Hi
I wonder if anyone could point me to any sources (books, internet) that deal with the activities of the Navy in the fighting in East Prussia in 1945. Not only the support for the ground forces, but also their role in the evacuation of civilians from Pillau etc.
Any help appreciated
Thanks
Paul
German Navy and East Prussia, 1945
Try http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/45-01.htm.
Scroll down to 25.01.1945.
Scroll down to 25.01.1945.
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here are several titles worth mentioning.
Heinz Schön..... Ostsee 45, menschen, Schiffe, Schicksale. the book is huge and a must. Motorbuch verlag
Heinz Schön...... Flucht über die Ostsee 44/45 im bild. 228 pages, 700 photos.
Charles W. Koburger, Jr....... Steel Ships, Iron Crosses and Refugees
Wolfgang Müller...... Schiffsschicksale Ostsee 1945, bild u. dokumente
several books on Prinz Eugen since it did off shore bombardments. Paul Schmalenbach's book comes to mind.
Whitley.....German capital ships, Destroyers and Cruisers books covers late war developments in the Baltic.
try a google search as well
some of the S-booten books as well. Gerhard Hümmelchens classic Schnellboote im Zweiten Weltkreig is excellent although brief on that portion of the conflict.
E ~
Heinz Schön..... Ostsee 45, menschen, Schiffe, Schicksale. the book is huge and a must. Motorbuch verlag
Heinz Schön...... Flucht über die Ostsee 44/45 im bild. 228 pages, 700 photos.
Charles W. Koburger, Jr....... Steel Ships, Iron Crosses and Refugees
Wolfgang Müller...... Schiffsschicksale Ostsee 1945, bild u. dokumente
several books on Prinz Eugen since it did off shore bombardments. Paul Schmalenbach's book comes to mind.
Whitley.....German capital ships, Destroyers and Cruisers books covers late war developments in the Baltic.
try a google search as well
some of the S-booten books as well. Gerhard Hümmelchens classic Schnellboote im Zweiten Weltkreig is excellent although brief on that portion of the conflict.
E ~
book title
... jast a quick add:
Horst Steigleder
Die Kriegsmarine und der Ostfeldzug
ISBN 3-89793-045-5
Greetings from Austria
Peter K.
Horst Steigleder
Die Kriegsmarine und der Ostfeldzug
ISBN 3-89793-045-5
Greetings from Austria
Peter K.
book details
Hello ERICH!
324 pages, several (low quality) pics ... a nice, but not outstanding work!
Peter K.
324 pages, several (low quality) pics ... a nice, but not outstanding work!
Peter K.
Steuben Article
The latest issue of National Geographic (February 2005) has an article on "Steuben" which was sunk by the Soviet Sub S-13(which also sunk the wihelm Gustloff) in Feb'45. The ship had departed from Pillau with an unofficial 4500-5000 people on board of which barely 6-700 survived the sinking. There are some interesting sonar images of the wreck itself as well as photographs taken by divers of the recently located resting place of the ship which are compared with archived photos of the ship in its 'hospital' mode plus many 1st hand accounts of the sinking.
Cheers
Cheers
Baltic Evacuations 1945
If you can get a copy of the New Orleans Picayune Sunday edition newspaper dated 2/13/2005, there is a long article on a veteran of the liner Steuben who lives here and recounts his ordeal.
AHK
AHK
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There is an interesting anecdote about German Navy during the evacuation of East Prussia in 1945 from James Lucas's excellent Last Days of the Reich (2002).
I forgot the page but it stated when there was a tugboat which is going very slow (2-3 knots) and was overloaded when refugees which were mostly women and children. At the same time gauleiter Erich Koch's yacht was making speed and the yacht was only occupied by Koch's entourage. The yacht ignored signals from the German Navy to assist in towing the tugboat. A Kriegsmarine launch caught up with the speeding yacht and it asked the captain of the yacht to turn back and tow the tugboat. Gauleiter Koch browbeat the Kriegsmarine officer and the launch turn away. Thinking that he has won a battle, Koch was jubilant until his eyes saw the guns of a German destroyer pointing at his yacht. Either you helped in the evacuation or be destroyed.
Regards
Panzermahn
I forgot the page but it stated when there was a tugboat which is going very slow (2-3 knots) and was overloaded when refugees which were mostly women and children. At the same time gauleiter Erich Koch's yacht was making speed and the yacht was only occupied by Koch's entourage. The yacht ignored signals from the German Navy to assist in towing the tugboat. A Kriegsmarine launch caught up with the speeding yacht and it asked the captain of the yacht to turn back and tow the tugboat. Gauleiter Koch browbeat the Kriegsmarine officer and the launch turn away. Thinking that he has won a battle, Koch was jubilant until his eyes saw the guns of a German destroyer pointing at his yacht. Either you helped in the evacuation or be destroyed.
