Main (ship, 1927)
 The main
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The third Main of Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), which was put into service in 1927, was the third of its fast freighters, mainly named after rivers, for the East Asia and Australian service, which differed in details. After her sister ship Aller , she had the layout typical of twelve of the fifteen newbuildings in this series of the NDL as a four-masted freighter.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the ship was at home. In 1940 the Main was used as a transporter for the Weser Exercise company . It belonged to the "export squadron " and was supposed to bring heavy equipment and supplies to the troops deployed for the conquest of Trondheim and to reach the port as early as possible after the occupation. The lone ship was sunk on April 9, 1940 by the Norwegian destroyer Draug off Haugesund . She was one of the first German ships to be sunk by the Norwegian Navy while defending against the German raid.
History of the ship
The Main was built in 1927 by Bremer Vulkan in Vegesack under construction number 644. It was launched on June 30, 1927 and was delivered on August 4, 1927. Before that, the shipyard had delivered the two-masted sister ships Franken and Schwaben in 1926 under construction numbers 213/214, which were then followed by the four-masted, somewhat longer sister ships Aller (construction number 643) in June 1927 and Main . However, the shipyard did not receive any of the eleven follow-up orders, nine of which went to Deschimag with the Lahn to its Tecklenborg plant , with the Moselle , Neckar and other Este to the main Weser plant , and with the Oder , Alster , Isar and Danube to the Hamburg Deschimag company Vulkanwerft and the motor ship Trave went to the Szczecin company . The two remaining ships, the Saale and Havel , were supplied by the Danziger Schichau works as motor ships. The Elbe and Weser rivers , which the NDL purchased in 1934 and had them converted, were then added to the class. These ships, the fastest in their final design, were originally built after a Norwegian order at the German works in Kiel , but were not accepted.
The Main , named after a tributary of the Rhine, took up the name of a large freighter and emigrant ship of 10,067 GRT, which was the second Main to have been in service with the NDL from 1900 to 1914 and was one of the repaired victims of the great fire at Hoboken Pier in 1902. The second Main was delivered to the victorious powers at the end of the war, but without entering service, and was broken up in France in 1925. The first Main was a North Atlantic steamer of 2899 GRT, which the NDL used from 1868 to 1890 and which was burnt under the British flag in 1892 off the Azores .
Like the recently completed sister ship Aller, the new ship was 160.57 m long and 19.24 m wide. The ship was measured with 7624 GRT with a deadweight of 11850 dwt. It had four masts, a funnel, a round stern and a slightly inclined bow. It was propelled by a triple expansion engine , which had an output of 6400 PSi and gave the Main a service speed of 14 knots (kn).
In April 1934, the ship was retrofitted with an exhaust steam turbine , which increased the output to up to 7250 hp and enabled a service speed of up to 14.5 kn.
Use until the start of the war
The Main remained in service to Australia until 1939. They and their sister ships usually ran through the Mediterranean on their outbound and return voyages. In addition to seasonal goods such as wool and wheat, ores were mainly transported from Australia to Europe. Goods for Australia on the way out were by no means fully utilized by the large freighters.
In 1936 the Alster with 8514 GRT was the largest ship alongside the express freighters Aller (7627 GRT), Main (7624 GRT) and Mosel (8428 GRT) as well as the older Cologne (7881 GRT) converted to a freighter to Australia. In addition there were the smaller Erlangen and Goslar (both 6040 GRT) in the Australia and New Zealand service.
In August 1939, the Main was supposed to begin her second voyage to Australia of the year, but her new departure was canceled due to the danger of war.
War effort
In October 1939 consideration was given to converting the ship into a submarine trap . On March 18, 1940, the Main was used as a transporter for Operation Weser Exercise , the German occupation of Norway. She was assigned to the "export squadron " that was supposed to transport the heavy equipment of the first landing units.
In the first hours of April 5, 1940, the Main left Brunsbüttel with the Levante transporter, which was also intended for Trondheim, to reach Trondheim by April 9. The third transporter for Trondheim, the Sao Paulo , had set sail on the evening of the 4th. The three transporters ran individually to their destination. The bad weather conditions delayed the arrival of all transporters considerably. The scheduled times could not be kept.
