Emden (ship, 1925)
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The light cruiser Emden was a German warship of the Reichsmarine of the Weimar Republic and later of the Kriegsmarine . After the two small cruisers Emden (commissioned in 1909) and Emden (commissioned in 1916), she was the third German warship to be named after the city of Emden .
history
Construction and commissioning
The referral to the design and planning work for the first German cruiser replica after the Versailles Treaty of 1919, the Court of Chief of the Admiralty in 1920, and the first construction rate of 25 million RM in after's then state the total estimated construction cost of 120 million RM was established in October 1920 in included the budget for 1921. The line plan of the hull for the first larger German warship, which was almost completely welded, was based on the last cruisers of the Imperial Navy , the Cöln class . Originally, it was even hoped to be able to use one of the unfinished Hulls of the Cologne class, but this was prohibited by the Naval Interallied Commission of Control (NIACC - part of the IMKK Interallied Military Control Commission) . However, some parts of the ships to be demolished could be used for the new building.
On January 7, 1925, ran Emden on the Reich Naval Shipyard Wilhelmshaven from the stack . The construction time had been delayed by financing problems due to the hyperinflation in 1922 and 1923 and difficulties with the procurement of materials, which is why the total construction costs can no longer be given with certainty. In addition, there were the changes to the construction that became necessary as a result of manufacturing difficulties in the industry and the objection of the IMKK military control commission against the planned twin towers . The original plan provided for eight 15 cm guns in four twin mountings and would have made the cruiser one of the most modern of its time. However, the Treaty of Versailles prohibited the development of new weapon systems, including new gun turrets. Since the German Navy, like most others, had not used twin turrets for small-caliber guns up to this point, all existing turret constructions were designed for 21 cm caliber or larger and thus too heavy for a cruiser, which, according to the Versailles Treaty, was no more than Was allowed to displace 6000 tons. This made a new design with much less effective individual guns necessary and gave the Emden an appearance very similar to its predecessors.
The cruiser was ceremoniously put into service by the Reichsmarine on October 15, 1925 .
Training ship
The Emden was planned even before its completion, not for military operations and was used as a training ship used. Several trips were made as part of the training.
- 1st trip --- November 14, 1926 to March 14, 1928
- Atlantic Ocean, Cape Town , Cocos Islands, Japan , Alaska , Cape Horn, Rio de Janeiro , Azores, Spain
- 2nd trip --- December 5, 1928 to December 3, 1929
- Suez Canal, Australia , Hawaii , Panama Canal, Las Palmas ( Canary Islands )
- 3rd trip --- January 13th to May 13th 1930
- Madeira , New Orleans , Jamaica , Puerto Rico , Las Palmas, Santa Cruz
- 4th trip --- December 1, 1930 to December 8, 1931
- Vigo (Spain), Suez Canal, Colombo , Trincomali, Bangkok, Manila, Nanking, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Osaka, Nii Jima, Tsuruga, Hakkodate, Ateru, Yokohama, Guam, Batavis ( Dutch East Indies ), Cocos Islands, Mauritius, Durban , Lobito, Luanda, Freetown, St. Vincent, Las Palmas, Santander
After these years in service as a training ship, whose longest voyage led to China in the early 1930s , the Emden was temporarily decommissioned by the Reichsmarine (from 1935: Kriegsmarine ) due to extensive renovation work. During the renovation, the firing of the steam boiler was switched from coal to oil and the maximum possible fuel supply was increased. The guns were exchanged for those with longer tubes of the same caliber, and larger torpedo tubes were installed. After that, she initially sailed again as a cadet training ship until 1939.
