Kota Pinang (ship)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kota Pinang was a Dutch combi ship that in World War II by the German Navy was converted into a submarine providers, but within days was sunk after his first departure.

Combined ship Kota Pinang

The Kota Pinang was one of eight Kota Inten class ships operated by the Dutch shipping company Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd . They were combined cargo and passenger ships of around 7200 GRT , which were used in the fast cargo service between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ). They could accommodate 28 passengers, plus up to 2000 pilgrims on the route to and from Jeddah .

The Kota Pinang ( IMO - No. 567103) was built in 1929/30 with the construction number 201 at the Nederlandse Scheepsbouw Maatschappij in Amsterdam . She was 141.6 m long and 18.5 m wide and had a draft of 9.1 m . She was measured with 7275 GRT. A ship's diesel engine from Maatschappij Fijenoord with 1857 hp gave a top speed of 14 knots . The ship was named after the Indonesian city ​​of Kota Pinang on Sumatra and the small Sultanate of the same name, Kota Pinang , of which it was the capital.

Z-ship Klara

The Kota Pinang fell into German hands during the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940. Her first deployment in the service of the Navy was as a scout ship for the Rheinübungen company , the breakthrough of the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the second half of May 1941 through the Denmark Strait into the North Atlantic . To do this, she sailed into the North Atlantic on May 18 to monitor and report ship traffic and the weather. In the second week of June, she managed to march back through the British naval blockade to western France.

Practically immediately afterwards, on June 12, 1941, the Navy began converting the ship into an (unarmed) submarine supplier and feeder ship ( Z ship ) for Dakar , where, with the consent of the French Vichy government, German U -Boats should be supplied. The ship was named Klara .

On September 29, 1941 was Klara , disguised as Sperrbrecher from Le Verdon on the Gironde - mouth off. The ship was accompanied by U 129 , which was supposed to attack any enemy warships that might appear. The Bay of Biscay was crossed without incident, but on October 3rd the supplier was caught off guard at Cape Finisterre by the British light cruiser Kenya , which suddenly emerged from a rain front. The attempt to pull the cruiser onto the port aft submarine failed. The Kenya shelled the provider with artillery fire , then placed the burning ship whose crew had gone into the boat, with a torpedo . The 119 men of the crew were later picked up by U 129 , handed over to a Spanish naval tug on October 6 and brought to Ferrol in Spain.

literature

  • Dieter Jung, Martin Maass, Berndt Wenzel: Tankers and suppliers of the German fleet. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1981.
  • Roger W. Jordan: The World's Merchant Fleets, 1939: The Particulars and Wartime Fates of 6,000 Ships. Naval Institute Press, 1999, ISBN 1-55750-959-X .

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ These were the ships Kota Inten (1927–57), Kota Radja (1927–42), Kota Baroe (1929–57), Kota Tjandi (1930–43), Kota Agoeng (1930–58), Kota Pinang (1930– 41) and Kota Nopan (1931–43).
  2. ^ Royal Rotterdam Lloyd
  3. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-05.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-06.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/verluste/echsen.htm
  6. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-10.htm

Web links