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On the night of 9 April, the tried Main the Karmsund to happen. It was discovered by the old Norwegian destroyer Draug patrolling there around 4:00 a.m. The Draug had in Haugesund coal bunkered . Your commanding officer, Korvettenkapitän (later Vice Admiral ) Thore Horve , had received news of the march of German naval forces through the Danish straits and of the sinking of the German transport ship Rio de Janeiro by the Polish submarine Orzeł off Lillesand on the afternoon of April 8th . Horve knew from the commander of the 2nd Sea Defense Section, Rear Admiral Carsten Tank-Nielsen , that he had given the ships stationed in the Bergen area the order to armed resistance against all foreign warships attempting to enter Bergen and that he was following his own assessment of the situation should. At around 2:00 a.m., news reached Horve that the coastal batteries in the Oslofjord had opened fire on enemy forces of unknown origin. The Draug brought the flag without moving northward through the Karmsund after warning shots Main on. Her shipping papers said she was bringing 7,000 tons of coke to Bergen. The Main refused to carry out an inspection. In fact, the cargo consisted of war material for the German invasion troops in Trondheim , including 2,000 mines .
The sequence of events below is unclear. Knowing about the German occupation of Bergen and Stavanger , Captain Horve is said to have decided to escape to Great Britain with the Main as a prize ; he ignored an order to run to the Hardangerfjord and deny German naval units entry there. The captain of the Main is said to have followed the Draug only after several warning shots and the threat of torpedoing .
About 40 nautical miles from Haugesund, the two ships were said to have been attacked by an Air Force bomber on April 9 at 9:00 a.m. Although the bombs missed the ships, the captain of the Main immediately gave the order to sink and leave the ship in view of his dangerous cargo . After the crew had gone into the boats in great haste (the boatswain drowned in the process), the Draug fired about ten grenades into the waterline of the prize in order to finally sink it. The plane attack is not confirmed. Sure sank the Draug the Main , an exact Versenkungsort can not be ascertained. The Draug's commander was convinced that his outdated ship had no combat value against the German attackers, was defenseless against attacks by aircraft and that his well-trained crew on the British side would have the greatest defense value for his homeland.
With the 67 crew members of the Main on board as prisoners of war , the Draug went to Sullom Voe on the Shetland Islands . On the way there she was picked up on the morning of April 10 by the British destroyers Sikh and Matabele and escorted the rest of the way. The German prisoners of war were put ashore in the evening and then brought to Kirkwall on the French destroyer Brestois .
The fast freighters of the NDL
| Surname | Shipyard | GRT | length | Launched in service |
further fate |
| Francs |
Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 634 |
7789 | 155.8 | 23.02.1926 04.15.1926 |
1939 Padang, 1940 the Netherlands: Wangi Wangi , sunk by U 103 on May 25, 1941 |
| Swabia | Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 635 |
7773 | 155.8 | 07/10/1926 08/26/1926 |
from Santos in Germany at the end of November 1939, to Yugoslavia in 1947: Bosna , broken up in 1962 |
| All | Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 643 |
7627 | 160.5 | 30.04.1927 07.06.1927 |
1939 Lourenco Marques , 1943 to Portugal: Sofala , scrapped in 1968 |
| Main | Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 644 |
7624 | 160.5 | 30.06.1927 08.04.1927 |
Sunk off Norway on April 9, 1940, |
| Lahn |
Tecklenborg building no. 423 |
8498 | 162.9 | October 8, 1927 November 24, 1927 |
1939 Talcahuano , then Montevideo , 1940 to Argentina: San Martin , Rio Parana , broken up in 1975 |
| Moselle |
Weser building no. 870 |
8428 | 162.3 | 10.1927 December 10, 1927 |