- 5th trip --- November 10, 1934 to June 14, 1935
- Santa Cruz (Tenerife), Cape Town, Trinconmali, Cochin (Indochina), Suez Canal, Alexandria, Cartagena, Santa Cruz, Ponta Delgada, Lisbon, Vigo
- 6th trip --- October 23, 1935 to June 12, 1936
- Azores, Caribbean, Venezuela, Panama Canal, Portland / Oregon, Honolulu, Panama Canal, Baltimore, Montreal, Pontevedra (Spain)
- 7th trip --- October 10, 1936 to April 23, 1937
- Cagliari (Sardinia), Varna (Bulgaria), Suez Canal, Ceylon, Thailand, Japan, China, Suez Canal, Falmouth (Great Britain)
- 8th trip --- October 11, 1937 to April 23, 1938
- Spain, Suez Canal, Colombo, Surabaja / Balawan, Massaua (East Africa), Atlantic
- 9th trip --- July 26th to December 15th 1938
- Norway, Reykjavík (Iceland), Vigo, Azores, Bermuda, Madeira, Wilhelmshaven, from there on October 10th to Constanta (Romania), Varna ( Bulgaria ), Istanbul, Rhodes, Vigo
From March 29 to April 15, 1939 the ship was active in the fishery protection service.
World War II and fall
On September 4, 1939, the Emden in Wilhelmshaven was damaged on the forecastle by a shot down British Bristol Blenheim bomber. There were nine dead and twenty wounded. In 1940, the Emden belonged to the warship association that entered the Oslofjord on April 8 with army troops on board at the Weser Exercise Company , and the heavy cruiser Blücher was shot at and sunk by the Oscarsborg fortress . On April 10, she moored in Oslo, where she served as the news center for all three branches of the armed forces until June 7. Then she was moved to Swinoujscie to be used again in the training service.
A conversion planned for 1940 to eight 15 cm L / 50 in twin turrets of the destroyers in 1936 with simultaneous reinforcement of the anti-aircraft armament by one 8.8 cm and two 3.7 cm anti-aircraft guns was not carried out due to the war situation.
Since a war mission was still out of the question, followed more years of service as a training ship. After being in the shipyard from November 1940 to February 15, 1941 she was ready for use again. On September 26 and 27, 1941, she supported the landing companies on the Baltic Islands, where she and the light cruiser Cologne fired around 600 15 cm shells at the Soviet coastal batteries at Cape Ristna on Ösel . Then she served again as a school cruiser and was in the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven from June to November 1942. From September 19 to 21, October 1 to 2 and October 5 to 6, 1944, she took part in mining operations in the Skagerrak. On December 9, 1944, she moored briefly in the Oslofjord. On December 25, 1944, she entered Königsberg , where she was to be overhauled in the Schichau shipyard.
On January 23, 1945, the order to leave was issued because of the approach of the Red Army. With the coffins brought from the Tannenberg memorial by Hindenburg and his wife on board, she was towed to Pillau by icebreakers . After the coffins had been loaded onto the Pretoria and the turbine operation was possible, she left Pillau on February 1, 1945 and arrived in Kiel on February 6 with around a thousand refugees to continue the shipyard layover. There she was on 9/10. April badly damaged by bombs. On April 14, she was towed into the Heikendorfer Bay with a 15 degree port side and set aground. The decommissioning followed on April 26th. On May 3, 1945, the Emden was blown up in Heikendorfer Bay under the command of Kapitänleutnant Helmut Kummer; its remains were demolished in 1948.
