100-514: The G7a(TI) was the standard issue Kriegsmarine torpedo introduced to service in 1934. It was a steam-powered design, using a wet heater engine burning decaline , with a range of 7,500 metres (24,600 ft) at 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph) speed. In 1936, the Kriegsmarine's first electrical powered torpedo was introduced with the G7e(TII). It was replaced beginning in 1942 by
200-404: A charge of approximately 280 kg (620 lb) of so-called Schießwolle 36 . It was Kriegsmarine's first operational torpedo (hence "TI" = Torpedo number one), and the standard issue torpedo for all German U-boats and surface torpedo-bearing vessels from 1934 to the end of WW2. The torpedo was a straight-running unguided design, controlled by a gyroscope . The TI had variable speed, running
300-402: A direct-acting mechanical pistol, while the latter had an additional influence-mechanism (magnetic). Both mechanisms were flawed and contributed to the german "Torpedokrise"( torpedo crisis ) which lasted from the start of the war and through 1942. The mechanical deflection arms was designed too short, and the magnetic igniting-mechanism couldn't be properly tuned for the natural magnetic fields in
400-487: A distance of 5,000 m at 81 km/h (5,500 yd at 44kt), 7,500 m at 74 km/h (8,250 yd at 40 kt), and 12,000 m at 55.6 km/h (13,200 yd at 30 kt). The 44 kt setting was used only by torpedo boats like the Schnellboote on torpedoes with a reinforced engine. The TI was the last naval torpedo of German design in operational use with the traditional standard wet heat method of propulsion. The torpedo
500-581: A dozen destroyers were operational) were divided among the victors by the Tripartite Naval Commission . The US used the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll in 1946 as a target ship for the Operation Crossroads . Some (like the unfinished aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin ) were used for target practice with conventional weapons, while others (mostly destroyers and torpedo boats) were put into
600-661: A heavy ship suitable for offensive warfare on the high seas while still abiding by the letter of the treaty. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hitler soon began to more brazenly ignore many of the Treaty restrictions and accelerated German naval rearmament. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 18 June 1935 allowed Germany to build a navy equivalent to 35% of the British surface ship tonnage and 45% of British submarine tonnage; battleships were to be limited to 35,000 tons. That same year
700-554: A legitimate military target, resulting in the deaths of 117 civilians. Germany did not admit responsibility for the incident until after the war. Lemp was killed in action in 1941. U-247 was alleged to have shot at sunken ship survivors, but as the vessel was lost at sea with its crew, there was no investigation. In 1945, U-boat Commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck of U-852 was tried along with four of his crewmen for shooting at survivors. All were found guilty, with three of them, including Eck, being executed. In 1946, Hellmuth von Ruckteschell
800-484: A major re-armament of the navy (Plan Z) was planned, and initially begun, the start of the war in 1939 meant that the vast amounts of material required for the project were diverted to other areas. The sheer disparity in size when compared to the other European powers navies prompted Raeder to write of his own navy once the war began "The surface forces can do no more than show that they know how to die gallantly." A number of captured ships from occupied countries were added to
900-414: A maximum of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) while surfaced and 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) submerged. She had a range of 6,200 nmi (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) while on the surface and 73–94 nmi (135–174 km; 84–108 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) while submerged. U-30 had five torpedo tubes , (four in the bow, one in
1000-605: A much bigger target, the British battleship HMS Barham . Following the sinking of Barbara Robertson , U-30 fired a torpedo at the battleship and damaged her, killing four crew members. U-30 ' s next three victims were sunk by mines laid by the U-boat: El Oso , sunk on 11 January; Gracia , damaged on 16 January and Cairnross , sunk on 17 January. Meanwhile, U-30 returned to her home port of Wilhelmshaven on 17 January 1940. The fourth patrol that U-30 undertook began on 11 March 1940, when she left Wilhelmshaven for
1100-543: A new navy was established and was referred to as the Bundesmarine (Federal Navy). Some Kriegsmarine commanders like Erich Topp and Otto Kretschmer went on to serve in the Bundesmarine . In East Germany the Volksmarine (People's Navy) was established in 1956. With the reunification of Germany in 1990, it was decided to use the name Deutsche Marine ( German Navy ). By the start of World War II, much of
