Z 19 Hermann Künne
 The sister boat Hans Lody , 1939
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Z 19 Hermann Künne was a class 1936 destroyer of the German Navy . The heavily damaged destroyer was blown up by its own crew off Narvik .
The destroyer was named after the sailor Hermann Künne from the torpedo boat S 53 of the Destroyer Flotilla Flanders, which fell while defending the pier at Zeebrugge on April 23, 1918 during the British attack on Zeebrugge and Ostend and whose personal engagement contributed significantly to the defense.
Building history
The Hermann Künne was a destroyer of the 1936 type ordered at the beginning of 1935. All six boats of the class were built at the AG Weser shipyard belonging to the Deschimag group . There were two slightly different groups; the first three boats, started in 1936, had a length of 123 m over all and 120 m in the waterline, were up to 11.8 m wide and had a maximum draft of 4.5 m. The three boats started at the end of 1937 / beginning of 1938 were given a slightly wider bow and were over 2 m longer overall. The standard displacement was 2411 t and 3415 t when fully equipped. The Deschimag geared turbines had a maximum output of 70,000 hp, which gave the boat a top speed of over 36 knots. The steam generation for the turbines took place in six high pressure boilers from the Wagner system. The new boats could hold a little less propellant oil with 739 tons, which gave them a range of 2050 nautical miles at 19 knots (kn). Although the negative experiences with the boats of the class 1934 were not yet available at the start of construction, a number of defects in the previous boats had been eliminated. The boats were more reliable on the drive side, less top-heavy due to lower superstructures and chimneys.
The armed Hermann Künne and her sisters with five 12.7cm guns in stand-alone installation and the two 3.7 cm anti-aircraft twin gun as their predecessors, only the six 2-cm anti-aircraft machine guns were and somewhat modified by the newer model 38 set up.
The keel of the third Hermann Künne boat was laid on October 5, 1936 about a month after the first two boats. When the boat was launched on December 22, 1937, the distance to the first boat, Diether von Roeder, had increased to four months and the keel of the first two boats in the second group had just been laid.
On January 12, 1939, the Hermann Künne was finally completed and had the longest construction time of a boat in its class.
At this point, ten boats from the previous 1934 A class had been delivered.
Its only commanding officer was Korvettenkapitän Friedrich Kothe (1901-1944), who fell as sea captain and chief of the 6th destroyer flotilla on December 12, 1944 on Z 35 in the Gulf of Finland .
Mission history
The Hermann Künne was assigned to the 5th Destroyer Division when it was commissioned. Their tests were interrupted in March 1939 to join the ship to the association for the integration of the Memel area . On June 30, she left Swinoujscie on a trip to Norway with Hans Lüdemann . The Moldefjord was visited and, after the arrival of the Diether von Roeder with the division chief Korvettenkapitän Hans Hartmann with the now complete division, the Loen and Sognefjord , before the three destroyers returned to Swinoujscie on July 20, 1939.
War missions
Your first war missions on 3rd / 4th and 5th / 6th September 1939 were mine laying operations with the Grille and the Karl Galster as part of the design of the Westwall mine barriers.
26.-30. September the Hermann Künne took part in the attempt of the FdT Rear Admiral Lütjens on Wilhelm Heidkamp with seven destroyers ( Bernd von Arnim , Erich Giese , Diether von Roeder , Hans Lüdemann , Karl Galster ) in the Skagerrak to wage a trade war.
On 17./18. In October, Künne was involved for the first time in an offensive mining company against the Humber estuary under the FdT on Wilhelm Heidkamp and with Karl Galster , Friedrich Eckholt , Diether von Roeder and Hans Lüdemann . Seven merchant ships later sank at the lock.
A mining operation planned for the night of November 10th was prematurely terminated due to failure of the Künne . On 12./13. November she took part in a mining company against the Thames estuary under the new FdZ Kommodore Bonte on the Wilhelm Heidkamp with Karl Galster , Hans Lüdemann , Erich Giese , Theodor Riedel and Hermann Schoemann , on which Riedel and Schoemann dropped out early due to technical defects and were secured Erich Giese were released. Later 13 merchant ships and the destroyer Blanche sank on the laid barrier . In order to guide the boats back, the four destroyers returning home met the light cruisers Nürnberg and Königsberg with six torpedo boats.
17./18. November the Hermann Künne was again involved in a mining company against the Thames estuary.
On December 1, the three boats of the 5th Destroyer Division and Karl Galster as well as the Anton Schmitt became the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla under frigate captain (FK) Hans-Joachim Gadow . On December 12, 1939, Hermann Künne became the flagship of the FdZ, Commodore Bonte, for the following mining company against Newcastle . It secured the mine-laying destroyers Erich Steinbrinck , Bruno Heinemann , Friedrich Ihn and Richard Beitzen . A fire broke out on the Heinemann while the mine was being laid, which forced it to stop for 90 minutes. The Steinbrinck stayed with the stopped boat as a backup while the others completed their tasks. The BdA, Rear Admiral Lütjens, was at sea with the cruisers Nuremberg , Leipzig and Cologne , from which the Leipzig was torpedoed by the British submarine Salmon before the return of the destroyers . Bonte released the only partially operational him and Steinbrinck directly to Wilhelmshaven, sent Beitzen and Heinemann to the wrecked Leipzig and strengthened the security of the BdA association with the Künne . Nevertheless, the British submarine Ursula managed to get a shot against the association. His torpedo fan, however, did not hit the Nürnberg , but the fleet companion F 9 , which exploded and sank. Another deployment as the flagship of the FdZ on December 17, 1939 had to be canceled due to damage to the propulsion system. The repair was combined with a routine lay time in the shipyard.
