MISCELLANEOUS VESSELS

The Kriegsmarine naturally had large numbers of miscellaneous vessels, many of which were built in very small numbers or were even ‘one-off’ types for special purposes. They included the following:

	1: Schnellbootsbegleitschiff Carl Peters This class of flotilla depot/escort ships was visually very similar to the Wilhelm Bauer class of U-Bootbegleitschiffe, but was about 20m shorter and around 2,000 tons lighter in displacement. In keeping with its largely static role its armament consists of anti-aircraft guns, the main weapons being two twin 10.5cm flak turrets. These replaced the lighter twin 8.8cm flak turrets originally installed, and were in turn replaced by two single 10.5cm turrets in 1944.
	2: Sperrbrecher
	The large number of different types of vessel were utilized in the role of ‘barrier-breaker’, leading Kriegsmarine warships in and out of port through minefield lanes. The example shown here is Sperrbrecher 1, which began life as the freighter Saar, built in 1935 by Deschimag in Bremen. She displaced 3,200 tons and was powered by two MAN 6-cylinder diesels, which gave her a speed of around 14 knots. She was armed with 2x 10.5cm, 6x 3.7cm and up to 12x 2cm guns. Like many Sperrbrecher she also carried her own barrage balloon. She was eventually scuttled in the docks at Brest in August 1944.
	3: Tross-schiff (Dithmarschen class)
	This is a typical example of the Dithmarschen class naval supply ship; all vessels within the class were built to near-identical specifications. Armament consisted of 3x 15cm guns which had previously been mounted on old torpedo boats. Since these ships had originally been designed with the capability of serving as auxiliary cruisers – commerce raiders – one gun was concealed behind folding panels at the side of the bridge, and another inside a false deckhouse at the stern. In addition 2x 3.7cm and between 4x and 8x 2cm flak guns were carried. Unlike many other auxiliary supply ships the Dithmarschen class was specifically built for naval rather than civil use.
	4: Lazarettschiff Robert Ley
	Named after the head of the Nazi DAF (Deutsches Arbeits Front), she and her ill-fated sister ship Wilhelm Gustloff were built as cruise liners for the Kraft durch Freude (‘Strength through Joy’) movement, which gave working-class Germans the chance to enjoy the type of holiday until then the preserve of the wealthy. She is shown here in her guise as a hospital ship in late 1939.

U-Bootsbegleitschiff Saar, the first of the U-boat depot ships, was originally classed as a fleet tender before being allocated to the first operational flotilla of Germany’s new U-boat arm. (Deutsches U-Boot-Museum)

The ocean liner Robert Ley, shown here pre-war as a cruise ship with the ‘Strength through Joy’ movement, ended up as an accommodation ship with the Kriegsmarine. Her sister ship Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk in the Baltic in January 1945 with the greatest loss of life ever recorded in a single maritime disaster. (Deutsches U-Boot-Museum)

State yacht

Built by Blohm &Voss and commissioned in May 1935, Aviso Grille was Germany’s state yacht. She was used on a number of occasions by Hitler to host visiting foreign dignitaries during naval reviews and other formal occasions, as well as making several goodwill visits to various countries including Great Britain. Grille was used as a test-bed for the high-pressure steam turbines being produced for the Navy’s new destroyers. On the outbreak of war she reverted to an operational military role, and was used to lay mines off the French coast. She was later transferred to the Baltic, and from her base at Swinemünde she carried out predominantly patrol work. Thereafter she was used for gunnery training duties until the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 when she once again took up minelaying duties, this time in the Baltic, before returning to gunnery training. After a refit in 1942 she sailed for Norwegian waters, where she remained as a base ship for the remainder of the war. Grille passed into British hands at the end of the war and was subsequently sold off into civilian ownership. She was eventually scrapped in the USA in 1951.

Specifications:
Length	135m	Powerplant	2x Blohm & Voss steam turbines
Beam	13.5m	Top speed	26 knots
Displacement	3,430 tons	Endurance	9,500 nautical miles
Armament	2x 10.5cm guns, 2x 3.7cm flak, 2x 2cm flak; up to 228 mines	Crew	250

Versuchsboote

Literally ‘test boats’, these were generally old ships, usually veterans of World War I which were too outdated for operational use and were simply retained as test-beds for new equipment or methods. Some did see occasional active service, however, being used as support vessels during the invasions of Norway and Denmark. A few of the newer boats did see service throughout the war; for example, Versuchsboot Pelikan, a former mine warfare test boat of the Kaiserliche Marine, served on convoy escort duties in the Kattegat throughout the war, and was considered worth being taken over by the Americans in 1945.

