German night fighter direction vessel Togo
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| Career (Germany) |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Merchant vessel |
| Name: | Togo |
| Operator: | Woermann Line |
| Launched: | 13 August 1938 |
| Homeport: | Hamburg |
| Fate: | Requisitioned by Kriegsmarine, 1939 |
| Career (Germany) |  |
| Name: | Coronel |
| Operator: | Kriegsmarine |
| Builder: | Wilton, Rotterdam |
| Yard number: | 10 |
| Acquired: | Requisitioned, 1939 |
| Recommissioned: | December 1942 |
| Renamed: | Coronel, 1940 |
| Reclassified: | Minelayer, 1940 Auxiliary cruiser, 1942 |
| Homeport: | Kiel |
| Nickname: | HSK-10 Schiff 14 Raider K |
| Fate: | Transferred to Luftwaffe, 1943 |
| Career (Germany) |  |
| Name: | Coronel |
| Operator: | Luftwaffe |
| Acquired: | 1943 |
| Recommissioned: | 1943 |
| Reclassified: | Night fighter guide ship, 1943 |
| Homeport: | Kiel |
| Fate: | Interned, 1945 |
| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
| Class and type: | Merchant vessel |
| Name: | Topeka |
| Acquired: | 1945 |
| Fate: | Ran aground on 21 November 1984 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Night fighter guide ship |
| Displacement: | 12,700 tons |
| Length: | 134 metres (440 ft) |
| Beam: | 17.9 metres (59 ft) |
| Draft: | 7.9 metres (26 ft) |
| Propulsion: | one 8-cylinder diesel engine, 5,100 hp, one shaft |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Range: | 3,600 nautical miles (6,700 km) at 10 knots |
| Complement: | 283 crew plus 74 radar specialists from the Luftwaffe |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
FuMG A1 Freya radar early warning radar Würzburg-Riese gun laying radar |
| Armament: | 3× 10,5 cm AA guns 4× 2×3,7 cm AA guns 5× 4×2 cm 2× 2 cm |
| Aircraft carried: | She could guide two night fighters simultaneously |
NJL Togo was a German night fighter direction vessel (Nachtjagdleitschiff) during World War II.
The NJL Togo was the second and the last of the German World War II 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 FlaK 38 anti-aircraft guns, four twin 3,7 cm FLaK 43 guns, four (later five) quadruple and three (later two) single 2 cm FlaK 30 guns
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[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.
[edit] Raider Coronel
In late 1942 the Togo was converted into an auxiliary cruiser. As raider Coronel, she was known to KM as HSK 10, and designated Schiff 14. To the Royal Navy she was Raider K.
Converted at the Wilton shipyard in Rotterdam she was commissioned in December 1942. Her armament consisted of 6x TK15 15cm guns, 6x FlaK 4 4cm guns, 4x 2 cm machine guns in a twin mount, and a few 2 cm guns in single mounts.
She was also designed to carry 3 aircraft, but these were never installed.
She was commanded by FK (later KzS) Ernst Theineman, and carried a crew of 350.
Attempting to break out into the Atlantic, Coronel moved by stages, and under heavy escort, through the Channel, towards a departure point in occupied France. However she was attacked repeatedly, and, considerably damaged, was forced to return to Kiel, arriving there on 2 March 1943.
[edit] Later history
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 bombing raids on Helsinki, she arrived in the Gulf of Finland to provide night fighter cover for Tallinn and Helsinki.
She survived the war and was transferred to Britain, but ended in Norway after a brief trip to the US.
She had a long career as a merchant vessel, which ended abruptly as MS Topeka on 21 November 1984 when she ran aground in Mexico. Two men died.
[edit] References
[edit] Books
- Paul Schmalenbach : German Raiders 1895-1945 (1977) ISBN 0 85059 351 4
- August Karl Muggenthaler : German Raiders of World War II (1977) ISBN 0 7091 6683 4
- Stephen Roskill : The War at Sea 1939-1945 Vol II (1956) ISBN (none)
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