Prinz Eugen (ship, 1938)
 Prinz Eugen in Bikini Atoll
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The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen [ … ɔ͡yˈgeːn ] was a warship of the German Navy and belonged to the Admiral Hipper class . It was named after the Austrian general Prince Eugene of Savoy .
history
As part of the armament of the German Navy from the mid-1930s, the construction of a class of heavy cruisers began. The building contract for the third ship of the Admiral Hipper class was carried out under the household name Kreuzer J until the christening . The ship was launched on 22 August 1938 from the pile and was supported by Magdolna Horthy, wife of the Hungarian Regent Miklos Horthy , in the name of Prince Eugene baptized. During the First World War, Horthy was in command of the liner SMS Prinz Eugen , in whose tradition the new cruiser was named. Originally, the cruiser that the tradition should Austrian fleet should be maintained in the Navy, in the name Tegetthoff after Admiral William Tegetthoff be baptized, but they were afraid to alienate its ally Italy by this name because Tegetthoff the naval battle of Lissa against the Italian fleet had won.
The ship was also known as "The Happy Prince" or "The Happy Ship" because it had survived various missions almost unscathed (for example, the "Operation Rhine Exercise" with the battleship Bismarck ), the canal breakthrough ("Enterprise Cerberus" ) with the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the Norway company ("Sportpalast").
During the further equipment and completion, the ship received the first bomb hit on July 2, 1940 at the equipment quay of the shipyard in Kiel . The commissioning of the Prinz Eugen could take place on August 1st after the damage had been repaired.
Company Rhine exercise
On May 18, 1941, the Prinz Eugen ran out of the Baltic Sea with the battleship Bismarck from Gdynia (Gotenhafen) to the company Rhine Exercise with the destination Atlantic . Enemy convoys were to be attacked there. However, the association was discovered early by the British reconnaissance and shadowed by several ships of the Royal Navy . In the further course of the operation there was then the well-known sea battle between the two German ships and two heavy British units. The battle cruiser Hood was sunk and the battleship Prince of Wales was badly damaged. The Prinz Eugen was then released from the association for an independent trade war. On 25/26 In May 1941 the cruiser took over oil from the tanker Spichern , but machine damage then forced the company to be abandoned. On June 1st the cruiser reached Brest .
Cerberus company
In the following months the Prinz Eugen was in Brest. It was badly hit by a bomb during an air raid on July 8, 1941; 60 men were killed, including the first officer, Frigate Captain Stoess. The repair work lasted until mid-December. In early 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the march back to Germany. This took place together with the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst , which had also been moored in France for a long time. For the way back, the short but risky route through the English Channel was chosen. With strong air support and secured by numerous smaller units of the Kriegsmarine, the canal was breached from February 11 to February 13, 1942. During this operation, the Prinz Eugen was the only one of the large units to remain undamaged, but had the only loss of people of the three large ships to complain about. The firm Cerberus was the first successful breakthrough of an enemy fleet through the English Channel for centuries. Despite the tactical success, the withdrawal of the heavy units to Germany was a strategic defeat for the Navy, as the direct threat to Allied convoys in the Atlantic became significantly less.
