Z 13 Erich Koellner

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Z 13 Erich Koellner
The sister boat Hans Lody, 1939
The sister boat Hans Lody , 1939
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) German Empire
Ship type destroyer
class Destroyer 1934A
Shipyard Germania shipyard , Kiel
Build number 536
Launch March 18, 1937
Commissioning August 28, 1939
Whereabouts Sunk April 13, 1940
Ship dimensions and crew
length
119.0 m ( Lüa )
116.3 m ( KWL )
width 11.3 m
Draft Max. 4.23 m
displacement 3190  t
 
crew 325 men
Machine system
machine 6 Benson kettles

2 sets of Blohm & Voss steam turbines

Machine
performance 		70,000 PS (51,485 kW)
Top
speed 		36 kn (67 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

Z 13 Erich Koellner was a class 1934 A destroyer of the German Navy . The heavily damaged boat was blown up by its own crew off Narvik .

The destroyer was named after the captainleutnant Erich Koellner of the Imperial Navy , who died on April 20, 1918 as head of the 8th minesweeping semi-flotilla when his guide boat M 64 went down in the North Sea .

Building history

The Erich Koellner was one of a total of twelve boats of the 1934 A type ordered in January 1935 and had a length of 119 m over all and 116 m in the waterline. She was up to 11.3 m wide and had a maximum draft of 4.23 m. The standard displacement was 2260 t and of 3190 t with full equipment. The Blohm & Voss turbines had a maximum output of 70,000 hp, which gave the boat a top speed of 36 knots (kn) . The steam generation for the turbines took place in six high-pressure boilers from the Benson system . Like the other boats in the class, she could hold up to 752 t of fuel, which should give her a range of 4400 nautical miles (nm) at 19 knots. But the boats of the class turned out to be top-heavy in service, and 30% of the fuel had to go unused to serve as necessary ballast . This reduced the usable range to 1825 nm at 19 kn.

The Erich Koellner was armed with five 12.7 cm type C / 34 guns in stand-alone configuration with protective shields, two of which were arranged one above the other on the forecastle and on the stern. The fifth gun was on the aft deckhouse. The anti- aircraft armament consisted of four 3.7 cm Flak C / 30 in twin mounts next to the rear funnel and six 2 cm Flak C / 30 in single mounts. The torpedo armament consisted of eight 53.3 cm torpedo tubes in two pivoting sets of four. Four depth charges stood by the aft deckhouse. There were also six mounts for depth charges in the stern area. This allowed the destroyer to throw volleys of up to 16 depth charges. The stock of depth charges could be up to 64. In addition, the boat had rails on the rear deck for the transport of up to 60 mines .

The keel of the boat was laid on October 12, 1935 at the Germania shipyard in Kiel with hull number 539. The Erich Koellner was christened and launched on October 12, 1937, but it was not until August 28, 1939 that she entered service as the last boat of the class posed. Its first and only commander was Korvettenkapitän Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs (1899–1972), later as a sea ​​captain from March 1945 in command of the Narvik naval defense .

Mission history

The Erich Koellner was assigned to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla when it was commissioned, but was not actually available until the end of the year after test drives. Their first use took place on 11/12. January 1940 under the flotilla chief, frigate captain Erich Bey , with the sister boats Bruno Heinemann and Wolfgang Zenker in front of Cromer . On the down therein minefields three ships were a total of 11,153 GRT lost. The second use on 17./18. January had to be canceled due to storms and heavy seas. The strong ice drift in the German Bight only allowed on 9/10. February another assignment in the same area with the Haisborough Sands . Three ships with 11,885 GRT were also lost on the 157 mines laid there. On 19./20. In February, the boat was one of the security forces who picked up the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst , which had returned from an unsuccessful advance in the North Sea.

