Friesenland (ship, 1937)
 Friesenland
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The Friesenland was a catapult ship built for Lufthansa , which served as a floating base for flying boats in their transatlantic airmail service before the Second World War . The ship was requisitioned by the Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II and used as a slinging ship for flying boats and seaplanes . After the war it was used as a cargo ship under different flags until 1969 .
Construction and technical data
The Friesenland was the fourth catapult ship of the German Lufthansa after the two converted cargo ships Westfalen and Schwabenland and the new building Ostmark .
While at Ostmark the focus was on minimizing the costs of a catapult ship deployed in the port and assistance for the flying boats deployed at sea was only considered as an alternative, the new ship should be deployed in the North Atlantic and support the development of a service there. There should therefore be space for two machines and, if necessary, repairs should also be carried out on board. In addition, the ship should be usable in all weather conditions at sea and also have an above-average speed.
The draft finally provided for a ship from bow to bridge building and chimney a normal cargo ship looked like, followed by then but a big side open roof and a very long, flat stern joined. The front mast had a couple of loading booms , the rear mast on the roof structure was a signal and antenna mast. The roof served to cover the workshop area, the floor of which was one deck lower. The area could be closed even more comprehensively against the weather with tarpaulins. The crane of the Hamburg crane company Kampnagel with a lifting force of 20 tonnes , which was installed one deck lower and could be folded in, was located on the long aft deck, offset to starboard . In front of the crane, on the starboard side, was the parking lane with a rail extending to the workshop hall. On the port side of the 18 was tons of Heinkel - Catapult type K10 for the spin start of the aircraft over the transom of the boat. The catapult and parking lane were connected by a cross rail onto which the machines could be deflected by means of a turntable. Between the two turntables on the outside there was a third turntable amidships, with which the aircraft could be transferred to a rail leading into the workshop, which ran slightly downwards. Parts of the machines could thus be brought under the protective roof. The ten fuel tanks for the machines (a total of 25,000 liters ) were located next to the catapult system directly under the flight deck.
The Friesland expired on 23 March 1937 at the Howaldtswerken in Kiel from the stack and was delivered on May 13, 1937th She was measured at 5,434 GRT , 140.5 meters long and 16.56 m wide, and had a draft of 9.00 m. The machine system consisted of two 9-cylinder MAN two-stroke diesel engines with a total of 5,800 hp and gave it a top speed of 16.5 knots . The crew consisted of 49 men and up to 34 flight personnel. The officers had single cabins, the rest double cabins.
Lufthansa airmail service
In mid-June 1937, the Friesenland began testing in the Baltic Sea off Swinoujscie . The ship's facilities were tested with the Dornier Wal D-AKER "Taifun". The ship then sailed via Bremen to the Azores to take part in the German transatlantic flight program of the year.
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From August 15 to November 18, 1937, the Friesenland served as a floating base for the two new float planes Blohm & Voss Ha 139 V1 D-AJEY “Nordwind” and V2 D-AMIE “Nordmeer”, which were delivered to Lufthansa in the summer of 1937 and have now carried out the first test flights on the planned North Atlantic airmail route between Horta ( Azores ) and New York . The Friesenland was positioned in the Long Island Sound off New York and the Schwabenland near the Azores. In the 14 test flights made during this period (seven in each direction), the shortest flight time from Horta to New York was 14 hours and 35 minutes, the longest 19 hours and 5 minutes.
After the catapult launch of the D-AMIE “Nordmeer” on November 18 in New York for the return flight to Horta, the Friesenland ran back home to have some repairs and modifications carried out at the Howaldtswerft in Hamburg.
Since the Americans were not ready to approve a German airmail service to the USA, the Friesenland was then used for the first time on the South Atlantic Post Line, which had existed since 1933 . From the end of February 1938 she replaced the Schwabenland at Fernando de Noronha , where she first catapulted the Dornier whale D-AGAT "Boreas" to Africa on February 25th . Week after week the post-whales started from the Friesenland to Africa. When more modern machines were available from May, the ship moved to Recife , saving the first stage over the sea with water start and water landing. The Dornier Do 18 D-AANE “Zyklon” from the Friesenland was the first aircraft to be deployed on May 13th. Its transatlantic flight lasted an hour longer, but also covered almost 500 km more. Then the Blohm & Voss Ha 139 D-AJEY "Nordwind" was also used, which needed two hours less for the 3,139 km long route. On June 24, 1938, the last start of a regular mail machine from the Friesenland by the Dornier Do 18 D-AROZ "Pampero" took place again at Fernando de Noronha, where the ship had also moved when an old whale was used as a transatlantic machine came. The ship then went back home to be used in another series of tests on the North Atlantic. It had supported 19 scheduled flights in the four months off the Brazilian coast .
In the second series of 26 test flights from July 21 to October 20, 1938, the flight time was reduced to 13 hours and 40 minutes, and on October 18, the further modified Ha 139B D-ASTA "Nordstern" even managed the route in 11 Hours and 53 minutes. However, since on August 10, 1938 the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 V1 "Condor" (D-ACON) of Lufthansa had made the route Berlin-New York non-stop in 24 hours and 56 minutes and the return flight even in only 19 hours and 55 minutes , it was foreseeable that the era of seaplanes and flying boats in long-haul air traffic was coming to an end.
