Brake (ship, 1931)
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The brake was an artillery training ship of the German Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine , which served the artillery training of navy members on weapons of various types and calibers. At the same time, the ship was used to test the new diesel engines that were later used in the armored ships of the Germany class .
Design and construction
At the end of the 1920s, the first drafts were drawn up to replace the existing artillery school boats, as these no longer met the requirements. In an emergency, the planned ship should be able to be used for reconnaissance purposes and be able to support the comparatively small torpedo boats of the birds of prey and predator classes against modern destroyers . The ship had to have the appropriate equipment and stability. Finally, the naval shipyard in Wilhelmshaven was given the order to build the new ship and on April 22, 1930 the keel was stretched there. The ship was launched on January 24, 1931. The baptismal address was held by the former commandant of the brake , Admiral a. D. Wilhelm Prentzel , the baptism was carried out by his wife.
The brake displaced a maximum of 1,870 ts , was 103.6 m long and 9.5 m wide. The ship had a fully equipped draft of 2.85 m. The armament consisted of four 12.7 cm guns and four 3.7 cm AA guns or four to eight 2 cm AA guns. In addition, there were pick-up and drop devices for up to 350 sea mines . One of the drafts also included an aircraft and two torpedo tubes , which was not implemented. The machine system consisted of eight 8-cylinder diesel engines from MAN , which together produced 28,400 hp and powered two screws. These gave the ship a design speed of 27 knots and a top speed of 29.1 knots. The standard crew numbered 192 men, but could vary depending on the training and also significantly exceed this number.
period of service
The brake was put into service on July 14, 1932. After completion of the test drives, during which the diesel system proved itself, the ship was assigned to the ship artillery school and used as a training ship until the outbreak of war. In 1933 slight modifications were made, whereby the artillery control station on the foremast was omitted. In 1939 the brake was used for the filming of the film “ The Last Appeal ” and depicted the cruiser Amphion . For this purpose, the ship was fitted with two dummy chimneys in order to come closer to the appearance of the Amphion .
After the outbreak of war, the ship was initially used in September 1939 as escort for mine ships and troop transports to Poland , and also used in the trade war in the Baltic Sea. From October 1939 to March 1940 the brake was used as a training ship again. During the invasion of Norway in April 1940, the ship belonged to Warship Group 3, which had to occupy the Norwegian port of Bergen . During this operation, the ship suffered two hits of 21 cm caliber by coastal batteries and had to be repaired in Stavanger , which lasted until August 5th. In the following years the brake was used several times for escort protection in the western Baltic Sea and in Norwegian waters. On November 1, 1940, the ship was rammed by the steamer Danube at the bow when it was in the roadstead in front of Frederikshavn . The damage caused was repaired by November 25th.
In the following week, on December 2, 1940, the brake in Fåfjord hit the ground and had to be repaired in Stavanger by early June 1941 . At the beginning of the German attack on the Soviet Union , the brake was used from Kiel for transport security tasks in the Baltic Sea and to northern Norway. It was attacked on July 30, 1941 in Kirkenes by 20 Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers and nine Fairey Fulmar fighters of the British aircraft carrier Victorious , but without being damaged.
Sinking
Only five weeks later, on September 6, 1941, their fortunes of war turned at Operation Gauntlet near Mageröy Fjord in Norway . As escort for the two troop transporters and supply ships Trautenfels and Barcelona , she succeeded in luring the attacking British cruisers Nigeria and Aurora away from the transporters and thus enabling them to escape. The brake itself was sunk after a nightly artillery duel. 160 men of the crew were killed.
Commanders
| July 14, 1932 to March 26, 1933 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Paul Fanger |
| March 26, 1933 to September 1934 | Corvette Captain Bernhard Liebetanz |
| September 25, 1934 to September 12, 1935 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Erhard Tobye |
| September 1935 to September 1936 | Corvette Captain Wilhelm Matthies |
| September 1936 to October 1938 | Frigate captain / sea captain Eberhard von Goetze |
| November 1937 to June 1938 | Lieutenant Captain Ernst Dominik (deputy) |
| October 1938 | Lieutenant Captain Ernst Dominik (deputy) |
| October 1938 to December 1940 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Förschner |
| December 1940 to June 1941 | First lieutenant to the Sea of Jacobs |
| June 6th to September 6th 1941 | Corvette Captain von Brosy-Steinberg |
literature
- Gröner, Erich : The German warships 1815–1945 . tape 2 : Special ships, auxiliary war ships, auxiliary ships, small ship formations . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968, p. 630 f .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 2 : Ship biographies from Baden to Eber . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, OCLC 6377069 , p. 134 f .
- Siegfried Breyer: Special and special ships of the Kriegsmarine (= naval arsenal with international naval news and naval overview. Vol. 30). Volume 1. Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1995, ISBN 3-7909-0523-2 .