Spreewald (ship, 1922)
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The second Spreewald of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) was a diesel-powered freighter built in 1922 by the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg. It was one of a series of ten 5000 t freighters from the shipyard, also known as the forest class , for the reconstruction of the shipping company, usually known as the Hamburg-America Line. It was named after the Spreewald , an extensive lowland area and a historical cultural landscape . In 1935 it was renamed Anubis when it was mainly used on the west coast of America. From 1939 it was called Spreewald again . When the war began, the ship sought refuge in Japan and was laid up there.
In 1941 the Spreewald was used as a blockade breaker to Europe. On January 31, 1942, the camouflaged ship north of the Azores on the way to southern France was sunk by mistake by the German submarine U 333 . 41 crew members and 31 prisoners of war were killed.
history
Hapag received a series of ten freighters from its affiliated Deutsche Werft in Hamburg-Finkenwärder, the names of which ended in -wald and resumed the names of the West India freighters from the prewar period. The shipyard, which specializes in series production, also delivered similar ships to foreign clients such as the Dutch shipping company van Nievelt or the Norwegian shipping company Wilh. Wilhelmsen . Hapag's
first Spreewald was a freighter delivered by Furness Shipbuilding in 1908 for the West India Service, which was brought up by the Royal Navy in 1914 and has since been used as Lucia under the British flag. The new Spreewald was one of the two motor ships in the Hapag series, most of which were fitted with conventional steam engines. The Odenwald and the motor-driven Norwegian Tiradentes were sister ships of the Spreewald . Like the other ships in the class, she was used on all Atlantic routes. From 1935 onwards, the Odenwald was deployed mostly to the west coast of South America and both ships were renamed Anubis and Aswan . When new ship material was available, both ships were relocated and used between East Asia and the North American Pacific coast.
War effort
When the Second World War broke out , the ship went to Japan and was laid up there. In 1941 the Spreewald was made operational again and left Dairen on October 21, 1941 with 3,365 tons of rubber , 230 tons of tin and 20 tons of tungsten and quinine . On the way to Europe, she met the supply ship Kulmerland at the Society Islands and took 86 British prisoners from ships sunk by the auxiliary cruiser Kormoran .
The Spreewald crossed the Pacific unrecognized - disguised as the Norwegian freighter Elg and the British freighter Brittany - and was supposed to meet U 575 on January 29 , which was to escort her to Bordeaux . U 123 , whose commander Reinhard Hardegen, had a seriously injured war correspondent from the propaganda company on board and therefore wanted to call on the doctor from Spreewald, was supposed to join the meeting point . But U 123 appeared at the agreed time as the only person involved at the meeting point. The Spreewald was torpedoed on January 31, 1942 by U 333 , whose commander, Kapitänleutnant Peter-Erich Cremer , believed he was facing a British ship. He reported: "... Passenger freighter 8000 GRT sunk ... probably loaded with ammunition as there was a large explosion after the second hit. " Cremer had fired two electric totorpedoes at the Spreewald , which hit the ship amidships, whereupon it burned at position 45 ° 12 ′ 0 ″ N , 24 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ W declined. The British radio station at Land's End answered the call from an unknown British ship named Brittany , which said it had been sunk by an unknown submarine.
When the submarine command found out about the sinking of the Spreewald , in addition to U 333 , U 575 , which was originally supposed to accompany the Spreewald to Bordeaux, U 123 , U 701 , U 582 , U 332 and U 105 , as well as five Focke-Wulf Fw 200 - Condor long-range reconnaissance aircraft used to search for survivors. The damaged U 105 under captainleutnant Heinrich Schuch was on the march back and found 25 crew members and 55 prisoners in three lifeboats and three rafts. The search for another lifeboat was canceled after three days without success. When attempting to evacuate a seriously injured person from the boat early, the Dornier Do 24 used for this purpose crash-landed in heavy seas. U 105 was able to take the crew on board. Of the 152 men on board the Spreewald , 72 were killed. Among them 26 of the British prisoners of war that the Spreewald had taken over from the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran .
Kapitänleutnant Peter-Erich Cremer, the commander of U 333 , was arrested immediately upon arrival of his boat at the submarine base in Lorient and, at Dönitz's express order, was then brought before a court martial. After intervention by Dönitz's son-in-law and admiralty officer Günter Hessler , Cremer was found not guilty . The reason given was that the Spreewald had not reported her position according to plan and had reached the sea area earlier than expected. The circumstances of the loss of the Spreewald were kept secret.
