Mr. Ms. Gelderland (1898)

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Naval Jack of the Netherlands.svg
Construction data
Ship type Protected cruiser
(Pantserdekschepen)
Ship class Holland class
Builder: Maatschappij voor Scheepen Werktuigbouw Fijenoord, Rotterdam
Construction no .:
Keel laying : November 1, 1897
Launch : September 28, 1898
Completion: July 15, 1900
Sister ships
Mr. Ms. Holland
Mr. Ms. Zeeland
Mr. Ms. Friesland		 Mr. Ms. Noordbrabant
Mr. Ms. Utrecht
Ship dimensions
Displacement : Standard : 4030 ts
Maximum: ts
Length over all: L o.a. : 94.7 m
Width: 14.82 m
Draft : 5.4 m
Technical specifications
Boiler system : 12 Yarrow cauldrons
Machinery: 2 three-cylinder
triple expansion steam engines
Number of propellers: 2
Drive power: 9867 PSi
Speed: 20 kn
Driving range: 4500 nm at 10 kn
Fuel supply: 930 tons of coal
Crew: 325 men
Armor
Deck: 50 mm
Gun shields : 13 mm
Control center: 100 mm
Armament
1900
Sea target guns: 2 × 150 mm No.3
6 × 120 mm No.2
6 × 75 mm No.2
8 × 37 mm
4 × 37 mm revolver cannons
2 × 75 mm
2 × 75 mm mortar
Armament
1944
Flak : 8 × 10.5 cm FlaK L / 45 C / 32
4 × 40 mm Bofors L / 60
Fla- MK : 4 × 20 mm (4 × 4) quadruplets C / 38
Positioning technology
1944
  • 2 × FlaK command device 36
    (optical distance measuring devices)
  • 1 × FuMG 39 ("Würzburg")
Whereabouts
1940 German spoils of war
sunk by bomb hits on July 16, 1944 near Kotka

The Mr. Ms. Gelderland was a Dutch protected cruiser (Pantserdekschepen) of the Holland class .

Her sister ships were Mr. Ms. Holland , Mr. Ms. Zeeland , Mr. Ms. Friesland , Mr. Ms. Noordbrabant and Mr. Ms. Utrecht .

history

The HNLMS Gelderland in the 1930s

commitment

The Gelderland was already considered obsolete during the First World War and served as a training ship for cadets and boatmen. After the First World War, the ship was used in the Dutch Navy as an artillery training ship .

In August 1939 the Gelderland was decommissioned, the armament was expanded and the ship was launched in Den Helder .

spoils of war

It was captured there in May 1940 by the invading German troops. The Gelderland was taken over by the German Navy and renamed Niobe . Between 1941 and 1944 she was used as a training ship . Then it was first in C. van der Giessen & Zonen in Krimpen aan den IJssel , later in Elbing (Prussia) to a floating Fla rebuilt battery.

After being put back into service on March 1, 1944, it was used as a flak ship under the name Niobe . The main task was to protect German convoys in the North Sea.

Sinking

The Niobe after the Soviet air raid

The Niobe was stationed south of the city in the Gulf of Finland off the coast to defend the Finnish city of Kotka, which was exposed to heavy Soviet air raids . There, just four months later, on July 16, 1944, she was attacked and sunk by 131 planes of various types belonging to the Soviet naval forces .

The Niobe turned off the coast Kotkas a threat made by the Soviet Air Force bombing Kotkas. The task of coastal protection was also supported by the Finnish coastal defense ship Väinämöinen ensure the had actually been considered the attack and with the Niobe had been mistaken.

The attack was carried out by air forces of the Baltic Red Banner Fleet and was the largest this unit carried out on a single target during World War II. The attack was planned by the Commanding General of the Soviet Air Force of the Naval War Fleet (WWS-WMF), S. F. Shaworonkow, and the People's Commissar of the Soviet Navy, Admiral N. G. Kuznetsov , and under the command of Lieutenant Colonel W. I. Rakow of the 12th Guards dive bombing regiment (12 . Gw.BAP) carried out.

A total of 131 aircraft were involved, including:

  • 28 Petlyakov Pe-2 of the 12th Guards Dive Bombing Regiment (12th Gw.BAP) under Lieutenant Colonel VI Rakow
  • 4 Douglas A-20 Havoc (from the Arms Aid Agreement between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union) from the 51st Mine Torpedo Pilot Regiment (51st MTAP) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel IN Ponomarenko,
  • 23 Ilyushin Il-2 of the 47th Attack Airplane Regiment (47th SchAP) under Lieutenant Colonel NG Stepanjan

as well as for hunting protection:

The Niobe was discovered by reconnaissance planes on July 16, 1944 and incorrectly identified as the Finnish Väinämöinen . The first attack was carried out by the 23 Il-2s of the 47th SchAP, but the Niobe was able to avoid all bombs. The next attack was carried out by the 28 Pe-2 of the 12th Gw.BAP in three waves in a dive, the first two attack waves were unsuccessful. The third wave of attacks had the task of a concurrent sea-level attack by the four Havoc distract the 51st MTAP. Each of the bombers attacked with a 1000 kg bomb. The air defense, which was still busy with the defense of the Pe-2, did not notice the approach and two of the four bombs dropped in the low altitude hit the hull of the Niobe below the waterline, the explosion severely damaged the ship and it began to sink immediately. When turning off, all four A-20s were hit by the flak, according to Soviet sources none of them returned to their starting airfield. The entire attack had lasted only eleven minutes.

Three members of the A-20 crews (Ponomarenko, Pavlov and posthumously Tichomirow (shot down)) as well as Lieutenant Colonel Rakow in charge of the operation were honored as Heroes of the Soviet Union for the successful attack . About 60 sailors were killed and 100 others injured in the sinking.

Whereabouts

At the instigation of the Dutch government, which was again the owner of the wreck after the war , the Niobe was lifted in 1953 and scrapped on site.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Höfling: The sinking of the German anti-aircraft cruiser “Niobe” , Jet & Prop Extra, No. 5/2002, pp. 29–31
  2. ↑ Rainer Göpfert / Rolf Jacob: The Finnish Continuation War in Flieger Revue Extra No. 17, 2007, p. 30 "The sinking of Niobe "

Web links

Commons : Gelderland  - collection of images, videos and audio files