Qualla: German Trawler V 1101 Preussen

German Trawler V 1101 Preussen: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

She was built to chase fish. In July 1930 the trawler August Wriedt slid down the ways at the Frerichs yard in Einswarden, a working boat for the North Sea fishery: 53.59 meters from stem to stern, a triple-expansion steam engine throbbing under her deck, code letters DHBR painted on her side. Three years later, renamed Preussen, she was still a fishing trawler. Then the war came. In September 1939 the Kriegsmarine took her, slapped a number on her hull - V 1101 - and sent her out to do a sailor's job with a soldier's risks. She would never go back to fishing.

German Trawler V 1101 Preussen: Vorpostenboot

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The German navy entered the Second World War without enough warships to cover its own coast, so it conscripted civilian boats. The Vorpostenboote - literally outpost boats - were the result. Fishing trawlers, whalers, and other sturdy steamers were requisitioned, armed with a dec...

German Trawler V 1101 Preussen: The Boats They Could Not Save

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 14 March 1940 Preussen recovered part of a torpedo from the German submarine U-54, which had been missing since 20 February. All 41 men on U-54 were already lost, most likely to a British mine in the North Sea. Three months later, on 5 June 1940, the German cargo ship Kvitsoey...

German Trawler V 1101 Preussen: Eight Minutes off Langeoog

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 13 August 1944 V 1101 Preussen was working in convoy with the M1943-class minesweeper M 383, hugging the coast off the East Frisian island of Langeoog. The skies were getting bad for German shipping. The Allies controlled the air over the North Sea, and 254 Squadron of the Roy...

German Trawler V 1101 Preussen: What Lies Below

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The wreck of V 1101 Preussen lies on the seabed off Langeoog, broken but identifiable, one of dozens of small Kriegsmarine auxiliaries lost in the last year of the war. Most of these ships had crews of around twenty or thirty men, a mix of conscripted fishermen who had once worke...