Patria (ship, 1938)
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The Patria ( lat. "Fatherland") was the last large passenger ship that was completed for HAPAG . She was a single ship, but had a certain resemblance to the Caribia and Cordillera powered by two diesel engines , which were completed four years earlier for the Central America service and whose further development was the Patria . It was built for the service through the Panama Canal to the South American west coast, which it took up in August 1938 with the first voyage to Chile .
From January 1941 the Patria served as a barge for the Navy in Flensburg . From May 13, 1945, it served as the quarters of the Allied Monitoring Commission for the High Command of the Wehrmacht and the Navy under the direction of US Major General Lowell W. Rooks . On May 23, 1945, the internationally unrecognized, self-titled “ managing Reich government ” ( Dönitz government , the successor to Hitler's government ), was arrested there.
Innovations in the equipment
The Patria had been equipped with many innovations in ship technology. For the diesel-electric drive of the Patria , six single-acting two-stroke diesel engines, each with an output of 3,000 PSe from the manufacturer MAN , were initially installed on the ship . The steam from six exhaust gas boilers was used to generate fresh water in an evaporator (max. 50 to 60 t / 24h). The amount of drinking water produced by the evaporator system corresponded to about half of the daily requirement. The diesel engines were directly coupled with AEG three-phase synchronous generators for a voltage of 3,500 volts and an output of 2,140 kW, of which three each acted on the two main propeller motors on the starboard and port shafts, which together generate 15,000 hp. The Patria was the first large passenger ship whose electrical system was operated with alternating current . Despite the advantage of a significantly lower fire risk in the event of malfunctions, direct current systems had been preferred in ship operations up to this point . In addition to the usual equipment for the state of the art at the time - such as radio direction finder , gyro compass and echo sounder - the Patria also had a so-called stagnation log from the Hamburg Shipbuilding Research Institute , which indicated the current speed to the ship's management and the engine control station and also the total distance covered in a counter held on.
Use until 1945
The launch took place on January 15, 1938 at the German shipyard in Hamburg-Finkenwerder . On July 12, the Patria started its test drives from Hamburg towards Norway. The actual maiden voyage began on August 27th and led from Hamburg to the west coast of South America.
In 1940 the Patria served as a barge for the Navy in Stettin . In 1941 she was moved to Mürwik as a residential ship , where she was camouflaged at the Blücher Bridge (see Sonwik ) in May 1945 . From May 3 to 12, 1945, Grand Admiral Dönitz and some of the ministers of the executive government of the Reich moved into quarters.
Shortly after the capitulation, the Allied Monitoring Commission for the High Command of the Wehrmacht and the Navy arrived in Flensburg on May 12th. Their job was to oversee the loyal implementation of the terms of surrender. At first it consisted only of English and Americans under the leadership of Major General Lowell W. Rooks (USA) and Brigadier General Foord (Great Britain). The headquarters of the commission became the Patria . Dönitz had to vacate the Patria and, as a guest of the commander Wolfgang Lüth, moved into the commander's villa . One day later, on the night of 13-14 May, the commander was shot dead by a German guard . The tone between the victors and the vanquished was polite. A more or less lively exchange developed between the Control Commission and Dönitz, together with his executive government, which was not recognized by the Allies. On May 13, 1945, Major General Rooks had asked Dönitz for a meeting on board the Patria . Upon arrival at the stairway , Dönitz was received with the usual ceremony. Then, with the expression of regret, Rooks informed him that he had orders to arrest Field Marshal Keitel . During the second conversation with Dönitz on the Patria , Robert Murphy , Eisenhower's political advisor, demanded that Dönitz be legitimized as head of state. Doenitz was unable to produce this, as he had only been informed of Hitler's political will through a radio message from Martin Bormann . On May 20, a Soviet warship entered the port of Flensburg and anchored next to the Patria . On Wednesday, May 23, 1945, Dönitz, Jodl and Friedeburg were ordered to the Patria for 9.45 a.m. Without a reception at the stairway , without the usual honorary displays of the Navy , they were led into the ship's bar , which had been converted into a conference room. After five minutes, Major General Rooks, Brigadier Foord, and Major General Truskov appeared and sat across from them. Then Rooks rose and read out a letter that read:
