HNoMS Olav Tryggvason

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Career
Norwegian minelayer Olav Tryggvason. Olav Tryggvason in her pre-war role as a training ship.
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	21 December 1932
Commissioned:	21 June 1934
Fate:	Destroyed by RAF bombing raid April 3, 1945.
General characteristics
Displacement:	1924 or 1596 tons (sources disagree)
Dimensions:	97 m x 11.5 m x 3.6 m
Armament:	As built: 4 x 12 cm (4.72 inch) guns 1 x 76 mm (3 inch) AA gun 2 x 47 mm (1.85 inch) automatic AA guns 4 x 46 cm torpedo tubes 280 mines After rebuild: 3 x 10,5 cm guns 2 x 3,7 cm guns 10 x 2 cm anti-aicraft guns 4 x 46 cm torpedo tubes 280 mines
Propulsion:	6000 hp ( Kw), 23 knop ( km/h, mph)
Crew:	175 or 132 (sources disagree)

The minelayer HNoMS Olav Tryggvason was built for the Royal Norwegian Navy by the naval shipyard at Horten in the early 1930s and had build number 119. She was considered a well armed and well balanced ship, with an engine plant consisting of both steam turbines and diesel engines.

She also served as a cadet training ship in the summer, taking aboard 55 cadets.

1 City of Flint incident
2 Battle in Horten harbour
3 German service
4 Name
5 See also
6 Source
7 References
8 External links

[edit] City of Flint incident

At the outbreak of World War Two, the Olav Tryggvason took part in neutrality protection duties. Her first armed action came on 3 November 1939, when the US merchant ship City of Flint entered Norwegian territorial waters. The City of Flint had been taken as a prize by the German pocket battleship Deutschland in the Atlantic and was on its way to Germany with the American crew as prisoners. According to public international law, the ship could have passed through Norwegian waters without interference, but when it stopped and anchored in the port of Haugesund, it broke Norwegian neutrality regulations. The Olav Tryggvason was dispatched and boarded the City of Flint with one officer and 30 armed sailors, who returned control of the ship to the American captain, Joseph H. Gainard, on November 6. He unloaded his cargo in Bergen and set sail in ballast for the US. The German prize crew was interned at Kongsvinger Fortress. In response, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs received several strong worded and threatening notes from its German counterpart.

[edit] Battle in Horten harbour

The Olav Tryggvason was at Horten for repair, manned only by a skeleton crew, when the Germans invaded on 9 April 1940. Along with the minesweeper HNoMS Rauma, she defended the harbour against the German torpedo boats Albatros and Kondor, and the räumboots R17 and R27. At some point during the battle, the light cruiser Emden arrived in the harbour, and was taken under fire and damaged as well. During the confusing battle at close range, Albatros and R17 was sunk by the Olav Tryggvason's 12 cm guns. Despite the best efforts of the Norwegian ships, the R27 managed to land a small infantry force in the harbour, before she blew up after repeated hits. At 07:35, after threats of aerial bombardment of the naval base and the adjacent city, as well as a misguided impression of the size of the German landing force, the Norwegian forces surrendered.

[edit] German service

The Olav Tryggvason was taken into the Kriegsmarine and renamed Albatros II, to commemorate the torpedo-boat she had sunk. Shortly thereafter, on April 16, she was renamed again, as the Brummer, a artillery training ship torpedoed in the Kattegat 14 April 1940.

After capture the ship was rearmed with new main and secondary guns.

[edit] 1940-1944: Western Europe, Barbarossa and North Sea

The Brummer spent her first year as a Kriegsmarine minelayer on the coasts of the Netherlands and Belgium before being transferred to the Baltic Sea in time to participate in Operation Barbarossa, carrying out mining operations in the Gulf of Finland.

After completing her tour in the Baltic she spent the years 1942 to 1944 in the North Sea and off Norway.

[edit] Back to the Baltic - Operation Hannibal

In 1944 Brummer resumed mining in the Baltic. She was used for mining until the spring of 1945 when she was employed as part of the armada that evacuated German troops and civilians from the path of the Red Army.

[edit] Destruction

The end of the Brummer came on April 3, 1945, when she was wrecked by RAF bombers while in dry dock at Deutsche Werke in the Baltic port of Kiel.

After the war, the wreck was blown up and used in the construction of a new dock area in Kiel.

[edit] Name

She was named after Olaf I of Norway, who was king of Norway roughly 995 to 1000.

[edit] See also

List of World War II ships

[edit] Source

Berg, Ole F.: I skjærgården og på havet - Marinens krig 8. april 1940 - 8. mai 1945, Marinens Krigsveteranforening, Oslo 1997 ISBN 82-993545-2-8
Abelsen, Frank: Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945, Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986 ISBN 82-7046-050-9