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#17327869208711200-528: A pair of contra-rotating propellers . Though this system of propulsion gave the TI great speed and endurance it had the distinct disadvantage of being very noisy and leaving a long wake of bubbles, common to most torpedoes of the period, with the exception of the Japanese surface-launched Type 93 and submarine-launched Type 95 , which were fuelled by an enriched oxygen wetheater engine. For U-boats, this relegated
1300-412: A period of 12 days, she traveled as far south as Portugal and sank the 712 GRT British ship Ellaroy on the 21st. Three days later, on 24 July, U-30 returned to Lorient, having experienced a malfunction in one of her engines. It then became clear that the boat was suffering a number of mechanical difficulties and as a result it was decided that she would need to be used sparingly. For her next patrol it
1400-561: A result of which it was definitely established that Athenia had not been sunk by a German U-boat". Raeder then asked the attaché to inform the American government. However, not every submarine had returned to port, and all U-boats maintained radio silence while at sea. Once U-30 docked on 27 September, Admiral Karl Dönitz met Lemp while he was disembarking from the U-boat. Dönitz later said that Lemp looked "very unhappy" and that he told
1500-821: A result, the submarines had much success for few losses (this period was dubbed the First Happy Time by the Germans). Italy entered the war in June 1940, and the Battle of the Mediterranean began: from September 1941 to May 1944 some 62 German submarines were transferred there, sneaking past the British naval base at Gibraltar . The Mediterranean submarines sank 24 major Allied warships (including 12 destroyers, 4 cruisers, 2 aircraft carriers, and 1 battleship) and 94 merchant ships (449,206 tons of shipping). None of
1600-691: A small number of targets in the area throughout the conflict. (By comparison the Italian Regia Marina operated 58 submarines in the area as part of the Sottomarini Legionari .) The Kriegsmarine saw as her main tasks the controlling of the Baltic Sea and winning a war against France in connection with the German army, because France was seen as the most likely enemy in the event of war. But in 1938 Hitler wanted to have
1700-784: A telegram to the German Navy's Baltic Command in Kiel , which stated that he wanted 100 SS and fifty Schutzpolizei (protective police) men sent to Liepāja for "quick implementation Jewish problem". Kawelmacher hoped to accelerate the killings, complaining: "Here about 8,000 Jews... with present SS-personnel, this would take one year, which is untenable for [the] pacification of Liepāja." Kawelmacher telegram on 27 July 1941 read: "Jewish problem Libau largely solved by execution of about 1,100 male Jews by Riga SS commando on 24 and 25.7." In September 1939, U-boat commander Fritz-Julius Lemp of U-30 sank SS Athenia (1922) after mistaking it for
1800-501: Is argument, this has been noted. The main combat ships of the Kriegsmarine (excluding U-boats): Construction of Graf Zeppelin was started in 1936 and construction of an unnamed sister ship was started two years later in 1938, but neither ship was completed. In 1942 conversion of three German passenger ships ( Europa , Potsdam , Gneisenau ) and two unfinished cruisers, the captured French light cruiser De Grasse and
1900-650: The Kriegsmarine (as for all branches of the armed forces during the period of absolute Nazi power) was Adolf Hitler , who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine ('High Command of the Navy'). Among the Kriegsmarine 's most significant ships were its U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. Wolfpacks were rapidly assembled groups of submarines which attacked British convoys during
2000-497: The G7e torpedo was developed. Even before the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933 the German government decided on 15 November 1932 to launch a prohibited naval re-armament program that included U-boats, airplanes, and an aircraft carrier. The launching of the first pocket battleship , Deutschland in 1931 (as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought battleship Preussen )
2100-466: The G7e(TIII) . The G7a(TI) remained in service as the main torpedo of Kriegsmarine for the length of the war, being the only torpedo used from surface vessels, and alongside electric torpedoes on the uboats. The G7a(TI) torpedo was 533.4 mm (21.00 in) in diameter, 7,163 millimetres (23 feet 6.0 inches) in length (with a type Ka or Kb warhead and Pi1 or Pi2 pistol), the warhead holding
