Hinrich Freese (ship, 1930)
The Hinrich Freese was a German side trawler that was used by the Navy as a weather observation ship during World War II and was lost in the process.
construction
The ship was launched in November 1930 in the work of Seebeck the Deschimag in Wesermünde from the stack and was on 9 December 1930, its owner, the Hanseatische sea fishing AG in Bremerhaven , delivered. It was 44.5 m long and 7.7 m wide, had a 3.8 m draft and was measured at 384 GRT . His home port was Bremerhaven, his fishing license number BX 215.
Navy service
With the navy's need for ocean-going, small ships, which grew rapidly after the start of the war, the ship was requisitioned in 1940 and, after appropriate modifications, put into service on March 1, 1940 as a weather observation ship with the designation WBS 4 . The crew consisted of 19 men and a five-man squad of meteorological specialists. WBS 4 was assigned to the Marine Group Command West (MGK West). Its first mission began on March 20 in Wilhelmshaven and led to so-called Operation Area 2 north of Iceland , where the auxiliary cruiser erupted together with the weather observation ships Fritz Homann ( WBS 3 ) and Adolf Vinnen ( WBS 5 ), which were also positioned along the planned route Atlantis through the Denmark Strait into the North Atlantic with weather information. The weather reports began on March 30th. After completing this action, the Hinrich Freese ran to the Norwegian coast to report the ship traffic off Bergen to Germany, disguised as a fish steamer , at the beginning of April, immediately before and during the German invasion of Norway . After around 25 days at sea, the Hinrich Freese returned to Wilhelmshaven in mid-April.
On May 24, 1940, the ship sailed from Trondheim again to the sea area north of Iceland to relieve the Adolf Vinnen there . Alternating with other weather observation vessels, it carried out regular weather observation services northeast of Iceland in the following months.
With the creation of the Marine Group Command North and the simultaneous change in command in the North Sea from MGK West to MGK North in August 1940, Hinrich Freese was now under the control of MGK North. On August 18, she left Bergen and went to Operations Area 3 north of Jan Mayen in order to support the operations of the two heavy cruisers Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper with weather reports - again replacing Adolf Vinnen . She stayed there until September 13, when she finally arrived in Trondheim after a 30-day assignment .
In October – November 1940 she was involved with Fritz Homann in an attempt to set up a base for German seaplanes in Maria-Musch-Bucht or Rakved-Bucht on Jan Mayen , which from there with reconnaissance and weather observation flights led to the breakthrough of the Heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer was supposed to secure and support through the Denmark Strait into the Atlantic . For this purpose, the Hinrich Freese left Trondheim on October 19, loaded with supplies and aircraft fuel, and reached Jan Mayen on October 22. However, since the arrival of the two He 115 seaplanes of Coastal Aviation Group 506 intended for the company was delayed by several days, they were first ordered again to the area north of Iceland to send weather reports from there. She did not return to Jan Mayen until two days later to await the arrival of Fritz Homann and the coastal pilots. The Fritz Homann , also loaded with equipment and material, left Trondheim on October 25th and reached Jan Mayen on October 28th. The two He 115s appeared the following day, but one of the two broke on landing in the heavy weather, while the other was irreparably damaged by a heavy storm during the night, anchored in Maria Musch Bay. The company was then canceled. The Hinrich Freese drove with the crews of the two damaged aircraft back to Trondheim on October 30th, where they arrived on November 5th, while the Fritz Homann was ordered to the sea area northeast of Iceland on the same day to check the weather for the Admiral Scheer to observe and report.
Sinking
On November 12, 1940 the Hinrich Freese ran out of Trondheim under Leutnant zur See ( Special Leader ) Wilhelm Kracke to land a four-man weather team and five men from a defensive team on Jan Mayen . The island was reached on November 16, and the Hinrich Freese cautiously approached the coast in Jameson Bay, east of the Eggøya peninsula , where the Norwegian weather and coastal radio station , later known as Eldstemetten , had been located until recently . It was discovered by units of the Royal Navy . An attempt at a German landing had been expected in London.
The light cruiser HMS Naiad took up the pursuit of the Hinrich Freese at high speed, which tried to escape to the northeast around the southeastern cape (Søraustkapp) of the island and then, given the hopelessness of its location on the rocky shore, moved to the approximate position 71 ° 0 '25.2 ″ N , 8 ° 2 ′ 24 ″ W aground. In the subsequent attempt to reach the bank, two men drowned. The 22 survivors, five officers and 17 men who came ashore, were rescued by the British naval trawlers HMT Wistaria and HMT Elm and handed over to the Naiad , with which they arrived in Scapa Flow on November 18 . The civilian crew of the Hinrich Freese (13 men) were taken to an internment camp, the Wehrmacht members to a prisoner of war camp in England and later in Canada .
Notes and individual references
- ↑ http://www.warcovers.dk/greenland/wbs4_1.htm
- ↑ The crew was saved by the Hinrich Freese .
- ↑ http://www.warcovers.dk/greenland/wbs4_1.htm
- ↑ Wistaria and Elm were Tree-class marine trawlers built in 1939 , 50 m long ships with a maximum displacement of 720 tons and a maximum speed of 12 knots . You were with a 76-mm anti-aircraft guns , three 22-mm Oerlikon -Flak and 30 depth charges armed and served in the Royal Navy Patrol Service . ( en: Tree-class trawler )
- ↑ http://www.warcovers.dk/greenland/wbs4_1.htm
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/ksp/nordpolarmeer/jan-mayen.htm
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-11.htm