German night fighter direction vessel Togo
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Type: | Night fighter guide ship |
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 13 August 1938 |
| Commissioned: | as HSK 10: December 1942 as NJL Togo: February 1943 |
| Fate: | Converted into a merchant vessel, ran aground on 21 November 1984 now with the name M/S Topeka |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | |
| Length: | 134 m |
| Beam: | 17.9 m |
| Draught: | 7.9 m |
| Propulsion: | One 8-cylinder Diesel engine 5,100 hp, One shaft. 3,800 kW (5,100 hp) |
| Speed: | 16 knots |
| Range: | 36,000 nm (at 10 knots) |
| Complement: | 283 men from Kriegsmariene 74 radar specialists from Luftwaffe |
| Armament: | 3× 10,5 cm AA guns 4× 2×3,7 cm AA guns 5× 4×2 cm 2× 2 cm FuMG A1 Freya radar early warning radar Würzburg-Riese gun laying radar |
| Aircraft | She could guide two night fighters simultaneously |
NJL Togo was a German night fighter direction vessel (Nachtjagdleitschiff) during WW2.
The NJL Togo was the second and the last of the German WW2 radar ships. The first one had been the NJL Kreta (ex-French Ile de Beauté) which had been taken over by the Kriegsmarine in January 1943, rebuilt and taken in use as a night fighter guide ship in August 1943. NJL Kreta was lost on September 21, 1943 near Capeira, after having being torpedoed by the British U class submarine HMS Unseen.
The NJL Togo was equipped with a FuMG A1 Freya radar for early warning. It had a range of some 40-75 km. She had also a Würzburg-Riese gun laying radar with a similar range plus night fighter communications equipment.
She was heavily armed with three 10,5 cm anti-aircraft guns, four twin barreled 3,7 cm aa-guns, four (later five) quad-barreled and three (later two) single barreled 2 cm guns
[edit] History
The Togo was launched in August 1938. She had been built for the Woermann Line and carried the name M/S Togo. After the outbreak of World War II and the following internment of German ships in Allied ports, she broke through the Allied blockade and returned to Hamburg where she was taken over by the Kriegsmarine in autumn 1939.
She was rebuilt late in 1940 into a minelayer. Late 1942 the Togo was converted into an auxiliary cruiser and renamed Coronel (Schiff 14). The Coronel made only one patrol to Dunkirk in early 1943, but failed to break out through the English Channel. Later the same year, she was converted into a night fighter guide ship. Before she assumed her role she was temporarily used as a minesweeper (Sperrbrecher) and heavy auxiliary cruiser (schwerer Hilfskreuzer) and in the role of merchant harassment cruiser (Handels-Stör-Kreuzer) as the HSK 10 Coronel.
From October 1943 the NJL Togo cruised the Baltic Sea operating under the control of the Luftwaffe. In March 1944, after the three great Soviet boming raids on Helsinki, she arrived to the Gulf of Finland to provide night fighter cover for Tallinn and Helsinki.
She survived the war and was transferred to Britain, but ended finally up in Norway after a brief trip to the US.
She had a long career as a merchant vessel, which ended abruptly on 21 November 1984 when she ran aground in Mexico. Two men died.
