The German Mine Sweeping Administration (GMSA) () was an organisation formed by the Allies from former crews and vessels of the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

's ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

'' for the purpose of mine sweeping after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, predominantly in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

and

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, which existed from June 1945 to January 1948.

History

The GMSA was formed on 21 June 1945 under Allied supervision, specifically that of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, to clear

naval mines A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are deposited and le ...

in the North Sea and Baltic. It was made up of 27,000 former members of the ''Kriegsmarine'' on nearly 300 vessels. The Allied command was well aware of the problem caused for commercial shipping by the over 600,000 naval mines laid in the seas of Western, Northern and Eastern Europe and had asked that the German mine sweeping formations not be dismissed after the surrender in May 1945. For this reason, Vice Admiral Sir Harold Burrough, British Naval Commander-in-Chief, Germany, undersigned the instruction for the GMSA in June 1945. The

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral of the ...

preferred to risk German sailors rather than their own to do the dangerous work. The GMSA was originally under the command of Commodore H. T. England; below him, as the highest ranking German officer, was Konteradmiral Fritz Krauss, who had been in charge of mine sweeping operations during the war.Madsen (1998), p.128 The German sailors initially served in their Second World War uniforms, with the German Eagle and the

Swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

removed, and under the same rules and regulations as were valid in the ''Kriegsmarine''. The sailors were paid a moderate wage and had the right to take local leave, but service was not voluntary as they were categorized as

Disarmed Enemy Forces Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF, less commonly, Surrendered Enemy Forces) is a US designation for soldiers who surrender to an adversary after hostilities end, and for those POWs who had already surrendered and were held in camps in occupied German ...

instead of as

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. Still, the daily, dangerous operations and the resulting high

esprit de corps Morale ( , ) is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value judgment of the willpower ...

led to increasing uneasiness about the GMSA, especially in the Soviet Union. The service was sub-divided into six mine sweeping divisions (German: ''Räumbootdivisionen''). The German headquarters of the service were located in

Glückstadt Glückstadt (; ) is a town in the Steinburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Lower Elbe at the confluence of the small Rhin river, about northwest of Altona. Glückstadt is part of the Hamburg ...

. On 25 May 1946, the GMSA was equipped with new blue work uniforms and special rank insignia, worn on the sleeve. The headquarters of the GMSA were moved to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in December 1947, and it was disbanded in January 1948, despite American objections. The reason for its disbanding was primarily pressure from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

which feared the GMSA was an attempt by the western allies to re-form the German ''Kriegsmarine'', something the Royal Navy bitterly opposed themselves. The '' Reichsmarine'' had used mine sweeping operations after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

to preserve a talent pool of officers and the Royal Navy wanted to avoid a repetition of this experience. The "German mine sweeping formation Cuxhaven", a civilian organisation, replaced the GMSA, still under British control and using equipment and personnel of the previous organisation. In 1956 the

Bundesmarine The German Navy (, ) is part of the unified (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Marine'' (German Navy) became the official ...

formed on the basis of the former organisations, just as the Soviet Union had predicted. One of the few large surface ships of the ''Kriegsmarine'' to survive the war, the

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...

, in a fairly bad condition, served as an accommodation hulk for the GMSA.

Divisions

The GMSA was sub-divided into six regional divisions of varying strength: * 1st Division: ''Schleswig Holstein'' * 2nd Division: ''West Germany (Cuxhaven)'' * 3rd Division: ''Denmark'' * 4th Division: ''Norway'' * 5th Division: ''Netherlands'' * 6th Division: ''Bremen (US division)''

Statistics

* Area cleared: ** North Sea: ** Baltic Sea: * Naval Mines cleared: 2,721 * Losses: ** Vessels lost: 10 ** Crew killed: 348

Ships

As of early 1947, the service consisted of the following ships and vessels: * 84 × M-class Minehunting boats (German: ''Minensuch-Boote''), ''Type 35'', ''Type 40'', ''Type 43'' * 63 × Minesweeper boats (German: ''Räum-Boote''), some with

Voith-Schneider A cyclorotor, cycloidal rotor, cycloidal propeller or cyclogiro, is a fluid propulsion device that converts shaft power into the acceleration of a fluid using a rotating axis perpendicular to the direction of fluid motion. It uses several blades w ...

propulsion systems * 62 ×

Naval trawler Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the World War I, First and World War II, Second World Wars. Some, known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers ...

s (German: ''Kriegsfischkutter'') * 6 × Mine barrage breakers (German: '' Sperrbrecher'') * 5 × Auxiliary minesweepers (former fishing trawlers) * 110 × Auxiliary ships

Similar formations

* The ''4th Mine Sweeping Group'' (German: ''4. Minensuchgruppe'') in

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

, France, was made up from crews of French sailors and German POWs. * ''Deutscher Minenräumverband Cuxhaven'' (''German mine sweeping formation Cuxhaven''), based in

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...

, Germany, a civilian formation under control of the British Customs, replaced the GMSA, active from January 1948 to June 1951 * '' Labor Service Unit (B)'' (LSU/B), based in

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser. Brem ...

and under control of the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

, the formation was active until 1957, many of its members continued to serve in the German ''

'' after that.

References

;Citations

Bibliography

* * Peifer, Douglas (2002). ''The Three German Navies: Dissolution, Transition, and New Beginning.'' Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002. * Peifer, Douglas (2011).·“Establishing the Bundesmarine.” In ''Rearming Germany,'' ed. James S. Corum. Boston; Leiden: Brill, 2011. * Peifer, Douglas (2005).“From Enemy to Ally: Reconciliation Made Real in the Post-War German Maritime Sphere,” ''War in History'' vol. 12, nr. 2, 202-24.

External links

* * {{German Navies Allied occupation of Germany Naval history of Germany German Navy Kriegsmarine Germany–United Kingdom military relations Non-combat military operations involving Germany Naval units and formations of Germany Mine warfare and mine clearance organizations