Warships of Germany: Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruisers of the Second World War: Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graf Spee

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruisers of the Second World War: Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graf Spee

‍

Admiral Hipper-class (14,000 tons, 8 × 203 mm guns)

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper, Laid down 1935, Commissioned 1937, Completed 1939, Scuttled 1945.

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper.

(RAF Photo)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper, Brest, France, 1941.

(IWM Photo, TR 2882)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper, as found by Canadian troops when they entered the ruins of Kiel in North West Germany. The warship was in dry dock at Kiel when the harbour was captured by the Allies. Both the German attempts to camouflage her and the damage caused by Allied bombers can be seen.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4233461)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper, which was in dry dock at Kiel when the harbour was captured by the Allies. Note the RN flag. (For some reason I picture a Canadian soldier entering the base, seeing the ship, and running over to plant the flag and telling his mates, "this one is mine!")

(Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-63-09 / CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Blücher, Commissioned 1937. Sunk in battle, 1940.

Blücher was the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (lit. 'War Navy'), built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles. Named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo, the ship was laid down in August 1935 and launched in June 1937. She was completed in September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. After completing a series of sea trials and training exercises, the ship was pronounced ready for service with the fleet on 5 April 1940. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,260 t).

Immediately upon entering service, Blücher was assigned to the task force that supported the invasion of Norway in April 1940. Blücher served as the flagship of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Oskar Kummetz, the commander of Group 5. The ship led the flotilla of warships into the Oslofjord on the night of 8 April, to seize Oslo, the capital of Norway. Two old 28 cm (11 in) coastal guns in the Oscarsborg Fortress engaged the ship at very close range, scoring two hits, as did several smaller guns in other batteries. Two torpedoes fired by a torpedo battery in the fortress struck the ship, causing serious damage. A major fire broke out aboard Blücher, which could not be contained. The fire spread to one of her anti-aircraft gun magazines, causing a large explosion, and then spread further to the ship's fuel bunkers. Blücher then capsized and sank with major loss of life. The wreck lies at the bottom of Oslofjord, and in 2016 was designated as a war memorial to protect it from looters. Several artifacts have been raised from the wreck, including one of her Arado 196 floatplanes, which was recovered during an operation to pump out leaking fuel oil from the ship in 1994. (Wikipedia)

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen, laid down 1936, commissioned 1938, completed 1940, sunk in the South Pacific after gthe atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads, 1946.

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen.

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen.

(USN, Official U.S. Naval Archives Photos)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen, Boston Harbor, Jan 1946. By this point, she would have been newly commisioned USS Prinz Eugen after the United States Navy took posession of her after the war.

(USN, Official U.S. Naval Archives Photos)

Kriegsmarine Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen, Boston Harbor, Feb 1946.

Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third of a class of five vessels. She served with Germany's Kriegsmarine during the Second World War and was one of the few to survive. The ship was laid down in April 1936, launched in August 1938, and entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an 18th-century general in the service of Austria. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3-cm (8-inch) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,257 t).Prinz Eugen saw action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship Bismarck in May 1941. The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser HMS Hood and moderately damaged the battleship HMS Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles. After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus, a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany. In February 1942, Prinz Eugen was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was curtailed when she was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Trident days after arriving in Norwegian waters. The torpedo severely damaged the ship's stern, which necessitated repairs in Germany.Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support for the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front. After the German collapse in May 1945, she was surrendered to the Royal Navy before being transferred to the US Navy as a war prize. After examining the ship in the United States, the US Navy assigned the cruiser to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. Having survived the atomic blasts, Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein Atoll, where she ultimately capsized and sank in December 1946. The wreck remains partially visible above the water approximately two miles northwest of Bucholz Army Airfield, on the edge of Enubuj. One of her screw propellers was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.  (Wikipedia)

‍

Deutschland-class (12,000 tons, 6 × 280 mm guns)

(IWM Photo, HU 1049)

Deutschland (renamed Lützow), Laid Down, 1929, Commissioned 1931, Completed 1933, Disabled 1945, Raised and Sunk as Target 1947.

