Robert Ley (ship)
| ROBERT LEY | ||
|
||
| Ship data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | Cabins - passenger ship | |
| Keel laying : | May 1, 1936 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | March 29, 1938 | |
| Commissioning: | March 24, 1939 | |
| Builder: | Howaldtswerke Hamburg ; Build number: 754 | |
| Owner: | German labor front | |
| Shipping company: | Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft (HAPAG) | |
| Building-costs: | k. A. | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Measurement : | 27,288 GRT 17,762 NRT |
|
| Tonnage : | 5340 dwt | |
| Length: | 203.80 m | |
| Length between perpendiculars: | 193.70 m | |
| Width across frames: | 24.10 m | |
| Width in height of promenade deck: | k. A. | |
| Side height: | 20.70 m | |
| Draft : | Medium 7.56 m | |
| Machinery: |
Diesel-electric drive : 6 two-stroke diesel engines with each of 2000 HP Howaldtswerke- / MAN 6 alternators with each 1550 k VA of Siemens / SSW 3 each generator sets to supply a three-phase - drive motor with 4400 WPS |
|
| Propeller: | 2 fixed propellers | |
| Shaft speed: | k. A. | |
| Power: | total 6472 kW (2 × 4400 WPS ) | |
| Top speed: | k. A. | |
| Service speed: | 15.5 kn | |
| Driving range: | k. A. | |
| Fuel supply: | k. A. | |
| Crew: | 435 people | |
| Passengers on commissioning: | 1510 | |
| Whereabouts | ||
| Wrecked: | from June 1947 in Inverkeithing ( Scotland ) | |
The Robert Ley was a cabin - passenger ship of the Nazi organization German Labor Front (DAF). The motor ship was used by the Office for Travel, Hiking and Vacation (RWU) of the DAF sub-organization NS-Gemeinschaft “ Kraft durch Freude ” (KdF) for cruises and was considered the flagship of the KdF fleet. After the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939 , like the other KdF ships, it was used by the Navy as a hospital ship , barracks ship and as a troop transport .
Named after the NSDAP - Reichsleiter and DAF-chairman Robert Ley named ship was a few weeks before the war ended in the port of Hamburg , where it was taken at a British air attack and was completely gutted. The wreck was later towed to the UK and demolished there.
Construction and equipment
The new cruise ship of the KdF fleet was commissioned by the German Labor Front at the Howaldtswerken Hamburg under hull number 754 to set keel . The ship owner was thus the DAF; However, that was Robert Ley from the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft ( HAPAG ) bereedert , d. H. managed, manned and maintained. The architect Woldemar Brinkmann was commissioned to design the interior .
It was launched on March 29, 1938 in the presence of Adolf Hitler . The commissioning took place on March 24, 1939.
The ship was designed for about 1750 passengers plus the crew members.
The decks of the Robert Ley consisted of:
- Navigation bridge (with cabins for captain and officers)
- Sun deck (with library)
- Boat deck (with cabins and small common rooms)
- Promenade deck (with the main common rooms)
- A deck (with cabins, dining rooms with 860 seats and utility rooms)
- B-deck (with cabins, laundry and hairdresser)
- C-deck (with cabins, bakery and slaughterhouse) ( bulkhead deck )
- D-deck (with cabins, hospital, dining room for crew and workshop)
- E-deck (with cabins)
- F-deck (with swimming pool, luggage room, supplies and provisions, a laundry facility, machine and auxiliary machine room)
Use until 1945
The Robert Ley was initially used as a cruise ship for the Nazi organization "Kraft durch Freude".
In May 1939, she went along with the KDF ships Wilhelm Gustloff , Stuttgart , the German , Sierra Cordoba and Oceana to Vigo in Spain , where the fleet arrived on May 24 and discharged medical and other materials for the Franco regime determined were. On May 26, the troops of the Condor Legion boarded the ships. The Robert Ley took over 1,416 men who disembarked in Hamburg on May 30th .
Shortly before the start of the Second World War, the Robert Ley was taken over by the Navy as a hospital ship on August 25, 1939 and converted accordingly in Hamburg. Lack of demand was made on 22 November 1939 as a hospital ship out of service and instead renewed after conversion as an accommodation ship the first U-Lehr Division in Neustadt (commander Hans Ibbeken ) from July 1941 in Pillau in East Prussia assigned. From the end of July 1944 she was used as a transport ship for the wounded (VTS) in the Baltic Sea , then from September 1944 again as a living ship, this time with the II. Department of the 1st U-Training Division in Hamburg-Finkenwerder . After the Red Army's breakthrough on the Eastern Front, the Robert Ley was used as a result of the Hannibal Company in the evacuation of civilians and wounded from East Prussia . She left Pillau on January 25, 1945.
The End
On March 24, 1945, the Robert Ley was in the port of Hamburg when the British Royal Air Force launched an air raid on the city. The ship received several bomb hits and burned out completely. The still buoyant wreck lay at the pier in Hamburg until it was towed to Great Britain in June 1947 and scrapped in Inverkeithing (Scotland).
Trivia
A large model of the ship was used as a moving van on a KdF move in Hamburg in May 1937.
literature
- R. Kiene: Robert Ley - The flagship of the KdF fleet . VDI vol. 83
- Claus Rothe: German passenger ships 1919 to 1982 . 1st edition. transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1987.
- Heinz Schön : Passenger ship “Robert Ley”. A KdF ship in peace and war . In: Series SMS - Ships, People, Fates . Issue No. 133, Verlag Rudolf Stade, Kiel 2002.
Web links
- Robert Ley on wilhelmgustloffmuseum.com, with many photos and original documents (English description)
- Radio station of Robert Ley , on seefunknetz.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Film treasures from Cologne - from the Rhine - world film heritage: Hamburg 1937 - KdF parade - incl. "Swastika Carnival" - Nazi parade (from 0:06:15) on YouTube , September 28, 2016, accessed on June 25, 2020 (recordings from May 1937).