Line 38

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Line 38 p1
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) German Empire
Ship type destroyer
class Destroyer 1936A (Mob)
Shipyard Germania shipyard , Kiel
Build number 628
Keel laying 1940
Launch August 5, 1941
Commissioning March 20, 1943
Whereabouts Canceled in 1950
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 38 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 August 5, 1941. After the launch, there were long construction delays due to a lack of building materials, more important work in the shipyard and the assignment of shipyard personnel to Norway.

Use in Norway

Z 38 entered service on March 20, 1943. During the run-in period in August 1943, the destroyer served as a torpedo catcher for the light cruisers Emden and Nürnberg, which were used as training ships at the time . On October 22, 1943, Z 38 left Swinoujscie in the direction of Northern Norway to join Combat Group I from heavy German warships.

Z 38 was part of Operation Ostfront at the end of December 1943, the unsuccessful attack by a German warship group with the battleship Scharnhorst on the northern sea convoy JW 55B , but had no enemy contact. Until October 1944, the destroyer was used to protect the battleship Tirpitz in northern Norway .

From November 1944, the destroyer was used to cover the evacuation of the polar front in northernmost Finland and Norway. During a mine-laying mission from Tromsö in the Porsangerfjord , he hit the ground and handed over his mines to Z 33 and went to the bow bay for the necessary repairs to his propellers.

After another mine-laying operation in Northern Norway on January 25, 1945, Z 38 left Tromsö in the direction of the Baltic Sea together with Z 31 and Z 34 . There was a battle with the light cruisers Diadem and Mauritius in front of the Sognefjord on January 28 , whereby Z 38 received a hit on its chimney.

Use in the Baltic Sea

In Kiel, the destroyer took 200 naval artillerymen on board for Gotenhafen . In mid-February 1945, Z 38 was busy with escort duties in the Baltic Sea. From February 23 to 28, the destroyer was involved in the bombardment of Soviet troops on the Samland coast. From March 4 to 6, 1945, the Z 38 again fired at Soviet troops on the German Baltic Sea coast and then took refugees to Gotenhafen in Pillau . On March 7th, the destroyer with T 28 and Z 35 left Gotenhafen with the passenger ship loaded with refugees Pretoria and escorted the refugee transport to Copenhagen .

Since March 13, 1945, the destroyer was used again for the bombardment of Soviet troops on the German Baltic coast, which lasted until May 4. In between, Z 38 escorted the heavy cruisers Prinz Eugen and Lützow, which were also involved in the bombardment of Soviet troops, on April 9 from the Bay of Danzig to Swinoujscie.

On May 3, Z 38 led together with Z 39 the old battleship Schlesien, damaged by a mine hit off Swinoujscie . On May 4th, Z 38 took refugees and Wehrmacht personnel on board in Swinoujscie to take them to Copenhagen.

When the Orion with 4,000 refugees on board was sunk by an air raid on May 4th on the way to Copenhagen, Z 38 was also present when the people from the Orion were picked up and also drove the shipwrecked people she picked up to Copenhagen. On May 7, the destroyer carried out another voyage from Swinoujscie with refugees to Copenhagen.

On May 9, the day of the German surrender, Z 38 arrived in the Flensburg Fjord and delivered the ship's war diary to the commander's house. Z 38 reached Kiel on May 10, 1945 and decommissioned.

British spoils of war

The destroyer was transferred to Wilhelmshaven by a German-British crew and subjected to a brief overhaul. On July 6, 1945, the Z 38 left for Portsmouth as British war booty for the Royal Navy . The German crew remained on board until September 22, 1946.

In Nonsuch the destroyer for various experiments and investigations was renamed used. In October 1949, after the ship had been disarmed and cannibalized, the former German destroyer was towed to Loch Striven for experiments with underwater explosions . After the first explosion, the ship's keel broke and to prevent its sinking, it was beached. On November 8, 1949, the wreck was sold for scrapping and subsequently demolished.

Commanders

March 20, 1943 to September 1944 Corvette Captain Gerfried Brutzer

September 1944 to May 10, 1945 Corvette Captain Baron Wilhelm Nikolaus von Lyncker

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Koop / Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The German Destroyers 1935–1945 , Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1995, p. 118