ZH 1
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The destroyer ZH 1 was the former Dutch destroyer Gerard Callenburgh of the Isaac Sweers class , which was captured and put into service by the German Navy during World War II .
history
The destroyer was commissioned in 1937, when on October 12, 1938 Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij in Rotterdam on down Kiel and ran exactly one year later on 12 October 1939 by the stack . It was captured by the German Wehrmacht during the attack on the Netherlands in May 1940 at the manufacturer's shipyard. The ship was still in the equipment and was sunk on May 15, 1940 in the shipyard.
In July 1940 the ship was lifted and stayed in Rotterdam for further construction. It was finished there. The commissioning, which was planned for March 4, 1942, had to be postponed due to an acute shortage of NCOs . The destroyer was only put into service as ZH 1 on October 5, 1942 . The "Z" stood for "destroyer", the "H" for "Holland". The ship retained the original main armament of five British 4.7-inch guns (two 4.7-inch QF Mark XII twins and one 4.7-inch QF Mark IX).
ZH 1 left Rotterdam on October 25, 1942 and arrived in Hamburg the next day. At Blohm & Voss , the acceptance took place before the boat moved to the Baltic Sea a few days later . In mid-January it returned to Hamburg, where it was in the shipyard at Blohm & Voss until the end of March. On April 11, 1943, it collided with the Danish steamer Douro near Gedser , which sank. In June 1943, ZH 1 returned to Blohm & Voss in Hamburg to carry out the remaining work. At the end of August 1943 the destroyer ran to Swinoujscie , and in mid-October it was ready for action again.
The destroyer initially served as a test ship in the Baltic Sea , but was then assigned to the 5th destroyer flotilla in December 1942 after the loss of Z 16 Friedrich Eckoldt . In 1943 the boat came to the 8th destroyer flotilla , which operated in the Bay of Biscay and off the French west coast. On October 31, 1943, the relocation from Kiel to Bordeaux began together with Z 27 . After repelling attacks by English motor torpedo boats several times on their journey, they arrived in the Gironde estuary on November 5, 1943.
When the blockade breaker Osorno was hauled in , ZH 1 remained lying in the middle of the Bay of Biscay with a completely saline propulsion system and had to be towed into the Gironde by the T 25 torpedo boat . The repairs in Bordeaux lasted until February 1944. This was followed by several escort duties, training and safety trips.
When attempting to attack the Allied invasion fleet off the Normandy coast from Brest together with the destroyers Z 24 , Z 32 and the torpedo boat T 24 , a battle occurred on the morning of June 9, 1944 in the English Channel near the Île de Batz the British 10th destroyer flotilla consisting of four British ( Tartar , Ashanti , Eskimo , Javelin ), two Canadian ( Haida , Huron ) and two Polish ( Blyskawica , Piorun ) destroyers. It was ZH 1 by numerous artillery hits and one torpedo hit by the Tartar on fire and unable to move. Another torpedo hit by the Ashanti finally sealed the doom. 39 men fell from the crew, and several were taken prisoner by the British.
Z 32 was so badly damaged that it was grounded and blown up by its crew near the Île de Batz . Z 24 received several hits from artillery, killing several crew members, then broke off the battle and ran back to Brest with T 24 .
commander
- October 5, 1942 to June 9, 1944 Corvette Captain Klaus Barckow
literature
- Heinz Ciupa: The German warships 1939-1945. Moewig Verlag, Rastatt, 1988, ISBN 3-8118-1409-5 (documentation on the history of wars).
- Wolfgang Harnack: Destroyer under the German flag. 1934 to 1945 , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1978, 2nd edition 1994, ISBN 3-7822-0616 9 .
Web links
- Nederlandse oorlogsschepen voor de Kriegsmarine: Destroyer ZH 1 (ex Gerard Callenburgh) (Dutch)
- Gerard Callenburgh-class
- ZH 1 destroyer
Remarks
- ↑ Named after the Dutch admiral Gerard Callenburgh (1642–1722).