German cruiser Blücher
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- See SMS Blücher for World War I ship.
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | October 30, 1934 |
| Shipyard: | Deutsche Werke, Kiel |
| Laid down: | August 15, 1935 |
| Launched: | June 8, 1937 |
| Commissioned: | September 20, 1939 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed and sunk April 9, 1940 in Oslofjord, Norway |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 14,247 tons (standard) 18,208 tons (full load) |
| Length: | 206 m (675 ft 4 in) |
| Beam: | 21.3 m (69 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 7.7 m (19 ft) |
| Armament: | 8 × 203 mm (8 in) (4x2) 12 × 105 mm (4.1 in) (6x2) 12 × 37 mm (6x2) 8 × 20 mm (8x1) 12 × 21 in torpedo tubes (4x3) 160 mines |
| Aircraft: | 3 Arado Ar 196, 1 catapult |
| Propulsion: | 3-shaft SR Deschimag turbines, 12 Wagner boilers 132,000 hp (98 MW), |
| Speed: | 32.5 knots (60 km/h) |
| Range: | 6,500 nm at 17 knots |
| Crew: | Approximately 1,600 |
The Blücher was a German Admiral Hipper class heavy cruiser. It was the Kriegsmarine's newest ship at the outbreak of World War II. She was sunk by Norwegian shore defences at the Battle of Drøbak sound on April 9, 1940, less than three years after her launch, on the first day of the invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung).
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[edit] Design
The Hipper class were built to a design that flouted the Washington Naval Treaty, to which major maritime nations were committed, as well as the Treaty of Versailles, which limited German naval development.
[edit] Operational history
Blücher was the flagship of the naval flotilla, with heavy cruiser Lützow (formerly Deutschland), light cruiser Emden and smaller warships, commanded by Rear Admiral Oskar Kummetz, transporting troops to capture Oslo in the initial stages of the German invasion of Norway - Operation Weserübung ("Weser Exercise").
The brave attack on the German fleet by the Norwegian armed trawler Pol III, had alerted the Norwegian defences, but Blücher led the line as the German flotilla approached Oscarsborg Fortress in the Drøbak narrows. The three German-made Krupp 280 mm (11 in) guns (only two were manned due to a lack of trained gunners) of the fortress, installed in 1893, were obsolete, so the defenders held fire until the warships were at point-blank range (most sources state that fire was opened at a range of 1,600 to 1,800 metres (about 1 mile). By sheer luck, the first shell hit the Blücher's forward gunnery control station, effectively disabling the ship's forward guns. The second Norwegian round apparently hit the aircraft hangar, igniting aviation fuel and infantry munitions stored on deck. There was only time for the main battery to fire these two rounds, due to their slow reload time. Blücher's return fire was ineffective.
While fire was raging aboard Blücher, the secondary Norwegian coastal batteries pelted her with guns ranging in calibre from the small 57 millimetre pieces at Husvik, designed to protect the fortress' minefields (not laid at the time of the invasion), to the 15 cm guns of the Kopås battery on the eastern side of the fjord. The larger guns wrought havoc on board Blücher while the 57 mm guns were successful in suppressing the fire from her light artillery as Blücher slowly moved past the fortress. Attempts to control the fires aboard the ship and to rescue the many wounded were also much hindered by the continuous bombardment from the shore.
The Germans were unaware of a torpedo battery near the main gun battery, at the narrowest point of the fjord. Built in 1901, it was equipped with Austrian-built Whitehead torpedoes of the same turn-of-the-century vintage. Aiming the torpedoes at this close range was unnecessary; the only question was whether the 40-year-old weapons (which had been test fired well over 200 times in their service life) would work properly. They did: Blücher received two direct hits, one near her forward turret Anton and the second in the engine room, leaving her drifting out of control in the narrow fjord. The torpedoes sealed her fate. The rest of the flotilla, believing Blücher had hit mines, reversed out of the narrows, thus ensuring that Oslo would not be invaded at dawn as intended. Before the remaining ships of the invasion force could withdraw, though, the Lützow was hit three times by the Kopaas battery and her Anton and Bruno turrets were disabled.
