Beowulf company
Company Beowulf was the code name for the conquest of the Estonian island Saaremaa ( German : Ösel) in the Baltic Sea from 13 to 27 September 1941 during the German attack on the Soviet Union ( Operation Barbarossa ).
The landing operation was covered by three sham operations of the Kriegsmarine - "North Wind", "West Wind" and "South Wind" - which were intended to divert the attention of the Soviet forces by simulating landings by German-Finnish naval forces in other places. The Finnish Navy suffered its worst loss with the sinking of the coastal armored ship Ilmarinen with 271 men of its crew .
The 61st Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht was gathered and prepared for landing in the area around the town of Virtsu ( Werder ) on the west coast of Estonia. The Baltic Sea Trial Association with its landing craft was responsible for landing the troops . The troops landed on the east side of the island of Muhu ( Moon ). From there, the further transition took place with assault boats to the island of Saaremaa.
On September 14th, the first wave of the 61st Infantry Division landed on Moon Island. On September 16, a bridgehead was formed on Ösel. From September 25 to 27, the Soviet defenders huddled on the Sõrve ( Sworbe ) peninsula were shot at by the light cruisers Leipzig and Emden and the torpedo boats T 7 , T 8 and T 11 .
On September 27, the company ended with the surrender of Soviet troops on the Sworbe peninsula.
The capture of the island of Dagö ( Hiiumaa in Estonian ) followed as the Siegfried company from October 12 to 21, 1941.
See also
- Operation Albion : Conquest of Saaremaa (Ösel), Hiiumaa (Dagö) and Muhu (Moon) by German troops during the First World War
swell
- ^ Schramm: War Diary of the OKW, 1940-1941, Volume 1, Part 2, p. 716. ( online )
- ^ The Siegfried Company in Rohwer: Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945