If anyone ever finds themselves near Kiel, northern Germany, there's a couple of rather sobering places to visit.
The Deutsches Marine-Ehrenmal (memorial) at Laboe and the U-Boat Ehrenmal at Heikendorf. At Laboe there's also a U-Boat open to the public and for anyone who's watched 'Das Boot' it seems even smaller than on screen. Crawling through the various hatches even while it was static on dry land was a feat in itself.
There's a museum as well at Laboe and a lot of space is dedicated to the 1944-45 evacuation efforts for civilians fleeing the advancing Soviet armies. Over 5 million refugees were evacuated from the Baltic ports prior to them being overrun by the Russians. A staggering naval achievement that puts Dunkirk well and truly into the shade. This was the German Navy's 'Finest Hour' and no mistake.
Underground there's a chapel of rememberance and the name-plates of all the warships lost are ther along with tributes from the survivors' Veteran's Associations (if there were any).
Down the coast at Heikendorf is the U-Boat Memorial itself and consists of an Eagle atop a small column looking out across the estuary to the Baltic and a sunken area with plaques listing all the names of the Fallen.
32,000 of them.
During the entire war only 39,000 men served in the U-Boat service.
Towars the end, Grand Admiral Donitz put the case to his men that they could never expect to bridge the technology gap with the allies in time to make a difference to the outcome of the war. But by continuing operations in the face of almost certain death, they would tie down the enormous shipping and aerial assets that the Allies had earmarked for counter U-Boat warfare and maybe force the Allies to a negotiated Peace instead of the unconditional surrender that was on the table.
To a man they all voted to continue operations.
I'm having ISP difficulties and due to bandwidth restrictions I can't upload any images. But it's worth a visit, if only to stand silently for a few minutes.
The Deutsches Marine-Ehrenmal (memorial) at Laboe and the U-Boat Ehrenmal at Heikendorf. At Laboe there's also a U-Boat open to the public and for anyone who's watched 'Das Boot' it seems even smaller than on screen. Crawling through the various hatches even while it was static on dry land was a feat in itself.
There's a museum as well at Laboe and a lot of space is dedicated to the 1944-45 evacuation efforts for civilians fleeing the advancing Soviet armies. Over 5 million refugees were evacuated from the Baltic ports prior to them being overrun by the Russians. A staggering naval achievement that puts Dunkirk well and truly into the shade. This was the German Navy's 'Finest Hour' and no mistake.
Underground there's a chapel of rememberance and the name-plates of all the warships lost are ther along with tributes from the survivors' Veteran's Associations (if there were any).
Down the coast at Heikendorf is the U-Boat Memorial itself and consists of an Eagle atop a small column looking out across the estuary to the Baltic and a sunken area with plaques listing all the names of the Fallen.
32,000 of them.
During the entire war only 39,000 men served in the U-Boat service.
Towars the end, Grand Admiral Donitz put the case to his men that they could never expect to bridge the technology gap with the allies in time to make a difference to the outcome of the war. But by continuing operations in the face of almost certain death, they would tie down the enormous shipping and aerial assets that the Allies had earmarked for counter U-Boat warfare and maybe force the Allies to a negotiated Peace instead of the unconditional surrender that was on the table.
To a man they all voted to continue operations.
I'm having ISP difficulties and due to bandwidth restrictions I can't upload any images. But it's worth a visit, if only to stand silently for a few minutes.
