Operation Wartburg

(German castle)

'Wartburg' was a German series of three naval minelaying operations in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea to interfere with any Soviet naval riposte to the advance of the German forces in 'Barbarossa' (19/22 June 1941).

In this undertaking, the minelayers Grille, Preussen, Skagerrak and Versailles, as well as six smaller vessels of Korvettenkapitän Hagen Küster’s 6th Minensuch-Flottille laid the 'Wartburg I', 'Wartburg II' and 'Wartburg III' minefields of 1,150 moored contact mines and 1,800 explosive floats in the area between Memel and Oland, and on 21 June Finnish vessels laid other minefields between Manni and Jussarö.