First World War , the Imperial Navy established a command post in Bremerhaven that was responsible for securing the regional coastal area. It lasted until the November Revolution .

Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine

Post-war period until 1951

After the end of the war, the bases in Bremerhaven were used for various typical marine tasks. The German mine clearance service , consisting of remnants of the navy, used the base until 1947, as did a naval service group of the United States Navy , the task of which was to handle the naval stocks of the US Navy. After completing this task, the service group was entrusted with port operations and sea rescue in the area of ​​the US base in Bremerhaven and maintained a tug group for this purpose. It consisted of four vehicles with about 150 German crew members.

US Naval Advanced Base (NAB) Bremerhaven and Labor Service Unit (B)

After the beginning of the Korean War , the US Navy decided to set up its own security forces in Germany with German personnel. It founded the US Naval Advanced Base (NAB) Bremerhaven on July 1, 1951 . In addition to the base, various school facilities and the Labor Service Unit (B) (LSU (B)), in which a large number of smaller vehicles were combined, were under her control. Until the summer of 1952, the LSU (B) grew on the following stock:

In addition to building up these forces, the USA pursued the goal of laying a foundation for new West German naval forces.

Federal Navy

Naval school in the Geesteschleife

First period of service from 1956 to 1967

When the German Navy was set up in 1956, large parts of the LSU (B) were taken over. The Bremerhaven base, which had remained largely intact due to the subsequent use after the end of the war, formed an important basis for building up the naval forces in the North Sea area . On April 16, 1956, the Bremerhaven naval base command was the first naval base command of the Federal Navy to be set up and subordinated to the North Sea naval section command.

One of the base's first tasks was to set up additional naval facilities. In 1956, two minesweeping squadrons from the holdings of the LSU (B) were set up in Bremerhaven before they were relocated to their new stationing bases. In addition, on May 8, 1956, the command was commissioned to form the school tribes for a number of naval schools. These included the Naval Artillery School, the Naval Underwater Weapons School, the Naval Technical School, the Naval Locating School and the Naval Telecommunications School . These schools switched to naval training after their establishment .

The quay areas in Kaiserhafen I laid out by the Navy were used as berths. The naval base was responsible for supplying all commands and facilities belonging to the base area and all floating units calling at the base. The Vegesack branch was set up in 1957 (Lesum branch from 1965) for shipyard berths in the Vegesack area .

On July 1, 1964, the Bremerhaven naval base command was converted into a branch of the Cuxhaven base with the following tasks:

  • Material supplies only for the units stationed in Bremerhaven, schools, ships / boats,
  • material preservation, light field repair (level 3) for the ships / boats stationed in Bremerhaven,
  • Management of civilian vehicle readiness,
  • Maintenance of the petrol oil lubricants warehouse (POL; fuels and lubricants),
  • Maintenance of the equipment units for ambulance ships,
  • Limited activity of the port captain (port occupancy reports, allocation and care of berths, management and care of port operating vehicles).

On October 1, 1967, the Bremerhaven branch and thus the naval base were dissolved.

Second period of service 1986 to 1993

On October 1, 1986, the Bremerhaven naval base command was reorganized. The naval base in Cuxhaven and the naval base companies in Hamburg and Bremen were subordinate to him . He was responsible for supplying land units of the navy and German and foreign ships and boats between the Elbe and Weser . For this he had, among other things, a tank farm and a pier facility. With effect from March 31, 1993, the command was dissolved again. The port facilities went into civil use.

Supported associations and units

Only briefly floating naval units were stationed at the base and in the Bremerhaven siting area, which were set up here in 1956. There was a permanent number of land units supported by the base, but not under the naval base command. These included:

Bars

Floating associations and units

Land troops and schools

literature

  • Peter Raap : "We were terrified of the mines". From mine clearers to the German Navy . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 790 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven October 2015, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 1.3 MB ; accessed on August 2, 2020]).

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ holdings from before 1867 - DB 64 I naval authorities. (No longer available online.) In: Website Das Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  2. ↑ German mine clearance service. Overview of the German mine clearance associations 1945–1947. In: Website Württembergische Landesbibliothek. Retrieved August 2, 2020 .
  3. ^ Manfred Schelling: Minesweeper - Marinedienstgruppe MDG US Navy Enclave Bremen. Part 3. (No longer available online.) In: mandors.de. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  4. ↑ US Army Installations - Bremerhaven. History of the US facilities in Bremen and Bremerhaven with pictures. In: usarmygermany.com. Retrieved March 7, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Manfred Schelling: Minesweeper - Labor Service Unit A, B, C US Navy. Part 4. (No longer available online.) In: mandors.de. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015 ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  6. ^ Douglas Peifer: International Journal of Naval History. Forerunners to the West German Bundesmarine: The Klose Fast Patrol Group, the Naval Historical Team Bremerhaven, and the US Navy's Labor Service Unit (B). In: Scribd, Inc. website April 2002, accessed August 2, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b c d Central offices of the Navy - BM 30 naval base commands. (No longer available online.) In: Website Das Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  8. ↑ a b Central offices of the Navy - BM 20 naval schools. (No longer available online.) In: Website Das Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv. Formerly in the original ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / startext.net-build.de
  9. ^ Egbert Thomer, Jürgen Rhades: Yearbook of the German Navy 1970 . Episode five. Carl Schünemann Verlag , Bremen 1969, p. 121 (160 pp.).
  10. ^ Central offices of the navy - BM 47 naval shipping control centers. (No longer available online.) In: Website Das Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Central Services of the Navy - BM 15 Command of the Navy's Troop Trials. (No longer available online.) In: Website Das Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Central Services of the Navy - BM 4 Marinesanitätsdienst. (No longer available online.) In: Website Das Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on August 2, 2020 .