Sachsenwald (ship, 1939)
The Sachsenwald was a German trawler that was used by the Navy during World War II as a weather observation ship in the North Atlantic and later as an outpost boat in the Bay of Biscay .
Construction and technical data
The ship was launched in June 1939 with the hull number 631 on the Seebeck Werft the AG Weser in Bremerhaven from the stack . It was 62.85 m long and 8.53 m wide, had a draft of 4.43 m and was measured at 639 GRT . A triple expansion steam engine with 1000 hp gave a top speed of 12.5 knots . The ship was based in Cuxhaven and had the fishing license number PC-318.
Base north
The Navy considered since the signing, on 28 September 1939 of the German-Soviet border and friendship treaty on Soviet territory in space Murmansk a base for repair and supply of submarines to set up. For this purpose, the Soviet Union finally offered the Sapadnaya Liza Fjord northwest of Murmansk on the south bank of Motovsky Bay . There was, however, no maritime or other infrastructure whatsoever, so that the planned North Base basically had to be made up of residential, workshop and supply ships. First of all, the Navy therefore had the supplies needed to supply submarines brought to Murmansk and reloaded onto some of the German merchant ships that were moored there. Important special equipment, including the decryption codes for radio messages transmitted from Norddeich , was brought to Murmansk by the Sachsenwald , which continued to fish for camouflage and arrived in Murmansk at the end of November.
On the 1st – 2nd In December 1939, the first two HAPAG ships Phenicia and the Cordillera, intended as a barge , were moved from Murmansk to Sapadnaja Liza. The Sachsenwald did not follow until December 9th, because the Soviets had stopped them with bureaucratic pretexts. She was supposed to return to Germany after her unloading, fishing en route, but the Soviets blocked this initially and demanded that she should serve them as a liaison ship between Murmansk and Base North. In the end she left and returned to Germany in January 1940.
Weather observation ship
After her return in January 1940 she was requisitioned by the Navy and then converted into a weather observation ship in the summer. She was given the designation "Weather observation ship 7" (WBS 7). The commanding officer was the experienced trawler captain Ernst Wilhelm Schütte , who held the rank of lieutenant at sea as a special commander . The ship then went from Northern Norway for four weeks, alternating with other weather observation vessels , to the positions assigned to it in the North Sea or in the Denmark Strait , in order to supply the naval war command and German submarines and surface trade disruptors with weather reports.
The Sachsenwald became known because on May 28, 1941, she was able to recover the last two surviving crew members of the battleship Bismarck sunk the day before in the North Atlantic. She had just finished a 50-day mission off the south-east coast of Greenland when she received the order on May 27 to go into the sea area where the Bismarck sank. There she first found traces of oil on May 28, then wreckage, corpses in life jackets, empty life jackets and finally a life raft with two sailors. Despite another search the following day, no other survivors were found. The Sachsenwald then marched to the Gironde , where the two Bismarck men could go ashore in Royan on June 1st .
Outpost boat
Since further use as a weather observation ship was no longer planned, the Sachsenwald was converted into an outpost boat, armed with an 8.8 cm gun, and assigned to the 4th outpost flotilla with the number V 414 . The flotilla was moved from the North Sea to Bordeaux and Bayonne in 1940 after the occupation of the west coast of France and operated in the Bay of Biscay . The boat provided security and escort service there.
Sinking
On August 6, 1944, the boat was part of the security of a small convoy that was supposed to bring ammunition from Saint-Nazaire to La Pallice / La Rochelle . The convoy consisted of two small coasters and was secured by the fast escort boat SG 3 , the two minesweepers M 263 (10th minesweeping flotilla) and M 486 (26th minesweeping flotilla), the coastal kabelleger Hoheweg and the outpost boat V 414 . The convoy left Saint-Nazaire on the night of August 5th and 6th and was intercepted shortly after midnight north of the Île d'Yeu by the British-Canadian Force 26, which was responsible for supplying the remaining German bases on the as part of Operation Kinetic Sought to prevent the Bay of Biscay coast. The Force 26 consisted of the light cruiser HMS Bellona and the destroyers HMS Ashanti , HMS Tartar , HMCS Haida and HMCS Iroquois . The destroyers waited until they could advance between the convoy and the coast. At 0:34 a.m., Force 26 opened fire, with the Bellona limited to firing flare ammunition from the seaside to illuminate the battlefield, while the destroyers attacked the escorting escorts at close range. At 2:22 a.m. six of the German ships were sunk. Only SG 3 managed to escape, but was sunk by RAF bombs that same evening in the roadstead at Les Sables-d'Olonne .
The wreck of the Sachsenwald / V 414 lies broken into three parts at a depth of about 55 m. The forecastle is still quite well preserved and the 8.8 cm gun is still in place. Lots of 8.8 and anti-aircraft ammunition is lying around.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ After the German occupation of Norway , which began on April 9, 1940 with the invasion of the most important ports, Base North lost its strategic importance and was then only a symbol of Soviet-German military cooperation. In mid-June 1940, the Phenicia was the last German ship to leave the Sapadnaja Liza.
- ↑ Schütte was awarded the Knight's Cross for the War Merit Cross with Swords on August 12, 1944 .
- ↑ Fischdampfer “Sachsenwald”: Report on the use in the rescue operation “Bismarck” May 30, 1941 (accessed May 7, 2013; PDF; 170 kB)
- ^ Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart: Jürgen Rohwer / Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the Maritime War 1939–1945: Outpost Flotillas 1939–1945 (accessed May 7, 2013)
- ^ The Otto (217 BRT) and a Kümo unknown by name.
- ↑ There is a certain degree of ambiguity with regard to the Hoheweg , as it is also sometimes referred to as the outpost boat V 1549 and the supplier.