Z 16 Friedrich Eckoldt

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Z 16 Friedrich Eckoldt
Painting of the sinking of Friedrich Eckoldt
Painting of the sinking of Friedrich Eckoldt
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) German Empire
Ship type destroyer
class Destroyer 1934 A
Shipyard Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Build number 505
Launch March 21, 1937
Commissioning July 28, 1938
Whereabouts Sunk December 31, 1942
Ship dimensions and crew
length
121.0 m ( Lüa )
116.3 m ( KWL )
width 11.3 m
Draft Max. 4.23 m
displacement 3415  t
 
crew 323 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 16 Friedrich Eckoldt was a class 1934 A destroyer of the German Navy . The destroyer was lost in the Second World War on December 31, 1942 in the North Sea in action with British naval forces.

The destroyer was named after Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Eckoldt , the commander of the torpedo boat V 48 , which went down with his boat in the Battle of Skagerrak on May 31, 1916 .

Building history

The Friedrich Eckoldt was a destroyer of the 1934 A type ordered at the beginning of 1935 and had a length of 121 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 2239 t and of 3165 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. 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 tons of fuel oil, which should give her a range of 4400 nautical miles at 19  knots (kn). But the boats of the class turned out to be top-heavy in service and 30% of the fuel remained unused to serve as necessary ballast. This reduced the usable range to 1825 nm at 19 kn.

The Friedrich Eckoldt 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 at the front and rear. 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 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 laying of the boat ordered in January 1935 with a total of twelve boats of class 1934 A took place on November 14, 1935 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg with hull number 505 as the last of the boats of class 1934 A to be delivered by this shipyard after Friedrich Ihn and Erich Steinbrinck . The christening and launching of the Friedrich Eckoldt took place on March 21, 1937 and on August 2, 1938 she was put into service as the eighth boat of the class, as the Germania shipyard was only able to complete one boat.

Mission history

The Friedrich Eckoldt was assigned to the 3rd Destroyer Division in August 1938. The new boat took part in the parade in honor of Hitler and Horthy in August 1938 on the occasion of the launch of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and was assigned to the newly formed 1st Destroyer Flotilla in autumn 1938 .

On 23/24 March 1939 the destroyer was used in the repossession of the Memelland and was then from April 18 to May 16 on the naval voyage in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean with the three armored ships Admiral Graf Spee , Germany and Admiral Scheer and the light cruisers Leipzig and Cologne as well as other destroyers and submarines involved.

War effort

When the war began, the Friedrich Eckoldt was one of the units deployed in the Baltic Sea. From September 5, 1939, she was involved with other destroyers and torpedo boats in the deployment of the so-called Westwall mine barriers in the North Sea. On October 8-10, she was involved in the advance to the level of the Norwegian coast with the battleship Gneisenau , the cruiser Köln and eight other destroyers. The 4th Destroyer Flotilla under its boss, Frigate Captain Bey on the Bruno Heinemann , tried several times in November to wage a trade war with the Erich Steinbrinck and the Friedrich Eckoldt in the Skagerrak and Kattegat , but could not find any ships of the war opponents. Previously, the Friedrich Eckoldt was already on 17./18. October involved in an offensive mining company of the German destroyers when they laid a minefield in front of the Humber estuary with five other destroyers under the command of the FdT , Rear Admiral Lütjens . Further mining companies followed on 18/19. November again against the mouth of the Humber with the 4th destroyer flotilla under Fkpt. Bey, whose ban on the Polish motor ship Piłsudski (14,294 GRT) was fatal, on 6/7. January 1940 with the 1st Destroyer Flotilla under FKpt. Berger against the Thames estuary, where the British destroyer Grenville was lost, on 10/11. January under the FdZ , ( Commodore Bonte ) with six boats against Newcastle and on 9/10. February under FKpt. Berger as a flotilla boat with Richard Beitzen and Max Schultz against Harwich.

On 22./23. In February 1940 the Friedrich Eckoldt was a flotilla of the 1st destroyer flotilla under FKpt. Berger in the association of the FdZ (Commodore Bonte ) with five other destroyers at the company Wikinger against British fish steamers in the North Sea. He 111 of II./ KG 26 erroneously attacked the marching destroyers 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. Only 60 men from Leberecht Maass could be saved (19 by Friedrich Eckoldt ), none of them survived the sinking of Max Schultz . A total of 578 crew members lost their lives.