To avoid running aground, Blücher dropped anchor at Askholmen, 6 nautical miles south of Oslo. Her torpedoes were fired into the sides of the fjord to prevent them from exploding aboard the ship. At 06.23, Blücher capsized and sank, about an hour after she was first hit. Of the 2,202 crew and troops[1]on board, some 830 died, either drowned or burnt to death in the flaming oil slick surrounding the wreck. The survivors came ashore on either side of the fjord. Blücher's sailors were ordered to give up their life jackets (all sailors are expected to be able to swim) to the troops on board, thus saving the lives of a significant number of soldiers. Her Commmanding Officer, Kapitan zur See Heinrich Woldag, survived the sinking, but was killed in a plane crash eight days later.
The delay caused to the landings in Oslo allowed the Norwegian royal family, parliament and cabinet to escape. Norway's gold reserves were also moved out of reach of the invaders and ultimately shipped abroad for Norway's use during the war.
Blücher remains were she sank in Oslofjord, north of Oscarsborg Fortress. She continues to leak oil, causing some environmental concerns.
The anchor of the ship was later salvaged, and it is now at display at the pier of Aker Brygge in Oslo.
[edit] Commanding Officers
KzS Heinrich Woldag - 20 September 1939 - 9 April 1940
[edit] Other ships with same name
Blücher was the third German navy ship named after Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (most famous for joining with the Duke of Wellington to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo). The first German warship named after the Fieldmarshall was a corvette built at Kiel's Norddeutsche Schiffbau AG (later renamed the Krupp-Germaniawerft) and launched 20 March 1877. Taken out of service after a boiler explosion in 1907, she ended her days as a coal freighter in Vigo, Spain. On 11 April 1908, the Panzerkreuzer SMS Blücher was launched from the Imperial Shipyard in Kiel. This ship was sunk on 24 January 1915, in WWI's Battle of Dogger Bank. It succumbed to an overwhelming force of British battle cruisers under the command of Vice Admiral David Beatty.
[edit] Notes
- ^ In addition to the officers and sailors of the crew, the men on board Blücher numbered 882 "passengers": Generalmajor Erwin Engelbrecht and his staff of officers; soldiers to occupy Oslo; bureaucrats and officials for taking over the administration of the capital and with it most of the central institutions of the country (as well as, importantly, the print and broadcast media); and a military band.
[edit] See also
- List of Kriegsmarine ships
- List of naval ships of Germany
- List of World War II ships
- List of ship launches in 1937
- List of ship commissionings in 1939
- List of shipwrecks in 1940
[edit] External links
- Blücher technical data – From Michael Emmerich's website German Naval History
- Blücher data, history and pictures; also some information on Oscarsborg fortress – From the homepage of Jan Arild Aaserud
- Timeline of the Blücher – From Jason Pipes' website Feldgrau.com
- Blücher photo gallery: launch, cruise, sinking – From Michael W. Pocock's website Maritimequest
[edit] References
- Koop; Klaus-Peter Schmolke (2001). Heavy Cruisers of the Admiral Hipper Class: The Admiral Hipper, Blucher, Prince Eugen, Seydlitz and Lutzow. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 155750332X.
- Binder, Frank; Hans Hermann Schlünz (1990). Schwerer Kreuzer Blücher. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft. ISBN 378220784X.
- Lyon, Hugh (1986). Encyclopedia of the World's Warships: A Technical Directory of Major Fighting Ships from 1900 to the Present Day. Book Sales. ISBN 0890097801.
- Whitley, M J (1995). Cruisers of World War Two: an International Encyclopedia. London: Arms and Armour Press, pp 57-63. ISBN 1-85409-225-1.
