U-BOATS AND OPER. MARKET GARDEN! - Midget subs and 1-man torpedoes used.

[u-5075]

Biber midget U-boats and Marder one-man torpedoes were evidently used against Operation Market Garden.

Please does anyone have anything more to add or offer to the info below?

Background. During and several months after the time of Operation Market Garden, there were attempts by Biber flotillas and K-Verbande units to destroy the bridges in the Nijmegen, Netherlands area. Because of the lack of success, not much is recorded in history books about these attempts. I believe that the Biber midget U-boats were carrying explosive charges or torpedo mines for K-Verbande "frogmen" to use for bridge demolition -- no torpedoes. During World War II, Nijmegen was occupied by the Germans and then bombarded by the Americans in February, 1944. Operation Market Garden - the subject of "A Bridge Too Far," had its target of capturing the Waalbrug (bridge) in Nijmegen and the Arnhem bridge - which proved to be a bridge too far.

Here are the sections of the Canadian military's report about the Biber and K-Verbande trying to destroy this most important bridge.

REPORT NO. 173
HISTORICAL OFFICER
CANADIAN MILITARY HEADQUARTERS
25 Mar 47.
THE WATCH ON THE MAAS 9 NOV 44 - 8 FEB 45

One of the more exciting incidents in this locality [the Nijmegen area] took place on 13 Jan when the midget submarines observed by 3 Cdn Inf Div (see para 151) were reported to be traveling downstream towards the 49 Div sector. These were eventually clearly seen and engaged by direct 40-mm fire as well as by ground artillery, with the result that one at least was destroyed. The underwater explosions which followed for some time, however, lent truth to the belief that the enemy was attempting to destroy whatever bridges or booms had over the Waal River.

Para 151. The element of the fantastic came to life later that day, when at about 1200 hrs (13 Jan) 9 Cdn Inf Bde reported a peculiar craft moving upstream on the Waal River. It was clear that this was an under-water effort by the Germans to destroy the Nijmegen bridge. Our fire caused the first craft to beach, whereupon the crew emerged, only to be engaged by small arms fire. A few minutes later a second object blew up in the water. An hour later two more submarines were reported to be going downstream and two torpedo-like smaller craft were seen, one of which beached itself, while the other became entangled in the naval boom. The latter blew up and caused some damage. Several other explosions followed and eventually a gap was blown in the boom to a width of 150 feet. During the late afternoon, however, bomb disposal squads and Naval specialists repaired much of the damage to the boom. The bridge itself remained untouched.

Incidently Nijmegen is 80 miles inland from the sea. No wonder the Canadians got a little emotional about having to fight U-boats.

What started this "quest" was an e-mail asking for information.

My Grandfather was called Helmut Boehmer. When he was captured I believe he was on route to the coast through Holland taking the Bieber across land when he was captured. I have read in operation market garden approx 200 men including Navy personnel were captured at that time.I believe he was only a teenager. Is it possible to find out about his Navy career? for example rank

Later.....
I have spoken to my Grandfathers POW friend today. My grandfather was
captured in September 1944 at Nijmegem possibly on the 20th September.
[Apparently it WAS the 20th when he was captured.] He
went to a few POW camps including camp 17 at Sheffield in England and then
went on to camp 286 at purfleet in Essex. Joe my grandfather's friend was a
German Paratrooper who was captured guarding a small bridge in Holland. He
told me the Americans came in from all sides and then they were captured.
They met as friends whilst playing football in the POW camp.

A further update.... My grandfather was born in November 1926 he was
captured September 1944 which made him almost 18 !!


From a website about Operation Market Garden.

20 SEP 44 [In the general vicinity of Nijmegen.]
A German force made up of several army, navy, and air force units, medics and even soldiers recovering from older wounds launched an assault on the landing zones. The 505th Regiment was attacked out of the Reichswald forest, but they regained control of the landing zone around noon. More critical was the situation at landing zone 'T'. The Germans, coming from Wyler, managed to advance as far as the landing zone and had some 20-mm guns at their disposal. Now some 500 German soldiers occupied the vital landing zone. Priority number one was not the bridge at Nijmegen, but the landing zone at Groesbeek because the second lift, bringing more artillery and infantry, would arrive at 1300 in the afternoon. Because the 505th Regiment was tied up in defending Zone 'N' and the greater part of the Groesbeek heights, the 508th was on its own. Reserves were put into action and men had to come all the way back from Nijmegen to support the men in Groesbeek. The Americans were outnumbered but by 1400 the landing zone was back in their hands. Fortunately, the second lift was delayed by fog so Gavin's men arriving around 1430 were able to land on the cleared zones. American “Liberator” bombers, in their only participation in Operation Market Garden, dropped supplies, 80 per cent of which were salvaged.

