The Boelcke was built in 1942 at the Norderwerft Köser & Meyer in Hamburg with the construction number 745 and put into service in December 1942 with the identification K 54. The ship was 78 m long and 10.8 m wide, had a 3.7 m draft and displaced 1157 t (standard) and 1351 t (maximum). The machinery consisted of four 12-cylinder four-stroke MAN - diesel engines with a total of 8800 PSI and two screws . The maximum speed was 21.5 knots (empty) and 18.5 knots (fully loaded). The ship could be up to 120 tons of diesel oil bunkers and thus had a radius of 3350 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 18 knots. The ship was unarmored and armed with three 3.7 cm and two 2 cm anti- aircraft guns. The armament was changed in 1943/44 by replacing the 3.7 cm gun on the forecastle with a 10.5 cm gun. The vessel was equipped with a MAN portal and rotary crane equipped aft of 18 m length and 18 t lifting force and with a positioning and working deck and has up to three water aircraft types He 60 , Do 18 , He 114 or Ar 196 record . The crew consisted of 66 men.
fate
The Boelcke was used by "Seenotdienstführer 1 (Ost)" in the Baltic Sea. In August 1944, together with the air traffic control ships Greif , Hans Albrecht Wedel and Gunther Plüschow , she was placed under the Sea Emergency Group 81 in Bug on Rügen , which also included the Sea Emergency Flotilla 81 in Swinoujscie . The ships of the Seotgruppe 81 were mainly used for the evacuation of refugees and wounded from East and West Prussia ( company Hannibal ). In the spring of 1945 they operated in the area of Königsberg , Pillau and Danzig in the supply and rescue service.
On the morning of April 16, the Boelcke and the Greif left the port of Pillau as security ships and parts of an evacuation convoy. About two hours later, at 7:30 a.m., they were attacked by Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 fighter planes about 4 nautical miles east of the tip of the Hela peninsula . Although they were able to shoot down one of the attacking aircraft, the Boelcke received two bomb hits in the forward engine room , which led to a failure of the power supply and serious fires. The ship remained buoyant, but was hit again in another attack on the morning of April 17 and sunk at position 54 ° 34 ′ 44 ″ N , 18 ° 55 ′ 12 ″ E. There were 20 dead.
54.579 18.92
Dieter Jung, Berndt Wenzel, Arno Abendroth: Ships and boats of the German sea pilots 1912-1976 , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, 1st edition, 1977.
Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung and Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 - Volume 7: The ships and boats of the German sea pilots . Bernard & Graefe, Munich, 1982.
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