WW II German Minefields in English Channel

Discussions on all (non-biographical) aspects of the Kriegsmarine except those dealing with the U-Boat forces.
Post Reply
gene2700
Member
Posts: 2
Joined: 25 Dec 2006, 16:56
Location: Washington, DC USA

WW II German Minefields in English Channel

#1

Post by gene2700 » 25 Dec 2006, 18:09

Am starting a research project on German mineing of the English Channel during WW II and am looking for reference material (in English) to get me started.

At this point I would welcome "any" suggestions as to reference material dealing with this subject, i.e. types of mines, "locations of fields", replenishment of fields, how planted, and most importantly, success of the Channel fields during the pre-D Day/D day periods.

Would like to hear from anyone who has knowledge of this subject, either on-line or off-line.

gene 2700

User avatar
Vesper
Member
Posts: 497
Joined: 25 Feb 2003, 18:12
Location: Great Britain

#2

Post by Vesper » 29 Dec 2006, 16:44

My grandfathers ship, HMS Vesper, was caught in a minefield with her engines failed 8O I'll look about & see what records I can find to help. I think they were quite effective as a number of ships were sunk or damanged due to mines. It may be quite a confusing topic to study as the British laid mines in the Channel as well as the Germans.

Regards,

-Vesper


User avatar
himmelhund
Member
Posts: 124
Joined: 31 Oct 2005, 14:39
Location: Mol Vlaanderen

#3

Post by himmelhund » 30 Dec 2006, 14:15

hi gene2700,

Image

This is a plan of all available mines used by the Germans. by John Lambert

Image

This is a photo af all the german minefields laid during WWII. This photo is off the book 'Minenschiffe 1939-1945' by K.Kutzleben , W.Schroeder , J.Brennecke (Koehler Verlag) text in german. In this book is all the info off all the minefields with there names , ships and type of mines used.There is an other photo of all minefields in the Med

i.e. Minefield 20 'Pommern'

The mineships 'Brummer' and 'Köningin Luise' are receiving mines in Cuxhaven (10 January 1941) Brummer receives 800 Sprengbojen , the Köningin Luise takes 200 EMC mines. That same day they transfer to Kiel , where mineship Tannenberg had taken onboard some 396 EMC mines . Under command of 'Chefs Minenschiffe Gruppe Nord ' onboard Tannenberg , these 3 ships set sail to Stavanger....... This is a small summary of a much larger text.

regards,

Himmelhund

User avatar
himmelhund
Member
Posts: 124
Joined: 31 Oct 2005, 14:39
Location: Mol Vlaanderen

#4

Post by himmelhund » 30 Dec 2006, 18:37

Hallo gene2700,

Most of the minefield laid in the Channel were done by destroyers, torpedoboats and minesweepers. The reason for this is very obvious , these boats were fast and armed when the enemy was encountered. i.e when 2 german destroyers were laying a minefield ( I do not recall directly which destroyers it where) parallel with them , there were sailing 2 enemy destroyers. One of the german destroyers fired a spread of torpedoes towards them , hitting the HMS Kelly. The british were thinking they had hit a mine. Heavely damaged the HMS Kelly reached harbour.

regards,

Himmelhund

User avatar
Mark McShane
Member
Posts: 337
Joined: 10 Sep 2003, 04:00
Location: United Kingdom
Contact:

#5

Post by Mark McShane » 02 Jan 2007, 21:40

Gene,

"Chronology Of The War At Sea 1939-1945" by Jurgen Rohwer, is a good reference book. Gives plenty of entries for mining operations in the English channel/North Sea. Not great for indepth details of each operation oir engagement but will certainly get you started and help you narrow/guide your research.

Cheers,

Mark

User avatar
I B Piper
Member
Posts: 366
Joined: 27 Nov 2005, 16:49
Location: Albemarle, Virginia

British Mine

#6

Post by I B Piper » 03 Jan 2007, 11:54

Hello gene2700,

Here's a picture of a British mine from the same period. Not much different from some of the German mines.

Cheers,
I B Piper
Attachments
British Mine.jpg
British Mine.jpg (144.68 KiB) Viewed 5430 times

User avatar
Vesper
Member
Posts: 497
Joined: 25 Feb 2003, 18:12
Location: Great Britain

#7

Post by Vesper » 05 Jan 2007, 13:20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_mine

This may also be of some interest

User avatar
faf_476
Member
Posts: 758
Joined: 31 Dec 2006, 20:36
Location: Philippines

#8

Post by faf_476 » 10 Jan 2007, 04:43

During D-day German heer forces were lack of mines, that's why the Allied forces succesfully landed.
I think this would help;
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-wea ... _ww2-2.htm
(statement about the mines is on the lowest part)
:)

User avatar
fredleander
Member
Posts: 2175
Joined: 03 Dec 2004, 21:49
Location: Stockholm
Contact:

#9

Post by fredleander » 26 Jan 2007, 15:01

Coldmeter wrote:Gene,

"Chronology Of The War At Sea 1939-1945" by Jurgen Rohwer, is a good reference book. Gives plenty of entries for mining operations in the English channel/North Sea. Not great for indepth details of each operation oir engagement but will certainly get you started and help you narrow/guide your research.

Cheers,

Mark
Agree! Here is a link:

http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/chronik.htm#Z

Regds

Leandros

User avatar
Natter
Member
Posts: 1297
Joined: 19 Feb 2007, 22:43
Location: Bergen, Norway

Re:

#10

Post by Natter » 13 Sep 2012, 09:47

himmelhund wrote:Image
This is a plan of all available mines used by the Germans. by John Lambert
Is this from a book or a stand-alone poster of some kind? I would appreciate more info to be able to obtain this...

User avatar
Polar bear
Member
Posts: 2543
Joined: 25 Sep 2010, 16:49
Location: Hanover, Lower Saxony

Re:

#11

Post by Polar bear » 13 Sep 2012, 17:18

himmelhund wrote: Most of the minefield laid in the Channel were done by destroyers, torpedoboats and minesweepers. The reason for this is very obvious , these boats were fast and armed when the enemy was encountered. i.e when 2 german destroyers were laying a minefield ( I do not recall directly which destroyers it where) parallel with them , there were sailing 2 enemy destroyers. One of the german destroyers fired a spread of torpedoes towards them , hitting the HMS Kelly. The british were thinking they had hit a mine. Heavely damaged the HMS Kelly reached harbour.
a correction very much later:
The two destroyers were HANS LODY and ERICH GIESE, the damaged british DD was the JERSEY, the date was Dec 7, 1939.

HMS KELLY was hit by the German E-boat S 31, commanded by OLtzS Hermann Opdenhoff, in May, 1940.

... and much minelaying in the Channel was done by the E-boats, too.

greetings, the pb
Peace hath her victories no less renowned than War
(John Milton, the poet, in a letter to the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652)

Post Reply

Return to “Kriegsmarine surface ships and Kriegsmarine in general”