On 14th June 1945 at 8:10 am and 8:20 am two explosions took place at the munitions collecting point in the naval submarine base in Kielseng. During a demonstration to the munition clearing workers, by mistake a hand grenade was defused by a trainer. The grenade discharged the other surrounding munitions, bringing them to an explosion. The conflagration set other munition boxes, containing 2 cm projectiles, ablaze. This blast in turn made 200 or 250 depth charges explode, and they again detonated all remaining munitions. The following furious blast uprooted the nearest trees, blew away roofs, and collapsed the northern wall of the harbour silo. The tender „Donau“ was perforated by splinters and chips and capsized at the pier. Four torpedo boats were destroyed, and the tender „Otto Wünsche“ sustained severe damage. Window panes burst to pieces in the whole city, and even in a 10 km away neighbourhood of Husby, and even in the church of St. Mary. As a consequence of the explosion and the blast of splinters, 61 persons died, 200 were injured, some severely. As late as in the 1990s remains of the munition were found at the bottom of Flensburg’s inner harbour. A memorial of the disaster is to be found in the cemetery Mühlenfriedhof.[1]
[1] Andreas Oeding, Broder Schwensen & Michael Sturm: FLexikon, 725 Aha-Erlebnisse aus Flensburg! 2009, p. 57
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