Eidsvold (ship, 1900)
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 Coastal armored ship Eidsvold |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Coastal armored ship |
| Shipyard |
Armstrong, Whitworth & Co , Elswick , BauNr. 699 |
| Keel laying | May 9, 1899 |
| Launch | June 14, 1900 |
| Namesake | the place Eidsvold |
| Commissioning | . March 1901 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk in Narvik on April 9, 1940 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
3,848 ts construction, |
| length |
94.6 m over everything, |
| width |
15.4 m |
| Draft |
5 m |
| crew |
261 men |
| drive |
6 Yarrow boilers |
| speed |
16.5 kn |
| Range |
7300 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Coal supply |
250 (max. 583) ths |
| Armor |
Type Krupp |
| Belt armor |
152 mm |
| Turrets |
203 mm |
| Casemates |
127 mm |
| Command tower |
203 mm |
| Sister ship | |
The Eidsvold was a coastal armored ship of the Royal Norwegian Navy . She was laid down at Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle-upon-Tyne , England, in 1899 , launched on June 14, 1900, and commissioned in 1901. The ship was named after the place Eidsvold , where the first Norwegian constitution was passed in 1814 , which is basically still in force today.
The Eidsvold was sunk on April 9, 1940 at the beginning of the German attack on Narvik by the flagship of the attacking German destroyer association, Wilhelm Heidkamp , with a torpedo fan . Only six out of the 181 crew members survived.
General
The Eidsvold and her sister ship the Norge were built as part of the general armament that was supposed to protect Norway against possible military action by Sweden and finally culminated in 1905 with the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian personal union and the complete independence of Norway.
Since the two armored ships of the Bjørgvin class ( Bjørgvin and Nidaros ) ordered in Great Britain in 1912 were confiscated by the British Royal Navy at the outbreak of the First World War , the Eidsvold and her sister ship Norge , although long completely out of date, formed until April 9, 1940, when both were sunk by German destroyers off Narvik , the backbone of the Norwegian Navy.
Building history
Because of the aforementioned tensions between the states linked in personal union, the Norwegian parliament approved the construction of four new ironclad ships in 1895 to replace existing obsolete monitors . Because of the tensions, they were not ordered in Sweden, where such ships had already been built, but the British company Sir William G. Armstrong received the building contract for two ships of 3500 t in 1895, the Harald Haarfagre and the Tordenskjold in Service came and had two 21-cm guns in single turrets and a 12-cm medium artillery battery.
The chief designer of the British construction company, Philip Watts , then visited Norway with some employees and tried to get the other orders. Six different designs were presented to the Norwegians, who finally placed the order for two more ships in January 1899.
These ships were 94.6 m long and 15.7 m wide, had a draft of 5.4 m and were thus slightly longer and wider than the previous units of the Tordenskjold class. With 3848 ts of design displacement (3645 ts standard displacement ), they were the largest combat ships in the Norwegian Navy. They had 152 mm belt armor and 203 mm turret armor made from the more modern Krupp steel, but were only inadequately protected against underwater weapons (mines and torpedoes). The maximum speed was 17.2 knots. The crew originally consisted of 270 men, but was reduced to just 238 in 1940.
With two 21 cm guns as main armament as well as six 15 cm and six 7.6 cm guns, four 4.7 cm rapid-fire guns and two underwater torpedo tubes, they were very powerful for their time, the ships of the German Siegfried - Class comparable or even superior. However, they were soon obsolete with the development of the dreadnought ships of the line . Of the two ships previously delivered, the Norge and the Eidsvold were easy to distinguish by two chimneys. Their combat strength was higher due to the medium artillery reinforced with 15 cm guns and the modern Krupp armor.
Norway's independence
When Norway separated from Sweden, there were parties on both sides who feared, and sometimes wanted, a military separation. The Eidsvold was at that time the flagship of the Norwegian fleet of four new ironclad ships and 18 torpedo boats. The Swedish fleet consisted of eight modern and three old ironclad ships, five torpedo cruisers of the Örnen class of 800 tons, 23 modern torpedo boats and the Hajen submarine . The Swedish fleet shifted several units to the west, but had no plans to attack Norway.
The four Norwegian coastal armored ships formed the "Skagerrak Squadron" with six torpedo boats 1st class of the Hval type and the destroyer Valkyrjen as a guide boat on the south coast west of the Oslofjord to deal with a feared Swedish attack from the sea on Oslo and the military and industrial installations in Fending off Eastern Norway; an offensive action against Gothenburg was also planned. The other four 1st class torpedo boats and the two cruisers Frithjof and Viking stayed in front of Bergen .
A political solution was found before acts of war took place.
First and only combat
In the early morning of April 9, 1940, ten destroyers of the German Navy under Commodore Friedrich Bonte ran into the Ofotfjord off Narvik in fog and blowing snow as part of the Weser Exercise company . Their arrival was noticed and reported by Norwegian merchant ships, whereupon the two coastal armored ships Eidsvold and Norge in port got ready for action, albeit with an incomplete crew.
At around 4:15 a.m., frigate captain Willoch sighted the leading German destroyer on the Eidsvold , the Wilhelm Heidkamp , the flagship of Commodore Bonte. Since his flare was not returned, Willoch fired a warning shot and hoisted the international flag signal to stop. The Wilhelm Heidkamp stopped and signaled that an officer would be sent to negotiate. A boat brought Corvette Captain Gerlach and a signal mate to the Eidsvold . While Gerlach was negotiating with Willoch, the Norwegian captain had his fully loaded 21 cm and 15 cm guns aimed at the destroyer, which was only a few hundred meters away.
Gerlach tried to convince Willoch that the German ships had not appeared as enemies in Norway and that Willoch should give up without a fight. Willoch declined, but asked for ten minutes to think it over, which he used to inform the commandant of the Norge , Per Askim , his immediate superior, that he was determined to armed resistance. When Willoch refused to surrender without a fight a second time after the ten minutes had elapsed, Gerlach left the Eidsvold and fired an agreed signal from his boat, which showed Bonte that the Norwegians were determined to fight.
Willoch let his ship take off, headed towards Wilhelm Heidkamp and released the three 15 cm guns of the port battery to fire. Probably also to forestall a ram through the Eidsvold , the Wilhelm Heidkamp immediately fired four torpedoes, three of which hit - even before the Norwegians had fired their first shot. One probably detonated an ammunition chamber. The ship broke apart and sank in seconds with the screws turning. Only six of the 181 men on board survived.
Whereabouts
Only the remains of the wreck lie in shallow water at the entrance to Narvik harbor; the majority was lifted and scrapped on site.
literature
- Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927 , World Ship Society, Gravesend (1999), ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German Warships , Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, 1979, ISBN 3-88385-028-4 .
- Bruno Weyer: Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten 1905 , 2nd edition, JF Lehmann Verlag, Munich on archive.org
Web links
- Norwegian website about the attack on the Eidsvold
- Norwegian postcard of the Eidsvold
- NORGE coastal battleships
- Eidsvold's sinking
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brook, p. 208.
- ↑ Weyer 1941/42, p. 140.
- ↑ Brook, pp. 207f.
- ^ Jacob Børresen: Sjømilitære krigsforberedelser i ytre Oslofjord summer 1905. Vestfold University College and Borre Historical Society. Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (norw.) (accessed April 20, 2012)