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#17327869208712200-700: The German Mine Sweeping Administration (GMSA), which consisted of 27,000 members of the former Kriegsmarine and 300 vessels. The destroyers and the Soviet share light cruiser Nürnberg were all retired by the end of the 1950s, but five escort destroyers were returned from the French to the new West German Navy in the 1950s and three 1945 scuttled type XXI and XXIII U-boats were raised by West Germany and integrated into their new navy. In 1956, with West Germany's accession to NATO ,
2300-697: The Gneisenau was heavily damaged by a British air raid in 1942 and the Scharnhorst was sunk in the Battle of the North Cape in late 1943. The second pair were the 15-inch gun Bismarck class , consisting of the Bismarck and Tirpitz . The Bismarck was sunk on her first sortie into the Atlantic in 1941 ( Operation Rheinübung ) although she did sink the battlecruiser Hood and severely damaged
2400-515: The Kriegsmarine in Norway were seldom involved in these attacks, because of the inferiority of German radar technology, and because Hitler and the leadership of the Kriegsmarine feared losses of these precious ships. The most effective of these attacks was the near destruction of Convoy PQ 17 in July 1942. Later in the war German attacks on these convoys were mostly reduced to U-boat activities and
2500-414: The Kriegsmarine were modern ships: fast, well-armed, and well-armoured. This had been achieved by concealment but also by deliberately flouting World War I peace terms and those of various naval treaties. However, the war started with the German Navy still at a distinct disadvantage in terms of sheer size with what were expected to be its primary adversaries – the navies of France and Great Britain. Although
2600-614: The North Sea in an attempt to sink any Allied ships in the area. For 32 days, U-30 circumnavigated the British Isles and sank five enemy ships in the Bay of Biscay . The first vessel to be attacked was the 4,876 GRT British merchantman Otterpool , which was sunk on 20 June 1940. Two days later, the 3,999 GRT Norwegian vessel Randsfjord was sunk. On 28 June, the British ship Llanarth was torpedoed, followed by Beignon on 1 July and
2700-612: The Reichsmarine was renamed as the Kriegsmarine . In April 1939, as tensions escalated between the United Kingdom and Germany over Poland , Hitler unilaterally rescinded the restrictions of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. The building-up of the German fleet in the time period of 1935–1939 was slowed by problems with marshaling enough manpower and material for ship building. This was because of
2800-641: The Spanish Republicans . In January 1939, Plan Z , a massive shipbuilding programme, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British Royal Navy by 1944. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of a crash building programme for submarines ( U-boats ) instead of capital surface warships, and land and air forces were given priority of strategic resources. The Commander-in-Chief of
2900-602: The Treaty of Versailles , the Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines . Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing non-intervention , but in reality supporting the Nationalists against
3000-414: The evacuation of East Prussia and Danzig from January to May 1945. It was during this activity that the catastrophic sinking of several large passenger ships occurred: Wilhelm Gustloff and Goya were sunk by Soviet submarines, while Cap Arcona was sunk by British bombers, each sinking claiming thousands of civilian lives. The Kriegsmarine also provided important assistance in the evacuation of
3100-656: The 13,581 GRT passenger ship SS Athenia about 200 nmi (370 km; 230 mi) west of the Hebrides while she was en route from Liverpool to Montreal in Canada. The Athenia was the first ship sunk in World War II; out of 1,400 passengers, 112 of them, including 28 neutral Americans, died. After sinking Athenia , U-30 went on to sink two more vessels, Blairlogie and the SS ; Fanad Head . Following
G7a torpedo - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-536: The Admiral that he was in fact responsible for the sinking of Athenia . Lemp had mistaken Athenia for an armed merchant cruiser , which he claimed was zig-zagging. Dönitz subsequently received orders that Athenia affair was to be kept a "total secret", the High Command of the Navy (OKM) were not to court-martial Lemp as they considered his actions in good faith, and that any other political explanations about
3300-530: The Atlantic coast at Brest were evacuated back to German ports for deployment to Norway. The ships had been repeatedly damaged by air attacks by the RAF , the supply ships to support Atlantic sorties had been destroyed by the Royal Navy, and Hitler now felt that Norway was the "zone of destiny" for these ships. The two battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen passed through
3400-728: The Battle of the Barents Sea, which convinced Hitler that large warships were useless. All engineering of the aircraft carriers like catapults, arresting gears and so on were tested and developed at the Erprobungsstelle See Travemünde (Experimental Agency Sea in Travemünde) including the airplanes for the aircraft carriers, the Fieseler Fi 167 ship-borne biplane torpedo and reconnaissance bomber and