The docking time at the Stettiner Oderwerke lasted until March 14, 1940, followed by trials and training trips. On April 4, 1940, Hermann Künne arrived in Wesermünde for work in the Weser Exercise company.
The Narvik mission
For the occupation of Norway , the Hermann Künne 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 FdZ, Commodore Bonte, consisted of ten destroyers: in addition to Hermann Künne , Wilhelm Heidkamp , Hans Lüdemann , Diether von Roeder , Anton Schmitt , Bernd von Arnim , Erich Giese , Erich Koellner , Georg Thiele and Wolfgang Zenker . All were lost in the battle for Narvik .
The destroyers took over the landing forces on April 6th and left for Norway on the 7th. 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 ( Wolfgang Zenker , Erich Koellner and Hermann Künne ) under FK Bey received the order to move their troops at the end of the Herjangsfjord, to land on a northern branch of the Ofotfjord, from where they were supposed to occupy the material depot of the Norwegian Army in Elvegårdsmoen and supposedly occupy existing Norwegian forts, which did not exist at all. The German troops found little resistance, but the discharge was very slow as there was only a small, wooden pier available. Of the three boats, only the Zenker from Jan Wellem , who had arrived before the destroyers, could be refueled on the 9th , since they were supposed to be stationed again in Herjangsfjord before dawn.
In the early morning of April 10, the five destroyers of the British 2nd Destroyer Flotilla surprised the Germans in Narvik because the detachment of the guard duty at the entrance of the Ofotfjord was not carried out properly. The British torpedoed two ( Wilhelm Heidkamp , Anton Schmitt ) of the remaining German destroyers and damaged others without suffering any serious damage themselves. When the British withdrew, they were attacked by the destroyers Thiele and von Arnim approaching from Ballangen , which put the Hunter out of action, which sank after a collision with the Hotspur . 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. 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. The Hermann Künne and the Hans Lüdemann were not ready for the attack by the British because they were just refueling from the Jan Wellem . Hermann Künne cast off, but immediately had a machine failure and then went to the post office to carefully check the machine. Not ready for action until the afternoon, she ran into the fjord to examine the wreck of the Hero .
The end of Hermann Künne near Narvik
When, early in the morning of April 13, 1940, the Royal Navy attacked earlier than expected with the battleship HMS Warspite and nine destroyers, the Germans were surprised again. The Erich Koellner as the foremost guard boat had not reached her planned anchorage at 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 had already been warned by the Warspite's aircraft , a Fairey Swordfish floatplane. The Koellner opened fire, but was immediately shot down by the warned British units. The commander gave the order to evacuate and sink the ship. The Erich Koellner could not bring a hit to the target before it was destroyed.
Then Wolfgang Zenker , Bernd von Arnim , Hans Lüdemann and Hermann Künne took up the battle with the British destroyers, but could only damage the Bedouin slightly.
Since they had hardly any ammunition, the German destroyers broke off the battle and withdrew to the Rombakenfjord.
The order to withdraw did not reach Hermann Künne , however, and she continued the battle alone, which was accepted by the HMS Eskimo . The Hermann Künne could not achieve any hits on the Tribal destroyer pursuing them . When she had used her ammunition, depth charges were distributed in the ship and sunk at Trollvika on Herjangsfjord at position 68 ° 31 ′ 24 ″ N , 17 ° 25 ′ 22 ″ E, .
The pursuing Eskimo shot another torpedo at the Künne , which hit. The German destroyer caught fire and exploded. It remained unclear whether the torpedo or the distributed depth charges completely destroyed the ship.
The Eskimos had not in pursuit of the fleeing Georg Thiele and Hans Lüdemann respected, who attacked them with torpedoes and wegschossen her bow. Nevertheless, the British destroyer was towed and, after an emergency repair in Norway, was finally made operational again in Great Britain.
literature
- 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
- Erik Anker Steen: Norges sjøkrig 1940-45: Sjøforsvarets kamper og virke i Nord-Norge i 1940 vol. 4, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1958
- Mike J. Whitley: Destroyers in World War II: Technique - Class - Types. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 978-3-613-01426-8 .
Web links
- Germany 12.7 cm / 45 (5 ") SK C / 34 on navweaps.com (English, accessed April 29, 2014)
- Germany 3.7 cm / L83 (1.5 ") SK C / 30 on navweaps.com (accessed April 29, 2014)
- Germany 2 cm / 65 (0.79 ") C / 30 and C / 38 on navweaps.com (English, accessed April 29, 2014)
- "1936" type destroyers (1938-1939) (accessed September 7, 2014)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Hildebrand, vol. 3, p. 64
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Hildebrand, Vol. 6, p. 51
- ↑ Rohwer, p. 35
- ^ Whitley, p. 96
- ↑ Haarr, pp. 323, 332, 335
Destroyer 1936: Z 17 Diether von Roeder | Z 18 Hans Lüdemann | Z 19 Hermann Künne | Z 20 Karl Galster | Z 21 Wilhelm Heidkamp | Z 22 Anton Schmitt
Destroyer 1936 A: Z 23 | Z 24 | Z 25 | Z 26 | Z 27 | Z 28 | Z 29 | Z 30
Destroyer 1936 A (Mob): Z 31 | Z 32 | Z 33 | Z 34 | Z 37 | Z 38 | Z 39