Z 21 Wilhelm Heidkamp
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Z 21 Wilhelm Heidkamp was one of six ships of the destroyer class 1936 of the Kriegsmarine .
history
Commissioning
Like the others in its class, the destroyer was put into construction by Deschimag on January 6, 1936 . When it was launched on August 20, 1938 at Werft AG Weser , it was given the name Z 21 Wilhelm Heidkamp . The name of the ship was made in memory of chief machinist's mate Wilhelm Heidkamp , who, as pump master on the battle cruiser Seydlitz , opened the glowing flood valves with bare hands during the battle on the Doggerbank on January 24, 1915 to prevent the ammunition chambers from exploding .
After the launch, the ship was hauled to the dockyard's equipment pier for completion. On June 20, 1939 it was put into service for the 4th Destroyer Division. It was planned to use this destroyer after the run-in and training period as the successor to Leberecht Maass as the destroyer leader of the F. d. T. (leader of the torpedo boats). The commander was the corvette captain Hans Erdmenger during the entire service life of the ship .
War missions 1939
When the war broke out on September 1, 1939, the Wilhelm Heidkamp , part of the 2nd Z. Flotilla for turbine repairs in Kiel, was in the shipyard. On September 10, the destroyer ran out of port after repairing the port turbine and arrived in Swinoujscie on the same day . There the F. d. T. Rear Admiral Günther Lütjens on board.
On September 25, the ship, coming from the Baltic Sea, anchored in the roadstead off Wilhelmshaven . On the evening of September 28th the Wilhelm Heidkamp ran with the F. d. T. and six other destroyers started a trade war in the Skagerrak . A total of 58 foreign merchant ships were stopped and examined. Nine of them were sent to Kiel for the price negotiation, where the Wilhelm Heidkamp returned with three other destroyers on the afternoon of September 30.
On October 6th she marched with four other destroyers through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal into the North Sea, on October 7th in the afternoon she sailed from the Jade into the mouth of the Elbe . On October 8, she and four other destroyers gathered in the German Bight on the Gneisenau . She now belonged to an association led by the fleet chief, Vice Admiral Wilhelm Marschall , which reached the southern Norwegian coast on October 9th. After returning on October 10, the destroyer was relocated to the Deutsche Werke to carry out maintenance work .
On October 14th, Wilhelm Heidkamp was released there and returned with the F. d. Partly through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal back to Wilhelmshaven on October 15th. On October 17, she ran out with five other destroyers to carry out an offensive mining operation on the Humber . Arrived there on October 18, she was the lead destroyer and secured the throwing actions of the other ships. In the afternoon the German destroyers arrived in Wilhelmshaven. Seven merchant ships later sank on these mines.
On October 20, the Wilhelm Heidkamp entered Kiel with three other destroyers. On October 21, Rear Admiral Lütjens took down his flag because he was a B. d. A. (Reconnaissance Forces Commander) had been appointed. The destroyer left Kiel on October 21 and arrived in Swinoujscie shortly before midnight.
The new F. d. Z. ( Leader of the Destroyers ) Captain of the Sea and Commodore Friedrich Bonte boarded the Wilhelm Heidkamp with his staff in Swinoujscie on October 26 and set his stand. On October 27, the ship ran out to take part in torpedo practice shooting in the Baltic Sea. This was initially canceled due to bad weather and was made up on October 30th. Shortly after midnight on October 31, the destroyer returned to Swinoujscie.
From November 1st, the destroyer took the F. d. Currently taking part in association exercises in the Baltic Sea. These ended on November 3rd, the Wilhelm Heidkamp and the other destroyers moored in Swinoujscie. On November 5, she ran with three other destroyers from Swinoujscie through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal into the North Sea. She arrived in Wilhelmshaven on November 6th.
Due to a boiler blower damage, she was unable to participate in an abandoned mining company on November 8th. On the morning of November 9th, she was ready to go again. On November 10th she ran with the F. d. Z. and four other destroyers to catch up with the mining company on the English east coast. As on November 8, the company had to be terminated prematurely due to damage to Z 19 Hermann Künne . On November 12, she ran out again with six other destroyers. On November 13th, as a lead boat, she secured the mine throwing of three other destroyers off the Thames estuary . In the evening she anchored on the jade again. The destroyer Blanche and 13 merchant ships sank on the mines .
The ship was then anchored on the Schillig Reede. On November 24th, the Wilhelm Heidkamp set out to march into the Baltic Sea and arrived in Swinoujscie on November 25th. On November 27, she was released to do the machine overhaul at the Stettiner Oderwerke .
Wilhelm Heidkamp was now in Stettin until December 24, 1939 . On the same day it arrived in Wilhelmshaven and F. d. Z. went back on board with his staff.
