Seebataillon
Seebataillon (plural Seebataillone), literally "sea battalion", is a German term for certain troops of
Establishment and history
Kingdom of Prussia
The first Seebataillon was organized on 13 May 1852 as the Royal Prussian Marinier-Korps at
German Empire
After the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck more or less ignored the navy as it did “not fit his intentions”. Bismarck’s continental policies sought to avoid colonial or naval entanglements and he would oppose plans to further develop navy forces. With the creation of the Imperial Admiralty, Prussian Army Generalleutnant Albrecht von Stosch was appointed chief. Stosch had no experience in naval matters, but “nevertheless, brought significant administrative talents to his new post.”[2] He also perceived military power to emanate “from the tip of an army bayonet.”
Stosch ended the practice of placing marines aboard warships. Instead he adopted a concept that became known as Infanterieismus.
After the successful occupation of
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German marines in Jiaozhou
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III. Seebataillon during field exercises in Jiaozhou
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German marines in the field in Jiaozhou
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German marine formation at Qingdao
Colonial deployments
Since the mid-1880s Seebataillon troops were frequently used as temporary intervention forces, mostly in the colonies. A company was sent in 1884 to German Kamerun. During the Boxer Rebellion in China from 1900 to 1901, the I. and II. Seebataillon, reinforced by an engineer company and field artillery battery, comprised the German contingent to the international relief force. In 1904–1908 during the Herero Wars, a formation in battalion strength supported the Schutztruppe in German South West Africa; during 1905–1906 a Seebataillon detachment served in German East Africa during the Maji Maji Rebellion.
Units and garrisons in 1912
- I. Seebataillon at Kiel on the Baltic
- II. Seebataillon at Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea
- III. Seebataillon at Qingdao (with its replacement and training base at Cuxhaven)
Additional small formations were the East Asian Marine Detachment (OMD) at Beijing and Tianjin, and Marine-Detachment Skutari, a company composed of personnel from I. and II. Seebataillone as Marine-Detachment in internationally occupied Albania.[5]
World War I
The outbreak of the Great War saw the rapid expansion of marine forces into division size units. Drawing on Seebataillon reservists and conscripts, the naval infantry brigade under Generalmajor von Wiechmann grew into the Marine Division; an additional Marine Division was formed in November 1914. These two divisions formed Marine-Korps-Flandern (Naval Corps Flanders) under Admiral Ludwig von Schröder (known in Germany as the "Lion of Flanders").[citation needed] In early February 1917 a third Marine Division was organized thus giving the naval infantry corps a strength of 70,000 men.[citation needed]
Marine units fought in 1914 at Tsingtao and Antwerp, in 1915 at Ypres, in 1916 on the Somme, in 1917 in Flanders and during the 1918 offensive battles in northern France.[citation needed]
World War II
The Marine-Stoßtrupp-Kompanie was formed in March 1938.[6] It initially consisted of two infantry platoons, one engineer platoon and one weapons platoon with a total strength about 250 men. On 1 September 1939 it took part in the Battle of Westerplatte.
In 1940 the unit was expanded to six companies as Marine-Stoßtrupp-Abteilung. The formation participated in the occupation of Normandy and the
In 1945 a number of Navy sailors were sent to fight in the
Bundesmarine
In April 1958 a marine engineer battalion was raised for the
On 1 April 2014 a new Seebataillon was formed from existing naval protection forces, boarding teams, and the Minentaucher company.[7] The German Navy Seebataillon was integrated into the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps Command in 2016, allowing access to the vast experience of the Dutch marines in global amphibious operations, training, use of specialised equipment (amphibious ships) and facilities (Texel Island - Amphibious training grounds).
Footnotes and references
- ^ "Das Seebatallion" (in German). German Navy. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
- ^ Gottschall, By Order of the Kaiser, p. 42
- ^ Gottschall, p. 43
- ^ Gottschall, p. 18
- ^ http://s400910952.websitehome.co.uk/germancolonialuniforms/sb%20skutari.htm
- ^ "Deutsches Marinearchiv".
- ^ Das „Multitool“ der Marine - Seebataillon in Eckernförde aufgestellt
- Gottschall, Terrell D. By Order of the Kaiser. Otto von Diederichs and the Rise of the Imperial German Navy, 1865–1902. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003. ISBN 1-55750-309-5
- Nuhn, Walter. Kolonialpolitik und die Marine. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 2002. ISBN 3-7637-6241-8
External links