Naval base Cuxhaven

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The naval base Cuxhaven was a base of German naval forces in the city of Cuxhaven , which existed with interruptions from 1905 to 1991.

History until 1956

Minesweeper memorial from 1935

Imperial Navy, World War I and the aftermath

Cuxhaven has had coastal fortifications since the 19th century. For overseas service, especially in Tsingtau , the barracks of the same name, later Marienkaserne, now a residential and commercial area after conversion, was the III. Tribe sea battalion of the Imperial Navy stationed. From 1905 the Imperial Navy began to build up its mine forces and initially stationed six torpedo boats in Cuxhaven for this purpose . The number of torpedo and minesweepers in Cuxhaven rose steadily before and during the First World War . At the end of the war there were around 300 anti-mine vehicles in Cuxhaven, which cleared the German waters from the sea mines in World War I in the following years. After this task was completed, all warships were withdrawn from Cuxhaven in 1922. However, the city remained the location of the Imperial Navy with a coastal defense department .

Navy and World War II

As part of the armament of the Navy before the Second World War , minesweepers were again stationed in Cuxhaven from 1936. For this purpose, the naval port in the eastern part of the America port was expanded until 1938 and received the official designation "minesweeper port". During the war, minesweepers and other security forces were stationed in Cuxhaven, which from 1942 onwards were combined in the 5th Security Division . Their headquarters were on the Helgoland houseboat lying in Cuxhaven .

post war period

As after the First World War, after the end of the war in 1945 there was a great danger from sea mines in the area of ​​the German Bight and the mouths of the German rivers into the North Sea. After the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht, the Allies worked to dissolve it, and parts of the Navy were used to clear the sea mines.

The German mine clearance service , which initially comprised 27,000 men and 800 vehicles, was formed for this purpose. The 2nd mine clearing division of the DMRD, based in Cuxhaven, was formed from the 5th Security Division of the Navy . It consisted of four minesweeping flotillas, two mine clearing flotillas, a barrier breaker flotilla , a transport flotilla, a network clearing association, a fog carrier group and various other emergency vehicles.

At the end of 1947 the German mine clearance service was dissolved. Since there was still a risk of mines in the North Sea at that time, the Cuxhaven mine clearing association was set up, which consisted of twelve clearing boats and five other vehicles. It was part of the German customs administration and was under British supervision. It was disbanded on June 30, 1951 because the US Navy demanded that the twelve clearing boats be surrendered for their own use. The remaining five ships were assigned to a newly established naval service group of the Royal Navy and decommissioned after a short time.

Shortly afterwards, the newly established German sea ​​border protection took over part of the base facilities. In October 1951, a bulky weapons and ammunition depot was set up in the Cuxhaven-Groden camp , and in 1952 the training operations of the sea border protection tribe department began in the Grimmershörn barracks. The commander of this department was also the base commander in Cuxhaven. In March 1953, the sea border protection took over parts of the minesweeper and stationed a group of school boats there.

Federal Navy

When the Federal Navy was set up in 1956, large parts of the sea border protection were taken over. The base in Cuxhaven, which, unlike other bases, 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 .

Tasks, organization and subordination

To manage the base, the Cuxhaven naval base command was set up on July 1, 1956 , and was subordinate to the North Sea naval section command. From 1967 to 1974 it was under the North Sea Marine Division , then the newly established North Sea Marine Section Command .

The naval base was responsible for supplying all commands and facilities belonging to the base area and all floating units calling at the base. In addition, the supply of shipyard boats in the Weser area and the planning for securing the port of Bremerhaven, the coast and the coastal apron came at times. For this task, the base command was temporarily subordinate to a coast guard squadron.

The following offices and commands were subordinate to the base command:

  • 2nd Coast Guard Squadron (1962–1964)
  • Branch office in Hamburg (1962–1968)
  • Branch office in Bremerhaven (1964–1969)
  • Marines First Aid Squadron Cuxhaven (from 1966)

On October 1, 1969, the Cuxhaven naval base command was dissolved and the base was initially subordinated to the Wilhelmshaven naval base command and from 1986 to the newly established Bremerhaven naval base command. It was dissolved on September 30, 1991. The port facilities went into civil use.

Supported associations and units

A number of changing naval associations and units were stationed at the base and in the Cuxhaven siting area, which were supported by the base, but were not subordinate to the naval base command. These included:

Bars
Floating associations
Land troops

Web links

literature

  • Peter Bussler, Mik Schumann. Military and naval history of Cuxhaven. Cuxhaven 2000. ISBN 3-935519-00-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Overview of the German mine clearance associations 1945–1947 in the holdings of the Württemberg State Library
  2. ^ German naval service groups 1945–1958 ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Fritz Poske : The sea border protection 1951-1956. Reminder - report - documentation . Koblenz / Bonn 1982, ISBN 3-7637-5410-5
  4. ^ Second law on the Federal Border Guard of May 30, 1956
  5. ↑ a b Federal Archives-Military Archives inventory BM 30, naval base commandos
  6. ↑ Federal Archives-Military Archives. Stock BM 34; Naval Telecommunication Force formations

Remarks

  1. ↑ from 1962 command of the mine forces and from 1967 flotilla of the mine forces
  2. ↑ from 1966 10th minesweeping squadron
  3. ↑ In December 1956, renamed Naval Telecommunication Section North Sea , from 1960 Marine Telecommunication Section 2