Tannenberg (ship)

Tannenberg

Ship data Ship type Passenger ship from 1939 auxiliary mine ship Shipyard Oderwerke , Stettin Build number 780 Launch March 16, 1935 Commissioning August 12, 1935 Whereabouts Sunk in 1941

Ship dimensions and crew length 129.50 m ( Lüa ) width 15.50 m Draft Max. 7.40 m measurement 5504 GRT   crew Passenger ship: ?? Man Military Ship: 114 man

Machine system machine 2 × steam turbines from Schichau-Werke , Elbing Machine performance 12,000 PS (8,826 kW) Top speed 20.0 kn (37 km / h) propeller 2 × fixed propellers

Transport capacities Permitted number of passengers 2000

Others Classifications Germanic Lloyd

Armament 3 × cannon 150 mm 4 × anti-aircraft guns 37 mm 6 × automatic cannon 20 mm about 460 sea ​​mines

The Tannenberg was a German passenger and car ferry that operated in the Baltic Sea to East Prussia from 1935 to 1939 and was requisitioned by the Navy and used as a mine ship during World War II .

Sea service East Prussia

Front view of the Tannenberg in the 1930s

This from the Szczecin Oderwerke for the Ministry of Transportation built turbine boat ran on 16 March 1935 by the stack . The ship was christened by the then twelve-year-old Gertrud von Hindenburg, granddaughter of Field Marshal and Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, who had died the year before . It was the third larger newbuilding that was put into service for the East Prussian Sea Service and, with a top speed of 20 knots, the fastest ship on the line. The home port was Szczecin , HAPAG acted as correspondent shipping company .

The Tannenberg drove from Schleswig-Holstein , Mecklenburg and Pomerania to East Prussia from 1935 to 1939 as part of the East Prussian sea service . The main route ran from Travemünde via Warnemünde , Binz and Swinemünde to Sopot , Pillau and Memel . If necessary, Kiel was also called . The ship was set up to carry 2,000 passengers and around 100 passenger cars . The vehicle space was also used to accommodate young people on camp beds who wanted to arouse interest in the navy , among other things during trips to the naval base in Kiel .

Mine ship

Mining ship Tannenberg (left) in the Baltic Sea, 1940

On September 2, 1939, the ship that had been planned for war was captured by the Navy and converted into a mine ship. In August 1940 it was used as the flagship of the mining ships. In the North Sea, the Tannenberg was involved in laying the mine barriers "SW2", "SW3" (1940) and "Pommern" (1941). In June 1941 she was used with other ships at the mine barrier "Apolda" in the Baltic Sea.

On 9 July 1941 the ship ran together with the mine ships Prussia and Hanseatic City of Danzig east of the southern tip of Öland to a Swedish minefield and sank at 56 ° 15 '5 "  N , 16 ° 43' 5"  O . The Prussia and the Hanseatic city of Gdansk were lost in the same minefield.

In 1952 the wreck was found by the Swedish salvage company Intermarin . The stern and the bow, which was 30 meters deep, had been torn off the hull. The wreck was later lifted and then scrapped.

literature

• Claus Rothe: German seaside ships. 1830 to 1939 (= library of ship types. ). transpress publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-344-00393-3 , pp. 146-147.

Web links

• Mine-layer Tannenberg (photos)
• Tannenberg Mine Layers 1939–1941 (English)
• schiffe-maxim.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The UfA Tonwoche no. 237, March 20, 1935 began with a 45-second report and the on-screen text message , the granddaughter of the victor of Tannenberg [...] renamed Szczecin the new East Prussia ship "Tannenberg". Film  - Internet Archive
2. ↑ The ship can be seen briefly in this driving school instructional film as it is in the port of Kiel in 1938 (4: 00–4: 04 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xySKClQ8HtE
3. ^ Downfall of a miners' association on July 9, 1941