Deutschland was the lead ship of her class of heavy cruisers (often termed pocket battleships) which served with theKriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Ordered by the Weimargovernment for the Reichsmarine, she was laid down at the Deutsche Werkeshipyard in Kiel in February 1929 and completed by April 1933. Originally classified as an armoured ship (Panzerschiff) by the Reichsmarine, in February1940 the Germans reclassified the remaining two ships of this class as heavycruisers. In 1940, she was renamed Lützow, after the unfinished AdmiralHipper-class heavy cruiser Lützow was sold to the Soviet Union the previousyear.

The ship saw significant action with the Kriegsmarine, including severalnon-intervention patrols in the Spanish Civil War, during which she wasattacked by Republican bombers in the Deutschland incident. At the outbreak ofthe Second World War, she was cruising the North Atlantic, prepared to attackAllied merchant traffic. Bad weather hampered her efforts, and she sank orcaptured only a handful of vessels before returning to Germany. She thenparticipated in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway. Damaged at theBattle of Drøbak Sound, she was recalled to Germany for repairs. While enroute, she was torpedoed and seriously damaged by a British submarine.

Repairs were completed by March 1941, and in June she left Germany for acommerce raiding operation in the Atlantic. Before reaching the Atlantic, shewas torpedoed by a British aircraft and had to return. After repairs, Lützowreturned to Norway to join the forces arrayed against Allied shipping to theSoviet Union. She ran aground during Operation Rösselsprung, a planned attackon Convoy PQ 17, and returned to Germany for repairs. She next saw action at theBattle of the Barents Sea with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, which endedwith a failure to destroy Convoy JW 51B. Engine problems forced a series ofrepairs culminating in a complete overhaul at the end of 1943, after which theship remained in the Baltic as a training ship. In October 1944 Lützowre-entered front line service with Task Force Thiele, participating in shorebombardments of Russian positions in support of the German army. Sunk inshallow waters in the Kaiserfahrt in April 1945 by Royal Air Force (RAF)bombers, Lützow was used as a stationary gun battery until 4 May 1945, when shewas disabled by her crew. Raised by the Soviet Navy in 1947, she wassubsequently sunk as a target in the Baltic. (Wikipedia)

(Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-63-51)

German heavy cruiser Deutschland (later re-named “Lützow”). One of three heavy cruisers of the Deutschland Class (sister ships Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee). Deutschland was built by the Deutsche Werke shipyard at Kiel, being laid down on 5 February 1929. She was launched on 19 May 1931 and commissioned on 1 April 1933. Following the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee in the River Plate estuary on 17 December 1939, Hitler ordered the Deutschland to be renamed Lutzow, to avoid the possibility of the loss of a ship bearing the symbolic name of Germany. She was scuttled on 4 May 1945 at Swinemunde after suffering heavy damage from near misses from 'Tallboy' bombs dropped by the RAF. The ship was raised by the Soviets and sunk during weapon tests in 1947. (Wikipedia)

‍

(Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-2008-0421-500)

German heavy cruiser Deutschland (later re-named “Lützow”), 1934.

(Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-63-68)

German heavy cruiser Deutschland (later re-named “Lützow”).

(Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1973-077-63)

German heavy cruiser Deutschland (later re-named “Lützow”), 1938.

‍

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Admiral Scheer, Laid down 1931, Commissioned 1933, Completed 1934, Sunk by Bombing 1945.

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

The Admiral Scheer.

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

The Admiral Scheer.

Admiral Graf Spee, Laid down 1932, Commissioned 1934, took part in the Battle of the River Plate, was fought in the South Atlantic on 13 December 1939 as the first naval battle of the Second World War. She was scuttled at Montevideo, Uruguay, 1939.

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Admiral Graf Spee, in Montevideo Bay after the Battle of the River Plate, 14 December 1939.