On 22./23. In February 1940 the Erich Koellner joined the FdZ , Commodore Bonte , and five other destroyers at the Wikinger company against British fish steamers in the North Sea. A Heinkel He 111 of the II./ KG 26 erroneously attacked the outgoing destroyer and scored three bomb hits on the Leberecht Maass . During evasive maneuvers, the Leberecht Maass and the Max Schultz then got into a British mine lock and sank after being hit by mines. The Erich Koellner ran to the wreck of the Leberecht Maass to take over shipwrecked people. Since a submarine attack was suspected, the Erich Koellner picked up speed again; in the process, a lifeboat tied to the port screw protection capsized with the shipwrecked people in it, all of whom fell into the sea and drowned. When the Erich Koellner arrived at the wreck of the Max Schultz , there was another submarine alarm, whereupon the destroyer ran towards the supposed submarine. The Erich Koellner was able to save 24 castaways and lost a man in the rescue maneuvers. Altogether only 60 men of Leberecht Maass could be saved, while nobody survived the sinking of Max Schultz . A total of 578 men lost their lives.

For the occupation of Norway , the Erich Koellner was assigned to Warship Group 1, which was to transport the Mountain Infantry Regiment 139 and the staff of the 3rd Mountain Division under Major General Dietl to the occupation of the Norwegian ore port of Narvik in the north of Norway. The group, under the command of Commodore Bonte, consisted of ten destroyers: in addition to the Erich Koellner , Wilhelm Heidkamp , Hermann Künne , Hans Lüdemann , Diether von Roeder , Anton Schmitt , Bernd von Arnim , Erich Giese , Georg Thiele and Wolfgang Zenker . All ten were lost in the battle for Narvik .

The end at Narvik

British map of the Ofotfjord with the location of the shipwrecks

The destroyers took over the army from April 6th and left for Norway on April 7th. The Erich Koellner suffered, like most destroyers, go heavy storm damage. One man went overboard and two others were seriously injured. When the destroyers reached the entrance of the Ofotfjord west of Narvik in the early morning of April 9, the three destroyers of the 4th Flotilla under frigate captain Erich Bey received the order to land their troops at the end of the Herjangsfjord, a northern branch of the Ofotfjord, from where they were to occupy the material depot of the Norwegian Army in Elvegårdsmoen . The German troops encountered little resistance, but the discharge was very slow as there was only a small wooden pier available. In addition, the Erich Koellner ran aground in the early morning and could only be removed again after 8½ hours with the help of Erich Giese . She had to give up her job as a guard boat in the Ofotfjord after a short time because she was not fully operational. She ran to Narvik for repairs and refueling. Wolfgang Zenker and Erich Giese were there in the meantime . Of the three boats, only the Wolfgang Zenker from the Jan Wellem , which had arrived before the destroyers, could be refueled on April 9 , as they were supposed to move into the Herjangsfjord station again before dawn.

The flotilla leader HMS Hardy

In the early morning of April 10, the five destroyers of the British 2nd Destroyer Flotilla surprised the Germans in Narvik, because the releasing of the boats used in the guard duty at the entrance of the Ofotfjord had not been carried out properly. The British torpedoed two ( Wilhelm Heidkamp , Anton Schmitt ) of the remaining German destroyers and damaged the other three without suffering any serious damage themselves. When the British withdrew, they were attacked by the destroyers Georg Thiele and Bernd von Arnim approaching from Ballangen , who put the Hunter out of action, which sank after a collision with the Hotspur . Then the three destroyers of the 4th Flotilla, who had been alerted, also intervened. The artillery fire on both sides was ineffective, as the poor visibility was intensified by snow showers and smoke curtains brought out by the British. The Erich Giese and Erich Koellner also had hardly any fuel and all three soon hardly ammunition. Frigate Captain Bey therefore decided not to pursue him. At least the British lost another boat with the Hardy . However, the three remaining British boats discovered the Rauenfels running into the fjord , which sat on a rock to avoid being captured. The heavy weapons of the German attackers and supplies were lost. The explosion of part of the Rauenfels ammunition in Narvik gave the impression that another British destroyer might have exploded while retreating.

Bey, who had taken command of the destroyers from Bonte who had fallen on the Wilhelm Heidkamp , was asked again in the afternoon to return to Germany with the seaworthy boats as planned. He ran out in the evening with Erich Giese, who had now been refueled, and Wolfgang Zenker , but broke off the eruption after less than two hours near the island of Barö , as enemy naval forces were discovered in front of them, probably the cruiser Penelope with two destroyers.