3500-564: The British steam merchantman Clan Macphee on 16 August 1940. Both of these attacks took place off the west coast of neutral Ireland. After these successes, however, U-30 once again experienced engine trouble and was forced to end her patrol early, returning to Germany. Before she arrived, Lemp received word that he had been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for the boat's previous war patrols. Following her eighth patrol, U-30
3600-532: The Egyptian Angele Mabro on 6 July. Following these attacks, U-30 headed back to port. Instead of returning to Wilhelmshaven, however, U-30 put in at Lorient , in France, which had been captured after the fall of that country . In doing so, she became the first German U-boat to enter the port. U-30 began her first patrol operating from Lorient and her seventh overall on 13 July 1940. During
3700-830: The English Channel ( Channel Dash ) on their way to Norway despite British efforts to stop them. Not since the Spanish Armada in 1588 had any warships in wartime done this. It was a tactical victory for the Kriegsmarine and a blow to British morale, but the withdrawal removed the possibility of attacking allied convoys in the Atlantic with heavy surface ships. With the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 Britain started to send Arctic convoys with military goods around Norway to support their new ally. In 1942 German forces began heavily attacking these convoys, mostly with bombers and U-boats. The big ships of
3800-649: The German Navy was heavily involved in the invasion of Norway , where it suffered significant losses, which included the heavy cruiser Blücher sunk by artillery and torpedoes from Norwegian shore batteries at the Oscarsborg Fortress in the Oslofjord . Ten destroyers were lost in the Battles of Narvik (half of German destroyer strength at the time), and two light cruisers, the Königsberg which
3900-427: The German fleet as the war progressed. Though six major units of the Kriegsmarine were sunk during the war (both Bismarck -class battleships and both Scharnhorst -class battleships, as well as two heavy cruisers), there were still many ships afloat (including four heavy cruisers and four light cruisers) as late as March 1945. Some ship types do not fit clearly into the commonly used ship classifications. Where there
4000-516: The German fleet at the beginning of the war was not even 20% of Plan Z. On 1 September 1939, the navy still had a total personnel strength of only 78,000, and it was not at all ready for a major role in the war. Because of the long time it would take to get the Plan Z fleet ready for action and shortage in workers and material in wartime, Plan Z was essentially shelved in September 1939 and the resources allocated for its realisation were largely redirected to
4100-453: The German heavy cruiser Seydlitz , to auxiliary carriers was begun. In November 1942 the conversion of the passenger ships was stopped because these ships were now seen as too slow for operations with the fleet. But conversion of one of these ships, the Potsdam , to a training carrier was begun instead. In February 1943 all the work on carriers was halted because of the German failure during
G7a torpedo - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-401: The German naval rearmament program known as Plan Z . She sank the liner SS Athenia (1922) on 3 September 1939, under the command of Fritz-Julius Lemp . She was retired from front-line service in September 1940 after undertaking eight war patrols, having sunk 17 vessels and damaging two others. U-30 then served in a training role until the end of the war when she was scuttled. She
4300-427: The Mediterranean submarines made it back to their home bases, as they were all either sunk in battle or scuttled by their crews at the end of the war. In 1941, one of the four modern German battleships, Bismarck sank HMS Hood while breaking out into the Atlantic for commerce raiding. The Bismarck was in turn hunted down by much superior British forces after being crippled by an air-launched torpedo. She
4400-780: The Republican attack were 31 dead and 110 wounded, 71 seriously, mostly burn victims. In retaliation the Admiral Scheer shelled Almeria on 31 May killing 19–20 civilians, wounding 50 and destroying 35 buildings. Following further attacks by Republican submarines against the Leipzig off the port of Oran between 15 and 18 June 1937 Germany withdrew from the Non-Intervention Patrol. U-boats also participated in covert action against Republican shipping as part of Operation Ursula . At least eight U-boats engaged
