Immelmann (ship, 1941)

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The Immelmann was an air traffic control ship of the German Air Force in World War II , the third of four ships of the class K V. It was named after Max Immelmann (1890-1916), the flying ace of the First World War. Her sister ships were Karl Meyer , Max Stinsky and Boelcke . The ships were very similar to the Hans Rolshoven and the previous Krischan class. After the Second World War , the ship served in the French Navy from 1948 to 1977 .

Construction and technical data

The Immelmann was built in 1941 at the Norderwerft Köser & Meyer in Hamburg with the construction number 744 and put into service on December 18, 1941 with the identification K 53. The ship was 78 m long and 10.8 m wide, had a 3.7 m draft and displaced 1157 t (standard) and 1351 t (maximum). The machinery consisted of four 12-cylinder 4-stroke MAN - diesel engines with a total of 8800 PSI and two screws . The maximum speed was 21.5 knots (empty) and 18.5 knots (fully loaded). The ship could be up to 120 tons of diesel oil bunkers and thus had a radius of 3350 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 18 knots. The ship was unarmored and armed with three 3.7 cm and two 2 cm anti- aircraft guns. The armament was changed in 1943/44 by replacing the 3.7 cm gun on the forecastle with a 10.5 cm gun. The vessel was equipped with a 18-t-MAN-portal and rotary crane of 18 m in length and equipped aft adjustment and a working deck and has up to three water aircraft types He 60 , Do 18 , He 114 or Ar 196 to record. The crew consisted of 66 men.

fate

The Immelmann served with "Seenotdienstführer 3 (West)" in France until she escaped to Spain in August 1944 after the Allied invasion of France and was interned there.

French warships near Nha Trang during Operation "Meknes and Atlas", 15-19. April 1953. On the right the aircraft carrier La Fayette , on the left the two aircraft tenders Paul Goffeny and Commander Robert Giraud (the former German air traffic control vessels Max Stinsky and Immelmann ). The ship in the middle is probably the colonial aviso Savorgnan-de-Brazza .

After the end of the war, the ship was initially delivered to Great Britain in December 1945 and then awarded to France in August 1946 as part of the reparations agreements . It was put into service by the French Navy under the name Commandant Robert Giraud (identification F755, later A755). It was now armed, in addition to the 10.5 cm gun, with two 40 mm anti-aircraft guns on the main deck on either side of the bridge , four 20 mm anti-aircraft guns in two twin mounts aft and a 79 mm mortar . The crew consisted of 78 men.

The Commandant Robert Giraud was sent to Saigon in November 1948 together with her sister ship Paul Goffeny , the former German Max Stinsky , to take part in the fighting in the Mekong Delta and on the Annamese coast in the French Indochina War as a landing and commando transporter . The main task of the two ships was the transport of amphibious combat groups and their boats and (temporarily) a seaplane ( Supermarine Sea Otter or Grumman G-21 Goose ) as well as the artillery support of these combat groups.

After the end of the Indochina War, the ship, classified from 1963 as a net-laying ship, served as a station and hydrographic survey vessel in Madagascar , where it carried out survey trips in the Mozambique Strait between Madagascar and the African continent .

In November 1976 the Commandant Robert Giraud was deleted from the list of active warships and assigned to the reserve fleet in Lorient . She ended her career as a sea target and was sunk in May 1977 by aircraft from an Étendard squadron of naval aviation.

literature

  • Bernard Estival: Un siècle de navires scientifiques français . Gerfaut, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-914622-21-X , p. 102 (French, limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: Ships and boats of the Seeflieger / Luftwaffe. In: Erich Gröner, Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 7: Landing Units (II). Landing vehicles ie S. (Part 2), landing ferries, landing support vehicles, transporters; Ships and boats of the army, ships and boats of the sea pilots / air force, colonial vehicles. Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7637-4807-5 , p. 150 ff.
  • Dieter Jung, Berndt Wenzel, Arno Abendroth: Ships and boats of the German sea pilots. 1912-1976. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-87943-469-7 .
  • Volkmar Kühn (di Franz Kurowski ): The sea emergency service of the German air force. 1939-1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-87943-564-2 .

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