Z 43
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Z 43 was a destroyer of the type B 1936 (mob) the German navy . The destroyer, which was completed in May 1944, was the last large destroyer to come into service in the Navy and was only used in the Baltic Sea .
On May 3, 1945, the boat was blown up by its own crew in the Geltinger Bay .
Building history
The Z 43 was the third 1936 B (mob) boat. He was the last of the five in the work Weser the Deschimag in Bremen started booting the class, according to Z 35 (22 September 1943), and Z 36 (19 February 1944) not published on 31 May 1944 by the Navy in service has been. These destroyers were ordered on February 17, 1941 as a further variant of the 1936 destroyer . The type 1936 B (mob) was therefore not a new development and largely corresponded to its predecessors.
The main change was the return to five 12.7 cm rapid fire cannons. The anti-aircraft armament was reinforced on four double mounts with 3.7 cm L / 83 anti-aircraft machine guns and three L / 65-Fla-MK quadruplets and three 2 cm single guns. At the end of the war, the Z 43 is said to have carried four 2 cm twin cannons instead of the single cannons.
Mission history
Z 43 entered service on May 31, 1944. The first in command was Captain Arthur Wenninger, previously Head of Department in the General Naval Office, who had commanded the torpedo boat Iltis from October 1, 1935 to July 17, 1937 . The new boat was assigned to the 6th Destroyer Flotilla under Captain Friedrich Kothe (1901-1944). After test drives and training trips in the Baltic Sea , the destroyer was declared ready for limited use on October 17, 1944.
On 20./21. November 1944 was the first use of the destroyer in the battle group Vizeadmiral Thiele on the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the 6th destroyer flotilla with Z 25 , Z 35 and Z 36 and the 3rd Torpedo Boat flotilla with four torpedoboats of type 1937 to Artillery support for the German army trapped on the Sworbe peninsula .
From November 22nd to 24th, the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer and the 2nd T-Flotilla with six torpedo boats replaced the Prinz Eugen , Z 36 , Z 43 and the 3rd T-Flotilla. Sworbe was evacuated on the night of November 24th. Z 43 had already reached Gotenhafen (today Gdynia) on November 22, 1944 and replaced the fuel used and the ammunition used. On November 23, the boat returned to Sworbe to continue the bombardment. The destroyer bombarded the Soviet positions even after the last German troops had withdrawn and returned to Gotenhafen on November 25th.
On the night of December 12, 1944, the 6th Z-Flotilla was supposed to lay an offensive mine block off Reval (now Tallinn) . On December 9th, the flotilla with the three destroyers Z 35 , Z 36 and Z 43 and the torpedo boats T 23 and T 28 left Gotenhafen. In very bad weather it was not possible to determine the exact position on the march, and Z 35 and Z 36 ran into German mines and sank northeast of Reval. Only 87 crew members were rescued, more than 540 men died. Soviet speedboats rescued some survivors from Z 35 . 67 men drove to Finland in life rafts and had to be handed over to the Soviet Union as prisoners of war. Z 43 recognized the minefield with its MES system and was able to save itself by reversing. The remaining German boats ran back to Gotenhafen with their mines. Z 43 came to the shipyard in Gotenhafen at the turn of the year due to minor damage and necessary repairs to the guns and checks on the electronic systems.
On January 16, 1945, the Z 43 was operational again and was used with the Z 25 and T 4 in the Danzig Bay and between Gotenhafen and Libau (today Liepāja) for anti -submarine defense and escort security. When the Samland Army Division began an attack on February 18 to re-establish the land connection between Pillau / Fischhausen and Königsberg , Admiral Scheer , Z 38 , Z 43 , T 28 and T 35 shot at gatherings of the Soviet army on the night of January 19 Peyse and Groß-Heydekrug on the south coast of Samland . On the 20th, the two T-boats ran into the sea canal and continued the bombardment from there. On February 23, Z 43 , Z 38 and T 28 intervened again in the land fighting, which re-established a connection to Königsberg. The boats then went back to Gotenhafen with over 1000 refugees on board.
