Line 37

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Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) German Empire
Ship type destroyer
class Destroyer 1936A (Mob)
Shipyard Germania shipyard , Kiel
Build number 627
Keel laying 1940
Launch February 24, 1941
Commissioning July 16, 1942
Whereabouts Scrapped in 1949
Ship dimensions and crew
length
127 m ( Lüa )
120 m ( KWL )
Template: Infobox ship / maintenance / LppGroesserKWL
121.9 m ( Lpp )
width 12 m
Draft Max. 4.62 m
displacement 3597  t
 
crew 319 men
Machine system
machine 6 Wagner-Deschimag steam boiler

2 sets of Wagner-Deschimag steam turbines

Machine
performance 		70,000 PS (51,485 kW)
Top
speed 		35.9 kn (66 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
Sensors
  • 2 wireless measuring devices Fu Mo 25
  • 1 radio measuring device Fu Mo 61 or 63
  • 1 radio monitoring device Fu MB 24

The destroyer Z 37 was built in the Second World War as the 1936A (Mob) of the German Navy .

construction

The order for the destroyer was awarded on September 19, 1939. The keel was laid in the course of 1940 at the Germania shipyard in Kiel. The launch was on February 24, 1941. After the launch, there were long construction delays due to a lack of building materials, more important work at the shipyard and the assignment of shipyard personnel to Norway.

Mission history

Z 37 entered service on July 16, 1942. After commissioning, while traveling from the shipyard in Kiel to the training base in Swinoujscie , the Z 37 collided with a freighter and had to return to the shipyard for repair work.

In December 1942 the Z 37 was ready for war. In January / February 1943 the destroyer was briefly in Northern Norway, but was then ordered to France. From Kiel, the Z 37 and the Z 32 went on the march to France on March 3, 1943. On March 6, the destroyer damaged its starboard propeller when it hit the ground in Le Havre . On March 18, the repair work was finished.

From March 1943 and April Z 37 guided incoming and outgoing submarines. The destroyer was also with the German warship group that tried unsuccessfully around April 10, 1943 to help the Italian blockade breaker Himalaya to break through into the open Atlantic.

At the end of December 1943, Z 37 belonged to the German warship group of torpedo boats and destroyers to bring the blockade breaker Osorno from Japan to Bordeaux.

During the battle between German torpedo boats and destroyers and the British light cruisers Glasgow and Enterprise on December 28, 1943 in the Atlantic, Z 37 shot four torpedoes at the British units without getting a hit.

On January 29, 1944, during a maneuvering exercise with the Z 23 and Z 32 in front of Bordeaux , the Z 37 collided with the Z 32 , whereby a torpedo warhead exploded on the Z 37 and started a fire, which was also used by the 3.7 cm anti-aircraft ammunition The ship exploded and severely damaged the ship, including flooding. Z 23 towed Z 37 to Bordeaux, where the destroyer already showed a strong list to starboard due to the ingress of water. It was decided that the destroyer would be too costly to repair and instead the destroyer's 15 cm guns were set up to reinforce the coastal defense at the Gironde estuary .

The End

On August 24, 1944, shortly before the Allied troops arrived in Bordeaux , the Z 37 was decommissioned. Your machinery was made unusable by the crew. The ship's crew was deployed to the Narvik Naval Battalion and as an infantry unit of the Navy in the Gironde Fortress.

Z 37 was scrapped in 1949.

Commanders

July 16, 1942 to January 1944 Corvette Captain Georg Langheld

January 1944 to August 24, 1944 Frigate Captain Heinrich Gerlach

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 978-3763762156 .
  • 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 .
  • Gerhard Koop / Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The German Destroyers 1935-1945 , Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1995.
  • 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 978-3881896375 .
  • Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945 , Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-0097 .
  • Mike J. Whitley: Destroyers in World War II: Technique - Class - Types. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 978-3613014268 .

Web links