Father Christmas’s Cold War Lighthouse Run
Put into service in 1967, the Leuchtturm Kiel stands some four miles offshore of Kiel in the shallows of the Kieler Außenförde and serves as both the pilot station for the busy terminal and a manned aid to navigation– the only one of its type in use in Germany.
Soon after it was established, each December saw Weihnachtsmann, Father Christmas, hitch a ride out to the station to deliver holiday treats to the keepers and pilots, with his traditional sleigh or horse replaced by a fast attack craft of the Warnemünde-based 7. Schnellbootgeschwader (the 7th Fast Patrol Boat Squadron, 7. SG or 7. S-geschwader), a unit that had only been formed a few years earlier, in 1961.
It was a no doubt fast trip of about 75 nm across the Holsatian littoral.
Father Christmas on a Lürssen-built 42m Type 142 Zobel-class schnellboot of 7. SG, delivering goodies to Leuchtturm Kiel in December 1972. (Foto: Bundeswehr/Archiv)
And via a Type 143 Albatros-class FAC of the West German 7. Schnellbootgeschwader aus Kiel im Jahr 1985 den Weihnachtsmann (Foto: Bundeswehr/Archiv WBK I „Küste“)
(Foto: Bundeswehr/Archiv WBK I „Küste“)
Type 143A Gephard class Hyäne (P6130) (S80) of 7. SG on the Leuchtturm Kiel run in December 1994, complete with a Santa cap on her stern RAM launcher.
Typically equipped with 10 boats and two small 2,300-ton/324-foot Rhein-class tenders, 7. Schnellbootgeschwader kept watch over their stretch of the Baltic with jaunts to Norwegian fjords on NATO exercises.
The last four boats of 7. SG (Hermelin, Frettchen, Hyäne, and Zobel) stood down on 16 November 2016, capping a 55-year run for the squadron and logging over 350,000nm in patrols.
Santa gets out to the lighthouse by other means these days, but he surely remembers his schnellboot days.