Operations 1942–1945
On the continuation of the journey via Trondheim to Narvik ( Sportpalast company ), the Prinz Eugen suffered severe damage to the stern on February 23, 1942 by a torpedo hit by the British submarine Trident , which buckled. In the Lofjord near Trondheim, the ship was poorly repaired by the workshop ship Huascaran and equipped with a manually operated emergency rudder. On May 16, the Prinz Eugen returned to Kiel ( Magic Flute Company ) to receive a new stern at the Deutsche Werke shipyard . After the repair and the restoration of operational readiness, two attempts at relocation to Norway failed in January 1943. After the failed Operation Rainbow , the cruiser was assigned to the training associations in April. Originally, all heavy units were to be decommissioned on Hitler's orders, which Karl Dönitz was able to prevent as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Navy . From August 1944, the ship supported army's land operations on the Eastern Front. On August 20, 1944, the Prinz Eugen supported attacks by German army troops with artillery fire in the town of Tukums . On October 15, 1944, she returned to Gotenhafen to add ammunition . When visibility was poor, she rammed the light cruiser Leipzig and severely damaged it; 27 crew members of the cruiser were killed. The two ships could not be separated from each other until the next day with the help of a tug. Since the damage to the prow of the Prinz Eugen did not require a visit to the shipyard, she was able to be made operational again in Gotenhafen in the following two weeks. Then she took part again in the fighting in the east ( Sworbe , Königsberg, Danzig etc.). In addition, operations to evacuate the wounded and civilians from East Prussia followed from January 1945. On March 29, 1945 the ship left Gotenhafen and reached Copenhagen on April 20, 1945 . Due to a lack of fuel, it could not run out until the end of the war.
Remaining after the end of the war
With the German surrender, the cruiser, which was the only heavy unit of the German Navy to survive World War II, came under British command in Copenhagen. At the end of May 1945 he was brought to Wilhelmshaven with several other German ships . In December 1945, the ship was drawn by lot as the spoils of war by the Americans, who on January 5, 1946, kept the name as USS Prinz Eugen (IX-300). 574 German crew members remained on the ship to instruct the US Navy on board in technical matters. On January 13, 1946, the ship was transferred to Philadelphia , where it experienced a major media coverage when it called Boston as a former enemy ship. Various pieces of equipment were removed in a naval shipyard in Philadelphia, including the two guns from Tower A, the range finders for the heavy artillery and the 10.5 cm anti-aircraft guns, several 10.5 and 4 cm AA guns and the aircraft catapult. On May 1, 1946, the Prinz Eugen continued through the Panama Canal to San Diego . In the Pacific, the ship was subjected to further tests and the performance of the group listening device was determined, which was then expanded and later used in the Flying Fish , which was converted into a test boat . On May 10, 1946, the ship reached Honolulu in tow because only one boiler was still working . The last German crew members had previously left the Prinz Eugen after their number had already been gradually reduced to 134.
Operation Crossroads
Then the march to Bikini Atoll took place . Here the ship was anchored about a nautical mile from the zero point of the atomic bomb test series known as Operation Crossroads with numerous other test ships. The decisive factor in the selection of the Prinz Eugen was that she was a modern, welded ship. One wanted to check the stability of the overall structure. When the test bomb "Able" exploded on July 1, 1946, dropped from a B-29 and detonated at a height of 170 m about 1100 m (1184 yards) away, the ship did not suffer any visible damage. On July 25, 1946, the test bomb "Baker" was detonated underwater at a depth of approx. 30 m and approx. 1800 m (1990 yards) away, whereby the ship apparently also suffered no damage, but very strong radiation . Instead of real crews, the US Navy had brought laboratory animals, mainly sheep and pigs, onto the ships. These were killed in the explosions. However , there was no fundamental damage to the structure of the Prinz Eugen , while other ships (which were closer to the center of the explosion) still sank in the test area.
The initially planned third test "Charlie", in which an atomic bomb was to be detonated in greater water depth on March 1, 1947, was ultimately dispensed with, as the second test had already proven the devastating effect on ships.
Downfall
The ship was then towed to the Kwajalein Atoll. Alpha radiation was also detected there on board the Prinz Eugen . The stuffing boxes of the propeller shafts had leaked from the vibrations during the test and were increasingly allowing water to penetrate. Because of the radiation, the bilge pumps were no longer used. The ship was without a crew. As of December 16, 1946 set list to starboard , which grew stronger. On December 21st, the ship was a meter lower in the water aft. As a result, the water that had entered was supposed to be removed from the Prinz Eugen using pumps installed on land , but this did not succeed. The attempt to beach the cruiser also failed.
