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HELIGOLAND
9
770306
154097
No. 154
£4.25
Number 154
NUMBER 154
© Copyright
After the Battle
2011
Editor: Karel Margry
Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey
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HELIGOLAND
CUXHAVEN
BREMERHAVEN
WILHELMSHAVEN
Heligoland (or Helgoland as the Germans
call it) is an archipelago of two tiny
islands in the North Sea. Located 46 kilo-
metres off the German coastline in the
German Bight, it comprises the Haupt-
insel (main island) — a high sandstone
plateau with a harbour area at its base
and encompassing just one square kilo-
metre — and Düne (dune), a flat and
sandy island less than half a kilometre to
the east. Permanently inhabited since
pre-historic times, from the 13th century
possession of the archipelago alternated
between the Kingdom of Denmark, the
Duchy of Schleswig and the Hanseatic
port of Hamburg until it finally became
Danish in 1714. It remained so until 1807
when it was captured by the Royal Navy
during the Napoleonic Wars, as a result
of which it was formally ceded to Britain
in 1814. By tradition a fishing station, in
1826 Heligoland became a seaside spa
and it soon turned into a popular tourist
resort for the German upper class, receiv-
ing thousands of visitors each year.
CONTENTS
HELIGOLAND
The First World War
The Second World War
The Oberland Installations
The Unterland Installations
Air War
Post-War
Operation ‘Big Bang’
Little Bang
The Aftermath
GERMANY
The Allied Capture of Frankfurt
PERSONALITY
James Arness: 1923-2011
2
3
12
13
15
23
28
29
33
34
35
52
In July 1890, Britain gave up Heligoland to Imperial Germany, exchanging it for the
island of Zanzibar on the eastern coast of Africa as part of a treaty that regulated several
other territorial interests of the two nations in Africa. The ceremony of handing over the
island to Germany took place in front of the Governor’s House on August 10 of that year.
Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had arrived aboard the cruiser
Irene,
announced in his speech
that Heligoland would become ‘a sea fortress, a guardian for German fishermen, a base
for my warships, a bulwark protecting the German sea against any enemy’.
Front Cover:
Heligoland looking north-west
in 2011. Image © National Air and Space
Administration. (Google)
Back Cover:
Hitler and a party of
Kriegsmarine commanders and high Nazi
party officials descending the stairway
between the Oberland and Unterland villages
on Heligoland during his inspection visit to
the fortress island on April 4, 1939 . . . then
and now.
Acknowledgements:
For their help with the
Heligoland story the Editor would like to thank
Claude Fröhle and Hans-Jürgen Kühn, authors
of
Hochseefestung Helgoland. Eine militär-
geschichtliche Entdeckungsreise,
Maurice
Laarman and Hans Houterman. For assistance
with the Frankfurt story, he thanks Peter Hen-
drikx, Katrin Kokot and Ronny Loewy.
Photo Credits:
BA — Bundesarchiv; BAMA
— Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv; IfS Frankfurt
— Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt;
IWM — Imperial War Museum, London;
NIOD
—
Nederlands
Instituut
voor
Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam USNA —
US National Archives.
The Governor’s House stood at the southern end of the Oberland village on the edge
of the Falm cliff. Under German times it continued to serve as the island’s headquar-
ters, becoming the Kommandantur of its garrison. Destroyed in the 1945 bombing, its
place is today taken by the Haus Fernsicht guest-house at No. 301 Am Falm.
2
ATB
IWM Q36-407-1
Located in a perfect position to protect the sea-lanes to the major
ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven,
Heligoland was the ideal choice for a chief naval strongpoint, a
role that it would serve in both the First and the Second World
War. Immediately after acquiring the island in 1890, Germany
The island of Heligoland lies in the North
Sea some 45 kilometres from Wangeroog,
the nearest Frisian island, and 65 kilometres
from Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe.
