Units for Seelöwe

[Knouterer]

It seems fairly clear that an attack on Dover harbour by fast motor boats carrying commando units (the Brandenburger Regiment) would have been suicidal. It was heavily defended, even before May 1940. The three twin 6pdrs (the latest addition to the Coast Artillery arsenal) protecting the harbour (two on the Eastern Arm, one on the Breakwater) alone could spit out 36 rounds per minute per barrel, or even more according to some sources, and would have reduced any attacking motor boats to matchsticks, as they did during an Italian attempt against Malta in 1941.
There were many other guns as well.
The commander of the 6-inch gun battery on the Eastern Arm, B.E. Arnold, in his memoirs of the war (Conflict across the Straits) relates that a friendly destroyer captain handed him no less than nine Brens and one Boys AT rifle (with 17 rounds …) recovered from the Dunkirk beaches, and that he managed to hang on to these unauthorized weapons for quite a while, because his superiors when visiting the battery pretended not to see them.

Regarding the battery on Beachy Head: there wasn't any. Another example of the generally poor quality of German intelligence on the British defences at the time.

It should also be noted that although the destroyers had been withdrawn from Dover by the end of August, because of the danger of air attack plus the German long-range guns, there were still fifty or so RN vessels based there, mostly armed trawlers and minesweepers, also a few MTBs.

[tigre]

Thanks for that interesting tip Knouterer . Cheers. Raúl M .

[Knouterer]

On the subject of Beachy Head, there was a Chain Home Low (radar) station there, which by September was guarded by 14 men of the 70th (Home Defence) Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, according to the War Diary of the 45th Infantry Division. So the Brandenburgers, if they had made it that far, would have found something to destroy.

[Leros87]

As a first time poster but a long time viewer I would hope it is not inappropriate for me to advertise my first book 'We shall fight them. Defeating Operation Sealion: the British armed forces and the defence of the United Kingdom'. This is the culmination of about 16 years research, involving almost living at the National Archives in Kew! It is, as far as I can ascertain, the first real attempt to show the actual dispositions, plans and equipment of both sides. I have drawn heavily on Peter Schenk's excelllent book and have used this forum to update or confirm my own information. The work does not aim to imply the outcome of the invasion. The book can be purchased on line through CompletelyNovel.com and should be available through other on line retailers like Amazon within e next few weeks. It would be interesting to get feedback through forum members.

[Knouterer]

Hello Leros,
There is a special thread for "Books published by members", you may want to post that information there as well:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=67479

[tigre]

Hello to all ; good news Leros and all the best with your undertaking . A little more............................

Preparations for Operation Sealion.

Extract of the landing plan of 16. AOK as planned for September (B = barge, T = Transport).

Sources: http://www.39-45.org/viewtopic.php?f=17 ... &start=190

Cheers. Raul M .

[Linden Lyons]

Operation Sealion.jpg (54.45 KiB) Viewed 1751 times

From: http://s134542708.websitehome.co.uk/pil ... plans.html

[sitalkes]

Well here's hoping this is the book we have either been researching or waiting for. I've ordered it and mentioned it on the Sealion facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Sealion1940/

[Larrister]

Some photos from an Inf. Rgt. 19 (7 Inf. Division) album showing invasion barges in the harbour at Calais.

Cheers,
Larry

[Larrister]

More.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; thanks for that tip sitalkes and Larrister for sharing your collection . Now a little more............................

Preparations for Operation Sealion.

Speaking of barges for Operation Seelöwe, a total of about 2,200 barges were adapted / upgraded in the shipyards of Germany, France, Holland and Belgium. In principle, the boats were modified in their country of origin. In the Netherlands, 800 ships were converted and 300 in Belgium. In the Netherlands the conversion was made in the regions of Amsterdam (NDM / NSM, ADM y Verschure) and Rotterdam (Wilton-Fijenoord, RDM, Gusto, Piet Smit Jr. y Van der Giessen). The Dutch shipyards worked hard to do the job. From six o'clock to ten o'clock at night except Saturday and Sunday, which "only" worked until one in the afternoon. Reconstruction work was completed by the end of August.