1939 in Thailand , 1942 to Japan: Tenzui Maru stranded on April 18, 1945 |
| Or |
Vulkanwerft construction no. 210 |
8516 | 162.96 | 25.10.1927 20.12.1927 |
Laid up in Massaua in 1939 , self- sunk in Bab al-Mandab on March 24, 1941 |
| Neckar | Weser building no. 871 |
8417 | 162.3 | 24.11.1927 16.01.1928 |
1939 Sperrbrecher 8 , sunk in Brest itself, severely damaged in August 1944 |
| Alster | Vulkanwerft construction no. 211 |
8514 | 162.9 | 05/01/1928 02/25/1928 |
Applied in Norway on April 10, 1940 when Empire Endurance sunk by U 73 on January 20, 1941 |
| Trave |
Vulcan Stettin building no. 635 |
7956 | 151.4 | 23.11.1927 09.03.1928 |
Motor ship, extended in 1938 / remodeling: Regensburg , 1939 Yokohama , 30 March 1943, sunk as a blockade breaker himself |
| Saale |
Schichau-Werke building no. 1197 |
7262 | 152.0 | May 12, 1928 July 26, 1928 |
Motor ship, extended in 1938 / remodeling: Marburg , 1939 Naples , May 21, 1941 sunk after being hit by mines in the Mediterranean Sea |
| Havel | Schichau-Werke building no. 1198 |
7256 | 152.0 | 08.09.1928 10.10.1928 |
Motor ship, extended in 1938 / conversion: Coburg , 1939 Massaua, sunk in the Indian Ocean itself on March 4, 1941 |
| Isar | Vulkanwerft construction no. 213 |
9026 | 166.4 | January 23, 1929 May 4, 1929 |
Delivered to Great Britain in 1947, Turkey in 1952, broken up in 1965 |
| Danube | Vulkanwerft construction no. 214 |
9026 | 166.4 | March 25, 1929 June 6, 1929 |
Sunk on January 17, 1945 with a mine near Oslo |
| Estonian | Weser building no. 884 |
7915 | 158.7 | 06/05/1930 08/12/1930 |
Two masts, 1939 Willemstad , Netherlands 1940: Suriname , September 13, 1942 U 558 sunk |
| Elbe |
German works building no. 215 |
9179 | 155.5 | 26.05.1929 11.15.1934 |
ex Sud Espreso , Holstein , Wenatchee Star , motor ship, built on Norwegian account / not accepted, 1934 purchase by NDL / conversion and new machinery, 17 kn, 1939 in Yokohama , June 6, 1941 in the mid-Atlantic during an attempt to break the blockade by HMS aircraft Eagle sunk. |
| Weser | German works building no. 214 |
9179 | 155.5 | 02/18/1929 09/27/1934 |
ex Sud Americano , Schleswig , Yakima Star , motor ship, built on Norwegian account, s. Sister ship, 1939 in Central America, September 26, 1940 off Manzanillo by Canadian auxiliary cruiser : Vancouver Island , October 15, 1941 sunk in the North Atlantic by U 558 . |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL , Vol. 2, p. 62.
- ↑ a b Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL , vol. 2, p. 60.
- ↑ a b Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL , Vol. 2, pp. 60–69.
- ↑ a b Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL , vol. 2, p. 68.
- ↑ Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL , Vol. 1, p. 56.
- ↑ Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL , Vol. 1, p. 14.
- ^ Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Losses of German merchant ships 1939-1945 and foreign ships sailing under the German flag: 1940. In: Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart. Retrieved March 10, 2012 . Sinking of the Main by Draug
Web links
- Use of the Main
- Sinking of the Main
- TK Derry: THE CAMPAIGN IN NORWAY
- NAVAL EVENTS, APRIL1940 (Part 2 of 4)
- Equipment Transport Echelon ( Memento from November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Torpedo Jager KNM Draug
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume IV: Destruction and Rebirth 1914 to 1930. (Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 21).
- Arnold Kludas: The ships of the North German Lloyd. Volume 1: 1857 to 1919. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1992, ISBN 3-7822-0524-3 .
- Arnold Kludas: The ships of the North German Lloyd. Volume 2: 1920 to 1970. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1992, ISBN 3-7822-0534-0 .
- Erik Anker Steen: Norge sjøkrig 1940–1945 - Sjøforsvarets kamper og virke i Nord-Norge 1940. Forsvarets Krigshistoriske Avdeling / Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo 1958.