CLEARING GERMAN PORTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 28, 14 May 1947, Page 7

CLEARING GERMAN PORTS

TASK OF SALVAGE FIVE MORE YEARS REQUIRED When Germany capitulated, 1,500GOO tons of sunken naval vessels and merchant shipping blocked its ports. Not a single port of importance was accessible to seagoing shipping. Since then every port has been opened up, more than 250,000 tons of shipping and floating docks successfully salvaged and unknown masses of underwater obstructions destroyed and dispersed, j Nevertheless, it is estimated that it will take another five years to complete one of the biggest tasks caused by Germany’s utter collapse and defeat.

Continuous Allied mine-laying operations, the titantic air offensive against German ports, and, in the closing stages, the Nazis’ own deliberate policy of demolition blocked or obstructed almost every fairway and channel in the ports, denied access to almost every berth and quay. In addition to the 1,500,000 tons of shipping crowding the bottom of these northwestern waters, there was also an uncomputed tonnage of small craft and under-surface installations.

The first task fell upon the Royal Navy, charged in the initial stages of penetration into Germany and later occupation, with re-opening seagoing ports to reduce the Army’s dependence upon the road and battered rail links with Antwerp and the Channel ports.

First Task Ends

This first task completed, wider interests emerged and in December, 1945, the salvage section of the Shipping Branch (Transport Division) was ordered to plan and prepare the long-term programme now in operation. s

Under it, clearance of navigable channels and the freeing of berths of sunken vessels, which in emergency days themselves served as makeshift quays” take top priority.

In the port of Hamburg 992,000 gross - registered tons—five times the aggregate of wreckage in Kiel, Travemunde, Emden and Flensburg —of shipping was scheduled for salvage. Up to the end of 1946, 200,000 tons had been raised. In one swept channel, for example, 18 wrecks totalling 54,000 gross registered tons must be raised.

The enormous Hamburg figure includes hundreds of thousands of tons of wreckage—hulks piled up on the shore, shattered on the shipyard stocks, or sunk where they constitute no danger to commercial shipping—for whose removal no plan has yet been considered.

One-Fifth Cleared

In Kiel, 30,000 tons, or just? about one-fifth of the- harbour’s -total wreckage, have been cleared. In Hamburg, work now is in progress on another 40,000 tons; in Kiel, on 8000 tons.

Work is going on under acute natural and technical difficulties, and amid hazards of the mine fields still not cleared by German minesweepers operating under command of the Royal Navy.

_ Bitter winds sweeping across Russia from Siberia and gales of the North Sea anfi. the Atlantic create severe, conditions on this bleak and unsheltered coast line—especially for German labourers working on restricted diet.

I Many wrecks have been sunk [ where underwater, demolition is the only way of freeing a channel. Massive blocks of granite and concrete from quays which collapsed into the water under terrific bombardment piesent another difficult problem for a salvage fleet some of whose ships, drawn from an inadequate pool, are good, but many of which are just “bad or indifferent” and whose equipment is severely limited. Liner Raised Last year the 22,000-ton liner Robert Ley—once famous as the Sti ength Through Joy” summer cruiser whose luxuries were a prize for picked Nazi party members—was lying sunk at its Hamburg berth, gutted and with a heavy list. Today it has been brought to an even keel and is ready to be towed away.

Another Hamburg feat has been the salvaging of the 1700-ton Howaldt floating dock, which again is in commission.

Even in the few channels now opened, - shipping casualties still occur. The occasional mine or the unsuspected underwater obstruction still underline the heavy job ahead before the present programme-de-signed only, it should be noted to meet the needs of occupation and Germany s minimum requirements for survival—is completed.