Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 180
OUT OF CONTROL
Camouflage painting, wartime armaments,
and Government-controlled rebuilding.
Ownership of the prizes rested with the German Reich with Egon Oldendorff
acting as managing owner in accordance with the terms of prize contracts.
All German shipowners came under the instructions of the Reich Ministry
of Shipping or its subordinate authorities. When Great Britain entered the
war the majority of German-controlled tonnage was restricted to trading in the
Baltic, on precisely defined routes in the North Sea and along the Norwegian
coast. Ferrying supplies to German troops, such as provisions, bunkers and
other fuels as well as military goods was given high priority, as was feeding
German industry with raw materials including iron ore from Lulea and Narvik.
Commercial trampÂship operations were strictly limited to the areas mentioned
but increasingly became subject to further restrictions and obstructions as
the war continued.
Dry cargo ships serving the German armed forces would normally sail with
only a fraction of their space or weight capacities utilised, conspicuous
normally by their high freeboard. On the other hand, coal and ore carriers
would be loaded down to their marks. As war went on, most ships flying
the Reich duty flag, or the national flag were retrofitted with anti-aircraft
armament ranging from light infantry machine guns to 4cm anti-aircraft
guns. Crude platforms made of wooden beams and boards gradually gave
way to properly designed anti-aircraft gun positions, as did the sandbags
used to protect bridges, to armoured steel plates. Ships carrying essential
cargoes would sail in protected convoys.
Camouflage painting swept through the shipping world from 1940 and
sometimes even created artistic impressions. Effective at sea level it proved
almost useless against air reconnaissance. Ship bows and sterns painted
white became invisible given certain lighting conditions and when observed
in the horizontal plane, by making the ship appear shorter and distorted.
Certain colour schemes such as a greyish brown resembling rocks helped
ships to hide in NorÂwegian fjords but as paints became scarce towards the
end of the war the practice was eventually given up.
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