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German Siebel ferries Antwerp


Arjan

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Nice pictures. I've read about the Siebel ferries being used in the Med, so it's good to finally see what they looked like.

The captions and narrative leave something to be desired. The plural of craft is craft. Not crafts.

And, judging by the uniform, Ernst Großmann was in the Luftwaffe. Not the Army.

But then, it is the Daily Fail.

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Hi gentlemen. The Siebel ferries were an invention of Luftwaffe Major Siebel. He had come up with the idea of using written off airplane engines for the propulsion of his craft. The crew who had to operate these engines/ craft were also Luftwaffe personnel. For operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Britain,  all three service branches constructed craft independent of each other. The Luftwaffe were the first to come up with viable craft, By September of 1940 the German Navy still hadn't managed to build self propelled craft whereas the Luftwaffe had. Some years ago I posted more photos and info here  :

 

https://www.stiwotforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=12242

 

A very nice film showing the remarkable, sometimes slightly bizar creations of Sonderkommando Siebel in Antwerp :

 

http://archiv-akh.de/filme/2395#1

 

Regards,

 

Arjan

Edited by Arjan
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No doubt these ferries were not ideal assault craft but they proved their value later in the war especially in transport and supply roles. I think the German Siebel Fähren and MFP's (Marinefährprame ) didn't get the recognition they deserve . WWII historians mostly focus on U-Boote, Schnellboote and the big battle ships but it was the former that kept the German war machine going in many different theatres. One of the advantages of the Siebel Fähre was that it consisted of manageable parts and (pontoon) sections which could be bolted together fairly easily and could also be transported by rail. 

 

Regards,

 

Arjan

Edited by Arjan
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