Self-sinking of the Danish fleet
The self- sinking of the Danish fleet ( Danish Flådens sænkning ) on August 29, 1943 was a military operation of the Danish Navy . The aim was to prevent the German navy from taking over Danish fleet units .
prehistory
As part of the company Weserübung was Denmark on 9 April 1940 by the German Wehrmacht occupied. According to an agreement (which was preceded by a German ultimatum with the threat of the destruction of Copenhagen and other cities by the air force ) between the German and the Danish government, the latter was supposed to regulate the conditions in the country itself and the Wehrmacht was only supposed to protect Danish neutrality . The Danish army and the Danish navy, disarmed for peace , should be preserved.
The fleet was initially launched . On May 10, the chief of the Danish navy, Viceadmiral Hjalmar Rechnitzer , resigned from his post after the naval officer corps had withdrawn his confidence because of his conduct before, during and after the German invasion. Rear Admiral Emmanuel Briand de Crèvecoeur took over the leadership of the Navy . Then the occupying forces asked the Danish Navy to clear their own mine barriers in Danish waters. While the fleet management cleared the mines in the fairways running from east to west, they refused to clear the barriers in the fairways running from north to south as support for the German naval war against Great Britain , which was incompatible with neutrality . From October 1940, ships of the navy also took over the guarding of the Øresund border to Sweden, as required by Germany .
The German Navy would have liked to take over the units of the Danish fleet itself immediately; it would at least have wanted the two navies to work closely together. The Danish side, especially the naval attaché in Berlin Kommandørkaptajn Frits A. Kjølsen , limited contacts to the lowest possible level. Germany therefore demanded that he be recalled, which took place on September 30, 1941.
In January 1941, the German Reich asked Denmark to hand over six torpedo boats . After long diplomatic negotiations, six disarmed and unarmed boats were handed over to Germany on February 5, 1941. King Christian X disapproved of the surrender and ordered the rigets flag to be raised at half-mast on the Sixtus bastion in the port of Copenhagen and the flags on Amalienborg Palace on February 5 . All ships in the fleet and many merchant ships followed suit when the tug of the handed over boats left the port.
The naval command knew that Germany might try to use military force to take possession of the fleet. Under the new naval chief, since September 1, 1941, Kontreadmiral Aage Helgesen Vedel , explosive charges were installed in all ships from 1942 and rules of conduct were issued in the event of a German attack on the fleet.
The rules of conduct in the event of an attack on the fleet provided:
- the ships should try to reach neutral (Swedish) waters,
- if this is not possible, the ships themselves should be sunk,
- neither ships nor weapons, equipment and other facilities should usefully fall into German hands.
course
Sinking
In the summer of 1943 there were increasing signs that Germany wanted to take possession of the Danish fleet by force. The political situation came to a head, and an end to the cooperation policy was in sight. On August 27, 1943, the Reich Plenipotentiary for Denmark , Werner Best , demanded that the Danish government impose a state of emergency. The government refused and resigned on August 28th.
In the evening hours of August 27, the Ministry of Navy discussed the political situation and drafted the sinking order. The order was issued to the fleet on August 28 at 7:30 p.m. Ships and boats that could be clear to sea and ready for action within 15 minutes should begin the breakout to Sweden in response to the AGF signal (flag signal, lantern signal at night). Full combat readiness had to be established on the ships and the life-saving appliances had to be handed out to the crews. In response to the KNU signal (flag, lantern and radio signal), all ships in the ports should initiate self-sinking and units at sea should try to reach Swedish waters.
On the morning of August 29, 1943 around four o'clock, German units began to occupy the naval port of Copenhagen ( Operation Safari ). At 4:08 a.m. the KNU signal was given and at 4:13 a.m. the first explosive charges detonated. Half an hour later the fleet had sunk to the bottom of the harbor and the advancing Germans could only take over wrecks.
Naval units in other ports were also sunk, and some ships were captured by German troops.
Only the torpedo boat Havkatten (on patrol in Øresund), three minesweepers and 9 smaller ships were able to escape to neutral Sweden. The ships called at the ports of Landskrona , Malmo and Trelleborg . Two other ships were in Greenland.
Battle in the Isefjord
The largest active ship in the Danish Navy, the coastal armored ship (Danish: Artilleriskib) Niels Juel , was on a training voyage in inner Danish waters on August 29, 1943. The radio signal KNU reached the Niels Juel in the port of Holbæk . The commander, Kommandørkaptajn Carl Westermann, decided to make the breakthrough to Sweden. The flagship of the Royal Navy should neither be sunk nor fall into the hands of the Germans.
After the ship had left the port with the assistance of a tug, full combat readiness was established and the crew moved into their combat stations. The departure of the Niels Juel was noticed by a German observation aircraft and reported to headquarters, but the machine was also noticed on board.
The ship ran north at extreme speed in order to reach the Kattegat and open water as quickly as possible. At the exit of the Isefjord, the Niels Juel sighted German warships, an (auxiliary) mine-layer and two torpedo boats. German planes circled the ship. The 1st artillery officer advocated attacking the German ships, but Captain Westermann did not believe that Germany and Denmark were at war and wanted the Navy to take the first shot .
The commander lacked up-to-date information on the situation in Denmark - a circumstance that should have fatal consequences for the ship. After the first German attack by German planes with bombs and on-board weapons, the Niels Juel changed course southwards. In the next attack, the fire was returned by the ship's flak and hit an aircraft. The ironclad began to cross in front of Hundested while the leadership waited for information from the naval command. Three more air strikes followed. During the third attack with bombs and machine guns, the power supply and both fire control systems on the Niels Juel failed so that it was no longer fit for action.
During the battle, the commander of a 40 mm anti-aircraft gun, Artillerikvartermester (boatswain) KE Andreasen, was fatally wounded.
A courier from the naval command came on board and brought new orders: Since mines were laid outside the mouth of the Isefjord and there are strong German naval units there, Niels Juel should anchor and await further instructions. The orders had been suggested to the Danish naval commander in chief, Viceadmiral Vedel, by the German naval commander in chief in Denmark, Vice Admiral Wurmbach , under heavy pressure.
Westermann decided not to obey the new orders, but to put his ship on the ground and to make all weapons, equipment and machines unusable. It was only when a German commando docked alongside two speedboats in the early morning hours of the following day and went on board that the Danish commandant ordered the flag to be lowered. Then the crew went to German internment .
Aftermath
The units that had escaped to Sweden were transferred to Karlskrona and interned after a fortnight officially declared as a fleet visit . From 1944 the ships formed the Danish flotilla , which returned to Denmark in May 1945.
Some of the sunk ships were lifted, repaired and used by the German navy.
Web links
- Flådens sænkning August 29, 1943, August 29, 1943 kom vendpunkteet (af Søren Nørby) (Danish)
- Battle of the Isefjord (by Johnny E. Balsved) (Danish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b admin: Operation Safari - Det tyske forsøg på at afvæbne det danske forsvar. In: milhist.dk. June 8, 2014, accessed August 7, 2020 (Danish).
- ^ Vilhelm la Cour (ed.): Danmark under Besættelsen. Volume I, page 423 ff. (Danish).