Troop crew bunker

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Troop crew bunkers were air raid bunkers built by the Navy during the air war in World War II from 1943 to protect members of the Navy and shipyard workers from Allied air raids.

history

At the end of 1942, the navy also had to deal with the escalating air situation over Germany. What was missing were adequate modern, bomb-proof shelters for the navy at the bases and shipyards.

T 750 in Wilhelmshaven

So at the end of the year it was decided to build a type of air raid shelter corresponding to the most modern aspects of the time, which was to be built in a standardized form within the entire territory of the empire from Emden to Königsberg. It was primarily built on the site of naval and communication schools. In the case of construction on naval school grounds, it was often located near the sports grounds there. In addition, it was built within naval barracks complexes or within shipyard areas managed by the Navy as a factory air raid shelter for the shipyard workers. The term “troop crew bunker” is made up of the terms “troop bunker” and “crew bunker” used in original documents. These air raid shelters were not purely standard structures of the navy, but merely standardized, series-built air raid shelters for this branch of the armed forces.

The 750-man bunkers were built in two waves. The first wave was realized between spring and autumn 1943. It comprised a bunker in Emden, four in Wilhelmshaven , three in Wesermünde ( Bremerhaven ), two in Bremen , one in Hamburg , three in Flensburg , four in Kiel (six were initially planned here), one in Swinemünde , two in Gotenhafen , three in Danzig , one in Pillau and one in Koenigsberg .

Later, from the beginning of 1944, a second wave of construction followed. A bunker was built in Emden, followed by a bunker in Wilhelmshaven on today's Schütteweg, one was built in Wesermünde (Bremerhaven), another near Peenemünde, as well as a bunker in Swinemünde (not completed) north of the first T 750, on the Hela peninsula ( not completed) and two in Gotenhafen, as well as two more in Gdansk. A 750-man bunker of the second construction wave also followed in the “ Koralle ” naval headquarters near Lobetal .

Troop crew bunker Langewerth

In addition to the troop crew bunker 750, variations were built. A four-storey type of bunker for 1,100 people was built in the first wave in Bremerhaven, and in the second wave in Langewerth near Wilhelmshaven in a modified form. In Kiel, a civilian self-protection variant of the T 1100 was created at the Schützenpark. In Wilhelmshaven, initially two planned T-750 bunkers were created to be unique. It is a double bunker for 1500 people, the high-rise bunker "Despite" on Ebertstrasse. This can therefore be referred to as T 1500. The "T" does not stand for a standard abbreviation, but only abbreviates the term troop crew bunker.

Troop crew bunker Langewerth

At least 13 other troop crew bunker variants were built as four-storey factory air raid bunkers ("Werftbunker LSB 1400") on the North Sea works in Emden, on Jacobistraße in Bremerhaven (not completed), on the Vulkan shipyard ( Vulkan culture bunker ), near the submarine bunker Hornet in Bremen, twice at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg (one of which is not completed), at the shipyard in Flensburg and at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock. Two of these bunkers were even built at the Opel works in Rüsselsheim, since during the war Opel also built torpedoes for the Navy in addition to building Wehrmacht vehicles. Bunkers 11 to 13 were built in the area of ​​the SKF plant, the Fichtel & Sachs plant and the Kugelfischer plant in Schweinfurt. The factories partly produced rolling bearings for the Navy. In these three bunkers, however, only two of the four originally planned floors were built due to a lack of building materials. The puffer fishing bunker is still there. A fourteenth, but three-storey variant was created in a modified design as a protective bunker for the Germania shipyard in Kiel. The fifteenth variant was a double bunker, composed of two regular factory air raid bunkers with at least 2500 places on the premises of AG Weser Bremen. The structure represents the largest variant of all troop crew bunkers. Variants 16, 17 and 18 were built on the site of the Klöckner steelworks in Osnabrück. Klöckner also produced some armaments for the Navy. The three bunkers were each only half as wide as a regular shipyard bunker, as there was only little free building space available on the factory premises. In addition, there was almost no building material left. All three were to have two floors each. However, this has only been done for the western bunker. The eastern bunker only had the first floor. An upper floor was omitted due to a lack of material. The third, southern bunker could no longer get beyond the realization of the lower areas of the outer walls and was removed again soon after the war. The three bunkers started in 1944 were designed for 350 spaces each.

construction

The 750-man bunker of the first construction wave had three storeys, initially offered 500 or 750 man space in the planning phase and had a base area of ​​21.00 x 21.60 meters. Its height was about eleven meters. Its ceiling height was projected to be 2.75 meters in the center of the roof. But already during construction this was increased by one meter to 3.75 meters in the middle of the roof. The bunkers each had two heavily bunkered splinter protection porches on the opposite sides. Often there were special command posts in the bunkers.

The troop crew bunker, which was originally intended for 500 people, was also released for 750 people soon after completion. Externally and internally, the 500-man type was no different from the 750-man version. In the 500-man bunker, every person seeking refuge had a regular 0.75 meter seat, while the 750-man bunker only had 0.50 meters.

State of preservation of the bunkers

The Mürwiker troop bunker on which a penthouse now stands

After two troop crew bunkers 750 had recently been demolished in Danzig and Kiel, the two T 750s on Hannoversche Straße in Wilhelmshaven were demolished in July / August 2012 for a new offshore production base. However, the Chinese investor resigned from his plans after the demolition. From September 15, 2014 to February 15, 2015, the two western T 750s on Lake Banter in Wilhelmshaven were demolished. An exclusive residential area is to be created here. An association campaigns for the preservation of the eastern bunker at the Banter ruins. The already mentioned largest troop bunker with 2500 places on the factory premises of AG Weser Bremen was demolished in 1992. Since mid-June 2015, the three bunkers in the east of the former Klöcknerwerk in Osnabrück, which had still existed until then, were demolished together with an adjacent factory building. Since the end of July 2015, the Kiel T 750 “Scharnhorstbunker” in the Wik naval base has been demolished in several weeks. "Space" should be created here for new construction projects. This means that there is now only one T 750 ("Flandernbunker") of what used to be four in Kiel.

Of the three T 750s in Flensburg, the one at the main building of the naval school is no longer preserved. On the edge of the Federal Motor Transport Authority in Mürwik , a blown up and filled in T 750 lies hidden under a mountain of bunkers. The Mürwik troop crew bunker on the edge of the Flensburg-Mürwik base received a penthouse on its roof in 2009 and has since been considered one of the most bizarre houses in Germany.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bunker in Flensburg , accessed on: May 15, 2015
  2. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : New Living in Mürwik: Penthouse on the Bunker , from: May 29, 2009; retrieved on: November 28, 2014 and: Flensburger Tageblatt : Flensburg: Luftnummer: Bauen auf dem Bunker , from: August 22, 2009; accessed on: May 15, 2015

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