Raule (ship, 1919)

Raule

Ship data flag  German Empire German Empire   other ship names M 133 Watch M 533 Ship type Minesweeper class Minesweeper 1916 Shipyard Frerichs & Co. , Einswarden building-costs 1,250,000 marks Launch 1919 Commissioning December 15, 1919 Whereabouts Sunk on May 9, 1942

Ship dimensions and crew length 59.3 m ( Lüa ) 56.0 m ( KWL ) width 7.4 m Draft Max. 2.28 m displacement Construction: 525 t Maximum: 564 t   crew 51 men

Machine system machine 2 marine boilers 2 vertical 3-cylinder compound machines Machine performance 1,850 PS (1,361 kW) Top speed 16.0 kn (30 km / h) propeller 2 three-leaf 1.97 m

Armament 1 × Sk 10.5 cm L / 45 (150 shots) 2 × Flak 2 cm (2,000 rounds)

M 533 (ex M 133 , ex Wacht , ex Raule ) was a former minesweeper of the type minesweeper 1916 of the Reichsmarine , which was used from May 1940 as a clearing boat escort of the Kriegsmarine . She sank on May 9, 1942 in a collision with the clearing boat R 45 northwest of Boulogne-sur-Mer .

Sister ships as clearance boats were the Hela (ex M 135), the Von der Groeben (ex M 107), the Jungingen (ex M 134), the Nettelbeck (ex M 138) and the Von der Lippe (ex M 146). The Raule was named after Benjamin Raule , the naval advisor to Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg .

use

From its commissioning in December 1919 to 1922, the M 133 was used for mine clearance and fisheries protection. From October 1, 1922, the boat was used as a tender with the commander of the North Sea naval forces (BSN), from October 13, 1923 with the commander of the light naval forces of the Baltic Sea and from October 1, 1924 with the 1st torpedo boat flotilla. On March 11, 1929, the boat was renamed Wacht , but then decommissioned on March 28, 1930.

The boat was reactivated under its old designation M 133 on October 2, 1933 and served again as a minesweeper until May 4, 1939, from September 30, 1935 as the lead boat of the 2nd minesweeper flotilla. On October 1, 1935, the boat moved to the 1st Escort Flotilla, where it was decommissioned on May 25, 1936. From October 1, 1936 to May 4, 1939 the boat was used again as a minesweeper in the 2nd minesweeping flotilla. The ship was then converted into a clearing boat support ship, with an extension of a good two meters and an increase in tonnage of a good 200 t. On August 24, 1939, the M 133 was renamed Raule and at the beginning of November 1940 it was renamed M 533 .

The Raule served as the clearance boat accompanying ship of the 4th clearing boat flotilla in the North Sea, in the Dutch - Belgian coastal area and finally in the English Channel . The boat was damaged by mines on August 24, 1940 in the Westerschelde.

Downfall

M 533 , under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Otto Nordt , sank on May 9, 1942 northwest of Boulogne-sur-Mer while the auxiliary cruiser Stier was preparing to break through the canal after a collision with the clearing boat R 45 , which was also lost.

The name Raule was continued from May 14, 1959 by the school frigate Raule of the German Navy (see Raule (F 217) ).

literature

• Entry Raule ex Wacht (M 133 / M 533) in: Hans H. Hildebrand / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present , Ratingen o. J. (One-volume reprint of the seven-volume original edition, Herford 1979ff.,), Vol. VII, p. 75.
• Günter Kroschel / August-Ludwig Evers (ed.): The German fleet 1848-1945. History of German warship construction in 437 pictures , 2nd edition, Wilhelmshaven 1963, p. XXV.
• Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945, Vol. 2: Torpedo boats, destroyers, speed boats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats , Munich, 1983, p. 167.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Erich Gröner: The German warships, 1815-1945: torpedo boats, destroyers, speedboats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats . Bernard & Graefe, 1982, ISBN 978-3-7637-4801-3 , pp. 167 ( google.de [accessed on August 2, 2020]).
2. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-08.htm
3. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-05.htm