Commanders
- Captain Richard Foerster - October 15, 1925 to September 23, 1928
- Frigate captain / sea captain Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière - September 24, 1928 to October 10, 1930
- Frigate Captain / Captain of the Sea Robert Witthoeft-Emden - October 11, 1930 to March 21, 1932
- Frigate Captain Werner Grassmann - March 22, 1932 to April 1, 1933
- Frigate Captain Karl Dönitz - September 29, 1934 to September 21, 1935
- Sea captain Johannes Bachmann - September 21, 1935 to August 25, 1936
- Sea captain Walter Georg Lohmann - August 26, 1936 to June 19, 1937
- Frigate Captain Bernhard Liebetanz - June 20 to July 27, 1937
- Frigate Captain / Sea Captain Leopold Bürkner - July 28, 1937 to June 15, 1938
- Sea Captain Paul Wever - June 15, 1938 to May 5, 1939
- Sea captain Werner Lange - May 8, 1939 to August 28, 1940
- Sea captain Hans Mirow - 29 August 1940 to 19 July 1942
- Sea captain Friedrich Traugott Schmidt - July 20, 1942 to September 9, 1943
- Sea captain Hans Henigst - September 10, 1943 to March 1944
- Frigate Captain / Captain of the Sea Hans-Eberhard Meisner - March 1944 to January 1945
- Sea captain Wolfgang Kähler - January 1945 to March 1945
- Frigate Captain Ernst-Ludwig Wickmann - March 1945 to April 26, 1945
Known crew members
- Carl-Heinz Birnbacher (1910–1991) was Deputy Commander of the Fleet from 1968 to 1970 as Rear Admiral of the German Navy
- Herwig Collmann (1915–2005), was from 1969 to 1973 as a flotilla admiral naval officer for education and training of the navy in the naval office
- Gert Jeschonnek (1912–1999) was the third inspector of the Navy from 1967 to 1971
- Friedrich Kemnade (1911–2008), was from 1968 to 1970, as Rear Admiral , Commander in Defense Area I in Kiel and German Plenipotentiary with the Allied Forces Northern Europe
- Werner Georg Kimmerling (1913–1995), was from 1968 to 1971 as flotilla admiral stage manager ship technology in the naval office
- Otto Kretschmer (1912–1998), was from 1965 to 1970 as Flotilla Admiral Chief of Staff at the NATO Commander of the Naval Forces Baltic Sea Accesses
- Karl H. Peter (1918–2003), was from 1973 to 1977 as Rear Admiral Head of Personnel at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
- Bernhard Rogge (1899–1982), was from 1957 to 1962 as Rear Admiral in command of Defense Area I.
- Horst von Schroeter (1919–2006), was Vice Admiral from 1976 to 1979 in command of the Allied Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea Accesses ( COMNAVBALTAP )
- Robert Witthoeft-Emden (1886–1960) was a naval attaché at the German Embassy in Washington DC from 1933 to 1941 and Vice Admiral in the Navy
- Karl-Adolf Zenker (1907–1998), was second inspector of the navy from 1961 to 1967
Trivia
- The first discovery of a water depth of over 10,000 m. When crossing the Philippines Trench (1926), a corrected depth of 10,400 m was found. The place is called Emdentief .
- At the tip of the bow she carried the Iron Cross , which, except for the U 9 submarine , was only allowed to sail the Emden . This regulation was based on an instruction from Kaiser Wilhelm II in World War I and relates to the award of the first "Emden" .
- Robert Witthoeft-Emden served as a watch officer on the first Emden from May 30, 1913 until it was stranded after the battle near the Cocos Islands on November 9, 1914. Like the other crew members, Witthoeft received an award for surviving the last battle , the right to use the inheritable suffix “-Emden”, which explains his unusual surname.
literature
- Siegfried Breyer: Schulkreuzer Emden , Marinearsenal Volume 31, Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Wölfersheim-Berstadt (1995) ISBN 3-7909-0534-8
- Gerhard Koop: Emden. One name - five ships , Bernard & Graefe Verlag 2002, ISBN 978-3-7637-5406-9
See also
Web links
- On-board community of Emden drivers - About the cruiser Emden
- The Emden in 1929 during a visit to Wellington, New Zealand, British film recording at britishpathe.com britishpathe.com
- Film recordings of the commissioning of the Emden in 1925: britishpathe.com (incorrectly referred to as the second Emden )
- Short news film from New Zealand: britishpathe.com The Emden In The South Seas Again (visit to Wellington, New Zealand)
- Draft of the Reich budget for the financial year 1920, page 21 see point 5. [1]
Footnotes
- ↑ Arming upon commissioning.
- ↑ a b Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, vol. 1. 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , page 80
- ↑ a b Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, vol. 1. 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , page 82
- ↑ 6. Foreign trip cruiser Emden 1935/36 - report by August Rittweger
- ^ With the cruiser "Emden" to America - recorded by Kurt Jürgen Voigt
- ↑ Erich Gröner : The German Warships 1815-1945 , Volume 1, p. 145
- ↑ On-board community of Emden drivers: The name suffix Emden .