Lower Saxony (ship)

This article deals with the cargo ship Niedersachsen . For the frigate of the German Navy, see Lower Saxony (F 208) .

The Niedersachsen was a former Danish , then French and finally Italian freighter , which was used as a mine ship by the German navy from December 1943 onwards during World War II .

Cargo ship

The vessel ( IMO 5608139) ran in 1934 on the shipyard of Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen with the hull number 607 and the name Dora for the Danish shipping company Dampskibsselskabet Vesterhavet (J.Lauritzen) in Esbjerg from the stack . It was 86.71 m long and 12.62 m wide, had a draft of 5.8 m and was measured with 1794 GRT . The ship's diesel engine developed 2100 hp and gave the ship a maximum speed of 15 knots .

In 1936 the ship was sold to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in Paris and renamed Guyane . The ship was confiscated by the German Wehrmacht on December 4, 1942 in Marseille and handed over to Italy. It then went under the name Acqui .

Mine ship of the Kriegsmarine

As a result of the armistice in Cassibile and the subsequent German occupation of Italy , the ship was sunk by its crew in La Spezia in September 1943 . The German Navy had the ship lifted and converted into a mine ship. After the conversion was delayed longer than planned due to missing machine parts, the ship was finally put into service on December 20, 1943 under the name of Lower Saxony and under the command of Corvette Captain Boekholt and assigned to the Mining Ship Group Western Italy, which belongs to the 3rd Escort Flotilla. It was armed with two 10.5 cm L / 45 guns, two 6.9 cm guns and twelve 2 cm Fla - MG L / 65 C / 30. It could carry up to 260 mines .

Already on the night of December 22nd to 23rd 1943 the Lower Saxony and the two formerly Italian torpedo boats TA 23 and TA 24 laid a minefield off the northern tip of the island of Corsica . This was followed on January 9, 19 and 23, 1944, by laying three barriers in front of Imperia , south of Elba and north of Nettuno .

The End

The British submarine Upstart

On February 8, 1944, were Lower Saxony and the transporter Chisone between Hyeres and Saint-Raphael by the British submarine HMS Ultor (P53) and HMS Uproar (P31) attacked, but all four of the Ultor to the Lower Saxony fired torpedoes went missing . Only one week later, on February 15, 1944, the Lower Saxony was hit by the British submarine HMS Upstart (P65) off Toulon by torpedo hits at 43 ° 2 ′ 6 ″  N , 6 ° 1 ′ 7 ″  E. Coordinates: 43 ° 2 '6 "  N , 6 ° 1' 7"  O sunk. Twelve men of their crew were killed.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mittelmeer/geleit-mm.htm
2. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-12.htm
3. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/44-01.htm
4. ↑ http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3558.html

Web links

• http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/minelayer/niedersachsen/index.html

literature

• Roger Jordan: The World's Merchant Fleets, 1939. The Particulars And Wartime Fates of 6,000 Ships. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 2006, ISBN 1-5911-4959-2 , p. 459.
• Karl von Kutzleben, Wilhelm Schroeder, Jochen Brennecke : Mine ships 1939–1945. The mysterious missions of the “midnight squadron”. Köhler, Herford 1974, ISBN 3-7822-0098-5 .