Net laying ship

Network Leger are warships or auxiliary vessels of naval forces, protect the harbor entrances or other sea routes by laying beams and grid barriers against U- boats, speed boats, torpedoes and frogmen.

With a displacement of 500-3700 tons, power Leger have a Seeausdauer 3-15 days and can thus at a speed of 10 to 15 knots 2000-3500 nautical miles to cover in cruising. The crew of a European network Leger comprises 30 to 180 man in Asia (Korea, Japan, Taiwan) are also smaller network Leger with only up to 20 -man crew in action. The armament of network installers was and is very different, which is due to the fact that often conversions of civil or military marine vessels have been used for this purpose. Today's network Leger usually have an armament of up to eight anti-aircraft guns of caliber 2 to 4 cm.

The first network Leger was the Guardian ( 3,665 tons ), which ran in the UK in 1932 by the stack.

The U.S. Navy had laid in World War II a total of 77 network Leger on duty, who were mainly used in the Pacific, and there steel nets to protect against torpedoes and submarines to single ships or vast anchorages. The ships were marked with the hull identification " YN " ( "Yard Net Tender" ) and later "ON" ( "Auxiliary Net Layer "). The first 32, all ran in 1940 from the pile, were made ​​of steel, the next 30 because of the wartime shortage of steel, made ​​of wood, and the last 15, in 1944 and 1945 laid the keel, in turn, were made ​​of steel.

In the British Royal Navy served in World War II a total of 87 network Leger, known there as "Boom Defence Vessels" and the symbol " Z". Of these, 71 belonged to the Bar class, 10 for Net- class and 5 for pre- class; added was the Dunnet, a single ship. The Australian Navy had a ship of the Net class and three ships of the Bar class in service, including the HMAS Kangaroo.