Destroyer 1936
Z 39 of type 1936 A (Mob)
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The destroyer 1936 was an improved class of destroyers of the German navy compared to the destroyer 1934 . The designation 1936 refers to the year the contract was awarded, in which the first boats were laid down. A total of six units of the basic design were built at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, which belongs to Deschimag : Z 17 Diether von Roeder to Z 22 Anton Schmitt . The launching took place in 1937 and 1938.
The Kriegsmarine continued to develop the original design and between 1938 and 1943 awarded construction contracts for a total of 28 destroyers of the types "1936 A" (eight units), "1936 A (Mob)" (ten units), "1936 B (Mob)" ( five units) and "1936 C" (five units) to DeSchiMAG and Germania shipyard in Kiel. 18 boats could be put into service, the construction of three destroyers ( Z 45 to Z 47 ) was canceled, another ( Z 44 ) was sunk by aerial bombs shortly before its commissioning. The construction contracts for Z 40 to Z 42 were withdrawn and construction of Z 48 to Z 50 was no longer started. Of all the variants of the destroyer in 1936, 28 were built and 25 completed, 24 actually came into service.
Design and tags
Compared to the destroyer 1934, this class should have a lower top weight due to the instability found there and the associated restrictions due to the existing high superstructures; therefore the superstructures and chimneys were made smaller. The propulsion system was identical to that of the destroyer in 1934, but the pressures used in the high-pressure boilers were now lower and there was more space available for the propulsion system. More powerful diesel generators also provided more power and thus improved technical equipment, and a larger bunker content for a greater range. The displacement was greater than that of the destroyer in 1934 with 2,250 tons when the ship was empty and 3,470 tons when fully equipped. The armament remained largely the same. Only the radar and the echo sounder have been improved.
After 1940 there was only one boat of the class left, the Karl Galster , which was modified in 1942. So the mast on the aft deckhouse (which, among other things, contained the ammunition loading chamber for the rear guns) was relocated to the front edge of the superstructure to make room for a 2 cm quadruple flak . The anti-aircraft armament was significantly strengthened by this and other modifications. At the end of 1944 the boat received a launch device with fire control radar for a battery of 8.6 cm missiles.
Calls
The six boats of the 1936 type formed the 5th destroyer flotilla and participated in the Westwall operation, which mined the south coast of England.
When the Weser Exercise company began , the Karl Galster was in the shipyard. The other five boats in the class, under the leadership of Commodore Friedrich Bonte , took part in the occupation of the ore port of Narvik in April 1940 and were lost. On April 9, 1940, the German troops occupied the port. The two old coastal armored ships Eidsvold and Norge were sunk by torpedo hits. The British Royal Navy launched a counterattack the next morning in which the destroyers Hardy and Hunter were lost, while on the German side the Wilhelm Heidkamp and Anton Schmitt sank after several artillery and torpedo hits.
Three days later, on April 13th, attacked a much stronger British unit, consisting of the battleship Warspite and nine destroyers. The foredeck of the destroyer Eskimo was shot off by a torpedo , while the Diether von Roeder used up her remaining ammunition. To prevent attempted capture by British units, the boat was self-sunk by depth charges when attempting to blow up a British destroyer that was alongside it. During the second battle, the Hans Lüdemann , who ran out of ammunition, withdrew into the Rombjaksfjord , ran onto a rock and also had to be sunk herself . The Hermann Künne got aground during a torpedo evasive maneuver. After the destroyer ran out of its ammunition, it was abandoned and blown up. The stern broke off, swam up again and drifted for some time at the sinking site.
The Karl Galster evacuated refugees across the Baltic Sea towards the end of the war . After the surrender , the boat was awarded to the Soviet Union as spoils of war. There it was in service as Protschny ( Прочный ) until the mid-1950s, when it was probably scrapped in 1956.
Class 1936 boats
- 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
Subclass Destroyer 1936 A
The destroyer 1936 A was largely similar to the destroyer 1936, but was longer and wider with the same draft. A displacement of up to 3,753 tons was achieved. The bunker content was increased to 820 tons. Another change was the 15 cm guns: instead of five 12.7 cm single mounts, three single mounts and one double mount with 15 cm were used. The heavy weight of the twin tower resulted in the foreship submerging heavily in rough seas, which could result in large amounts of water on the deck at high speed in rough seas. In addition, the towers were not waterproof, which resulted in frequent short circuits. Another disadvantage was that the 45 kg heavy 15 cm shell was loaded by hand, which significantly reduced the rate of fire compared to the 12.7 cm gun and quickly pushed the physical possibilities of the loading personnel to their limits during longer battles. The long waiting time until delivery of the twin tower delayed the deployment and was used at the same time for the installation of modern equipment. As with most ships, the anti-aircraft armament was multiplied. Another change was the naming: the boats only got numbers ( Z 23 to Z 30 ), but no more names. The entire series of destroyers 1936 A and the subsequent, only slightly modified mobilization type Destroyer 1936 A (Mob) was also called "Narvik class" in memory of the battle for the ore port of the same name. All eight units were also built by the “Weser” AG in Bremen.
Calls
All destroyers of this type formed the 8th Destroyer Flotilla . By March 1941, only the first three units were ready to escort the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper to Norway. The bad weather showed the weaknesses of the design, even without the twin tower.
