Weser (ship, 1931)
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The Weser was a fishery protection ship of the German Reichsmarine or Kriegsmarine , which later served as a clearing boat accompanying ship.
Construction and technical data
The ship was built in 1929-1931 at the Reichsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven . It was 48 m long and 8.30 m wide and measured 483 GRT . Its two Wumag diesel engines with 1,600 hp enabled a top speed of 14 knots . The ship was armed with a 8.8-cm L / 45 gun and a machine gun.
Fisheries Protection Service
The ship, like its sister ship Elbe , was assigned to the naval station of the North Sea and there to the "Vehicle Association of the North Sea" in the ship master division of the North Sea and was used from December 1, 1931 in fisheries protection in the North Sea and the North Atlantic. The main task was to look after the German sea fishing vessels with technical, medical and nautical assistance. From November 4, 1938 to May 2, 1939 there was a stay in the shipyard, during which the hull was extended to 54.30 m to improve seaworthiness.
Second World War
After the beginning of the Second World War , the ship was converted from September 4 to October 8, 1939 as an escort ship for mine clearance boats . It was also armed with two depth charges. The Weser then served until October 15, 1940 as a tender for the 11th clearing boat flotilla in the Baltic Sea, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, which was put together from Finkenwerder fishing cutters in September 1939 . With the dissolution of this flotilla on October 15, 1940 and the change of its crews to large mine clearance boats ("R 151" - "R 162") of the 7th clearing boat flotilla that was newly established in Holland on the same day , the Weser also joined the 7th flotilla which she stayed until the end of the war. The flotilla went to Trondheim in Norway in December 1940 , then in June 1941, with the start of the German attack on the Soviet Union , to Kirkenes on the so-called Arctic Front , from where the R-boats carried out escort duties in the Hammerfest -Kirkenes- Petsamo area. On the day of the German surrender (May 8, 1945), the ship with the 7th clearing boat flotilla was in Tromsø , where it fell into British hands.
Post-war service
After the end of the war, the ship served with the entire 7th clearing flotilla in the German Minesweeping Administration (GMSA), first in Norway and then in Denmark. After the dissolution of the GMSA, the Weser came to the successor organization, the Cuxhaven Mine Clearance Association (MRVC) on January 1, 1948 . When the MRVC was dissolved on June 30, 1951, the Weser was transferred to the newly established Royal Navy (MDG RN) together with three war fish cutters with demining equipment and the tanker Dievenow . The MDG RN did not operate these ships for very long. As early as 1953, after a period of time , the Weser was sold to the Netherlands as a trailer and then demolished there in 1954.
literature
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 2 : Special ships, auxiliary war ships, auxiliary ships, small ship formations . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968, p. 609 .
Footnotes
- ↑ At that time the flotilla consisted of the boats R 32, R 152, R 153, R 154, R 155, R 156, R 157, R 160 and R 173 as well as the escort ship Weser . (Source: http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/minen/mrdiv4-frames.htm )
- ↑ The essential tasks of the MRVC and large parts of its personnel and material were transferred to the Labor Service Unit (B) (LSU (B)) set up under US management .
- ^ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Report in the Hamburger Abendblatt dated December 11, 1953