Just 1.2 kilometres long and half a kilometre
wide, it has steep red cliffs, 55 metres high,
at the highest point. The high ground con-
sisted of a grass-covered triangular plateau
known as the Oberland. A small town cov-
ered both the Oberland and the Unterland,
which was the lower part of the island at the
southern end, the top and bottom of the
town being connected by both a stairway
and lift. Adjoining the Unterland was a con-
siderable area of reclaimed land known as
the North-East District and the Harbour
District.
Heligoland’s sister island, located a quar-
ter-mile due east, is called Düne. It was once
attached to the main island but a storm in
1721 swept away the land in between. Düne
itself is a low island made up of sand and
shingle, its main feature being the aero-
drome.
Heligoland has had a chequered past. It
is thought to have been inhabited since pre-
historic times and in 697 was the home of
Radbod, the last Frisian king. By 1231 it
was in the possession of King Valdemar II
of Denmark. Ownership then fluctuated
between Denmark and the Duchy of
Schleswig until 1807 when the British took
it from the Danes during the Napoleonic
Wars. It stayed in British hands from 1807
until 1890 and was home for a while to
Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh, a vet-
eran of the Battle of Trafalgar, who served
as the island’s Lieutenant-Governor
between 1840 and 1856. In 1890 Britain
relinquished ownership when the island
was ceded to Germany in exchange for
Zanzibar (even though Zanzibar was tech-
nically ‘independent’ at the time negotia-
tions took place).
began the construction of a major Kriegshaven (Naval Harbour)
at the island’s southern end and building large coastal batteries
and other fortifications on the Oberland plateau. Soon propagan-
dists began to refer to Heligoland as the ‘Gibraltar of the North’.
This aerial photograph was taken in 1921.
HELIGOLAND
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Fortification of Heligoland by the Ger-
mans began almost as soon as they took pos-
session. The whole dockyard had a network
of railways laid down, the tracks connecting
the pier to an inclined tunnel running from
the Unterland to the Oberland. This tunnel
through the cliffs was constructed by the
Germans between 1891 and 1893 and con-
tained up and down train lines of a metre
gauge. A third rail between the other two
was used to transport more weighty items as
this could, if necessary, be spread over three
tracks with three ‘trains’ running parallel. As
a safety measure, the trucks were fitted with
toothed racks and pawls. About a third of
the way up there was a sliding armoured
door with loopholes. The railway lines con-
verged at the top and then diverged to serve
various parts of the Oberland.
The Südhafen (South Harbour) was built
on reclaimed land between 1900 and 1916.
The armament on Heligoland comprised
four 21cm guns, two at either end of the
island (dated 1892 and 1893), positioned in
brick and concrete emplacements. Two of
these guns were later moved in front of its
neighbour to the north and south respec-
tively to make room for four new turrets.
Each was equipped with two 30.5cm guns:
‘Anna’ and ‘Bertha’ in the south and
‘Caesar’ and ‘Dora’ in the north. These guns
were of 1911 manufacture though their rein-
By Chris Ransted
forced-concrete emplacements were not
completed until 1913. In addition, eight 28cm
howitzers (dated 1892 and 1893) were posi-
tioned in brick and concrete works to fill the
gap between the 30.5 guns. Four 8.8cm guns
were also emplaced at Batterie Falm above
the southern cliffs.
Around 1913-14, additional anti-aircraft
and harbour batteries were put in place
together with the guns mounted on the west
mole of the reclaimed land and a range-
finder station. Later in the war, 15cm guns
were mounted at Falm in the south and
Petersenhorn in the north.
Now bristling with armaments, the total
strength of the garrison during the First
World War was around 4,000 under the com-
mand of Vizeadmiral Hermann Jacobson.
The Kaiser was so proud of Heligoland that
by 1914 he had visited the island more than
20 times.
