Not every Siebel is a true Siebel Part 2 – Pi Lf 41 scratchbuilt
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And more catamaran style vessels, totally non Siebel that time.
Following the problems with Siebel the Heer decided to do the next designs alone. The new was the Pionierlandungsfähre 41. Short Pi Lf 41. It was produced in many variations.
The Pi Lf 41 was made in two basic versions, differing by the end ship. The Deutz one was more pointed, the Büssing one rounded. These Diesel engines from these lorry factories gave much better service than the aircraft ones. The front units had been very satisfied with them.
The hulls and bows came from the Schweres Schiffsbrückengerät.
The deck house was designed in some standard configurations, getting Roman numbers. It was normally fitted at the end to offer more loading space. Some had the deck house in mid like in the earlier ferries. The houses got made from wood and / or steel.
Nobody that read part 1 would be surprised that the Siebel Baustab copied that move on Siebelfähre 43. But they still used aircraft engines.Armament was very different in the vessels, depending on what was available. 2 cm and 3,7 cm guns got used. One big advantage of the catamaran design was that transported guns could be used. Even tanks could use them.
The Pi Lf 41 carried up to 100 tons at 8 kts.I did a Büssing and a Deutz one.
The Büssing with deck house in mid has two Sturmbootrutschen (fast attack boat slides) at the end. Some Pi Lf got used equipped like that as “Sturmboottransporter”. They carried around 10 Sturmboote 39.
I had the waterline one and did just three for the deck, a bit lazy.The Sturmboot 39 was produced since 1936 (!) as Leichtes Sturmboot. A Hungarian design copied by Engelbrecht at Berlin-Köpenick., the companie built hundreds for Pionere that used it in rivercrossings. 1939 many other factories started production in 1939 under the new designation. Burmester alone made 510.
Each boat had a LMG, a flare gun and a wrist compass. They also had Nebeltöpfe for the laying of smoke screens.
Those intended for sea use got a covered bow section. The boat had a crew of two, one standing at the end, steering with the outboard motor that drove the propeller with a prominent very long shaft. The other sat at the bow, using the LMG for covering fire.
The 30 hp Otto engine drove the boat with 13,5 kts. The 18 liters gave the a range of 20 sea miles. The hull was constructed from wood, in war AEG made a prototype from 10 layers of cloth with resin. That had a König engine that drove it with 24 kn. Lack of production capacity prevented introduction.
Typical load was 6 men with arms, a Schweres MG with crew or a light mortar. Six men had been enough to carry it so no special equipment was needed on deck.
The Deutz one is a standard carrier with Deckhaus I. The “tunnel” was used as passage if a Sturmbootrutsche was added.
I had the load, the metal 88 and lorries, unpainted in my boxes for decades.
Sometimes the PiLfähren got used as bridges, lying side by side. Connected with bridging decks they could take even the heaviest Panzers.
And they could transport a Tiger II over high sea .Loading was done over the bow or the sides. Well, I doubt that a storm voyage was nice on pontoon catamarans.
But as long as the connections worked it was more stable than a single hull vessel.The successor was the Pi Lf 44 that differed mainly by a ship shaped bow section and more guns. At the bow medium ones to fight MGB and a 7,5 cm in mid of deck. The deck house was bigger, reaching the sides. Speed was increased to 10kts.
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