At around noon on December 22, 1946, the Prinz Eugen finally capsized and sank . The wreck is at 8 ° 45 ′ 9.9 ″ N , 167 ° 40 ′ 59.2 ″ E. in shallow water about 250 meters from the beach. The rear part of the underwater hull with the propeller shafts and the two remaining propellers as well as the rudder protrude from the water. The superstructures hit the lagoon floor during capsizing and have been kinked to the side since then. Towers B, C and D slipped out of their barbeds as they were only held in place by their weight. Only turret A had been welded to the barbette after the two guns had been removed from it.
For the Kwajalein Atoll, the wreck represented an unsolved environmental problem for a long time. Inside the ship, there were still large amounts of oil in the fuel bunkers. It was not until the beginning of September to mid-October 2018 that the US Navy pumped around 946,000 liters of oil from the 159 accessible of the 173 fuel bunkers or found them empty. The remaining quantities, up to 5% of the total capacity, are stored deep inside the ship.
Already shortly after the ship's sinking, a salvage was considered, but these considerations were ultimately discarded due to excessive radiation levels. In 1973 the wreck was examined again with the aim of lifting it. The damage to the ship's side caused by the detonation of the torpedoes on the port side was documented. The divers also found that there were further live ammunition as well as fuel residues in the ship. Although beta and gamma radiation could no longer be detected, it was not lifted and scrapped because of the high expenditure. Even when the idea of salvage arose for the third time after an investigation into the wreck in 1989, the US Navy abandoned it again because of the possible residual radiation in the shipbuilding steel.
The German Navy Federation tried to rescue and return one of the three propellers . The negotiations on this were concluded in 1978. The propeller is set up on the site of the Naval Memorial in Laboe . One of the torpedo target systems (port aft) is in the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven . The ship's bell is located in the Naval Historical Center , Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC, USA.
chronology
- April 23, 1936 - Keel laying at the Germania shipyard in Kiel
- August 22, 1938 - Magdolna Purgly, the wife of the Hungarian Reich Administrator Miklós Horthy, carries out the baptism in the presence of Adolf Hitler , followed by the launch
- August 1, 1940 - Commissioning under Captain Brinkmann
- May 18 to June 1, 1941 - Operation Rhine exercise together with the battleship Bismarck
- February 11-13, 1942 - Cerberus Company (Canal breakthrough)
- February 14 to 24, 1942 - Sportpalast company : together with Admiral Scheer, march to Norway
- May 16 to July 30, 1942 - Magic Flute Company , march home
- January to March 1943 - Company Fronttheater and Company Domino
- August 19-21, 1944 - Combating land targets , Tuckum (Latvia)
- September 13 to 17, 1944 - Tanne-Ost, Hogland , Utö
- September 20-25 , 1944 - Company in the Åland Sea
- October 10-15, 1944 - Fight for Memel
- November 20-28 , 1944 - Battle for Sworbe
- January 29 to 31, 1945 - Battle for Königsberg
- March 10 to April 4, 1945 - Battle for Danzig , Gotenhafen and Hela
- April 10 to 20, 1945 - March to the west: Swinoujscie , Sassnitz , at the end of the war in Copenhagen
- January 13, 1946 - Transfer by own means to the east coast of the USA , then from there through the Panama Canal to Bikini Atoll
- June and July 1946 - Test object in two atom bomb tests in Bikini Atoll
- August 1946 - Transfer in tow to Kwajalein Atoll
- December 22, 1946 - Prinz Eugen capsizes over starboard and sinks
Maintenance of tradition
After the " Anschluss " to the German Reich, named after an Austrian generals ship was given the task, the tradition of earlier in the German Navy Imperial and Royal Navy continue.
For this reason, on the Prinz Eugen , the historical k. u. k. The war flag was set and the Tegetthoff 's ship's bell was carried.
