Lech (ship, 1930)
The Lech was a former fruit steamer called the Panther , which was converted into a submarine support ship by the German Navy and used in World War II .
prehistory
The 2171 BRT large reefer Panther of African Fruit Company (AFC) ( F. Laeisz ) was launched in August 1930 at the Bremer Vulkan from the stack . It was a sister ship of the Puma , the later submarine escort ship Isar . The ship was 97.6 m long and 13.8 m wide and had a draft of 5.5 m . Its top speed was 12.5 knots . It brought bananas from Cameroon to Hamburg.
Since the submarine tenders or submarine escort ships required for the rapid construction of the submarine weapon and ordered as new constructions were not available quickly enough, the Navy bought several suitable merchant ships and had them converted accordingly. In this way, she put the submarine escort ships Donau , Erwin Waßner , Isar and Lech into service in 1938 and 1939 .
modification
The Navy bought the ship in 1938 and had it converted into a submarine escort by the Stettiner Oderwerke . On June 10, 1939, it was put into service under the new name Lech (name decree of August 29, 1938). The ship was now 103.5 m long and 13.8 m wide and had a draft of 5.87 m. The regular crew consisted of 198 men, the maximum speed was 14 knots. The ship was armed with one 8.8-cm flak , four 3.7-cm flak and sixteen 2-cm flak.
use
The Lech was initially assigned to the 5th U-Flotilla in Kiel . From January 1940 she was assigned to the 1st U-Flotilla , also in Kiel, and from June 1940 back to the 5th U-Flotilla. From December the ship was only used for training units in the Baltic Sea . From December 15, 1941 to September 1943, she was with the 24th U-Flotilla in Memel , interrupted by an assignment to the 22nd U-Flotilla in Gotenhafen . In September 1943 he was assigned to the 23rd U-Flotilla in Danzig and in November 1943 to the 20th U-Flotilla in Pillau . From March 1945 until the end of the war she was with the 25th U-Flotilla in Travemünde .
On August 5, 1943, the submarine U 34 collided near the mouth of the Memel with the Lech at position 55 ° 42 ' N , 21 ° 6' E and sank. Four of its crew members were killed. The boat was lifted on August 24th and scrapped from September 8th, 1943.
post war period
After the end of the war, the ship was awarded as spoils of war to the USA , which took it over on July 19, 1946, but gave it to Italy in 1948 . There the ship was disarmed and provided cargo service again under the name Mare Ligure . It was sold to Israel in 1949 and then went under the name Artsa . In 1963 the ship was broken up in Israel.
Commanders
- June 1939 – January 1940: First lieutenant at sea Brodda
- January 1940 – May 1940: Corvette Captain Paul Schulze
- May 1940 – July 1941: Corvette Captain Kaack
- July 1941 – November 1943: Lieutenant captain zV Schapler
- December 1943 – May 1945: Lieutenant Commander of the Reserve Erich Hasse
Web links
literature
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Volume 4: Auxiliary ships I: workshop ships, tenders and escort ships, tankers and suppliers. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1986, ISBN 978-3-7637-4803-7 .