Some of these vessels, like Pelikan and Claus von Bevern, had been built as warships; others had civilian origins – like the Welle, built as a fishing boat. These boats were simply classed together by purpose rather than by design or type. Thirteen vessels were so designated, as follows: Versuchsboot Acheron, Versuchsboot Arkona, Versuchsboot Claus von Bevern, Versuchsboot Grille, Versuchsboot Hecht, Versuchsboot Johann Wittenborg, Versuchsboot Nautilus, Versuchsboot Otto Braun, Versuchsboot Pelikan, Versuchsboot Störtebecker, Versuchsboot Strahl, Versuchsboot Sundewall and Versuchsboot Welle.

Schulschiffe

In addition to existing older ships inhertited from the Kaiserliche Marine and Reichsmarine, two newly built vessels were designated as school ships – the Brummer and Bremse.

Brummer was launched in May 1935 at Deschimag in Bremen and commissioned in February 1936. As well as her intended duties in training anti-aircraft crews, it was planned that when necessary she could act as an auxiliary minelayer, and in that capacity she could carry up to 450 mines. Brummer’s main armament consisted of twin 10.5cm heavy flak mounts of the same type as used on most of Germany’s heavy warships. It is interesting to note that she was used as a test-bed for the new high-pressure steam turbines that would be fitted into Germany’s destroyer fleet, and that on Brummer they were found to work well, in contrast to their highly problematic performance on the destroyers.

Serving initially at the Küstenartillerieschule at Swinemünde, on the outbreak of war Brummer transferred to minelaying duties and in April 1940 was allocated to the invasion forces being assembled for the invasion of Norway and Denmark. On 14 April she was hit by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS Starlet, and the resultant explosion blew off almost her entire foredeck. Despite several hours of desperate attempts to save her, she rolled over and sank early on 15 April.

Specifications:
Length	113m	Powerplant	2x 8,000hp high-pressure steam turbines
Beam	13.5m	Top speed	23 knots
Displacement	3,010 tons	Endurance	2,400 nautical miles
Armament	8x 10.5cm flak, 2x 8.8 cm flak, 8x 3.7cm flak, 4x 2cm flak	Crew	238 (including trainees)

Considerably smaller than Brummer, the Bremse was launched in January 1931 at the Kriegsmarine Werft in Wilhelmshaven and commissioned into the Navy in July 1932. Until 1939 Bremse served in her intended role as a training ship for naval anti-aircraft crews. On the outbreak of war she was allocated to escort duties for minelaying and troop ships in the Baltic before returning briefly to training duties.

In April 1940, however, like Brummer, she was allocated to the invasion forces for Unternehmen Weserübung. During the invasion of Norway she suffered three direct hits from heavy shore batteries, but was able to land the troops she was carrying and continue, sinking some minor Norwegian naval vessels before running aground. She was forced into Stavanger for repairs and was out of action for three months before she could return to Germany.

The Aviso Grille was Germany’s state yacht, often used to host foreign dignitaries at naval events pre-war. During wartime her duties included acting as an auxiliary minelayer. (Deutsches U-Boot-Museum)

The Artillerieschuleschiff Bremse, the smaller of Germany’s two purpose-built gunnery training ships. Used as an escort ship during the war, she was sunk in a gun battle with British cruisers in September 1941 while escorting a convoy in the North Sea. (Deutsches U-Boot-Museum)

Bremse was operating in the North Sea when, on 30 July 1941, she came under heavy attack by Fairey Albacore torpedo-bombers and Fairey Fulmar fighters from the British carrier HMS Victorious, but escaped any serious damage. In early September 1941, operating from a base in Norway, Bremse, together with an armed trawler and a torpedo boat, was escorting a convoy heading towards the Murmansk front when, on the night of 8 September, the convoy was intercepted by a British naval force consisting of the cruisers HMS Aurora and Nigeria supported by destroyers. The German warships engaged, but in the nocturnal artillery duel that followed all three of them were sunk; Bremse took 160 of her crew down with her. The sacrifice of the three small warships allowed the convoy to escape unscathed.

