West Prussia (ship, 1940)
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The West Prussia was built in 1940 as a fishing steamer for the company Nordsee Deutsche Hochseefischerei and was named after the former Prussian province of West Prussia . After her service as an auxiliary minesweeper M 1108 and submarine UJ 1709 , she was used again in fishing by her former shipping company until she was scrapped in 1960.
Construction and technical data
For the North German sea fishing boat as an additional 14 sister ships of the type Gauleiter Bürkel on the Seebeck Shipyard in Wesermünde to put Kiel . The boat was given hull number 655 and was launched on April 16, 1940 as West Prussia . The delivery to the shipping company took place in July 1940; the boat received the Geestemünder fishing license plate PG 459.
Its length was 54.95 meters, it was 8.26 meters wide and had a draft of 4.19 meters. Their tonnage was 1140 tons or 487 GRT . The drive consisted of a triple expansion machine with a downstream exhaust steam turbine . She achieved 750 hp, acted on one screw and brought the ship to 12.3 knots. At 12 knots cruising speed, she had a range of 7,000 nautical miles with 260 tons of coal. In the Navy it had a crew of 54 to 63 officers and men. As armament, it initially carried an 88 mm gun and two individual 20 mm flak. During the war, the armament was reinforced from mid-1942 by 37-mm anti-aircraft guns and in the spring of 1944 by a 20-mm anti-aircraft quadruple and rocket launchers for wire rope missiles.
history
Immediately after its completion, the West Prussia was requested by the Navy .
Auxiliary minesweeper
The ship was used by the Navy after the sinking of the fishing cutter Dr. Eichelbaum ( M 1108 ) to replace this ship. Auxiliary minesweeper M 1108 with a second crew.
The ship was assigned to the 11th Minesweeping Flotilla, newly founded in September 1939, on October 10, 1940, and took over the identification M 1108 . This flotilla had been in security service off the Norwegian west coast from April 1940 and remained there until it was disbanded in 1942. Details about the missions of M 1108 and the flotilla are not available in the literature.
When the flotilla was disbanded in August 1942, the crews took over type 40 minesweepers and formed the newly founded 23rd minesweeper flotilla. The boats M 1108 and M 1106 (ex Roland ) were transferred to the 17th Ujagdflotilla as a replacement for losses.
Submarine
In the 17th Ujagdflotille, the two auxiliary minerships formed the replacement for the sunken UJager UJ 1708 and UJ 1709. The former UJ 1709 was the former fishing vessel Carl Kämpf with around 600 GRT, which on October 14, 1941 at Lista by a British aircraft was sunk.
This number was newly occupied when the West Prussia was converted by the auxiliary minesweeper into a submarine and was given the designation UJ 1709 ². After being assigned to the flotilla in August 1942, the two replacement boats were first retrofitted in a Norwegian shipyard for their new role as submarine hunters. In particular, they needed new listening and underwater location technology as well as reinforced weapons equipment. In view of the tense shipyard and material situation, it took several weeks for the retrofitting to be completed and for UJ 1709 to be put into service on December 23, 1942.
The boat stayed in Norway throughout the rest of the war and was stationed in Stavanger . The main tasks were the escort of supplies, but also mine ships or submarines along the Norwegian coast as well as submarine patrols - especially on the Stadlandet peninsula, where the ships had to temporarily leave the safe passage in the archipelago and round the peninsula. During the escort, air strikes, but also submarine attacks, were repulsed again and again. The guard had to prevent the attackers from targeted attacks and to draw fire on them. Over the entire duration of the war, participation in the sinking of an enemy ship is not verifiable in the literature, but neither is there any major damage to the enemy.
Use after the war
After the Second World War , the American occupation forces confiscated the ship on July 17, 1947. After it was dismantled to a fishing vessel, the former shipping company, Nordsee Deutsche Hochseefischerei, was able to use West Prussia again under its old name and the new fishing license plate BX-400. The final return took place with the return agreement in 1954. After a few years in fishing, the shipping company sold the ship on July 27, 1960 to the "Eisen und Metall" scrapping yard in Hamburg-Altenwerder .
Special
In 1959 the West Prussia was used as an outpost boat in the film " Night fell over Gotenhafen " based on the script by Frank Wisbar .
literature
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . Volume 8/1: River vehicles, Ujäger, outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations (part 1). Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-7637-4807-5 .
- Hans Kohl: Fish steamers and whaling boats in the war. The 17th U-Fighter Flotilla off Norway . Mittler, Hamburg / Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8132-0790-0 .
Web links
- Photo of West Prussia . In: wlb-stuttgart.de. Retrieved September 27, 2017 .
- Dieter Kokot: Frank Wisbar, the sinking of the “Wilhelm Gustloff” - and the “West Prussians”. In: The West Prussian - Our Danzig . January 2017, p. 15 , accessed September 27, 2017 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gröner, p. 205, Kohl, among others p. 41, p. 50, p. 77, p. 101
- ↑ Minestryger M1108 - Dr. Acorn tree : M 1108. In: vragguiden.dk. Retrieved September 18, 2017 (Danish).
- ↑ M-1108 (ex Dr. Eichelbaum) (+1940). In: wrecksite.eu. Retrieved September 18, 2017 .
- ^ Minesweeping Flotillas 11-19. 11th minesweeping flotilla (1): M 1108. Württemberg State Library, accessed on September 18, 2017 .
- ↑ Kohl, p. 53, Gröner, p. 214, http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mboote/m11-19.htm
- ↑ UJ 1709. In: graptolite.net. Retrieved September 27, 2017 (Polish).
- ↑ Omtalte forlis - Skipsforlis rounds Jæren. In: skipsforlis.no. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017 ; Retrieved May 23, 2019 (Norwegian).
- ↑ UJ-1709 (Carl Kämpf). In: wrecksite.eu. Retrieved September 27, 2017 (English).
- ↑ Kohl, p. 43
- ↑ Kohl, p. 53 f., Http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/ujaeger/uj11-17.htm
- ↑ Kohl, p. 70, p. 84 f.
- ↑ Harald Fock: Fleet Chronicle. The active warships involved in both world wars and their whereabouts . Revised and expanded version. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0788-2 , pp. 216 – p. 269. Kohl, pp. 53-106
- ↑ Gröner, p. 214
- ↑ Pictures. In: shipsnostalgia.com. Retrieved November 5, 2017 .
- ↑ United States Treaties and Other International Agreements . Volume 4/2. 1953, United States Government Printing Office, Washington 1955, p. 2830 ( limited preview in Google Book search)