4500-449: The TI : Exersiceheads: Warhead/pistol statutory combinations according to Kriegsmarine regulations: Warhead/pistol possible (technically) combinations – only on special demand, approved by torpedo-arsenal and with special consideration to depth-settings in order to assure proper function of the pistol: Kriegsmarine The Kriegsmarine ( German pronunciation: [ˈkʁiːksmaˌʁiːnə] , lit. ' War Navy ' )
4600-511: The TI for use mainly at night, when its wake was least noticeable, so as to not give away the element of surprise and the location of the submarine that fired it. During daytime, the electrical propulsioned torpedoes were favoured. For the period 1934-1940 the only available warhead for the TI and TII were the Type Ka, with two available pistols: The Pi G7A-AZ and the Pi G7a-MZ. The former was
4700-632: The U-boats, causing the torpedo to run deep. The problems were common for the TI and TII torpedoes, but the TI also had issues with weak engine blocks (cracking at 44 kt setting), and the TII had issues with poorly performing batteries. The problems were so serious, Admiral Dönitz said, "...never before in military history has a force been sent into battle with such a useless weapon." In general, all issues were resolved by 1942 when new depth mechanisms and new pistols had been developed and put into service. The TII
4800-478: The United Kingdom ( Operation Sea Lion ) in the summer of 1940. There were serious doubts that the invasion sea routes could have been protected against British naval interference. The Fall of France and the conquest of Norway gave German submarines greatly improved access to British shipping routes in the Atlantic . At first, British convoys lacked escorts that were adequate either in numbers or equipment and, as
4900-730: The United States in December 1941 led to another phase of the Battle of the Atlantic. In Operation Drumbeat and subsequent operations until August 1942, a large number of Allied merchant ships were sunk by submarines off the US coast as the Americans had not prepared for submarine warfare, despite clear warnings (this was the so-called Second Happy Time for the German Navy). The situation became so serious that military leaders feared for
5000-472: The United States into the war on the side of the Allies . In order to calm down any American response to the sinking of Athenia , Joachim von Ribbentrop , the German foreign minister, arranged a meeting between Grand Admiral Erich Raeder and the American naval attaché on 16 September 1939. During the meeting, Raeder assured the attaché that he had received reports from every German submarine at sea and "as
5100-456: The adoption of convoy escorts , especially in the Atlantic, greatly reduced the effectiveness of surface commerce raiders against convoys. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Kriegsmarine 's remaining ships were divided up among the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping . Some were loaded with superfluous chemical weapons and scuttled. Under
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#17327869208715200-648: The attack, the German Ministry of Propaganda checked incoming reports from both London and the German Naval High command. Having been told by the Kriegsmarine that there was not a single U-boat in the vicinity of Athenia on the day of her sinking, the Propaganda Ministry promptly denied all allegations that any German U-boat had sunk Athenia . They claimed instead that the British had torpedoed their own vessel in an attempt to bring
5300-540: The battleship Tirpitz , was stationed in Norway as a threat to Allied shipping and also as a defence against a potential Allied invasion. When she was sunk, after several attempts, by British bombers in November 1944 ( Operation Catechism ), several British capital ships could be moved to the Far East. From late 1944 until the end of the war, the surviving surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine (heavy cruisers: Admiral Scheer , Lützow , Admiral Hipper , Prinz Eugen , light cruisers: Nürnberg , Köln , Emden )
5400-520: The battleship Prince of Wales , while the Tirpitz was based in Norwegian ports during most of the war as a fleet in being, tying up Allied naval forces, and subject to a number of attacks by British aircraft and submarines. More battleships were planned (the H-class), but construction was abandoned in September 1939. The World War I-era pre-dreadnought battleships Schlesien and Schleswig-Holstein were used mainly as training ships, although they also participated in several military operations, with
5500-417: The brokering of the International Non-Intervention Patrol to enforce an international arms embargo, the Kriegsmarine was allotted the patrol area between Cabo de Gata (Almeria) and Cabo de Oropesa . Numerous vessels served as part of these duties including Admiral Graf Spee . On 29 May 1937 the Deutschland was attacked off Ibiza by two bombers from the Republican Air Force . Total casualties from
