Mausi mine search group

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The Mausi mine search group was a German air force unit at the time of the Second World War , which was mainly equipped with converted Ju 52s and had the task of detonating British and Russian sea ​​mines equipped with magnetos in a targeted manner in order to keep shipping lanes free. Contact-fused mines could not be cleared using this method.

background

During the First World War , the participating countries used massive amounts of sea mines, all of which were laid by ships or submarines, attached to the seabed with an anchor rope and based on the principle of contact ignition. In order to trigger the ignition of the mine, a ship had to hit the mine, which was a few meters below the surface of the water.

The British sea mines represented a special form, in which not only contact with the mine itself, but also contact with the anchor rope led to the ignition of the mine. This further developed ignition mechanism was intended to combat German submarines, but led to the premature detonation of the majority of the mines used due to the tidal movement and an overly sensitive fuse setting. When the minefields were cleared after the First World War, it was found that only 43% of the mines laid in deeper water and only 28% of those laid in shallower water remained. The majority of the mines laid, in other words more than 50% in both cases, had detonated prematurely or had been swept away by the ocean current as a result of improper attachment.

The experiences from the First World War led both Germany and Great Britain to considerations regarding the improvement of the functioning and laying method of the sea mines. Both sides came to the same conclusion and started with the conception of magnetic mines, which should be laid by dropping them from the air. These mines were no longer anchor mines , but ground mines; H. After being dropped, the mines sank to the bottom of the sea and remained there until a ship passing over them - due to the associated change in the earth's magnetic field - caused the magnetic mine to ignite.

To clear such ground mines - based on the magnetic principle - aircraft were used by both warring parties in addition to naval units. On the German side, the Mausi mine search group was formed by the Luftwaffe.

Beginning of the mine war

The British magnetic mines were dropped from Handley-Page Hampden aircraft from the spring of 1940 , with the sea ​​routes in the North and Baltic Seas being chosen as the area of ​​operation . The British bomber associations used A.Mk 1 mines as drop ammunition, which were about 5 m long and 60 cm in diameter. The British had chosen the term “Vegetables” as the code word for these dropping ammunition, which is loaded with around 800 kg of explosives.

In the further course of the war, the Handley-Page Hampden were replaced by the Manchester and Lancaster aircraft types . The latter type of aircraft could carry five mines per mission.

German countermeasures

At the beginning of 1940, a British mine was recovered undamaged and brought to Kiel for investigation by the naval attempted lockdown command . The Reich Ministry of Aviation sent Theodor Benecke , whose area of ​​responsibility included the field of “Sea dropping weapons”, to take part in the investigation of the mine. The investigation revealed that the British mine was equipped with an induction ignition. Benecke, who had already dealt with magnetic coils and homogeneous vertical magnetic fields as part of his doctoral thesis , wrote a report in which he recommended creating an artificial magnetic field from an aircraft to clear the British sea mines.

On May 3, 1940, the general aviation master Udet ordered two Ju 52s to be made available for experiments in this regard.

Together with physics professor Gerlach ( Technical University of Munich ), Benecke developed a ring with a diameter of 15 meters that was to be attached under an airplane and with which a magnetic field was generated.

Aircraft of the types Dornier Do 24 , Bv 138 and Ha 139 were used for testing , none of which were convincing. Therefore, on July 2, 1940, Benecke visited the Junkers factories in Dessau and gave the order to attach the coil ring to a Ju 52 and to install a generator ( Leonard set , as it was also used by headlight batteries) in the fuselage. The relevant work was already completed in August 1940.

The converted Ju 52 was tested on September 7, 1940 at Dessau airfield using an original British induction mine, from which, however, the transfer charge and explosives had been removed. As a result of the test, it was found that the ignition was triggered up to an altitude of 70 meters. If the Ju 52 MS flew higher, however, it no longer ignited.

Procedure for mine clearance

A Ju 52 / 3m MS (magnetic coil) for clearing sea mines in the Soviet Union.

The tactic was that the Ju 52 MS had to fly at a speed of 120 km / h at a height of 30 meters above the surface of the water and generated a magnetic field by means of the magnetic coil.

The crews of the Ju 52 MS benefited from the fact that the British mines triggered with a delay of 6 seconds and therefore did not explode immediately on the overflight. When a sea mine exploded, a water fountain was created that was 100 to 110 meters high. The machine gunner of the Ju 52, who was in the half-open and rear-facing defense position, had the task of photographing the water fountain in order to record the success of the clearance.

In order to make it easier for the crews to fly low, towing cables with a metal weight were installed in the aircraft. At an altitude of less than ten meters, this cable touched the surface of the water. The pilot was shown on his instrument panel that this altitude was not reached.

The operations of the mine search group were considered to be highly risky. The squadron in Wesermünde (now Bremerhaven ) with its commander, Captain Hans Karmann , did particularly well, as they flew a large number of missions and did so over particularly heavily mined areas. Captain Karmann himself crashed several times due to dense mine detonations, but survived all accidents in the open sea.

Origin and development of the mine search group 1 / mine search group Mausi

  • Ju 52 MS

  • Mine is ignited

  • Association flight

  • Operational flight

On September 19, 1940, the 9th Air Division flew a mission over the Scheldt off Vlissingen for the first time with a Ju 52 MS , which detonated two British mines. Subsequently, in Gilze en Rijen the establishment of the special command Mausi began under the direction of Lieutenant Ellgass.

On November 21, 1940, the number of aircraft belonging to the Sonderkommando had risen to six Ju 52 MS; the command was taken over by Lieutenant Karmann.

At the end of 1941, the Mausi special command was renamed Mine Search Group 1, and Karmann was promoted to captain.

The course of the war made it necessary that mine search group 1, which at times had almost 100 Ju 52 MS, was deployed in a highly fragmented manner. The following distribution and areas of application were valid in 1942:

Scope of the British Mine Warfare

From 1942 onwards, the British Bomber Command and Coastal Command deployed an average of 1,100 sea mines per month by airdrop, which tied around 40% of the German naval forces and also the Mausi mine search group to mine clearance work.

Origin of name

After the development of the modified Ju 52, which was then referred to as the Ju 52 MS (MS = magnetic coil), went under the code name "Mausi", this designation was later transferred to the air force units that used this aircraft type.

literature

  • Heinz Nowarra: Mausi mine search group. With Aunt Ju on duty (= aircraft documentation. Vol. 6). Flugzeug Publikations GmbH, Illertissen 1995, ISBN 3-927132-26-8 .