http://www.uboatwar.net/biber.htm
"The range of operations slated for Biber crew ranged from the planned parachute drop of a Bber into the Suez Canal(never getting past the planning stage), attempts at destroying Nijmegen Bridge (thwarted), and the ambitious Operation Caesar - an attack on Russian military shipping in the Kola Inlet (aborted)."

http://business.virgin.net/metcalf.mouldings/biber.htm

[Referring to the Biber]
"Another 50 or so attacked the Nijmegen Bridge held by the allies but were unsuccessful in penetrating the fourth torpedo net (having destroyed the first three)."

[raalst]

I found a passage about

I found a passage about it in the german version
of "Underwater warriors" by paul kemp.
chap. 16 page 200.
can mail you a scan (in german),
but quite likely you have this book yourself

[u-5075]

Hi Ronald,

Thank you for the

Hi Ronald,

Thank you for the reminder. I've got this book of Kemp, but I'm embarrassed to say that I've not looked up what he has. Will do.

Peter

Also I received the following.........

From the Nationaal Bevrijdingsmuseum 1944 - 1945
Many thanks for your e-mail. With regard to the Biber boats, their efforts aimed at the Nijmegen bridges was not succesful. The boats were launched from Emmerich, where they were stored in the outer harbour. An earlier attempt, late september 1944, with frogmen, was more succesful. They swam down river and managed to blow up the rail bridge at Nijmegen. Recently a programme about this unit was screened on German television, with interviews with veterans. Regrettably the Waalcrossing book contains no information on these operations as the book concentrates on the events of Sseptember 20, 1944.

From the son of a Biber driver.

The topic with the bridge is well known. There were 3 raids on bridges,

- one with Bibers,
- one with Linse and
- one with Kampfschwimmer, drifting down and placing mines on two bridges
(not really succesful, blowing one bridge, but, because of a unknown
pontonbridge, blowingup the pontons, leaving the second bridge undamaged).

[u-5075]

We learned some more details

We learned some more details about the grandfather.

The short version is that it seems that the grandfather was trained in ein-mann torpedoes, then he belonged to the Molch K-Flotilla 413 in the Netherlands but the flotilla did not see action. and he apparently was captured while bring Biber midget subs to the Dutch coast (probably setting up a base in Rotterdam). This happened on 20 SEP 44 and he was captured in Nijmegen by the 82nd US Airborne. What was then interesting was that he and a POW friend (a member of the German Airborne) did not discuss any of their occupational specialties and duties until after the war. Another detail of interest was that there were many more trained operators for the one-man torpedo, Molch and Biber than there were craft available. And the technology was being very rapidly upgraded. The men who were supposed to use one type of craft were being given hands-on experience using the previous midget sub model or the one-man torpedo. New designs were very rapidly being turned out. Literally thousands of blue prints were being drawn and parts were being made and assembled for each new model of midget sub. But the Germans were not able to build the thousands of ein-mann torpedoes or midget subs and get them in place and in the water where they thought Allied invasions would occur. And they were generally several to six months late getting these K-craft to where they had been needed.

"Too little [few] too late," both for these interim weapons and the hot, new super weapons that were supposed to have turned the war in Germany's favor close to the very end.

[raalst]

found something on

this webpage

apparently

found something on

this webpage

apparently they tried using wooden logs filled with explosives
to blow up the bridge. That's a new fact for me.

hope your german is ok. have a go !



Edited By raalst on 1137182452

[u-5075]

Thank you Ronald, a good

Thank you Ronald, a good reference.

If you go to Google.com and enter
"Einsätze der Biber" and click onto
"Translate this" you can get at least part of this
page translated including the interesting part of their
hollowing out tree trunks and stuffing them with explosives.

Also a friend sent me a copy of Chapt. VII of "K-Men."
It covers
THE ATTACK ON THE NIJMEGEN BRIDGES. Some good, almost
first-hand details. This book is available in English and German but it is out of print.