5600-402: The construction of U-boats, which would be ready for war against the United Kingdom more quickly. The Kriegsmarine took part in the Battle of Westerplatte and the Battle of the Danzig Bay during the invasion of Poland . In 1939, major events for the Kriegsmarine were the sinking of the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous and the British battleship HMS Royal Oak and
5700-519: The development and deployment of midget submarines like the Molch and Seehund . In the last stage of the war, the Kriegsmarine also organised a number of divisions of infantry from its personnel. Between 1943 and 1945, a group of U-boats known as the Monsun Boats ( Monsun Gruppe ) operated in the Indian Ocean from Japanese bases in the occupied Dutch East Indies and Malaya . Allied convoys had not yet been organised in those waters, so initially many ships were sunk. However, this situation
5800-417: The first half of the Battle of the Atlantic , but this tactic was largely abandoned by May 1943 , when U-boat losses mounted. Along with the U-boats, surface commerce raiders (including auxiliary cruisers ) were used to disrupt Allied shipping in the early years of the war, the most famous of these being the heavy cruisers Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer and the battleship Bismarck . However,
5900-419: The fleeing German civilians of Pomerania and Stettin in March and April 1945. A desperate measure of the Kriegsmarine to fight the superior strength of the Western Allies from 1944 was the formation of the Kleinkampfverbände (Small Battle Units). These were special naval units with frogmen , manned torpedoes, motorboats laden with explosives and so on. The more effective of these weapons and units were
6000-524: The investigation undertaken by the German General Staff following the sinking of Athenia , U-30 remained in port until 9 December 1939, when she was finally allowed to put to sea again for her second war patrol. It lasted only six days, during which time she travelled up to the southern coast of (then neutral) Norway before returning to Wilhelmshaven on 14 December 1939. During the voyage U-30 did not encounter any enemy vessels, consequently she returned to port without any claims. U-30 ' s third patrol
6100-455: The latter bearing the distinction of firing the opening shots of World War II. Zähringen and Hessen were converted into radio-guided target ships in 1928 and 1930 respectively. Hannover was decommissioned in 1931 and struck from the naval register in 1936. Plans to convert her into a radio-controlled target ship for aircraft was cancelled because of the outbreak of war in 1939. Three O-class battlecruisers were ordered in 1939, but with
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#17327869208716200-498: The loss of Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate . Submarine attacks on Britain's vital maritime supply routes ( Battle of the Atlantic ) started immediately at the outbreak of war, although they were hampered by the lack of well placed ports from which to operate. Throughout the war the Kriegsmarine was responsible for coastal artillery protecting major ports and important coastal areas. It also operated anti-aircraft batteries protecting major ports. In April 1940,
6300-457: The mass of the allied freighters reached their destination in Soviet ports. The Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942 was an attempt by a German naval surface force to attack an Allied Arctic convoy. However, the advantage was not pressed home and they returned to base. There were serious implications: this failure infuriated Hitler, who nearly enforced a decision to scrap the surface fleet. Instead, resources were diverted to new U-boats, and
6400-414: The naval versions of two key early war Luftwaffe aircraft: the Messerschmitt Bf 109 T fighter and the Junkers Ju 87 C Stuka dive bomber. The Kriegsmarine completed four battleships during its existence. The first pair were the 11-inch gun Scharnhorst class , consisting of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , which participated in the invasion of Norway in 1940, and then in commerce raiding until
6500-430: The new engine was available). Note 2) Black used only from shore torpedo batteries, red from uboats and blue from surface vessels. Note 3) Pre-war produced models had 4-blade propellers. Post war use: The TI were used post-war by several navies with different modifications and designations (Marina Española: G-7a, Bundesmarine: DM11, Royal Danish Navy: T1 and T1T, Royal Norwegian Navy: T1 and T1 mod 1). Last known operator
6600-406: The northern hemisphere and narrow fiords. These issues led to premature or late detonations, as well as failing to detonate even when hitting the target, in numerous cases during this period until properly working pistols were introduced with first the mechanical Pi1, and later the combined mechanical/magnetic Pi2. Also, the depth mechanism had a design-issue leading to leakage of vacuum when stored on
