While in Kiel, Germany, I am always looking for historical
places to visit. I already talked of the Bunker D in my previous post that stands
in the premises of University of Applied Sciences, Kiel. While going through
the tourist attraction in Kiel on the Trip Advisor’s app on my mobile phone, I came
to know of the Navy Memorial at Laboe in the outskirts of Kiel where a German
U-Boat 995 type VII is docked near the museum. So I decided to visit the
place.
The welcome sign to Laboe - that reads: Laboe harbour is more than just sea
Laboe beach in a heavily overcast sky
On one rather windy and cloudy day, we boarded the bus 100
which goes to Laboe – another harbor that opens in the Baltic Sea. The bus soon
left the Kiel city limits and entered into vast tracts of green patches leading
to Laboe as can be seen in some of the photos shared in this post that I too
from the moving bus.
Beautiful Laboe landscape
When we reached Laboe, we thought there would be some guide
map at the bus stop to lead us to the Naval Memorial and the museum and the
U-Boat. But to our dismay there was none. It took us some time to find locals there to
finally know the location of the museum, which was some two kilometers from the
bus stop. So we started walking towards our right along the beach, enjoying the
beach on our left and beautiful houses on our right. There were a few shops selling
souvenirs and I bought a replica of the U-boat while my wife shopped for some ‘civilian’
decoration pieces.
We continued walking till I caught the glimpse of the boat
in some distance. But by that time my wife was tired and decided to rest while
I pushed on the Naval Museum and the U-Boat.
There was yet another surprise waiting as the museum had closed and so
was the boat. So I could not enter the boat and the museum, but had a chance to
see the massive boat from outside and got lucky to find a tourist to take a
shot of me along with the boat.
Laboe Naval Memorial, also known as the Laboe Tower - the 72 meters high tower wit an observation deck on top was constructed by 1937 in the memory of German sailors who died during WW I
This particular U-Boat 995 Type VIIC class was commissioned
in 1943 and had the honour of sinking three ships, one auxiliary ship, one war
ship and one another. At the end of the war, the boat was at the Norwegian port
Trondheim and surrendered to the British. It then became part of the Norwegian
Navy, called Kaura. It retired from the active service in 1965 and was sold to
Germany, and thus became part of the Laboe Naval Memorial in 1971.
I standing beside the once mighty U-Boat 995 Type VII
We walked back, watching people enjoying the day surfing and para sailing and gliding in the cold Baltic Sea water and while stopping at eateries to buy something to munch,
before boarding the bus back to Kiel.
People enjoying para sailing and gliding in Baltic Sea
As I said earlier, by the time we reached the boat, the museum and the boat were closed. Those who want to see how the boat looks like from the inside, may visit War History Online.
All photos have been taken by me and are accordingly copy righted
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