Original German WWII Kriegsmarine Navy Baltic Sea Coastal Survey Reference Book – As Used by Mine Sweepers Original Items

Original Item. Only One Available. Well this is something we haven’t really seen before! This is a lovely hardcover Kriegsmarine reference book, which contains coordinates for coastal surveys, which would be used by Mine Sweepers, as well as Mine Laying ships. It looks to have been in a collection and/or library at some point, and has a catalog number and title taped to the top of the front cover. The book is 111 pages long, and measures about 7 5/8″ x 10 3/4″. It features several fold out maps in the rear as well.

The cover of the book reads as follows:

Nur für den Dienstgebrauch!

Punkte-Verzeichnis
zum Gebrauch für die Küstenvermessungen
der Kriegsmarine

Ostsee
Gebiet der Kriegsmarinedienstelle Stettin

Zusamenngelstellt un gedruckt
im Oberkommander der Kriegsmarine · Amtsgruppe Nautik
Berlin 1941

This translates to:

For official use only!

Points list for use in coastal surveys of the Kriegsmarine

Baltic Sea
Area of ​​the Kriegsmarine Office Stettin

Compiled and printed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine · Nautical Office
Berlin 1941

There are additional warnings on the inside warning of possible criminal prosecution for misuse of the book, as it was considered a secret, and they definitely didn’t want it falling into the wrong hands. Condition is very good.

A great piece of German WWII Kriegsmarine Navy Militaria, ready to research and display!

The Kriegsmarine was the navy of NSDAP Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.

In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines. Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supported the Nationalists against the Spanish Republicans.

In January 1939, Plan Z, a massive shipbuilding program, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British Royal Navy by 1944. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favor of a crash building program for submarines (U-boats) instead of capital surface warships, and land and air forces were given priority of strategic resources.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine (as for all branches of armed forces during the period of absolute NSDAP power) was Adolf H, who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine (“High Command of the Navy”).

The Kriegsmarine’s most significant ships were the U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. Wolfpacks were rapidly assembled groups of submarines which attacked British convoys during the first half of the Battle of the Atlantic but this tactic was largely abandoned by May 1943 when U-boat losses mounted. Along with the U-boats, surface commerce raiders (including auxiliary cruisers) were used to disrupt Allied shipping in the early years of the war, the most famous of these being the heavy cruisers Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer and the battleship Bismarck. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, greatly reduced the effectiveness of surface commerce raiders against convoys.

Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Kriegsmarine’s remaining ships were divided up among the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. Some were loaded with superfluous chemical weapons and scuttled.