Roland (ship, 1927)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roland p1
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (trade flag) German Empire
Ship type Seebäderschiff
home port Bremen
Owner North German Lloyd
Shipyard Joh. C. Tecklenborg , Geestemünde
Build number 414
Launch March 12, 1927
Commissioning May 24, 1927
Whereabouts Sunk April 21, 1944
Ship dimensions and crew
length
90.82 m ( Lüa )
89.1 m ( Lpp )
width 13.04 m
Draft Max. 3.12 m
measurement 2436 GRT
 
crew 60 men
Machine system
machine Steam turbines
Machine
performance
4,850 hp (3,567 kW)
Top
speed
18 kn (33 km / h)
propeller 2
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers 2400

The Roland was a seaside resort ship of the North German Lloyd (NDL), which was used by the German navy as a mine ship during World War II .

Seebäderschiff

The ship, the fourth of this name at Norddeutscher Lloyd, was built with hull number 414 at Deschimag in Geestemünde . Construction had started before Deschimag was founded at the Joh. C. Tecklenborg shipyard there. The ship was on 12 March 1927 by the stack and was delivered on 24 May 1927, the North German Lloyd. It was 90.80 m long (89.10 m in the waterline ) and 13 m wide, had a 3.12 m draft and was measured with 2436  GRT and 1197  NRT . Two sets of geared turbines with a total of 4850  HP on the two shafts allowed a top speed of 18  knots . The ship could carry about 2400 passengers . The crew consisted of 60 men.

The Roland was deployed from Bremerhaven in the Heligoland service, where she replaced the pre-war side- paddle steamer Najade . She was the fastest seaside resort ship at the time and needed three hours from the Lloydhalle in Bremerhaven to Helgoland (roadstead), as well as for the route from Helgoland to Norderney . The equipment advertised by the shipping company included two dining rooms that could seat around 200 people at the same time, a veranda coffee for around 75 people on the forecastle, and a 65 m long promenade deck with wide sliding windows, the rear part of which was used as a dance floor from side to side served.

During a renovation in 1935, a chimney was removed and the mast position changed.

Mine ship

Even before the German attack on Poland began , the Roland was requisitioned by the Navy , converted into a mine ship and put into service on August 24, 1939. First in command, until December 31, 1939, was frigate captain dR Karl-Friedrich Brill . Under him and his successors - Frigate Captain Karl von Kutzleben (January 1, 1940 to March 1943), Frigate Captain Alfred Westerkamp (April 1943 to October 1943) and Corvette Captain Karl Wehr (October 1943 to April 1944) - the ship took part in numerous mining operations the North Sea, the Skagerrak , the Norwegian coastal waters, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Together with Cobra and Brummer ex Olav Tryggvason on 7./8. The offensive mine barrier "SW 1", which was laid in the southwestern North Sea on August 31, 1940 was the undoing of the British 20th (mine-laying) destroyer flotilla on August 31, when the Express , Esk and Ivanhoe ran into mines on the previously undetected barrier. Esk sinks immediately, Ivanhoe is badly damaged and sunk by its own safety device as not towable and Express loses its forecastle, but can be towed in and is out of action for over twelve months.

His last undertaking was to take part in the reinforcement of the German mine barrier "Seeigel" in the Gulf of Finland in April 1944. On 13./14. April threw the Roland with the mine ships Brummer and Linz , the destroyers Z 28 , Z 35 and Z 39 , the torpedo boat T 30 and the minesweepers M 14 and M 22 the mine barrier "Seeigel 6b" south of the island of Bolshoi Tjuters . On 16./17. April the same association (this time without the minesweepers) put the barrier "See urchin 3b" near Vigrund in Narva Bay. On 19./20. April put the Roland , the Brummer , the Linz , Z 28 , Z 35 and T 30 the barrier "Seeigel 7b / 2" in the Narva Bay. Then on the night of April 21st to 22nd the mine barrier "Seeigel 7b" at Narva by the Roland , the Brummer , the Linz , Z 28 , Z 35 , Z 39 , T 30 and the minesweepers M 20 and M 37 continued Should be reinforced, the Roland ran into a mine , probably laid by the German ships in the previous days, and sank. 235 men of their crew were killed.

The surviving members of the crew were brought to Copenhagen at the beginning of May and made available for the formation of the crew of the planned mine ship Peter Wessel .

Notes and individual references

  1. The ship was not the first seaside resort ship of this name. As early as 1835 there was the first scheduled ship connection from the Hanseatic cities with the paddle steamers Elbe , Patriot and Roland , and in 1857 the North German Lloyd opened the seaside service from Bremen with the side paddle steamer Roland , from 1862 from Geestemünde ( Bremerhaven ) to Norderney .
  2. ^ Joh. C. Tecklenborg merged on December 28, 1926 with the Bremer Werft AG Weser to form Deschimag (Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinen Aktiengesellschaft). At that time, the Tecklenborg shipyard still had orders amounting to 25,680 GRT, including the seaside resort steamship Roland .
  3. ↑ In 1926, Norddeutsche Lloyd had commissioned the Bremen express steamer from AG Weser , for which a new type of propulsion system with gas turbines was planned. Tecklenborg developed the successful test type for the new drive system for Roland . ( Seebäderschiff Roland (1927-1944) , Historical Museum Bremerhaven )
  4. ^ Seaside bathing service course Norderney - From the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Bremen to the seaside resort ( Memento from June 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Museum Nordseeheilbad Norderney
  5. Rohwer: naval warfare , 31.8./1.9.1940 North Sea
  6. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Sea War 1944 , Württembergische Landesbibliothek , Stuttgart

Web links

literature

  • 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 .