Lützow (ship, 1939)

Lützow

Ship data flag  German Empire Soviet Union   other ship names Petropavlovsk Tallinn Dnieper Ship type Heavy cruiser class Admiral Hipper class Shipyard AG "Weser" ( Deschimag ), Bremen Build number 941 building-costs 83,590,000 marks Launch July 1, 1939 Whereabouts Wrecked in 1960

Ship dimensions and crew length 210.0 m ( Lüa ) width 21.8 m Draft Max. 7.9 m displacement Standard : 14,240 ts Construction: 17,600 t Maximum: 20,116 t   crew 1,382 men

Machine system machine 9 steam boilers 3 sets of geared turbines Machine performance 137,500 hp (101,131 kW) Top speed 32.0 kn (59 km / h) propeller 3 three-leaf 4.1 m

Armament 8 × 20.3 cm SK C / 34 (L / 60) (1,280 shots) 12 × 10.5 cm SK C / 33 (L / 65) (4,800 shots) 12 × 3.7 cm SK C / 30 (L / 83) (4,000 shots) 8 × 2 cm Flak 38 (L / 65) (56,000 rounds) 12 × torpedo tube ⌀ 53.3 cm (on deck, sets of three, 24 rounds) 3 Ar 196 aircraft Armor Belt: 70-80 mm Upper deck: 12-30 mm Armored deck : 20–50 mm Torpedo bulkhead : 20 mm Tower : 70-105 mm Front command tower: 50–150 mm aft command tower: 20–30 mm Mars : 20 mm

The heavy cruiser Lützow was the fifth and last ship of the Admiral Hipper class .

It was ordered under the household name Kreuzer L as part of the Z-Plan and was to be named after the Prussian general Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow . The ship was sold to the Soviet Union in an unfinished state in 1940 and served in the Soviet Navy under the names Petropavlovsk , Tallinn and Dnepr .

This cruiser is not to be confused with the previous Panzerschiff Deutschland . After the decision had been made to sell the cruiser L to the Soviet Union , the ironclad Germany was renamed Lützow in November 1939 and then reclassified as a heavy cruiser.

history

The ship was laid on February 8, 1937 at AG "Weser" ( Deschimag ) in Bremen and was launched on July 1, 1939.

In October 1939, the Soviet Union demanded the last two heavy cruisers of the Admiral Hipper class still under construction for its economic aid provided under the German-Soviet economic agreement. But only the last ship was sold to the Soviet Union. The details of the sale were set in the first revision of the contract on February 11, 1940, and a schedule that stipulated the completion of the ship 15 months after the contract was signed was also included.

On April 15, 1940, the half-finished ship was towed into the port of Leningrad , where it arrived on May 31. On the German side, the transport and the further construction in the Leningrad shipyard were managed by the later admiral of the Kriegsmarine Otto Feige . The condition of the ship during transport was unsatisfactory for the Soviet side, with the exception of two of the four main turrets and 12 flak 3.7 cm, there was no armament. Further construction was also slow. Both of these led to complaints from the Soviet Union to the German side, which, however, cited the campaign in the west as the reason for the delays. Whether the further construction was deliberately delayed in order not to provide the Soviet Union with an operational heavy cruiser from German hands in the event of war has not been proven, but it can be considered likely. On September 25, 1940, the ship was given its new name Petropavlovsk and there were agreements between Feige and the Soviet naval command to train the crew. Difficulties arose again, as neither side wanted to send military personnel to the other country for training. It was not until January 1941 that an agreement was finally reached that called for the start of the ship's test phase in autumn 1941 and thus after Germany's planned attack on the Soviet Union. Accordingly, this plan was not implemented.

War effort

At the beginning of the Russian campaign , the cruiser was about two-thirds ready and from September 7th began firing its guns at the German troops advancing on Leningrad. On September 17, Petropavlovsk received several heavy hits from German counterfire and sank. The superstructures were still sticking out of the water. The ship was repeatedly the target of air raids and was hit hard again, especially in April 1942.

Even so, the Soviets managed to lift the ship in September 1942 and repair and re-arm the Neva upstream by February 1943. From January 1944, the temporarily restored cruiser took part in the battles for the liberation of Leningrad. On September 1, 1944, the name was changed to Tallinn .

Whereabouts

After the war, the ship was transferred to the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad and was to be converted into a light cruiser similar to the Sverdlov class . The project was discontinued in December 1949 for cost reasons. In the following period it served first as a stationary training ship Dnepr , then as a residential ship PKZ-112 . On April 4, 1958, it was struck from the Soviet ship lists and in April 1960, scrapping began in the Leningrad commercial port.

Technical specifications

In February 1943 the ship received the following flak :

• 6 × 3.7 cm L / 67
• 5 × 70-K
• 2 × 20 mm
• 6 to 8 × 12.7 mm L / 79

After the conversion that was not implemented, the ship should have the following data:

• Weapons:
  • 4 × triple turrets with 15.2 cm L / 53 cannons MK-5
  • 6 × 10 cm L / 70 cannons SM-5
  • 12 × 4.5 cm L / 78 FlaK SM-20
  • 24 × light FlaK 2.5 cm L / 80 4M-120
• Displacement: Max. 19,395 ts

literature

• Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The heavy cruisers of the Admiral Hipper class. Bernard & Graefe, 1998, ISBN 3-7637-5896-8 .

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} M. Emmerich: Lützow Schwerer Kreuzer 1939-1950 Admiral Hipper Class (engl.), German Naval History June 25, 2003, (accessed December 10, 2008)
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Tobias R. Philbin: The Lure of Neptune: German-Soviet Naval Collaboration and Ambitions, 1919-1941. Univ. of South Carolina Press. 1994. Page 120 ff. ISBN 0-87249-992-8
3. ^ Roger Moorhouse: The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941 . Random House. 2014. ISBN 978-1448-1047-10 . Page 16.
4. ^ Roger Moorhouse: The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941 . Random House. 2014. ISBN 978-1448-1047-10 . Pages 169-171.