As a fortress island, it was ideally situated
to protect the passage into and out of the
River Elbe, the Weser and the Jade, and
allowed a safe passage under its guns to the
German fleet passing in or out through the
minefields. It also afforded shelter to
minelayers, ‘sweepers and submarines. On
August 28, 1914, the Battle of Heligoland
Bight took place in the seas nearby but,
3
INNENHAFEN
(U-BOOTS-HAFEN)
AUSSENHAFEN
(TORPEDO-BOOTS-HAFEN)
Above:
View of the naval harbour shortly after its completion.
The Innenhafen (Inner Harbour) was meant for U-boats and the
Aussenhafen (Outer Harbour) for torpedo boats.
Below:
The
picture was taken from a part of the Oberland that was wholly
taken out by the huge demolition of the island carried out by
the British in April 1947. Our comparison was taken from the
surviving knoll on which today stands the climate survey sta-
tion of Hamburg University.
Left:
The harbour’s West Mole as it looked at the end of the First
World War.
Right:
As part of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919,
the Germans were obliged to destroy all the fortifications, mili-
tary installations and the harbour on Heligoland — at their own
expense and under the supervision of a special Inter-Allied
Commission. The dismantling and demolitions lasted from
February 1920 to July 1922. As part of neutralising the harbour,
4
most of the West Mole was blown up, the victors allowing the
Germans to retain a stretch of just 350 metres. When Nazi Ger-
many began reinstating the harbour in 1935 they also repaired
and extended the moles. Begun in 1937, the new West Mole
was built on the inner side of the old one. Not affected by the
1947 demolitions, the new mole and the jumble of concrete
blocks that made up the old one today remain side by side.
ATB
ATB
IWM Q36-407-23
BAK
EM
Flak
KdrSt.
MG
MK
RevK.
Schw.
SK
Ballonabwehrkanone
Entfernungsmesser
Flugabwehrkanone
Kommandeurstand
Maschinengewehr
Maschinenkanone
Revolverkanone
Scheinwerfer
Schnelladekanone
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
Anti-balloon gun
Range-finder
Anti-aircraft gun
Command post
Machine gun
Machine canon
Quick-firing canon
Searchlight
Quick-loading canon
Above:
Map of the Heligoland fortifica-
tions as they were during the First World
War, showing all gun batteries, battery
command posts, machine-gun and
searchlight positions, underground
installations, seaplane facilities and
other military works constructed
between 1890 and 1918. (This map
comes from
Hochseefestung Heligoland,
the two-volume standard work on the
fortress island by German historians
Claude Fröhle and Hans-Jürgen Kühn,
first published in 1998-99.)
Right:
All
through the 1914-18 war, Heligoland
served as a main submarine base of the
Kaiserliche Marine, a first flotilla of ten
U-Boats sailing from there in August
1914 in the first submarine war patrol in
history. The initial campaign of attacking
British warships soon led to unrestricted
submarine warfare. These U-Boats lie
moored in the Innenhafen in 1917, seen
from the Nordostmole (North-East Mole)
and looking across to the U-Boot-Kaie.
Completed in April 1913, the Innenhafen
could accommodate 26 U-boats.
despite all these fortifications, locals said that
only two rounds were actually fired in action
during the war against a British ship out to
the north-west.
A report on the Heligoland defences issued
by Britain’s War Office in 1921 described the
amount of money that must have been spent
on this fortress island as ‘colossal’. Following
the defeat of Germany, and authorised by
Article 115 of the Versailles Peace Treaty,
the British demolished the installations and
cut up the guns, measures that it was hoped
would put a stop to any future military threat
from the island. However, by the beginning
of the Second World War, Heligoland had
once again been built up into a formidable
fortress by the Third Reich, only this time on
a far greater scale than anything that had
been envisaged earlier.
Right:
It was renamed the Osthafen (East
Harbour) in the Second World War, hence
the Nordostmole became the Ostmole.
5
ATB
FRÖHLE-KÜHN VERLAGSGESELLSCHAFT

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