Königsberg (ship, 1927)
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Königsberg in the new Königsberg harbor (1929)
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The Königsberg was the type ship of the three light cruisers of the Königsberg class of the Reichsmarine and from 1935 of the Kriegsmarine . The others were Karlsruhe and Cologne . After the common first letter of all three ship names, these were also called K cruisers .
history
Construction and commissioning
The Konigsberg was on 12 April 1926 on the Imperial Naval Shipyard Wilhelmshaven to Kiel down from the 26 March 1927 stack left and put into service on 17 April 1929th The crew numbered between 514 and 850 men, depending on the deployment.
Special equipment
From 1937 to 1939, the Königsberg had a control cabin above the bridge and the built-in "mattress" of the experimental version of a radio measuring device (radar). For this purpose, the 2 cm individual mounts on the upper bridge structure had to give way during this time.
commitment
After a number of trips abroad in the 1930s, most recently to Gdynia / Gdynia, the most important Polish industrial port and naval base at the end of August 1935, then from 1936 as an artillery training ship, she took part in coastal surveillance of Spain during the Spanish Civil War from November 1936 to the end of January 1937 . From autumn 1937 school cruiser of the torpedo school . The ship was only partially suitable for the trade war on the high seas and was therefore first used as a training ship in the Baltic Sea after the start of the Second World War and then used in mine operations in the North Sea .
In April 1940, took Konigsberg on operation weserübung , the occupation of Norway , in part, transporting, along with her sister ship Cologne , the artillery training ship Bremse , the torpedo boats Wolf and Leopard and the first Schnellbootsflottille with its escort ship Carl Peters army troops to Bergen . On April 9, 1940 , the Königsberg was able to repel an attempted torpedo attack by the old Norwegian destroyer Garm with artillery fire. However, the Königsberg and the brake were soon damaged by Norwegian 21 cm coastal batteries near Kvarven in the Byfjord (after German landing forces captured the torpedo battery there, but not the artillery battery) and were thus forced to stay in port when the other ships of the association started their journey home to Germany.
Sinking
After an unsuccessful air raid on the same day, attacked 15 British dive bombers of the Blackburn Skua type on April 10, 1940 and scored three heavy hits on the Königsberg . The ship capsized and sank at Skoltegrundkai in the port of Bergen. In 1941, the wreck was makeshift sealed and towed keel up into the port of Hagenaes. After the superstructure, which was still under water, had been removed, it was towed to the Laksevaag part of the harbor. There the wreck was lifted and erected on July 17, 1942, and then used as a pier for submarines.
On September 22, 1944, the Königsberg capsized a second time. It was scrapped in Bergen after the war.
Commanders
| April 17 to June 19, 1929 | Frigate Captain Wolf von Trotha |
| June 24th to September 2nd, 1929 | Frigate Captain Robert Witthoeft-Emden |
| September 27, 1930 to September 25, 1932 | Frigate Captain Hermann Densch |
| September 26, 1932 to September 24, 1934 | Frigate captain / sea captain Otto von Schrader |
| September 25, 1934 to September 26, 1935 | Frigate captain / sea captain Hubert Schmundt |
| September 27, 1935 to February 15, 1937 | Frigate Captain / Captain of the Sea Theodor Paul |
| February 16, 1937 to November 2, 1938 | Sea captain Robin Schall-Emden |
| November 3, 1938 to June 26, 1939 | Sea captain Ernst Scheurlen |
| June 27 to September 15, 1939 | Sea captain Kurt Caesar Hoffmann |
| September 16, 1939 to April 10, 1940 | Sea captain Heinrich Ruhfus |
Known crew members
- 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
- Hans-Rudolf Rösing (1905-2004), was from 1962 to 1965 as Rear Admiral in command of Defense Division I.
- 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
photos
The Königsberg at anchor
The staggered rear towers typical of the Königsberg class
The Königsberg (with a British pennant) at the salute shooting
Two 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns in front of the first stern tower
literature
- Erich Gröner / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 147-149 .
- Ulrich Elfrath et al.: The German Navy 1935–1945. Volumes 1 and 4, ISBN 3-8289-5314-X .
- Siegfried Breyer, Gerhard Koop: From Emden to Tirpitz. 1981
- Reinhard H. Huxmann: The "career" of the cruiser "Königsberg" after its sinking - photo documentation of a rescue. Oceanum Verlag, Wiefelstede, ISBN 978-3-86927-130-9 .