At the Weser Exercise company , Friedrich Eckoldt , who was assigned as a reserve boat , formed warship group 2, which occupied Trondheim , with the destroyers Paul Jacobi , Theodor Riedel and Bruno Heinemann as well as the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper as a replacement for Hermann Schoemann , who had failed at the last moment . Like all the boats in the group, she suffered considerable sea damage on the way to Trondheim. After they had deposited the embarked troops, the insufficient fuel supply due to the loss of the large ships of the tanker squadron (especially the Stedingen ), the sea conditions and the condition of the boats did not allow the planned retreat of the four destroyers, so that on the 10th only the cruiser and the Friedrich Eckoldt left the Norwegian port again. However, the destroyer was sent back after leaving the coastal waters because it could not maintain the cruiser's speed in the weather and sea conditions. After the arrival of the supplier Levante , the Bruno Heinemann and the Friedrich Eckoldt were able to march back on April 14th and returned to Wilhelmshaven on the 16th.

In the course of the reorganization of the destroyer associations after the losses in Norway, Friedrich Eckoldt was assigned to the 5th destroyer flotilla. Her commander, Frigate Captain Schemmel, ran the business of the flotilla chief and at times also that of the destroyer’s leader until August.

After a layover in the shipyard and installation of a radio measuring device, the boat moved to Le Havre and Cherbourg with the Karl Galster , the Theodor Riedel and the Friedrich Ihn under the leadership of the new FdZ, Captain zur See Bey on the Hans Lody . She took part in various activities, so on 28/29. September as a cover group with Theodor Riedel for a mining operation carried out by the FdZ with five other destroyers against Falmouth Bay .

After minor damage from air raids in Cherbourg on September 18, the Friedrich Eckoldt suffered more severe damage from an air raid in Brest on the night of October 10, 1940 by Fairey Swordfish of No. 812 Squadron's Fleet Air Arm . One fallen and three wounded were to be mourned. On November 5th, the boat started the march back to be overtaken again in the shipyard by the end of the year.

After the first test drives in the Baltic Sea, the boat was then in Świnoujście to serve as a backup for the planned Rhine exercise company . It joined on May 19, 1941. complaints with Z 23 the expiring into the Atlantic battleship Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen on, of which the three escort destroyers were on May 22 northwest of Trondheim dismissed, including from the Great Belt yet Hans Lody belonged. The Friedrich Eckoldt went to Wilhelmshaven.

In June, the destroyer was part of the escort of the heavy cruiser Lützow , which was supposed to break out from Kiel via Norway into the Atlantic. The unit was discovered by British aerial reconnaissance, and on June 13, a Bristol Beaufort managed to attack the German units by surprise at the heights of Egersund and hit the Lützow with a torpedo. The drive on the cruiser failed and the Friedrich Eckoldt towed the cruiser for a while until the Lützow was able to restart her starboard engine and continue running on its own. The association returned to Kiel.

On June 20, the Friedrich Eckoldt moved with the Hermann Schoemann and the Karl Galster to Bergen , where they stayed until July 4, as the main fuel pump on the Hermann Schoemann had to be repaired and one waited for the Richard Beitzen and the Hans Lody . The five destroyers then continued their march north and reached their planned new base at Kirkenes on July 10th. On the 12th, they set sail for the first time to search for Allied shipping, but were not able to discover a small Soviet convoy until the following night, of which only two ships could be sunk with almost complete ammunition consumption. On the march back, the destroyers were attacked from the air and the Friedrich Eckoldt was shot down. Another advance on July 22nd only resulted in the sinking of a Soviet ship. Again the boats had to repel air attacks. When the British aircraft carriers Victorious and Furious attacked Petsamo and Kirkenes on July 29, the German destroyers were too far to the east to attack the carriers.

The destroyers made yet another attack on Kola Bay and sank a guard ship. During this advance the Friedrich Eckoldt received a bomb hit that damaged the rudder and starboard engines. After an emergency repair, the destroyer was ordered to Narvik for more thorough repairs . The boat remained in northern Norway until it collided with a Norwegian freighter on October 12, 1941 in Tromsø . After a preliminary repair in the Trondheim floating dock from October 22nd, the boat was sent to Kiel for extensive repairs, where it arrived on November 9th. During her stay in the shipyard, the Friedrich Eckoldt, like all surviving boats from the Blohm & Voss and Germania shipyards originally powered by Blohm & Voss turbines, received new turbines manufactured by the Germania shipyard with a somewhat lower output of 67,000 hp. The equipment with light anti-aircraft guns now consisted of a 2 cm Flakvierling and seven individual guns of the model 38.