"I have the assignment [...] to inform you that the Commander-in-Chief, General Eisenhower , in agreement with the Soviet High Command, decided that the current government and the German High Command and its members will be arrested as prisoners of war as of today. The incumbent German government has thus been dissolved. "
Dönitz describes the arrest as follows:
“No English lieutenant colonel to receive me downstairs, no presenting post. In contrast, a plethora of press photographers had appeared. Up on the Patria , Jodl, Friedeburg and I took a seat at one side of a table; on the other sat the chiefs of the control commission, in the middle the American Major General Rooks, next to him the English General Foord and the Russian General Truskov. Feeling the inevitability of our fate, my two comrades and I were perfectly calm. General Rooks announced to us that, on Eisenhower's orders, he was to arrest me, the German government, and the Wehrmacht High Command. From now on we would have to consider ourselves prisoners of war. He asked me, a little unsure, if I wanted to say anything. I replied: 'Any word is superfluous'. "
Coinciding with the events on the Patria engaged British troops at 10:00 am in the special area Mürwik one.
After General Rocks ended the meeting with Dönitz and his commanders, Dönitz left the ship and then had his driver drive him to the commanders villa to get his things that had already been packed. The British escort officers struggled to follow him. The reporter Joseph C. Harsch , a contemporary witness of the events at the time, reported on the subsequent "arrest" of Dönitz in his residential area at the Mürwiker Hospital . The Dönitz government was arrested at the same time at the marine sports school in Flensburg - Mürwik , where the provisional government was located, including Jodl , who had gone from Patria to his quarters at the sports school to pack his suitcases. In contrast to Dönitz and Jodl, Hans-Georg von Friedeburg did not go into captivity. He committed suicide that day after returning to his quarters in the Meierwik barracks .
Use after 1945
On July 1, 1945, the ship was taken over by the British and converted into a troop transport in Belfast. As Empire Welland , she made two trips.
In February 1946, the ship was launched as a Rossiya for the Soviet state shipping company. It ran under this name until 1985. In May 1949 the ship, now painted white, was lying in the port of Odessa together with the ex-KdF ship Der Deutsche . In its senior year the ship was called Aniva ; In 1985 it was scrapped in Pakistan .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerhard Paul and Broder Schwensen (eds.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg , 2015, page 214
- ↑ Gerhard Paul and Broder Schwensen (eds.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg , 2015, page 12
- ↑ Stern : End of War - Defeated, Liberated, Occupied - Germany 1945-48, Flensburg Rattenlinie Nord , from: May 3, 2005; Retrieved on: April 2, 2015
- ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Der Untergang: Wanted: Finds from the end of the war , from: March 1, 2014; Retrieved on: April 2, 2015
- ↑ Gerhard Paul and Broder Schwensen (eds.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg , 2015, pages 17 and 18
- ^ Karl Dönitz: Ten Years and Twenty Days , Frankfurt 1967.
- ↑ a b Gerhard Paul and Broder Schwensen (eds.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg , 2015, pages 122 and 126 ff.
- ^ Joseph C. Harsch: At the Hinge of History , pages 126 and 129
- ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Bus tour through Flensburg: In the footsteps of contemporary history , from: January 30, 2012; Retrieved on: April 2, 2015
- ↑ a b Gerhard Paul and Broder Schwensen (eds.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg , 2015, page 129
literature
- Ernst Gödecke, Berthold Bleicken: MS “Patria”. In: Schiffbau , Volume 39, Issue 14, July 15, 1938, pp. 241–242.
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume V: An era is coming to an end - 1930 to 1990. Hamburg 1990 (= writings of the German Maritime Museum , Vol. 22).