Eider (ship, 1937)
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The second Eider of the North German Lloyd (NDL) in Bremen was a freighter of the river class. She was completed in Bremen in 1937 as the third ship of the class at AG Weser and mostly used in service to the Canary Islands .
During the Second World War , the Eider served as a transporter , target ship for the Air Force, depot ship and barrier breaker . Her sister ship Ems was used as an auxiliary cruiser Komet . The Eider , which was severely damaged by a mine hit in 1942 and a bomb in 1945 , was sunk with gas ammunition in the Skagerrak on June 17, 1946 .
history
The motorized cargo ships of the river class developed by AG Weser were an enlarged further development of the Abana type cargo steamers built by the shipyard in 1929 for the Levante service. The type ship of the class, the Memel , which came into service in September 1934 , was also launched as a Cairo . The Reiherstieg shipyard built a similar ship with the Sofia (1934, 2978 BRT), which was first delivered to Hapag. By the start of the war, the NDL received six ships of this type, which differed in details and were all built by AG Weser. During the war, were two more ships ( Drava , Mura ) completed their hulls the work Seebeck the Deschimag had made, served both as a barrier breaker and the Mur was completed already as such directly for the service in the Navy.
The flow of ships to the NDL was slow. The Memel was not followed by the Saar until 14 months later, and more than 15 months later at the beginning of March 1937 by the Eider , which, however, was followed by its sister ship Ems after just one month. The service to the Canary Islands was the main area of operation for these motor ships. The pair differed from the two previous ships by a modified bridge shape and loading post placement. They also had a sloping stern compared to the light Maier form of Memel and Saar . Driven by two 6-cylinder MAN Weser diesel engines , which acted on a gearbox with an output of up to 3900 PSe, the freighters reached a speed of over 14 knots. The first NDL ship named after the Schleswig-Holstein River Eider was a river class express steamer built in 1884 , which was lost in 1892 when stranded off the Isle of Wight .
The motor cargo ship Eider , which was delivered to the NDL on March 4, 1937 , left Hamburg on August 19, 1939 for her last voyage in peace. On August 22nd, she left Antwerp for Las Palmas , but reached her home port of Bremen on September 1st due to the warning messages. In December 1939, the Eider was one of the ships that were used to “return” the Baltic Germans when she took 800 emigrants from Latvia on board in Riga and brought them to Danzig .
War effort
In April 1940, the Navy used the Eider as a transporter for the Weser Exercise company . From April 12, she was supposed to bring reinforcements and supplies to Norway with her sister ships Iller , Isar and Memel as well as the NDL steamers Anhalt and Danube . It ran for the first time from April 15 to 29 from Aarhus to Oslo . At the beginning of May she returned to Szczecin to go straight to Oslo again. She commuted on this route partly with the Memel and Belgrade . These trips were secured by the torpedo boats T 110 (guide boat ), T 107 , Jaguar , Falcon and clearing boats .
The Eider was withdrawn from immediate war use in June 1940, but was then used again in August for the planned company Seelöwe under the identification A 34 . At the beginning of February 1941 the Eider was released from this position and returned from Antwerp to Hamburg. It was used as a target ship for the Luftwaffe's training units in Großenbrode ( torpedo launch operation ) and Parow (bomber training).
From March 10, 1942, the ship was used as a transport again. On May 9, 1942, the Eider ran into a mine off Heligoland . Although it could be brought to Hamburg, it was launched due to lack of material and used as a storage ship for sunflower seeds.
In June 1943, it was decided to convert it to Sperrbrecher 36 in Wilhelmshaven, but this was not completed. Two 10.5 cm L 45 rapid fire guns, six 3.7 cm Flak 37 and up to twelve 2 cm Flak 38 were provided as armament .
The end of the Eider
On April 21, 1945, the ship under construction / repair in Wilhelmshaven was badly damaged by aerial bombs. The British used the damaged ship to fill it with unneeded ammunition. On October 15, 1946, the Eider was sunk with gas ammunition in the Skagerrak .
Fate of the sister ships
| Launched in service |
Surname | tonnage | BuildingN ° | fate |
| May 11, 1934 September 6, 1934 |
Memel | 3183 BRT 4620 dw |
890 | as Cairo : from the stack service to Cuba and Mexico, in July 1940 sale to the Soviet Union Vyborg , on July 4, 1941 in the Gulf of Finland by the Finnish submarine Vesikko sunk |
| 04.06.1935 13.11.1935 |
Saar | 3261 BRT 4620 dw |
895 | Service to Cuba and Mexico, September 1940 Sperrbrecher 1 of the Kriegsmarine , March 30, 1944 mine hit, brought to Brest , sunk there on August 26, 1944 after being hit by a bomb |
| 16.01.1937 04.15.1937 |
Ems | 3287 BRT 4420 dw |
926 | Service to the Canary Islands, June 1940 Auxiliary cruiser Komet of the Kriegsmarine , sunk by British speedboat on October 14, 1942 near Cape de la Hague , 252 dead |
| .07.1938 .10.1938 |
Iller | 3290 BRT 4570 dw |
927 | Service to Cuba and Mexico, arrived from Havana via Murmansk in Hamburg on November 12, 1940 , sunk on October 9, 1944 after being hit by a bomb off Mantu, Oesel |
| 02/15/1939 04/04/1939 |
Lech | 3290 BRT 4570 dw |
928 | Service to Cuba and Mexico, 1939 in Vigo , moved to France in 1940, in March 1941 the Lech managed to transfer the last Ju 52 / 3m from Germany to Brazil, from April 28 to May 2, 1941 it supplied U 106s with provisions and 44 m³ of fuel, on May 28, 1941, the Lech sank itself on the march back from Rio de Janeiro when British warships came into view. |
| 11/13/1940 10/25/1943 |
Outside | 4731 BRT 4620 dw |
627 | Commissioned September 14, 1943 as Sperrbrecher 33 , May 1945 in Copenhagen, service with the German Mine Sweeping Administration (GMSA), 1948 sold to Norway: Sunny , 1949: Tindefjell , sold to Manila in 1950 : Cebu , 27 September 1973 at Paganan stranded and then abandoned |
| 13.09.1939 10.26.1943 |
Mur | 4737 BRT 4620 dw |
628 | Completed October 26, 1943 as Sperrbrecher 32 , September 1944 hospital ship in Munich , May 1945 in St. Nazaire , September 1945 as Ile d'Oleron in the service of the French Navy , 1958 rocket test ship. |
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The ships of the North German Lloyd 1920 to 1970 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, 1992, ISBN 3-7822-0534-0 .
- Reinhart Schmelzkopf: German merchant shipping 1919–1939 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg around 1974, ISBN 3-7979-1847-X .
Web links
- Sinking of the Eider
- Investigation and risk assessment of ships loaded with chemical ammunition scuttled in Skagerrak (PDF; 4.4 MB)
- Sinking of the Eider
Individual evidence
- ^ Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970. 1992, p. 88.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970. 1992, p. 93.
- ^ Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970. 1992, p. 93f.
- ^ Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970. 1992, p. 96.
- ↑ Schmelzkopf: The German Merchant Shipping 1919–1939. 1974, p. 205.
- ↑ a b c Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970. 1992, p. 94.
- ↑ PRO AIR 20/6122, DOSI-Report 91 v. March 13, 1941: Landing on March 3, 1941 in Rio de Janeiro
- ↑ a b Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970. 1992, p. 96.
- ↑ Ile d'Oleron