German use of Antwerp Docks

[Tom from Cornwall]

Hi,

Does anyone know how much if any use was made of the Antwerp docks during the period May 1940 - September 1944 by the Germans? Any KM units based there or use for coastal shipping?

Regards

Tom

[steverodgers801]

Not for ocean traffic, but Im sure a lot for Rhine/Meuse river traffic

[Tom from Cornwall]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply but wouldn't Rhine/Meuse traffic go through Rotterdam?

My thinking is that after 1940, Antwerp would become a sleepy backwater with little traffic going through the docks and all those cranes etc rusting away through lack of use.

Regards

Tom

[Carl Schwamberger]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply but wouldn't Rhine/Meuse traffic go through Rotterdam? ...

A lot did but the Belgians were not altruisitc about this. They had a economic interest in capturing as much of that traffic for their transport. One of the reasons for building the Albert Cannal was to try to bypass Dutch segments of the Meause River.

....

My thinking is that after 1940, Antwerp would become a sleepy backwater with little traffic going through the docks and all those cranes etc rusting away through lack of use. ...

Antwerp was a 'though port' equiped and organized to dispatch cargo from seagoing ships to river barges and railcars as effciently as possible, and the reverese. When the Allies started using it in November 1944 they found its dry storage capacity in small portion to its discharge capacity. Other than placing Belgian products on barges for shipment to Germany there would not be much use while the Germans occupied it.

[Tom from Cornwall]

Hmm, interesting. In that case, I wonder if the Belgians keep dredging the channels through the Scheldt?

Next line of thinking will be whether the British mined the Scheldt at any point - most likely in 1940 I suppose.

Regards

Tom

[Knouterer]

From Peter C. Smith, Naval Warfare in the English Channel 1939-1945, p. 20:

"Brilliant (Lieutenant Commander F.C. Broderick) lived up to her name at Antwerp as the fighting moved down the coast. She arrived at that port on the evening of 10 May and succeeded in getting to safety a huge fleet that would otherwise have fallen into German hands. By 12 May twenty-six merchantmen and fifty invaluable tugs, followed two days later by no less than 600 barges, dredgers and floating cranes, were got away from the approaching Germans; an incredible achievement."

After that, Antwerp was one of the main ports where transports (about 50, plus 370 barges and various other vessels) for operation Sealion were assembled, as the Channel ports were to small to hold them all. The tugs would indeed have been invaluable for the Germans, as they were very short, and many barges would have been towed by trawlers instead, which were less suited to the job.

Photo shows the Rolandseck, 1845 GRT, part of the Seelöwe fleet as A30, sunk on 15 Sept. 1940 by a RAF attack on Antwerp. Note the wooden platform for a 20 mm AA gun.