The second mission, the first real combat mission, took place by Z 24 , Z 25 and Z 26 against the northern sea convoy PQ 13 on March 29, 1942. The destroyer group sank a merchant ship before the escort noticed. The British light cruiser Trinidad attacked and shelled Z 26 . This suffered considerable damage, so that it began to sink and had to be evacuated. Z 24 and Z 25 were only able to save 88 men of the crew. While attempting to sink the abandoned destroyer with a shot , the Trinidad was targeted by Z 25 , who shot down a torpedo. The Trinidad noticed the torpedo and initiated an evasive maneuver so that the torpedo just passed. Unfortunately for her, the torpedo she had previously shot at Z 26 was in a circle . Due to her evasive maneuver, the Trinidad got in its orbit, was hit by its own torpedo, and had to return to Murmansk . On May 14, 1942, the Trinidad was sunk by German aerial bombs while trying to return to Great Britain.
The next combat mission took place on May 1 and 2, 1942, when the Z 24 and Z 25 , together with Hermann Schoemann von Kirkenes, attacked the British light cruiser Edinburgh , which had received two torpedo hits from U 456 on April 30 and with less Tried to return to Murmansk, driving and considerably listing. Before that, however, the three boats attacked the convoy QP 11 several times , but without being able to sink more than just one Soviet ship because of the effective security of the convoy. During the attack on the Edinburgh on the morning of May 2, the leader boat Hermann Schoemann suffered heavy artillery hits from the Edinburgh in the turbine rooms, which were full of water. The unsafe boat had to be abandoned and blown up. To this end, Z 24 ran alongside in the middle of the battle , while Z 25 laid a curtain of smoke that hid the maneuver. When they switched to Z 24, the surviving crew members of Hermann Schoemann left several depth charges with triggered time fuses on board their boat, which detonated a few minutes later and destroyed it. The other two boats damaged the Edinburgh so badly that she also sank just 20 minutes after the Hermann Schoemann .
Z 23 , Z 24 and Z 25 were relocated to the French coast in March 1943 and charged with securing blockade breakers submarines in the Bay of Biscay . Z 24 and Z 25 took in the survivors of U 564 onJune 14, 1943. Z 27 joined them inNovember,but wassunkin December by the British light cruisers Glasgow and Enterprise while attempting to bring in the Alsterufer blockade breakertogether with the T 25 and T 26 fleet torpedo boats (which also sank).
In the battle with the destroyer Tartar (traveling with a Polish crew) and the Polish destroyers Błyskawica and Piorun , the Canadian destroyers Huron and Haida , and the British destroyers Eskimo , Ashanti and Javelin on June 8, 1944, Z 24 was badly damaged. Three of the four 15-cm mounts failed, only a few anti-aircraft weapons were still operational, the torpedo tubes had failed, and the destroyer dragged itself on its list towards home base. However, he was sunk in the Gironde on August 25th . Z 23 was so badly damaged by a bomb hit on August 21, 1944 in La Pallice that the boat had to be taken out of service on August 31.
Some destroyers of this class also evacuated refugees from East Prussia . On March 6, 1945 , the Z 28 was sunk by British aerial bombs in the roadstead in front of Sassnitz . At the end of the war, only three boats of the class remained. After the war, Z 25 served as Hoche in the French Navy until 1958. Z 29 was initially captured by the USA and cannibalized in Bremerhaven , later used as a target by the Royal Navy together with the light cruiser Leipzig after the end of the war for training purposes and sunk in the Skagerrak on December 16, 1946 . Z 30 was no longer operational and was scrapped in Great Britain in 1948.
1936A class boats
Subclass destroyer 1936 C
Soon after the beginning of the Second World War it became clear that the ships of the type 1936 had insufficient anti-aircraft armament. Since the number of light anti-aircraft guns already installed could no longer be increased, the idea of using a combined main gun and anti-aircraft armament was considered. In 1941, the 12.8 cm Flak 40 in a double mount was proposed as new armament for the destroyer, which should both replace the previous main armament and be used as additional anti-aircraft armament. The rest of the ship was based on the 1936B with no further changes.
Two of these ships were commissioned from Deschimag in Bremen in 1942 ( Z 46 and Z 47 ). The construction work began, but progress was slow , mainly due to the lack of copper . In addition, bombing made construction work difficult and both ships were damaged several times. Ultimately, the construction work was stopped completely in 1944 and the two ships were scrapped in 1945. Three more boats had already been commissioned in 1943. The construction work on these was never started.
1936C class boats
literature
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 2 : torpedo boats, destroyers, speedboats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6 , pp. 93-103 .
- Erich Gröner: The ships of the German Navy and Air Force 1939–1945 and their whereabouts. 8th edition, JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-469-00297-5 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-61301-426-2 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ The data apply to the type ship Diether von Roeder when it was put into service.
- ↑ The former Kriegsmarine referred to all vehicles up to and including destroyer size as boats, regardless of the fact that they were mostly ships. See boat / ship .
- ↑ Gröner, The German Warships. Pp. 94-97.
- ↑ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 129.
- ↑ Erich Gröner: The ships of the German Navy and Air Force 1939–1945 and their whereabouts. 8th edition, JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1976, p. 17.
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