FJ in motor boat attacks?

[Napalm]

Who are these guys with the fj buckets?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c10_1327012401

[Gerry Cummins]

This is way out of my field, but I will give it a try. <O</O
<O</O

I'm not sure who we are looking at here, but I know that both the Kriegsmarine and the Brandenburg Regiment had saboteur boat units that operated along the lines of the Italian Decima Mas. The Kriegsmarine, for their part, formed the Kommando der K-Verbände and the Brandenburg Regiment formed the Küstenjäger Abteilung or Küstenjäger-Abteilung 800, I’m not sure which. In any case, both units employed explosive motorboats codenamed Linsen toward the end of the war – 1944 and 1945. And just as shown in the video, the Linsen operator was supposed to aim his speeding boat at the target and then jump from it about 100 meters before impact. <O</O
<O</O

I hope this is useful information … and that other more knowledgeable members will add to what little I know.


Gerry<O</O

[Gerry Cummins]

I still don't know why the Linsen operators in the video are wearing FJ helmets or which unit, Kriegsmarine or Brandenburg Regiment, they belong to. However, I did find a very interesting book on line that covers the subject of explosive motorboats pretty well. It is Weapons of Desperation: German Frogmen and Midget Submarines of World War II by Lawrence Paterson ( ISBN 978-1591149293 ).

I hope this helps get to the bottom of this mystery.

Gerry

[Gerry Cummins]

Here is an interesting site that describes Linsen boats.

http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/Ladungsschnellboot%20Linse.htm

Be sure to check out the photograph at the very bottom of the page. It shows a boat operator wearing a fallschirmjäger helmet. Since the picture is attributed to the Navy Archives, I'm assuming that this guy is a member of the Kriegsmarine's K-VerbändeKommando.

Gerry

[John Hodgin]

Col. Cummins is correct, Jump helmets were worn by Kriegsmarine's K-VerbändeKommando as well as by some Ski Jäger.

[Gerry Cummins]

And here's another very interesting site ... although I can't read a word of it.

http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=gina3573&logNo=70082756506&cat egoryNo=38&viewDate=&currentPage=1&listtype=0

If you drop down to uniform display number 16, you will see a naval special forces uniform complete with fallschirmjäger helmet.

I still don't have a unit designation for the troops shown in the video, but I think we're getting close.

I hope this helps.

Gerry <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o></o>

[Napalm]

Thanks to all for the very informative answers, btw jumping off a boat with Boots and a helmet on is asking for trouble ( from a former lifegaurd )...:-)

[Gerry Cummins]

Well, when it comes right down to it, if soldiers who jump out of airplanes can wear the M38 helmet then there's probably no harm in having sailors who jump out of boats wear them too.

That's a joke, son!

I've enjoyed researching material for this thread. I've learned a lot. Thanks, Napalm.

Gerry

[Gerry Cummins]

Not an M38 in sight, but here are some GREAT photos of Sturmboot Kommando 902.

http://forum.balsi.de/index.php?topic=3155.0

Gerry

[Gerry Cummins]

Another foreign language site with some great pictures of sturmboots in action. Granted they're not explosive motorboats like the Linsen, but they're interesting.

http://www.zweiterweltkrieg.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=6682

Gerry

[Gerry Cummins]

According to the book German Special Forces of World War II by Gordon Williamson ( ISBN 978-1846039201 ), the Linse boat units were part of Lehrkommando 200 - part of Kleinkampfmittelverbände, usually abbreviated to K-Verbände. The Linsen operators were assigned to K-Flottille 211 to 220. Here is a description of the unit's tactics from Williamson's book:

"The Linsen were known as Sprengboote or 'explosive boats', and about 1,200 were built. Small speedboats just under 6m (19ft 7in) long and weighing just over 1.2 tonnes, they were powered by a 3.6-litre V8 engine giving them a top speed of around 30 knots. The stern of the boat was packed with up to 480kg (10561b) of explosives, connected to a detonator in the bow. Each attack would be carried out by one command boat and two ramming boats; the pilot would aim the boat at the target and jump overboard at the last safe moment, allowing the boat to be guided into its target by radio control from the command boat. The detonator was timed to allow the boat a few seconds after impact to sink well below the waterline of the target ship's hull before the explosives detonated. The two pilots who had jumped overboard would then (in theory) be picked up by the command boat, which would escape at speed under cover of a smoke screen. Each Linsen Flotille consisted of four Gruppen, with eight Linsen and four command boats."

So, this brings us back to Napalm's original question, "Who are these guys with the fj buckets?" The answer appears to be that they are naval special forces members assigned to one of the explosive boat units K-Flottille 211 to 220. And as part of their standard uniform, they wore the M38 helmet while jumping out of boats - not airplanes.

Gerry

[Gerry Cummins]

The Axis History Factbook states that there were actually eleven Flottillen - 211 to 221 - as opposed to the ten listed in Williamson's book.

http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=9993

And finally, for those of you who read German (I don't unfortunately), here is a complete laydown of the Kleinkampfmittelverbände der Kriegsmarine.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleinkampfverb%C3%A4nde_der_Kriegsmarine

I hope all of this has been helpful.

Gerry

[Willi Z.]

Interesting discussion; I will have to check out some of those links.

A good friend of mine was a FJ in the 4th Fallschirm Pionier Bataillon, in Italy. He recalls helping the KM personnel arm and launch the "Neger" torpedoes along the coast north of Anzio. I don't recall if he told me the crews were wearing FJ helmets, but I will have to ask him.

[Gerry Cummins]

Interesting discussion; I will have to check out some of those links.

A good friend of mine was a FJ in the 4th Fallschirm Pionier Bataillon, in Italy. He recalls helping the KM personnel arm and launch the "Neger" torpedoes along the coast north of Anzio. I don't recall if he told me the crews were wearing FJ helmets, but I will have to ask him.

Willi,

In all my research I didn't find any evidence of any units other than the Linse boat units wearing the FJ helmet as part of their operational gear. It seems to be unique to Lehrkommando 200 for some reason. So I will be interested in hearing what your friend has to say.

Gerry

[Gerry Cummins]

Willi,

Here's a picture of what Knight's Cross winner Walther Gerhold wore when piloting his Neger. While it looks like a leather pilot's helmet, I think it's actually canvas. Canvas would respond better to salt water, anyway.

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=95671

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Personenregister/G/GerholdW.htm

http://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=14860

Walther Gerhold is still alive today and living in Lühen, Germany. He earned his Knight's Cross for attacking the Polish cruiser ORP Dragon (formerly HMS Dragon) off the coast of France near Caen on 8 July 1944. His attack heavily damaged the Dragon and killed 26 of the crew. It was so badly damaged, in fact, that it was towed to Courseulles, France where it was scuttled to form part of the artificial breakwater for Mulberry B.

Gerry