Regards
Panzermahn
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Lucas ... a real qualitiy "researcher" ...
It was Gauleiter Forster and the "destroyer" was the Torpedboot T-27 , see :
Dieckert/Großmann "Der Kampf um Ostpreußen"
The incident is mentioned , too , in the following books :
Fritz Brustat-Naval "Unternehmen Rettung"
Egbert Kieser "Danziger Bucht 1945"
Jan-Hendrik
It was Gauleiter Forster and the "destroyer" was the Torpedboot T-27 , see :
Source :Am 27. März sicherten zwei Torpedoboote die "Lützow" bei ihrer Unterstützung des Heeres im Raum Danzig. Nach einem Luftangriff der Russen erkannten die Männer auf T23 eine überfüllte Hafenfähre, die stark qualmend bewegungsunfähig auf dem Wasser lag und Notsignale gesetzt hatte. Ein feindlicher Flieger stürtzte sich feuernd auf das Schiff. Viele Verwundete lagen an Deck, dringend war Hilfe nötig.
Von der Küste näherte sich mit hoher Fahrt ein zweites anscheinend leeres Schiff. Es war ein Salondampfer, der ohne sich um die Hafenfähre zu kümmern weiterfuhr.
Den Kommandanten von T23 packte gelinder Zorn . Er ließ den Dampfer anrufen und hinübersignalisieren:
"Was halten Sie von Hilfeleistung auf See? Nehmen Sie die Fähre im Schlepp mit nach Hela!"
Prompt kommt die kaltschnauzige Antwort:
"Hier Gauleiter Forster. Sie haben uns nichts zu befehlen!"
Nach dieser verblüffenden Lösung des Rätsels drehten beide Torpedoboote auf den Dampfer zu und liefen rasch zu ihm auf. Die Richtschützen der Zweicentimeter Flak kurbelten ihre Rohre bis sie genau auf den Dampfer des Gauleiters zeigten. Drüben wurde diese Geste offenbar richtig verstanden, denn der Dampfer stoppte und ein paar Herren in Stiefeln und langen Mänteln stürzten aufgeregt unter Deck. Die Kommandanten von T23 und T28 meldeten den Vorfall Vizeadmiral Thiele und baten um freie Hand. Dieser stimmte sofort zu. Der Dampfer soll notfalls mit Gewalt zur Hilfeleistung gezwungen werden. Als T23 auf Rufweite heran war, ließ Kapitän-Leutnant Weilig sich die Flüstertüte reichen. Doch Forster der inzwischen auf dem Deck erschienen war kam ihm zuvor: "Hier spricht Gauleiter Forster von Danzig-Westpreußen!. Ich werde Sie zur Rechenschaft ziehen!"
Der Kommandant gab zurück: "Und hier spricht Kapitän-Leutnant Weilig. Dies ist ein Befehl. Veranlassen Sie sofort, daß Ihr Dampfer die Fähre abschleppt, sonst wird geschossen. Der Dampfer gehorchte und schleppte die Fähre ab.
Dieckert/Großmann "Der Kampf um Ostpreußen"
The incident is mentioned , too , in the following books :
Fritz Brustat-Naval "Unternehmen Rettung"
Egbert Kieser "Danziger Bucht 1945"
Jan-Hendrik
A newcomer, perhaps too naive, attempts to join conversation here.
This tale of the Gualeiter and his yacht, alongside the famed escape of Breslau's Fortress Commander in Spring of '45, often serve to show the corruption of the German society as viewed through our eyes, the 'victors' of that war.
Some quiet reading at night, over some many years, reveals that such apparent arrogance and selfishness is NOT a purely Teutonic, or for that matter, National Socialist, general trait.
From my country's version of European civilization I offer a little tale that my father provided us, his two boys. at one moment in his career US Air Force experience in Viet Nam.
There was his airplane filled to the gills with frozen steaks from the USA that he landed in Saigon . These items were donated, he told us, for the 'troops' fighting in Viet Nam -- the source proved to be a large US supermarket warehouse company based on the shipping container labels.
Now. The plane lands.
And some special military folks show up to take this cargo into 'protective custody'.
--Folks alarmingly, but not so suprisingly, identified even without the crimson stripes showing down their uniform pant legs.
My Pop feigned emergency aircraft problems and headed off before these jackals could off-load the steaks to the Saigon officer and diplomatic rest area.
His later emergency landing, unplanned and unprepared, was an odd Marine - Army air strip quite outside the comforts of Saigon.
