Negro (manned torpedo)
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The Negro was in the Second World War, one of the German Navy employed manned torpedo , a so-called "one-man torpedo". The name Neger goes back to the naval construction officer Richard Mohr as the spiritual father of this weapon. ( Moors were also called negroes in the linguistic usage at the time )
Construction and functioning
The Neger was developed by the Eckernförde torpedo research institute from 1943 onwards . It consisted of two electrically powered G7e torpedoes arranged one above the other . In the upper torpedo there was a tiny cockpit with a plexiglass hood that housed a helmsman equipped with a breathing apparatus and wrist compass, while the second torpedo hung below was equipped with an explosive charge.
The entire vehicle was otherwise unarmed. A simple rear sight in and in front of the glass dome could be used to aim at the target. The lower torpedo was released at a suitable distance and then continued on its own. The upper part could twist away to have sufficient distance from the explosion in the event of a hit. Due to its small size, the Negro was difficult to detect by enemy tracking devices such as radar and sonar .
Problems
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The negro revealed innumerable shortcomings in the test drives carried out by Johann-Otto Krieg . This primarily counted that the torpedo combination could not dive. Despite quick attempts at conversion, this problem could not be solved satisfactorily.
Since the Plexiglas hood of the Negro floated above the water, she was both at night as during the day as a striking Leuchtboje visible from afar. Even when the night light was pale, the negro could be recognized by the light breaking on the hood. One tried, therefore, to make do with a ruse: Since the Negro pilots could not darken the plexiglass hood because of the necessity of their own orientation, they should expose dummies in future attacks , which consisted only of a round plexiglass dome on which a weight hung, to make the dome dance on the water. A face was painted on the domes or the contents filled with a rubber head.
Calls
A total of around 200 copies were made during the war. In March 1944 the first specimen was ready for testing. Since the Negro was not or in later construction hardly capable of diving, the missions were carried out exclusively at night. The first regular operation took place in April 1944, when 37 units were used in naval combat in the Anzio - Nettuno area against Allied ships. None of the one-man torpedoes deployed released his torpedo. In addition, a copy fell into the hands of the Allies, who were warned by it.
In July and August 1944, operations on the Normandy coast against Allied ships participating in Operation Overlord were more successful. The cruiser ORP Dragon , the destroyer HMS Isis and several other smaller warships were badly damaged or sunk. Corporal Walter Gerhold was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for the alleged sinking of ORP Dragon on July 6, 1944 ( Dragon was in fact irreparably damaged on July 8 by Oberfähnrich zur See Karl Heinz Potthast and sunk as a breakwater on July 20).
Around 80 percent of the crews were killed when these one-man torpedoes were deployed, mostly as a result of asphyxiation, technical problems or enemy fire.
literature
- Cajus Bekker : "... and loved life." The exciting adventures of German torpedo riders, frogmen and explosive devices. 4th edition. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-453-00009-9 ( Heyne books 57).
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies, a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1995, ISBN 3-88385-028-4 .
- Paul Kemp: The battle at sea. 1939-1945. Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-8289-5325-5 .
- Richard Lakowski: German U-Boats secret 1935–1942. With 200 previously unpublished documents from the files of the Kriegsschiffbau office. 3. Edition. Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89488-030-9 .
- Eberhard Rössler : History of the German submarine construction. 2nd Edition. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eberhard Rössler: History of the German submarine construction. JF Lehmann Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-469005079 , p. 404.