Specifications:
Length	103.5m	Powerplant	2x 8-cylinder 28,000hp MAN diesels
Beam	9.5m	Top speed	29 knots
Displacement	1,870 tons	Endurance	8,000 nautical miles
Armament	4x 12.7cm guns, 4x 3.7cm flak, 8x 2cm flak	Crew	290 (including trainees)

Apart from these two purpose-built Artillerieschulschiffe, the following older vessels were also classed as Schulboote: Artillerieschuleboot Hay, Artillerieschulboot Fuchs, Artillerieschulboot Jungmann and Artillerieschulboot Delphin.

SEGELSCHULSCHIFF HORST WESSEL, LATE 1930S Probably the most aesthetically pleasing of all of the Kriegsmarine’s vessels were the Segelschulschiffe. Three almost identical sister ships were built between 1933 and 1937: the Horst Wessel, Gorch Fock and Albert Leo Schlageter. Around 90m in length and displacing between 1,550 and 1,750 tons, these steel-hulled, three-masted barques were intended to give officer and petty officer candidates of the German Navy a taste of life ‘before the mast’ and an opportunity to learn the traditional skills of seamanship. Although many of these might not have been applicable to service on modern warships, the character-building element of these training cruises was undeniable. These ships did carry armament for training purposes, consisting of a small number of 2cm flak guns. At the outbreak of war they were relegated to more mundane tasks such as floating administrative offices or transport vessels. It is a testament to the soundness of their design and construction that all three are still in existence today, and two are still in seagoing service – albeit not in the service of their nation of origin.

This plate shows Horst Wessel in her glory days, running under full sail across the Atlantic on a pre-war training cruise to the Caribbean. The diesel auxiliary motor would be used to manoeuvre the ship in and out of port and for periods of total calm. Otherwise, the full power of the wind in her almost 2,000 square metres of sail would be more than sufficient to propel her across the waves. Note the large eagle-and-swastika figurehead; this was removed on the outbreak of war. Ironically, she still bears a similar figurehead today (though without the swastika) in her current guise as the US Coast Guard cutter Eagle.

The Artillerieschuleschiff Mars was a converted freighter which served as a training ship with the naval anti-aircraft and coastal artillery school at Swinemünde. She was armed with 3.7cm and 2cm flak guns. (Deutsches U-Boot-Museum)

The 1,500-ton oceanic research vessel Vermessungsschiff Meteor is shown here, above a ribbon tally from her crew’s caps. Lightly armed, with one 8.8cm and two 2cm flak guns, she spent most of the war as a floating command post for various naval commands. (Deutsches U-Boot-Museum)

There was also a diver training boat, Taucherschulboot Taucher, and two designated simply as school boats – Schulboot Spree and Schulboot Freyr. Schulboot Spree was for a time the home of the so-called Unterseebootsabwehrschule which, despite being named as an anti-submarine warfare school, was actually an establishment for secretly training new U-boat crews before Germany began openly re-arming. Both Spree and Freyr were former fishing vessels taken over by the military.

Fischereischutzboote

Three Kriegsmarine vessels were designated for fishery protection duties, these being Fischereischutzboot Zieten, and the sister ships Fischereischutzboot Elbe and Fischereischutzboot Weser. Both Elbe and Weser were built in 1931 and served in the fishery protection service until 1938, at which point they and Zieten were refitted as tenders for R-boats. They saw service in the English Channel, the Baltic and in Norway. After the war they served with the GMSA, operating out of Cuxhaven; Elbe was handed over to the USSR in December 1945.

Vermessungsschiffe

Two vessels were designated as oceanic research ships, Vermessungsschiff Meteor and Vermessungsschiff Panther. Both were veterans of World War I, originally built as gunboats for the Kaiser’s navy. The Kriegsmarine made use of such boats before the outbreak of war (the Meteor completed research trips to study the Gulf Stream and the waters of the far North Atlantic), but by September 1939 both had been decommissioned. Meteor was brought back into service in 1940 and remained in use as a research ship, based first in Denmark and then in Norway; she ended the war back in Germany, where she was handed over to the USSR.