The Erich Köllner was not one of the operational destroyers on the evening of April 10, as it was neither refueled nor repaired. Believed to be operational on April 11, the boat was sent to the entrance of the Ofotfjord as a guard boat. Around midnight it ran again and afterwards made a lot of water, but was able to run back to Narvik. As a repair in Narvik was not possible with the available funds, it was decided to move the boat to Tårstad near the entrance to the Ofotfjord at Ramnes as a floating battery. Since the water at Tårstad was too shallow to use torpedoes, the Erich Koellner gave them and the bulk of their fuel to the Bernd von Arnim and other boats. 90 men of the crew were also given ashore because they were not needed on board.

Early in the morning of April 13, the Royal Navy launched a major attack earlier than expected with the battleship HMS  Warspite and nine destroyers. Again the Germans were surprised. The Erich Koellner had not yet reached Tårstad and her commander Schulze-Hinrichs decided to anchor at Djupvik on the south side of the fjord. When the British ships met them, they were already warned by the Warspite's aircraft , a Fairey Swordfish floatplane. The Erich Koellner opened fire, but the leading British destroyers of the Tribal class returned this with all their weapons at a short range of 2500 m. The Erich Koellner was also hit on the bow with a torpedo. To do this, the Warspite fired some 38 cm shells, which penetrated the destroyer smoothly without exploding.

31 crew members died in the fire, and another 34 were seriously injured. The commander gave the order to evacuate and sink the ship. The explosion of its own depth charges destroyed the Erich Koellner at position 68 ° 24 ′ 30 ″  N , 16 ° 47 ′ 0 ″  E, Coordinates: 68 ° 24 ′ 30 ″  N , 16 ° 47 ′ 0 ″  E , which was not hit before could bring their destruction to the goal. 155 men, including the commanding officer, were captured by the Norwegians and remained in captivity until their surrender. Some of the 90 men previously brought ashore managed to escape, together with German mountain troops, over the snow-covered mountains to Swedish Lapland , 30 km away , while they were being shot at by Norwegian snipers. While the mountain troops wore white camouflage suits, the navy men in their dark blue uniforms offered easily recognizable targets. After their internment in neutral Sweden, they were taken to southern Sweden in railroad cars with blinds for the windows, where they were able to cross over from Malmö to German-occupied Danish Copenhagen and from there returned home. The wreck of the Erich Koellner was removed in 1963.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Whitley 1983, p. 26
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Hildebrand: Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe , Vol. 2, p. 80
  3. ^ Whitley 1983, p. 23
  4. ^ Whitley 1983, p. 299
  5. ↑ Hildebrand, Vol. 3, p. 66
  6. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg 1939–1945 , p. 30
  7. ^ Whitley, p. 92
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Hildebrand, vol. 2, p. 81
  9. ↑ Rohwer, p. 31
  10. ↑ Hervieux, p. 114
  11. ↑ a b Rohwer, p. 32
  12. ↑ Rohwer, p. 35
  13. ^ Whitley, p. 96
  14. ↑ Haarr, pp. 323, 332, 335
  15. ↑ Haarr, p. 354ff.

literature

  • Fritz Otto Busch: Narvik - From the heroic struggle of German destroyers , C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh 1940
  • August Wilhelm Heye: Z 13 from Kiel to Narvik , Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1941
  • Gerd Böttger: Narvik in the picture , Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg i. O. + Berlin 1941
  • Geirr H. Haarr: The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940 , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2009, ISBN 978-1-59114-310-9
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung [arr.]: The ships of the German Navy and Air Force 1939–1945 and their whereabouts. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2000 (9th, revised and expanded edition), ISBN 978-3-7637-6215-6 .
  • Hans H. Hildebrand / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford,
  • Wolfgang Harnack: Destroyers under the German flag: 1934 to 1945. Koehler, Hamburg 1997 (3rd, revised edition), ISBN 3-7822-0698-3 .
  • Volkmar Kühn: Torpedo boats and destroyers in action 1939–1945. The fight and destruction of a weapon. Flechsig, Würzburg 2006 (6th, ext. A. special edition), ISBN 978-3-88189-637-5 .
  • Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939-1945 , Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-009-7
  • Mike J. Whitley: Destroyers in World War II: Technique - Class - Types. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 978-3-613-01426-8 .

Web links

Commons : Destroyer 1934  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files