Mölders, Neckar and Spessart - a photo on Flickriver

            Seen on the outer mole of Kiel Naval Base during Kieler Woche 1985. This image is taken from a scanned negative.

Mölders (D186) was a steam-powered guided missile destroyer of the Bundesmarine (West German Navy) and later the Deutsche Marine (after German reunification). She was the second in a class of four Type 103 DDGs, all of which were modified from the American Charles F Adams class.

The ship was named for the World War II Luftwaffe pilot Oberst Werner Mölders, who between 1938 and 1941 became the first man to achieve 100 aerial victories. Removed from combat for propaganda reasons, Mölders was inspecting units in the Crimea when ordered back to Berlin for the funeral of Ernst Udet, the WWI flying ace and was killed when the He-111 in which he was travelling as a passenger crashed at Breslau (Wroclaw).

Laid down at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine on 12 April 1966 as DDG-29, she was commissioned on 23 February 1969. She was decommissioned on 28 May 2003 and is now a museum ship in Wilhelmshaven, although she was never stationed there during her career.

It should be noted that in 1998 the German Parliament decided that members of the Condor Legion, such as Mölders, should no longer be honoured and in 2005 his name was removed from an active fighter wing that was still bearing his name.

Neckar (A66) can be seen on the left of shot on the outer side of the mole. She was laid down at Bremer Lürssen-Werft on 22 December 1960 and entered service as a support tender for Type 142 Zobel-class torpedo boats on 7 December 1963. In 1971-72 she underwent modification to accommodate the material conservation group (MEG, forerunner of the system support group, SUG) for modernised variants of the Type 142 torpedo boats. Neckar was decommissioned on 30 November 1989 and scrapped in Turkey in 1993.

An unusual incident in her career occurred on 15 June 1987. From international waters, she was observing Warsaw Pact naval practice firings against a flying drone target when she was hit by eight artillery rounds fired by a Polish Tarantul-class missile corvette, injuring three personnel.

Spessart (A1442) is almost completely hidden behind Mölders, but her bow can be seen on the right of the shot. She was originally built as a merchant tanker, the Okapi, by Kröger of Rendsburg in 1974. She was renamed and commissioned into the Bundesmarine on 5 September 1977 as a Type 704 Rhön-class replenishment oiler, based at Kiel.

On 29 March 2009, whilst participating in Operation Atalanta, Spessart was attacked by a seven-man pirate boat. In addition to her regular 40-man civilian crew, Spessart was carrying a 12-man security detail who exchanged small-arms fire with the pirates, repelling their assault. The pirates were captured a few hours later after other Op. Atalanta ships gave chase. She remains in service as of January 2015.

Taken in: Deutschland / Schleswig-Holstein / Kiel (show map)

Taken on: July 1, 1985

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