Danube patrol boats presented to museum.

20 Nov, 2006

Two Danube river patrol boats, the Oberst Brecht and the Niedersterreich, have been officially presented to Viennas museum of military history (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum) by the Austrian army. The heavily armed boats were once used to patrol the Danube, which formed the natural border between eastern communist Europe and the west, after the Allies left Austria in 1955. The ten tonne Oberst Brecht, which started service in 1957, and the 73-tonne Niedersterreich (1970) were both built at the Korneuburg shipyard, which closed in 1994. Official control of the boats was transferred when the military and naval chiefs, major-general Christian Segur-Cabanac and captain Gustav Jobstmann, handed the federal flag to Christian Ortner, the director of the museum.