However, the regular mail service of Lufthansa was still carried out with seaplanes and the Friesenland was used again off the Brazilian coast. On December 23, 1938, the Ha 139 “Nordwind” was the first machine to start again from the ship's catapult to Africa. The four-engine Ha 139 float planes were now the main type of operation, as they could not be used on their construction route across the North Atlantic due to a lack of consent from the Americans. On February 22, 1939, the Friesenland catapulted a Dornier Do 26 flying boat for the first time when the D-AWDS "Seefalke" flew back to Europe from a special flight with medicines for earthquake victims. The Dornier Do 18 "Zyklon" was also used twice in the liner service and the first liner operations of a Dornier Do 26 by the D-AGNT "Seeadler" were carried out via the Friesenland . The last mission over the Friesenland was then carried out again on June 30, 1939 by the Ha 139 "Nordwind" and the ship was then released for overhaul after completing 30 flights home.
At the beginning of the war it was ready for use again in Bremerhaven .
Air force service in World War II
At the beginning of World War II which was Friesland taken over by the Air Force, with four 20-mm Fla - guns provided and on 5 September 1939 as a spin ship for reconnaissance put into service. The ship now displaced 11,500 tons.
The Friesenland initially served at Seefliegerhorst Hörnum on Sylt , then from April 1940 at Seefliegerhorst Travemünde , where it catapulted supply aircraft (three Dornier Do 26, two prototypes Dornier Do 24 , pre-series machines Blohm & Voss BV 138 ) for flight to Norway . In September 1940 she moved with two flying boats Dornier Do 26 to Trondheim in Norway, for the company Herbstreise , which was to serve as a deception company for the invasion of England . Reconnaissance flights were flown from Trondheim over the Denmark Strait for the planned breakout of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in the North Atlantic in connection with the company Herbstreise . The cruiser was out of service for the company on September 27, 1940 due to engine damage.
On October 11, 1940, the ship went to Brest on the French Atlantic coast. There the Ostmark, sunk on September 24, 1940 by the British submarine HMS Tuna , was supposed to catapult the Dornier Do 26 long-range reconnaissance aircraft used to search for convoy for the German submarines , and Friesenland now took on this task. The first attempt, on November 23, failed spectacularly: one of the aircraft engines failed, the plane crashed into the sea, and its entire crew was killed. Then the Friesenland with the two remaining Do 26 was ordered to the Gironde estuary in southwest France, where the take-off and landing conditions for flying boats were much better. But there were no further reconnaissance flights for the submarines; both Do 26 were flown back to Germany in March 1941.
The Friesenland went to Norway again in September 1941. When driving, she received near Vlissingen on the Scheldt estuary at a British air raid a bomb hit the stern . After repairs in Bremerhaven , she first went to Trondheim, then in November 1941 to Tromsø , in February 1943 again to Trondheim, and in July 1943 to the Billefjord at the North Cape . There she was on 19 September 1944 by Soviet torpedo planes of the type Douglas A-20 attacked and badly damaged. The bow was bent, there were two dead on board, and the ship had to be beached. In October the Friesenland was towed free and makeshift repairs were carried out in the bow bay northwest of Narvik in the Ofotfjord . Then she served as a workshop ship in Narvik. In March 1945 she was transferred to Trondheim in the same position, where she was the spoils of British war at the end of the war.
After 1945
The Royal Navy officially took possession in April 1946, but gave the ship on March 19, 1947 to the Royal Air Force , which used it as a seaplane depot. As part of the post-war disarmament, the ship was launched on August 7, 1947 at Burnt Island in the Firth of Clyde ( Scotland ). It was sold in February 1949 and, after reconstruction at the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg , was used as a refrigerated ship under the name Fair Sky under the Panamanian flag for fruit transport from March 1950 . In 1952 the ship was sold to Italy , where it sailed under the name Castel Nevoso until 1969. In 1968 it was sold again to Panama and then went under the name Argentine Reefer .
In June 1969, the ship was finally to the recycling facility Industries Shipbreaking Ltd. sold in Faslane-on-Clyde and scrapped there.
Web links
- Air Force Catapult Ships
- Friesenland in the Historical MarineArchive
- Friesenland at navypedia
literature
- Friedrich von Buddenbrock: Atlantico Pacifico, years of apprenticeship in overseas air traffic. GFW-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1968
- Manfred Griehl: Dornier flying boats in World War II. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, Wölfersheim 1998, ISBN 3-7909-0628-X
- Jörg M. Hormann: Atlantic flight book, German catapult flights 1927-1939. Delius Klasing Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7688-1973-2
- Simon Mitterhuber: The German catapult planes and slingshots - development, use and technology. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2003, ISBN 3-7637-6244-2
- Sönke Neitzel: The use of the German air force over the Atlantic and the North Sea 1939–1945. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1995
- Jürgen Rohwer, Gerd Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7
Individual evidence
- ^ Buddenbrock: Atlantico Pacifico . P. 123 ff.
- ↑ Buddenbrock, p. 141 ff.
- ↑ a b Mitterhuber: Katapultflugzeug und Schleuderschiffe , p. 173
- ↑ a b Mitterhuber, p. 156 f.
- ↑ Mitterhuber, p. 168
- ↑ Mitterhuber, p. 170
- ↑ Mitterhuber: Catapult Airplanes and Slingers , p. 175
- ^ Hormann: Atlantic flight book . P. 126
- ↑ Mitterhuber, p. 176
- ↑ Buddenbrock, p. 146
- ↑ Hormann, p. 132
- ↑ a b c Hormann, p. 136
- ↑ Hormann, p. 138
- ↑ Hormann, p. 148
- ↑ Hormann, p. 142
- ↑ Hormann, p. 152
- ↑ Hormann, p. 156
- ↑ Hormann, p. 166
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Mitterhuber, p. 155, with further references.
- ^ Jochen Brennecke : Eismeer Atlantic Baltic Sea - The missions of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1974, pages 119-125
- ^ Griehl: Dornier flying boats . P. 36 ff
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War . P. 480