What remains of the Hapag forest class delivered by Deutsche Werft
| Launched in service |
Surname | tonnage | Construction no | fate |
| 29.01.1921 04.30.1921 |
Niederwald (II) | 4476 BRT 7150 dw |
No. 33 | 15 May 1921 extended maiden voyage to Brazil, 1933-34 foredeck and installation of a Abdampfturbine (4626 BRT, dwt 6939, 12.5 kn), 1936 sale to the Hamburg-Süd , renamed in Asuncion , on August 31, 1939 Buenos Aires on Las Palmas until December 29, 1939 breakthrough to Hamburg, sunk on May 23, 1942 off Northern Norway after being hit by mines. |
| May 14, 1921 July 29, 1921 |
Steigerwald (II) | 4535 BRT 7225 tdw |
No. 34 | August 1921 maiden voyage to South America, 1933/34 forecastle extended and installation of an exhaust steam turbine (4627 BRT, 7101 tdw, 12.5 kn), 1936 sold to Hamburg-Süd, renamed Santa Fé , coming from Rio de Janeiro on October 25, 1939 upset by the French destroyers Le Terrible and Le Fantastique, deployed as St. André under the French flag, again in German possession in 1940, in the Mediterranean. As an ammunition transporter in the Black Sea, it was sunk on November 23, 1943 off Eupatoria by a Soviet submarine. |
| 17.08.1921 05.11.1921 |
Westerwald (II) | 4541 BRT 7225 tdw |
No. 35 | November 1921 maiden voyage to South America, 1936 sold to Hamburg-Süd, renamed Campinas , 10 May 1940 sunk off Drogden near Copenhagen after being hit by a mine. |
| .1921 .1922 |
Franconian Forest (II) | 5062 BRT 8735 tdw |
No. 36 | Accumulated on the Sognefjord on January 6, 1940 . |
| .1922 .03.1923 |
Wasgenwald (II) | 4990 BRT 8710 dw |
No. 41 | Confiscated in Sabang in 1940 , when Sembilangan was in Dutch service, sunk by U 107 on March 13, 1943 |
| .1922 .1923 |
Idarwald | 5033 BRT 8681 tdw |
No. 42 | November 29, 1939 Tampico attempted a breakthrough home, made by HMS Diomede , set on fire in front of Cuba on December 8, 1939 and scuttled, the British who had come on board could no longer prevent this |
| .1922 .1923 |
Kellerwald | 5032 BRT 8681 tdw |
No. 43 | Sunk after being hit by a mine on April 14, 1942 on the way from Rotterdam to Norway near Heligoland |
| .1922 .1922 |
Black Forest (II) | 5055 BRT 8809 tdw |
No. 11 | Turbine ship, 1935 sold to H. Vogemann , renamed Rheingold , coming from Bahia on October 25, 1939 in the North Atlantic by HMS Delhi , scrapped only in 1963 |
| January 9, 1923 April 1, 1923 |
Odenwald (II) | 5098 BRT 8550 dw |
No. 8 | Real sister ship of the Spreewald , 1935–1938 service as Aswan , renamed, refuge in Japan in 1939, intercepted by the US Navy as a blockade breaker in 1941, canceled in 1949 |
In addition to the new buildings from the Deutsche Werft, Hapag also used two more forest ships between the world wars:
- the Sachsenwald (II) 1921–1931, 4588 BRT, bought from Denmark in 1920, built by Russell & Co. in 1910 as Earl of Forfar
- the Grunewald (II) 1926–1932, 3917 GRT, bought back from the USA, built at Bremer Vulkan in 1912 as Wasgenwald (I)
literature
- Roger Jordan: T he World's Merchant Fleets, 1939: The Particulars And Wartime Fates of 6,000 Ships , Naval Institute Press (2006),
Web links
- Spreewald - Ships hit by U-boats - uboat.net
- Blockade breakers 1941–1943 under the direction of the Marine Special Service on the route between Japan and Europe
- Italian site about blockade breakers with a picture of the Spreewald
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Michael Gannon: Operation Paukenschlag The German U-Boat War against the USA , Bechtermünz Verlag under license from Ullstein Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3 86047 905 9 , page 301 - page 302