KM naval designations NM ; NN ; NK ; WBS etc

[Paul Lakowski]

Studing the Germany navy they could have had as many as 4-6000 vessels in their fleet over the course of the war. What makes matters difficult to catalogue is that many ships change designation through out the war. In looking at the over 1300 auxiliary warships they have on the Navapedia site, I come across references to designations like "NM" ; "NN" ; "NK" ; "WBS" , etc on vessels that are later classified as "UJ" ; "VB" or "MB" etc.

While "UJ" stands for Ujagger and "V" Vorpostenboote and "M" MineBoot....Any one got any clue as to what these other designations stand for?

[Leo Niehorster]

WBS = Wetter-Beobachtungs-Schiff = Weather ship

For coastal minesweepers (Kustenschutzboote), the initial letters designated the geographical areas they were employed.
  NM = Norway (general)
  NN = Norway (Narvik)
  NK = Norway (Christiansand)

See:
German Naval Abbreviations of World War II

Cheers
Leo

[Paul Lakowski]

WBS = Wetter-Beobachtungs-Schiff = Weather ship

For coastal minesweepers (Kustenschutzboote), the initial letters designated the geographical areas they were employed.
  NM = Norway (general)
  NN = Norway (Narvik)
  NK = Norway (Christiansand)

See:
German Naval Abbreviations of World War II

Cheers
Leo

Thank you sir, good information as always!