"Later, the barges proved be more seaworthy than expected. During exercises in the sea lanes 4-5 did little water and were good at sea. Even with wind force 6-8 during an exercise of the 17. ID the external bulkheads of two barges were tested. "

Sources: http://www.stiwotforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=15559
http://www.ebay.de/itm/BUYMUC-TOP-FOTO- ... SwPcVVwQFt

Cheers. Raul M .

[Knouterer]

I came across some interesting documents concerning A.R. 17 (the artillery regiment of the 17th I.D.) of mid-August 1940. The second battalion (normally equipped with 12 x 105 mm howitzers) was to be completely reorganized and would have two batteries with four mountain guns (75 mm Skoda Model 1915) each. One battery with eight 105 mm Nebelwerfer 35 (heavy mortars) and Sturmgeschützbatterie 666 (six Stug III self-propelled guns) were administratively attached to this unit as well (apparently).

This last battery seems very well equipped, with 9 armoured halftracks (SdKfz 252 and 253), and the allocation of 17 submachine guns also is generous for 1940.

It is striking how many horses the invaders were planning to bring in the barges: 54 for a battery with four light guns (613 kg), in addition to 1 truck, 1 "Karrette" (probably French Renault UE tracked carrier), two motorcycles (one with sidecar), and 10 bicycles.

Nor was this all: in the second "Staffel" (convoy from Rotterdam) another 77 horses per battery (with 7 horse-drawn vehicles and 46 men) were planned! That brings the total number of horses per battery up to 131, not markedly fewer than normal strength for a battery with four 10,5 cm lFH 18, namely 153.

In later planning, these numbers were reduced somewhat, I believe.

[Knouterer]

The relevant page about the second Staffel for these batteries. As can be seen, the regiment requested an additional 30 men per battery (60 in total); 140 men per bty in the barges and another 46 in the transports. It seems a whole lot of men and horses to bring just four small guns with limited range (and 2 MGs) into action.

[tigre]

Hello Knouterer ; thank you very much for sharing these interesting documents . As you pointed out, it seems that for almost the same price in men and horses they lose fire power in the guns. Cheers. Raúl M .

[Knouterer]

On the subject of German artillery: a number of barges were fitted with a wooden platform for a field gun (also some for light AA and AT guns), in order to provide some more fire support for the landings, which was otherwise minimal, compared to the kind of firepower Allied fleets could unleash later in the war. Apparently these were mostly captured guns, although 7.7 cm FK 16 guns are also mentioned on one or two of the loading schemes provided by Schenk (the remaining guns of that model had mostly been rebarreled in 75 mm in the mid-30s but a few were still on hand in the original calibre it seems).
After WWI, the Belgians had received a number of LFH 16 and FK 16 guns (same carriage) as war reparations, which had been fitted with new 75 mm barrels by the firm of Cockerill, and looking at the barrel length I tend to believe the gun in the picture is one of those.
Schenk and other authors state that these field guns were to be landed and become part of the divisional artillery, but I doubt it. Firstly, that would again require large numbers of horses and vehicles (see posts above), and those do not seem to be included in the German plans, as far as I know. Secondly, these somewhat obsolete weapons fired ammunition that was not in the German supply system (the Belgian 75 mm rounds had a cartridge case length of 279 mm, meaning that they were not interchangeable with any of the German 75 mm calibres, or with French 75 mm rounds for that matter), which would have been an additional complication that the Germans certainly could do without.
According to the War Diary (KTB) of the 35th I.D., only 3 of the planned 20 "Schneider" guns had been delivered by 15 Sept. Neither had the gun crews been trained yet. From which I deduce that the idea was that the (provisionally trained) gun crews would be provided by the troops (infantry, engineers) on board the barge, and that after the 100 available rounds had been fired off the guns would simply be pushed overboard.
The aforementioned KTB also mentions that installing the guns on the barges was a job for the Corps engineers.