Pioneer landing craft
 Pioneer Landing Craft 39
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The pioneer landing craft , or pilabo for short, was a type of landing craft of the German army in World War II , which could be used for troop and supply landings on the open coast or as a ferry in general .
development
Since the Wehrmacht did not yet have a modern means of transport, especially not for landing tanks on coasts, such ferry boats were developed from the end of the 1930s. The best boat turned out to be the design of the Bodan shipyard in Kressbronn am Bodensee , which created the pioneer landing craft 39, which went into series production in 1940 and entered service in September 1940. The Pilabo 39 could be dismantled into two mirror-like longitudinal halves for rail transport. It was 15 m long, 4.7 m wide and had two diesel engines of 86 hp each, which gave the boat a speed of 20 km / h. With a dead weight of 20 tons, the Pilabo 39 had a load capacity of 20 tons.
The series of Pilabos 40s following the Pilabos 39 had the same engine system and the same dismantling capabilities as the Pilabos 39, but was larger: 19 m long, 5.93 m wide and 30 tons in weight.
Based on the experience with the Pilabos 39 and 40, the improved pioneer landing craft 41 was designed and built in series from 1942. The pilabos 41 were 19.3 m long and 5.93 m wide. Its empty weight was 35 t. They were propelled by two 120 hp engines, with which they reached a speed of 8 knots . The Pilabos 41 could carry loads of up to 40 tons. While the Pilabo 39 and 40 had a bow that opened to the left and right, from which transition rails were then placed between the cargo hold and the beach, the Pilabo 41 had a bow ramp that simultaneously served as a bow and, when folded down, as a bridge from the cargo hold to the beach. The boats could also be divided into two equal halves so that they could be loaded onto railway wagons for overland transport.
With the pioneer landing craft 43 a new dimension was reached. It was 35.5 m long, 8.60 m wide, had a weight of 145 tons and a load capacity of 95 tons on a loading area of 230 m². On the starboard side forward there was a weapon stand with a light anti-aircraft gun . The Pilabo 43 consisted of three rows of pontoons each with three pontoons and could therefore also be loaded by rail.
| designation | Pilabo 39 | Pilabo 40 | Pilabo 41 | Pilabo 43 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Displacement (construction) |
20 t | 30 t | 35 t | 145 t |
| length | 15 m | 19 m | 19.65 m | 35.5 m |
| width | 4.65 m | 5.95 m | 5.93 m | 8.60 m |
| Draft (empty) |
0.54 m | 0.50 m | 0.60 m | 0.65 m |
| speed | 8 kn | 9.2 kn | 10.8 kn | 8.3 kn |
| Load capacity | 10 t up to a swell of 4, 20 t in calm seas |
20 t in swell 4, 30 t in calm seas |
Max. 40 t | 100 t |
| crew | 7th | 7th | 10 |
commitment
The pilabos were grouped in landing craft trains. Several boats each formed a train. The first major maneuver tests of the Pilabos took place in March 1941 in the Baltic Sea on the sandy coast of the Pomeranian island of Wollin. Two freighters carried pilabos on deck and then put them on the water with their booms in order to land troops on the coast.
The first military use of the Pilabos took place in May 1941 with the landing craft train Africa on the North African coast unloading freighters with troops and supplies for the German Africa Corps . The pioneer landing craft were then used on all European coastal areas where the Wehrmacht needed transport, for example in the Black Sea , the Mediterranean , Norway , France and the Baltic Sea.
In the last months of the Second World War , the pilabos were also an important means of transport in the southern Baltic Sea for the escape of civilians and soldiers from the Red Army . The pioneer landing craft were used to transport people from coastal town to coastal town as well as to ships waiting off the coast that transported people to the west. As a reminder of these refugee transports ( Hannibal company ), a pioneer landing craft 41 is erected as a memorial on the Oberschleißheim airfield in Bavaria .
Individual evidence
- ↑ MARINE-RUNDSCHAU Born 1972, Issue 10, Article: Amphibian in Germany by Randolf Kugler. Publishing house Mittler & Sohn, Herford. Page 582
- ↑ MARINE-RUNDSCHAU Born 1972, Issue 10, Article: Amphibian in Germany by Randolf Kugler. Publishing house Mittler & Sohn, Herford.
literature
- Randolf Kugler: Landings in Germany since 1900 . Verlag Oberbaum, Berlin 1989. ISBN 3-926409-52-5 .