On February 26, Z 25 , Z 43 and T 8 escorted Hamburg, which was laden with refugees, from Gotenhafen to Saßnitz , where the convoy arrived undamaged on February 27. Then the boats also took over anti-aircraft protection for the refugee ship.
At the end of the month, Z 43 secured the heavy German units Admiral Scheer and Lützow .
On March 8, the destroyer moved to Kolberg (today Kołobrzeg) and from the following day fired at land targets and took over anti-aircraft protection for the many refugee ships lying in the port. From March 11th, the evacuation of the people trapped here began with the help of ferry boats from the 11th landing flotilla and with the support of the 5th artillery carrier flotilla. Some of the refugees and injured were reloaded in the roadstead onto the transporters West Prussia (2870 BRT) and Winrich von Kniprode (10123 BRT) or the warships Z 34 and T 33 .
On March 15th the destroyer ran back to Swinoujscie to replenish fuel and ammunition, and then on March 17th in and in front of Kolberg to take over the previous tasks. On March 18, 1945, Z 43 took the last troops on board in Kolberg when the city was evacuated. They were set ashore again in Swinoujscie and Z 43 ran to Gotenhafen to support and secure the heavy cruisers Lützow and Prinz Eugen in their use to combat land targets. The destroyer also shelled positions of the Red Army itself . At the end of the month there was a change of command and frigate captain Carl Heinrich Lampe took command of the destroyer on April 5, 1945.
Last missions in the Baltic Sea
The embarkations off Hela continued under the anti-aircraft protection of the warships. Due to a lack of fuel and ammunition, the Lützow with the Z 38 and the Z 31 damaged by bombs were withdrawn on April 8, 1945 . On April 9th, the previously quite lucky Z 43 was hit by a bomb and stuck in the front chimney as a dud. More serious than minor damage from bomb fragments was damage caused by gunfire on the Soviet aircraft that put the boat's MES system out of action. This favored a bottom mine hit on April 10, 1945, which tore a large hole in the hull and led to the failure of the boiler rooms and significant personnel losses. The heavily damaged destroyer was towed westward , secured by Z 39 and T 33 , and reached Rostock on April 13th thanks to extremely calm seas .
The repairs were to be carried out in the Neptun shipyard . The severity of the damage and the war situation led to an emergency repair, which should actually only enable stationary use in an expected “Rostock fortress”. The hull was sealed and provisionally stiffened by two steel girders on the keel. Since the turbines were undamaged, a boiler room was made usable again. On May 1st, the destroyer was supposed to go to the roadstead in front of Warnemünde in order to be used against the Red Army if necessary. When the destroyer slowly moved down the Warnow from the shipyard , there were first battles with Russian tanks.
Since an orderly defense was no longer possible, Z 43 ran on to Kiel and experienced the last major air raid on the city there. On May 3, 1945, the destroyer ran further into the Geltinger Bay , where the crew abandoned their ship and blew up. Z 43 dropped to the position of 54 ° 48 '32 " N , 9 ° 46' 57" O . In 1953, the wreck, lying in shallow water, was largely demolished.
Commanders
| May 31, 1944 to March 1945 | Sea captain Arthur Wenninger | 1904-1970 |
| April 5, 1945 to May 8, 1945 | Frigate Captain Carl Heinrich Lampe | 1907– |
Individual evidence
- ^ Preston: Superdestroyers , p. 72
- ^ Preston: Superdestroyers , p. 69
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Hildebrand u. a .: The German warships, vol. 6, p. 84
- ↑ Ex French Kerguelen , Meduana .
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 .
- 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 .
- Anthony Preston: Superdestroyers - The German Narvik type 1936 , Warship special2, Conway maritime press, Greenwich (1978), pp. 62 ff., ISBN 0-85177-131-9 .
- 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
- Germany 12.7 cm / 45 (5 ") SK C / 34 on navweaps.com (accessed November 23, 2015)
- 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)
- "1936B (Mob)" type destroyers 1943/44 (English, accessed October 24, 2015)
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