Kattegat (ship, 1928)
 The Kattegat
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The tanker Kattegat of the shipping company John T. Essberger was a motor ship completed in 1928 at the Schichau works .
In 1940 the ship was used as part of the "Weser Exercise" company as part of the so-called
"tanker squadron" and was supposed to go to Narvik, which it did not reach. On April 9, 1940, she was set aground near Bodø in front of the Norwegian guard boat Nordkapp .
In July 1940 the ship was lifted again and towed south. The final repair in the Oslo area was not finished until the end of 1943. Until the end of the war, the Kattegat was severely damaged several times and had not been operational since an air raid in March 1945.
The ship, awarded to Norway, was eventually repaired in Great Britain and used as a Sandar under the Norwegian flag from 1947 to 1959 .
History of the Kattegat
The Kattegat was the first motor tanker built at Schichau for German customers.
The Schichauwerke built their first ocean-going motor ship with the Karin in 1925 for the Soviet merchant navy. In August 1927 followed with the 10,500 t Sildra, the first motor tanker for Norwegian accounts, which was followed by two very similar ships with Vinga and Spinanger by the end of the year .
In March 1928, the somewhat smaller, 8,500 t Kattegat was delivered to Atlantic Tank Rhederei GmbH. Although smaller, it used the propulsion unit of the Norwegian ships with the 6-cylinder Sulzer diesel engine 6S68 of 2700 hp manufactured under license by Schichau . In November she was followed by the almost identical sister ship Skagerrak .
The commissioning shipping company had already owned three very similar tankers with the Adriatic , Biscay and Mediterranean from AG Weser since 1927 , which were powered by somewhat weaker 6-cylinder MAN diesel engines.
The shipping company, initially registered in Bremen, moved to Hamburg in 1931 and finally became the sole proprietorship of John T. Essberger in 1936 .
From her last journey in peace, the Kattegat arrived in Hamburg on August 6, 1939.
War effort
A planned conversion of the Kattegat for use by the Navy at the Germania shipyard in Kiel could not be carried out there because of more urgent tasks. From October 9th to 19th she was modified for use with the fleet at Bremer Vulkan in Vegesack and put into service as oil ship 2 "KATTEGATT" by the supply ship association in Wilhelmshaven .
In 1940 the ship was used as part of the “Weser Exercise” company as part of the so-called “Tankerstaffel”, which consisted of four large and five small tankers under 900 GRT. The Kattegat should with 6000 m³ heating oil, 1800 m³ fuel oil for submarines, 640 to. Distillate, 40 to. Turbine lubricating oil, 20 to. Engine lubricating oil, provisions for 10 submarines, 540 m³ drinking water, 270 kg regulating oil for destroyers and 270 kg machine lubricating oil go to Narvik.
She ran into the Glomfjord south of Bodø so as not to get caught in minefields that had been excavated by the British. On April 9, 1940, she was set aground near Bodø in front of the Norwegian guard boat Nordkapp .
The ship was lifted again in July 1940 when the Germans forced the British to retreat and the Norwegians to surrender. Their cargo was still largely usable and usable by the Germans. The ship, which was no longer self-driving, was towed south in stages. A repair originally planned in Bergen turned out to be unworkable. The final repair in the Oslo area was not finished until the end of 1943. Until the end of the war, the Kattegat was severely damaged several times.
During a routine layover at Framneæs Mek.Værksted in Sandefjord , she was hit by a rocket on April 2, 1945 during an air raid by the British Banff Strike Wing with mosquitos from RAF squadrons 143 , 235 , 248 and 333 on the shipyard in Sandefjord Badly damaged at the stern and caught fire. During the attack, the Norwegian freighters Concordia (5154 GRT) and William Blumer (3604 GRT), the Norwegian freighters Hektor (5742 GRT) and Belpamela (3165 GRT) and the German freighter Espana (7465 GRT) were sunk without damage the attackers suffered an aircraft loss. The Kattegat has not been operational since that air strike .
The ship, awarded to Norway, was eventually repaired in Great Britain and used as a Sandar under the Norwegian flag from 1947 to 1959 .
Individual evidence
- ^ List of the first Sulzer seagoing vessels
- ^ Jordan: Merchant Fleets , p. 57
- ↑ April 2, 1945 Norway
Web links
- Use of the Kattegat
- Use of the factory ship Jan Wellem
- Use of the sister ship Skagerrak
- Use of the Stedingen ex Posidonia
- TK Derry: THE CAMPAIGN IN NORWAY
- NAVAL EVENTS, APRIL1940 (Part 2 of 4)
- Equipment tanker Echelon
literature
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939-1945 , Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-0097
- Reinhardt Schmelzkopf: German merchant shipping 1919–1939 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, ISBN 3 7979 1847 X .
- Trygve Sandvik: Krigen i Norge 1940 - Operasjonene til lands i Nord-Norge 1940 , 2 volumes, Forsvarets Krigshistoriske Avdeling / Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo (1965).
- Erik Anker Steen: Norge sjøkrig 1940-1945 - Sjøforsvarets kamper og virke i Nord-Norge 1940 , Forsvarets Krigshistoriske Avdeling / Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo (1958).