6700-438: The number of Allied ships sunk started to decrease. Radar, longer range air cover, sonar , improved tactics, and new weapons all contributed. German technical developments, such as the Schnorchel , attempted to counter these. Near the end of the war a small number of the new Elektroboot U-boats (types XXI and XXIII ) became operational, the first submarines designed to operate submerged at all times. The Elektroboote had
6800-489: The possibility of winning a war against Great Britain at sea in the coming years. Therefore, he ordered plans for such a fleet from the Kriegsmarine . From the three proposed plans (X, Y and Z) he approved Plan Z in January 1939. This blueprint for the new German naval construction program envisaged building a navy of approximately 800 ships during the period 1939–1947. Hitler demanded that the program be completed by 1945. The main force of Plan Z were six H-class battleships . In
6900-425: The potential to negate the Allied technological and tactical advantage, although they were deployed too late to see combat in the war. Following the capture of Liepāja in Latvia by the Germans on 29 June 1941, the town came under the command of the Kriegsmarine . On 1 July 1941, the town commandant Korvettenkapitän Stein ordered that ten hostages be shot for every act of sabotage, and further put civilians in
7000-456: The region. The heavy cruisers Deutschland and Admiral Scheer , and the light cruiser Köln were the first to be sent in July 1936. These large ships were accompanied by the 2nd Torpedo-boat Flotilla. The German presence was used to covertly support Francisco Franco's Nationalists although the immediate involvement of the Deutschland was humanitarian relief operations and evacuating 9,300 refugees, including 4,550 German citizens. Following
7100-491: The service of Allied navies that lacked surface ships after the war. The training barque SSS Horst Wessel was recommissioned USCGC Eagle and remains in active service, assigned to the United States Coast Guard Academy . The British, French, and Soviet navies received the destroyers, and some torpedo boats went to the Danish and Norwegian navies. For the purpose of mine clearing, the Royal Navy employed German crews and minesweepers from June 1945 to January 1948, organised in
7200-647: The ships allowed and personnel were taken over from the Kaiserliche Marine , which was renamed the Reichsmarine . From the outset, Germany worked to circumvent the military restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans continued to develop U-boats through a submarine design office in the Netherlands ( NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw ) and a torpedo research program in Sweden where
7300-649: The simultaneous and rapid build-up of the German Army and Air Force which demanded substantial effort and resources. Some projects, like the D-class cruisers and the P-class cruisers , had to be cancelled. The first military action of the Kriegsmarine came during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Following the outbreak of hostilities in July 1936 several large warships of the German fleet were sent to
7400-563: The sinking of Athenia were to be handled by the OKM, who would deny any allegations that a German U-boat had sunk the vessel. In order to keep the sinking of Athenia a secret, Dönitz had U-30 ' s log altered in order to erase any evidence. It was not until the Nuremberg trials in 1946 that the truth about the fate of the liner was brought forth publicly by the Germans. As a result of
7500-479: The start of the war the same year there were not enough resources to build the ships. German submarine U-30 (1936) German submarine U-30 was a Type VIIA U-boat of Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine that served during World War II . She was ordered in April 1935 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles , which prevented the construction and commissioning of any U-boats for the German navy, and as part of
7600-405: The stern). She could also carry a total of eleven 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedoes or 22 TMA mines or 33 TMB mines and had an 8.8 centimetres (3.5 in) C35/L45 deck gun (with 220 rounds). She was equipped with one 2 cm (0.79 in) C 30 anti-aircraft gun . After being commissioned and deployed, U-30 was stationed in the German port city of Wilhelmshaven . During her career U-30
7700-477: The surface fleet became a lesser threat to the Allies. After December 1943 when Scharnhorst had been sunk in an attack on an Arctic convoy in the Battle of North Cape by HMS Duke of York , most German surface ships in bases at the Atlantic were blockaded in, or close to, their ports as a fleet in being , for fear of losing them in action and to tie up British naval forces. The largest of these ships,
7800-410: The terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Germany was only allowed a minimal navy of 15,000 personnel, six capital ships of no more than 10,000 tons, six cruisers , twelve destroyers , twelve torpedo boats , and no submarines or aircraft carriers . Military aircraft were also banned, so Germany could have no naval aviation . Under the treaty Germany could only build new ships to replace old ones. All
