German destroyer ZH1

History
Name: ZH1
Builder: Rotterdamsche Droogdok Mij, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Laid down: 12 October 1938
Launched: 12 October 1939
Commissioned: 11 October 1942
Fate: Scuttled on 9 June 1944
General characteristics [1]
Class & type: Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyer
Displacement:
  • 1628 tons standard
  • 2240 tons full load
Length: 106.3 m (348 ft 9 in)
Beam: 10.28 m (33 ft 9 in)
Draught: 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:
  • 2 shaft, Parsons geared turbines
  • 3 Yarrow type boilers
  • 45,000 shp
Speed: 37.5 knots (69.5 km/h; 43.2 mph)
Range: 5,400 nmi (10,000 km) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Armament:
  • 5 × 120 mm (4.7 in) guns
  • 4 × 37 mm (1.5 in) guns
  • 16 × 20 mm (0.79 in) guns
  • 6 × 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes

ZH1 was a Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyer. The boat was laid down as the Dutch destroyer Gerard Callenburgh but while still under construction she was captured during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II and commissioned in the Kriegsmarine.

Service history

The ship was laid down as Gerard Callenburgh on 12 October 1938 at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Mij in Rotterdam and launched on 12 October 1939. While under construction Germany attacked the Netherlands. It was decided to scuttle the ship in Nieuwe Waterweg to prevent it to fall in German hands. The Germans however decided to raise the ship in the summer of 1940 and towed it to Hamburg where she was repaired at the yard of Blohm & Voss. The ship was commissioned on 11 October 1942 and attached to the 5th destroyer flotilla in the Baltic Sea.[2]

31 October 1943 ZH1 and Z27 was sent to France.While passing through the English Channel the ship came under attack by British shore batteries.[2]

In March 1944 ZH1, Z23 and the torpedo boats T27 and T29 escorted the Japanese submarine I-129 to Lorient after meeting her in the Bay of Biscay. Later that month she performed convoy duties North of Brest.[2]

On 9 June 1944 the ship and other German destroyers engaged an Allied force near Île de Batz. In the battle she was damaged to the point that the commander gave the order to scuttle her. 36 of her crew perished with the ship.[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ "netherlandsnavy.nl". Retrieved 2013-10-14.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "ZH1 on netherlandsnavy.nl". Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  3. ↑ Helgason, Guðmundur. "HNMS Gerard Callenburgh". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
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