Originally the cruiser was to be named after the Austrian admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff , but it was feared that this naming would make the kingdom of Italy , which was allied with the National Socialist German Reich, miserable, which is why the ship was named Prinz Eugen .
Commanders
| August 1, 1940 to July 1942 | Sea captain Helmuth Brinkmann |
| July to October 1942 | Corvette Captain Wilhelm Beck (deputy) |
| October 1942 to March 14, 1943 | Sea captain Hans-Erich Voss |
| March 15, 1943 to January 4, 1944 | Sea captain Werner Ehrhardt |
| January 5, 1944 to May 1945 | Sea captain Hans-Jürgen Reinicke (until May 1, 1946 as German commander on board) |
| May 1945 to May 1946 | Captain AH Graubart American commander |
Known crew members
- Wolfgang Schrade (1924-2010) was in 1984 as a flotilla admiral "Admiral Marineausbildung" in the naval office
literature
- Ingo Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity - The fate of the Prinz Eugen . ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-8132-0928-0 .
- Ingo Bauernfeind: Prinz Eugen - The story of the legendary German cruiser . Motorbuch, Kassel 2016, ISBN 978-3-613-03931-5 .
- Bernd Brandes: Peace through understanding. The Prinz Eugen project. Resch, Graefelfing 1993, ISBN 3-930039-27-3 .
- Siegfried Breyer: Waffen-Arsenal - The heavy cruisers of the Navy. Special Volume 10, Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1999, ISBN 3-7909-0668-9 .
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 93-96 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 5. Koehler, Herford 1982, ISBN 3-7822-0236-8 .
- Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The heavy cruisers of the Admiral Hipper class. Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7637-5896-8 .
- Paul Schmalenbach: Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Heyne, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-453-87090-5 .
- Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 . Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 , pp. 228-229 .
- Fritz Otto Busch: Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen - The story of the happy ship. , Adolf Sponholtz, Hanover 1958
- Fritz Otto Busch: Prinz Eugen in the first battle. , C. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1943
- Paul Schmalenbach: Cruiser Prinz Eugen ... under 3 flags Koehler, Herford 1978, ISBN 3-7822-0158-2 .
Web links
- Report with many rare pictures ( Memento from September 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- A detailed description of the ship and the history (Engl.)
- Diving pictures of the wreck of the Prinz Eugen in today's state ( Memento of 28 September 2007 at the Internet Archive ) (Engl.)
- More information and many pictures of "Operation Crossroads" (Engl.)
Footnotes
- ↑ There were delays with the actual type ship Blücher ( cruiser G ). As a result, the construction of the second ship, Admiral Hipper ( cruiser H ), began earlier and was the first to be launched. Traditionally, the class was therefore the name of the cruiser H named.
- ↑ a b Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 10f.
- ^ Paul Schmalenbach: Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Altenholz 1978, p. 34.
- ↑ Uwe Greve, Otto Busch: Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Koehler, p. 5.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 21.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 23.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 25.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, pp. 25-29.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 31.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 36.
- ↑ Uwe Greve, Otto Busch: Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Koehler, pp. 38-40.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 37f.
- ↑ The classification IX represents Unclassified Miscellaneous Unit to German about: Unclassified other unit .
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 39.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 42.
- ↑ a b Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 44.
- ^ Gerhard Koop / Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The heavy cruisers of the Admiral Hipper class. Admiral Hipper - Blücher - Prinz Eugen - Seydlitz - Lützow. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, March 1992, ISBN 3-7637-5896-8 .
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2002, p. 90.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 92f.
- ↑ About 220 m from the beach (measurement according to Google Earth, June 30, 2008)
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 128.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 131.
- ↑ Wreck as an environmental problem , report on spiegel.de from March 22, 2017, accessed on May 11, 2020
- ↑ US Navy Divers Recover Oil from Wrecked WWII Prinz Eugen. US Navy , accessed May 11, 2020 . (engl.)
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 114.
- ↑ Bauernfeind: Radioactive for all eternity. 2011, p. 120.