Figure 1.--Here we see an anti-aicraft gun on a small German patrol vesse, possibly a mine sweeper in 1943. The Germans at this time were beginning to give more attention to laying minefields in the Channel, but air cover was becoming less available. The American press caption read, "Nazi Schoolboys Recruited into Navy: Proudly, a Hitlerite school boy sights an anti-aircraft gun on a coastal poatrol vessel. So great is the manpower shortage in Germany that youngsters are being recruited into the Navy and are undergoing sea training as well asbeing taught to man ack-ack guns on patrol ships." The photograph was dated April 23, 1943. The caption writer was wrong about this boy being recruited to the crew. He most lkely is part of a HJ group tour. He is to young to be a crew member. As part of the Marine HJ, however, boys this age were being trained. The officer on the right wears a minesweeper badge, so most likely this was on a minesweeper.

The KM like other World War II navies was concious of the adavances in air power and the realization that it would play a role in any coming naval war. But like all World Watr II navies, in the pre-War era, the imprtance of baval aviation was not fully recognized. As a result yhe KM did not insist on its own air service. KM air units, both onboard, and land based, were Luftwaffe units. This included the air components of aircraft carriers. Along with the Luftwaffe naval units were KM observers riegsmarine seconded to the Luftwaffe. Thus through the War, the KM had no maritime air units or air crews of its own. Before the War, airborne maritime units were the responsibility if the OKL-Führer der SeeLuftstreitekrafte. While working with the KM was a fully Luftwaffe unit. The OKL-Führer der SeeLuftstreitekrafte was disbanded and replaced by the General der Luftwaffe beim Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine (Ob.d.M) (1939). Opertionally, for most of the War, as the German military successes led to the occupation of costal areas (Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, the Baltic Republics, and Italy), coastal and maritime units were subordinated to the Fliegerkorps/Fliegerführer in those areas. At the end of the war responsibility for what was left of the coastal and maritime units was placed under the control of the General der Aufklärungsflieger. [Pipes and Wadman] The KM Z Plan called for the construction of two aircradt carriers. The Graf Zeplin was completed, but never became opertional. The larger fleet units (battleships and cruisers) had small planes, mostly float planes. These primarily served recomissance functions. Bith the large and small fleet units had to depend on anti-aircraft guns or Luftwaffe aircraft for for protection from enemy air attacks. Ludtwaff protection varied during the War and became less dependable as the War began to go against Germany and the Luftwaffe begame to be withdrawn back to the Reich to defend German cities from the Allied strategic bombing campaign. This meant that fleet units had to rely primarily on shipboard and port anti-aircraft guns. This mean that German patrol craft and minelayers operating in the English Channel in the run up to D-Day had little or no air cover. The Luftwaffe also controlled the aircraft involved in marine patrol and anti-shipping attacks. This was of some imprtance in the early phase of Battle of the Atlantic from French bases and attacks on the Arctic convoys from Norwegian vases. The FW-200 Condor proved effective in long range sea patrols and mine laying and eventually actual attacks on shipping. Once the Royal Navy began deploying shipboard fighters and finally escort carriers, the Germans ended the Condor patrols.

Sources

Pipes, Jason and Dave Wadman. "Kriegsmarine naval air power, " Feldgrau.com - research on the German armed forces 1918-1945.

Created: 2:50 AM 8/13/2015
Last updated: 2:50 AM 8/13/2015