...where he and other front-line guys enjoyed these great steaks.
So I say, forget about this guy and his yacht. That was not a German man any more than those fat idiots in Saigon were true Americans.
This tale of the Gualeiter and his yacht, alongside the famed escape of Breslau's Fortress Commander in Spring of '45, often serve to show the corruption of the German society as viewed through our eyes, the 'victors' of that war.
Some quiet reading at night, over some many years, reveals that such apparent arrogance and selfishness is NOT a purely Teutonic, or for that matter, National Socialist, general trait.
From my country's version of European civilization I offer a little tale that my father provided us, his two boys. at one moment in his career US Air Force experience in Viet Nam.
There was his airplane filled to the gills with frozen steaks from the USA that he landed in Saigon . These items were donated, he told us, for the 'troops' fighting in Viet Nam -- the source proved to be a large US supermarket warehouse company based on the shipping container labels.
Now. The plane lands.
And some special military folks show up to take this cargo into 'protective custody'.
--Folks alarmingly, but not so suprisingly, identified even without the crimson stripes showing down their uniform pant legs.
My Pop feigned emergency aircraft problems and headed off before these jackals could off-load the steaks to the Saigon officer and diplomatic rest area.
His later emergency landing, unplanned and unprepared, was an odd Marine - Army air strip quite outside the comforts of Saigon.
...where he and other front-line guys enjoyed these great steaks.
So I say, forget about this guy and his yacht. That was not a German man any more than those fat idiots in Saigon were true Americans.
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Hi Jan-Hendrik,Jan-Hendrik wrote:Lucas ... a real qualitiy "researcher" ...
It was Gauleiter Forster and the "destroyer" was the Torpedboot T-27 , see :
Source :Am 27. März sicherten zwei Torpedoboote die "Lützow" bei ihrer Unterstützung des Heeres im Raum Danzig. Nach einem Luftangriff der Russen erkannten die Männer auf T23 eine überfüllte Hafenfähre, die stark qualmend bewegungsunfähig auf dem Wasser lag und Notsignale gesetzt hatte. Ein feindlicher Flieger stürtzte sich feuernd auf das Schiff. Viele Verwundete lagen an Deck, dringend war Hilfe nötig.
Von der Küste näherte sich mit hoher Fahrt ein zweites anscheinend leeres Schiff. Es war ein Salondampfer, der ohne sich um die Hafenfähre zu kümmern weiterfuhr.
Den Kommandanten von T23 packte gelinder Zorn . Er ließ den Dampfer anrufen und hinübersignalisieren:
"Was halten Sie von Hilfeleistung auf See? Nehmen Sie die Fähre im Schlepp mit nach Hela!"
Prompt kommt die kaltschnauzige Antwort:
"Hier Gauleiter Forster. Sie haben uns nichts zu befehlen!"
Nach dieser verblüffenden Lösung des Rätsels drehten beide Torpedoboote auf den Dampfer zu und liefen rasch zu ihm auf. Die Richtschützen der Zweicentimeter Flak kurbelten ihre Rohre bis sie genau auf den Dampfer des Gauleiters zeigten. Drüben wurde diese Geste offenbar richtig verstanden, denn der Dampfer stoppte und ein paar Herren in Stiefeln und langen Mänteln stürzten aufgeregt unter Deck. Die Kommandanten von T23 und T28 meldeten den Vorfall Vizeadmiral Thiele und baten um freie Hand. Dieser stimmte sofort zu. Der Dampfer soll notfalls mit Gewalt zur Hilfeleistung gezwungen werden. Als T23 auf Rufweite heran war, ließ Kapitän-Leutnant Weilig sich die Flüstertüte reichen. Doch Forster der inzwischen auf dem Deck erschienen war kam ihm zuvor: "Hier spricht Gauleiter Forster von Danzig-Westpreußen!. Ich werde Sie zur Rechenschaft ziehen!"
Der Kommandant gab zurück: "Und hier spricht Kapitän-Leutnant Weilig. Dies ist ein Befehl. Veranlassen Sie sofort, daß Ihr Dampfer die Fähre abschleppt, sonst wird geschossen. Der Dampfer gehorchte und schleppte die Fähre ab.
Dieckert/Großmann "Der Kampf um Ostpreußen"
The incident is mentioned , too , in the following books :
Fritz Brustat-Naval "Unternehmen Rettung"
Egbert Kieser "Danziger Bucht 1945"
Jan-Hendrik
I checked back Lucas's book about this incident and I found it was me who made the mistake. Lucas indeed stated it was Gauleiter Albert Foerster not Koch as I had mentioned about the incident.
Apologies for the mistake.
Thanks for your info.
Panzermahn