Kriegsmarine FuMO

Kriegsmarine FuMO & FuMB equipped Vessels.

Life-belt from a Vorpost Boot via J. Andersen, MCH.

Aerial mine laying in the Baltic and in Danish Waters was a major operational problem for the Kriegsmarine throughout the war. Many of the Kriegsmarine radarstations on the Baltic Coast and in Denmark were established with the specific purpose of detecting minelaying aircraft. If the aircraft was tracked accurately, when the mine was dropped, it was actually possible to see two echoes and thus establish the drop position with a reasonable accuracy. This of course greatly facilitated subsequent mine sweeping. In order to improve the low level coverage a number of Wachschiffe were equipped with FuMB equipment, and a number of Vorpost Boote were equipped with FuMO 3 or FuMO 62 and FuMB equipment. The list below represents my present state of knowledge of these ships.

PTNO	Name	Origin	Unit	System	Comments
Wachschiff 101	Reserve-Jade	Feuerschiff Reserve-Jade	10.Sich.Fl	FuMB	Equipment operational APR 1944.
V 1601	Skorpion ex Newhaven	FR steam ferry, 1911, 1888 BRT.	16.Vp.Fl	FuMO 62	It was intended to refit this vessel as Nachtjagdleitschiff Skagerak in 1943, but the plans were overtaken by "events".
V 1601	Lindormen	HMDS Lindormen	16.Vp.Fl	?	(1)
V 1604/1710	Natter ex Casoar.	FR motor trawler, 1937, 581 BRT.	16.Vp.Fl	FuMO 62
V 1605	Mosel	GE steam fishing trawler, 1938, 435 BRT.	16.Vp.Fl	FuMO 62	+ 15 OCT 1944 (2)
V 1606	Julius Fock.	GE steam trawler, 1938, 446 BRT.	16.Vp.Fl	FuMO 62	+ 7 DEC 1944.
V 1607	Nordcaper.	FR steam trawler, 1907, 418 BRT.	16.Vp.Fl	FuMO 62
V 1916/VS 909	”Tormilind” ("Tommy Lind”)?	ES steam freighter, ????, 494 BRT.	19.Vp.Fl	FuMO 3	+ 20 OCT 1944. This ship was classified as a Funkmess Träger; to-day Radar Picket.

(1). There is some confusion concerning V 1601. At one stage HDMS Lindormen carried this tactical name. HDMS Lindormen was built in 1939 for the RDN, scuttled by her own crew 29 AUG 1943, salvaged by the KM and named V 1401 later V 1601. V 1601 Newhaven was the command ship of 16.Vp.Fl. At some time it must have been withdrawn from active service in order to be refitted as Nachtjagdleitschiff Skagerak. The "Togo" was intended to fill this role, but she left Danish waters in FEB 1944 due to developments in the Eastern Baltic. It seems reasonable to assume, that the decision to modify Newhaven and withdraw her from active duty for the refit was taken at this time. This could explain the transfer of Lindormen from 14 .Vp.Fl. to 16.Vp.Fl. In Jahresbericht 1944 from 8.Sich.Div. it noted that, at the end of the year V 1601 is being fitted with a radar, this V 1601 must be Lindormen.

(2) Thanks to Paul Sedal the circumstances concerning the sinking of V 1605 has been discovered. On 15 OCT 1944 the vessel was escorting the tanker "Inger Johanne" off Lillesand (Norway), when the convoy was attacked by 30 Mosquitos. Both vessels were sunk. It is interesting that these vessels apparently were used as radar-pickets on escort duties.

The final moments of V 1605, evidently under canon fire from 20 mm guns. With the kind permission of Erling Skjold, Svein Aage Knudsen, Halvor Sperbund and Paul Sedal ©.

The ships and radar equipment.

Not unexpectedly the sources are not crystal clear and some are self-contradictionary. When a vessel was transferred from one Vp.Fl. to another it's PTNO changed. So several vessel could over time carry the same number. This makes proper identification a bit messy. I have chosen to use the number/name combination depicted on the small drawings of Gröner, since the text at times is somewhat ambiguous.