War missions in early 1940
From January 1st to 5th, 1940, it was not operational due to malfunctions on the gyro compass and driving valve as well as due to radio feed that had yet to be performed. Since she was again unclear to drive on January 6th, she did not take part in a mining operation this day and the following day.
On January 10th she ran with the F. d. Z. on board and five other destroyers to lay a mine barrier off Newcastle . On the evening of January 11, the ships were back in Wilhelmshaven. From January 25th to 26th, she took part in an advance into the Skagerrak. From February 9th to 10th she covered two groups of destroyers throwing mines off the east coast of England. A total of nine merchant ships were lost on the mines laid here in the following days.
On February 18, she left Wilhelmshaven as part of the “Nordmark” company with the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau . The association searched unsuccessfully for British escorts and returned to Wilhelmshaven on February 20. The next action in which she took part was an outpost operation with a total of six destroyers in the German Bight from March 2-3. After that, severe frost and ice prevent further destroyer missions.
Weser exercise company
At the Weser Exercise Company , Commodore Bonte was the leader of Warship Group 1 on the Wilhelm Heidkamp , which had to bring army units to Narvik . The destroyer entered Wesermünde on April 4, 1940 . On April 6th, like the nine other destroyers at Columbuskaje, it was loaded with material and 200 mountain fighters. The commander of the 3rd Mountain Division Eduard Dietl and his staff were also on the ship.
At 11 p.m. the ten destroyers cast off and gathered on the Lower Weser . On April 7, around 3 a.m., they met the ships of Warship Group 2 in the German Bight. In the heavy seas on the way to Narvik on April 8th, Wilhelm Heidkamp repeatedly cut under with her entire forecastle and only came up again by vigorously descending. A collision with the destroyer Anton Schmitt could only be avoided with great difficulty.
On the evening of April 8th, Warship Group 1 was released into the Vestfjord to occupy Narvik . On the morning of April 9th, she entered the Ofotfjord . Seven of the ten destroyers stayed behind to secure and unload the troops, so that at 5:10 a.m. only Wilhelm Heidkamp , Georg Thiele and Bernd von Arnim appeared in front of the entrance to Narvik.
The 40-year-old Norwegian coastal armored ship Eidsvold , located in the harbor, fired a sharp shot in front of the bow of the Wilhelm Heidkamp out of the drifting snow and signaled a flag to warn her to stop. The Wilhelm Heidkamp stopped while the other two destroyers entered the port of Narvik. The only boat of Wilhelm Heidkamp that was still undamaged by the storm brought the 2nd Admiral Staff Officer of F. d. Z. Corvette Captain Gerlach and a signal mate for Eidsvold .
Gerlach asked the commander of the Eidsvold Willoch to surrender, which he refused. Even during the negotiations, the coastal armored ship aimed its guns at the destroyer. Gerlach left the Norwegian ship and gave the agreed alarm signal with a signal pistol. Before the 40-year-old coastal armored ship could fire, the Wilhelm Heidkamp approached at high speed and shot a torpedo fan. At least two of the torpedoes hit, whereupon the Eidsvold broke apart and sank in a few seconds.
At about 5.15 a.m. the Wilhelm Heidkamp entered the port of Narvik, where the Bernd von Arnim had sunk the old coastal armored ship Norge , anchored near the post pier and began unloading the troops. At 2.30 p.m., the Wilhelm Heidkamp moored at the supply ship Jan Wellem after the unloading of the troops to replenish fuel . The oil replenishment was not over until around 11 p.m.
In the early morning hours of April 10, 1940, the British II Destroyer Flotilla ran unnoticed with five destroyers under Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee in the Ofotfjord. At around 5.30 a.m. (German time) the British attacked the German destroyers anchored in the harbor with artillery and torpedoes in the first battle of the Battle of Narvik . Shortly afterwards, a torpedo hit Wilhelm Heidkamp at the level of Division III. From this the aft ammunition chamber exploded, through which the aft ship was demolished as far as turbine room I. All crew members in the aft as well as Commodore Bonte and his staff, a total of 81 men, perished. The rest of the wreck remained buoyant and was moored on the Swedish steamer Oxelösund after the end of the battle . The crew recovered all usable weapons, ammunition, equipment and supplies from the still floating forecastle. On April 11 at around 6.11 a.m., the ship capsized and sank in the port of Narvik.
Whereabouts
The wreck was lifted in the 1960s and moved near Narvik Airport at Framness to facilitate shipping in the port. It is located at 68 ° 26 '5 " N , 17 ° 22' 38" E. at a depth of 12 to 20 meters in the water.
literature
- Wolfgang Harnack: Destroyer under the German flag: 1934 to 1945 . 2. revised and exp. Edition, Herford: Koehler, 1994, ISBN 3-7822-0616-9
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German Warships , Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, 1979, ISBN 3-88385-028-4
Footnotes
- ^ Wreck Wilhelm Heidkamp Z21 (Narvik) ( Memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
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