The Friedrich Eckoldt finished the overhaul on April 15, 1942 and tried to move back to Norway for the first time on June 11, together with the Karl Galster and the Theodor Riedel , but was forced to stay at the shipyard again due to drive problems. It was not until July 9 that she arrived in Trondheim with the light cruiser Cologne ; they had reinforced the German minefields to protect the Skagerrak access during the relocation march. On July 18, the destroyer reached Narvik. For a short time it served the FdZ as a command boat and from July 22nd was then the flotilla leader of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla. Together with the Richard Beitzen and the Erich Steinbrinck , the destroyer secured on 17/18. August the departure of Admiral Scheer for their company Wunderland against Soviet shipping in the Kara Sea, almost to Bear Island . Then the destroyers accompanied the mineship Ulm about the same route that was supposed to lay a minefield northwest of Novaya Zemlya . The Ulm was soon after the retreat of the German destroyers of three British destroyers ( HMS Marne , HMS Martin and HMS Onslaught provided) and sunk, while the German destroyers from 29 to 31 August, returning from the Kara Sea, almost unsuccessfully remained Admiral Scheer and escort them safely to Narvik.

On September 10th, the Friedrich Eckoldt was one of the units of the Kriegsmarine planned for an attack on the convoy PQ 18 , but this was not carried out with surface forces because the Admiral Scheer, the heaviest unit available, had machine problems and was expecting British battleships with the convoy were.

From October 13 to 15, the destroyers Friedrich Eckoldt , Richard Beitzen , Z 27 and Z 30 laid a minefield in front of the Kanin Peninsula at the entrance to the White Sea . On November 5, the same four destroyers with the Admiral Hipper tried to disrupt the now single-sea traffic from Great Britain and Iceland to the Soviet ports, but could not find a ship.

The end of Friedrich Eckoldt

On December 30, 1942, the Kriegsmarine and Operation Rainbow attacked the Allied convoy JW 51B in two combat groups, each consisting of one heavy cruiser and three destroyers. The Friedrich Eckoldt formed with the Beitzen Richard , Z 29 and the Hipper by the commander of the attack, Admiral Kummetz commanded group. According to the German plan of attack, the Hipper group was supposed to attract the security forces of the convoy, while the Lützow and the three other destroyers were supposed to concentrate on the destruction of the merchant ships. The destroyers of the Hipper group formed a search strip in front of the cruiser and discovered the convoy on the morning of the 31st, but were also spotted by the British destroyer Obdurate , on which they opened fire from 8,000 m away. The Obdurate turned off undamaged and the three German destroyers fell back on the Admiral Hipper as ordered . This had come across the minesweeper Bramble , who was looking for fallen ships, and had shot him. The destroyers were ordered to sink the enemy ship referred to as the corvette , while the cruiser continued towards the convoy to pull its security on itself.

The destroyers found the Bramble after a while , and the Friedrich Eckoldt sank the British boat, which sank with the entire crew. The Admiral Hipper had meanwhile reached the convoy and hit the destroyer Achates badly, whom the destroyers Onslow , Obdurate , Obedient and Orwell came to the aid of. When visibility was very poor, the cruisers HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica also reached the battlefield, which Admiral Hipper initially believed to be further destroyers. Friedrich Eckoldt , running back to Admiral Hipper , who knew nothing about British cruisers during the convoy, suddenly discovered the Sheffield at a distance of 4,000 m in front of her , which immediately took the destroyer under fire with all its artillery. The Friedrich Eckoldt fired no shot and sank to position 77 ° 19 '0 "  N , 30 ° 47' 0"  E Coordinates: 77 ° 19 '0 "  N , 30 ° 47' 0"  E with the entire crew and the Flotilla staff. All 341 men on board died. The boat was commanded by its first officer, Corvette Captain Günther Bachmann, as her commandant, Corvette Captain Lutz Gerstung, had died a few days earlier.

Commanders

Surname Period
Frigate Captain Alfred Schemmel August 2, 1938 to July 20, 1942
Corvette Captain Rudolf Quantity i. V. April / May and September / October 1941
Corvette Captain Lutz Gerstung August 19 to December 23, 1942 †
Corvette Captain Günther Bachmann i. V. 23–31 December 1942 †

literature

  • 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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Whitley 1983, p. 26
  2. ^ Whitley 1983, p. 23
  3. ^ Whitley 1983, p. 299
  4. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg, p. 12
  5. ↑ Rohwer, p. 13
  6. ↑ a b c d Hildebrand: The German warships , vol. 2, p. 117
  7. ↑ Rohwer, p. 20
  8. ^ Rohwer, p. 23
  9. ^ Rohwer, p. 29
  10. ↑ Rohwer, p. 30
  11. ↑ Rohwer, p. 32
  12. ↑ Rohwer, p. 35
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h Hildebrand: Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe , Vol. 2, p. 118
  14. ^ Rohwer, p. 76
  15. ^ Whitley, p. 107
  16. ^ Whitley, p. 123
  17. ^ Rohwer, p. 144
  18. ^ Rohwer, p. 148
  19. ^ Rohwer, p. 150
  20. ↑ Whitley, pp. 124 ff.
  21. ↑ a b Whitley, p. 142
  22. ^ Rohwer, p. 292
  23. ^ Rohwer, p. 298
  24. ↑ a b Whitley, p. 143