7900-506: The version of Plan Z drawn up in August 1939, the German fleet was planned to consist of the following ships by 1945: Personnel strength was planned to rise to over 200,000. The planned naval program was not very far advanced by the time World War II began. In 1939 two M-class cruisers and two H-class battleships were laid down and parts for two further H-class battleships and three O-class battlecruisers were in production. The strength of
8000-542: The west coast of Norway in preparation for the invasion of that country . For a period of 20 days, she traveled northeast along the Norwegian coast in search of any Allied convoys; she did not find any and returned to Wilhelmshaven on 30 March 1940. Like her fourth patrol, U-30 ' s fifth patrol ended without any losses. She put to sea on 3 April 1940 to support the German invasion of Norway and Denmark (codenamed Operation Weserubung ). For 32 days, U-30 travelled up
8100-423: The west coast of Norway. She then headed southwest to Scotland in order to intercept British warships that were heading north to defend Norway. She failed to encounter any vessels, however, and returned to Wilhelmshaven, arriving there on 4 May. U-30 ' s sixth patrol was the first time in which she had sunk any enemy ships since her third patrol. Having left Wilhelmshaven on 8 June 1940, she once again entered
8200-552: The whole Allied strategy. The vast American ship building capabilities and naval forces were however now brought into the war and soon more than offset any losses inflicted by the German submariners. In 1942, the submarine warfare continued on all fronts, and when German forces in the Soviet Union reached the Black Sea , a few submarines were eventually transferred there. In February 1942, the three large warships stationed on
8300-504: The zone of targeting by declaring that Red Army soldiers were hiding among them in civilian attire. On 5 July 1941 Korvettenkapitän Brückner, who had taken over from Stein, issued a set of anti-Jewish regulations in the local newspaper, Kurzemes Vārds . Summarized, the regulations were as follows: On 16 July 1941, Fregattenkapitän Dr. Hans Kawelmacher was appointed the German naval commandant in Liepāja. On 22 July, Kawelmacher sent
8400-455: Was scuttled at the end of the war. The TI were also issued in versions with program-steering gyroscopes, using the Fat I and Lut I or Lut II pattern running mechanisms - primary for use in attacking convoys and as self-defence against allied escorts. Note 1) 44kn was used only by S-Boote (problems with initial design led to breakdown on engines running 44 kn, so this setting was banned until
8500-690: Was RNoN with the T1 mod 1 (G7a with wire-guidance: Although four modifications to the torpedo were carried out over the years – the last with computerised control in 1992 – the same designation "mod 1" was applied throughout its service). In the RNoN, T1 mod 1 was used from FACs (until ca 1995), submarines (until ca 1990) and Coastal artillery shore batteries (until 2001). Other versions: Note 1) For launch with program setting, speed could only be set to 30 kn. Note 2) For launch with program setting, speed could be set to 30 or 40 kn. Exercise- and Warheads/pistols used on
8600-466: Was a step in the formation of a modern German fleet. The building of the Deutschland caused consternation among the French and the British as they had expected that the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles would limit the replacement of the pre-dreadnought battleships to coastal defence ships , suitable only for defensive warfare. By using innovative construction techniques, the Germans had built
8700-601: Was bombed and sunk by Royal Navy aircraft in Bergen, and the Karlsruhe which was sunk off the coast of Kristiansand by a British submarine. The Kriegsmarine did in return sink some British warships during this campaign, including the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious . The losses in the Norwegian Campaign left only a handful of undamaged heavy ships available for the planned, but never executed, invasion of
8800-589: Was decided that she would leave from Lorient, but would return to Germany. The eighth and last war patrol that U-30 was to undertake began on 5 August 1940, when she left Lorient for the North Atlantic . In 26 days, she travelled north of the British Isles, into the North Sea and entered the German port city of Kiel on 30 August 1940. During that time, she sank the Swedish vessel Canton on 9 August and
8900-554: Was heavily engaged in providing artillery support to the retreating German land forces along the Baltic coast and in ferrying civilian refugees to the western Baltic Sea parts of Germany ( Mecklenburg , Schleswig-Holstein ) in large rescue operations. Large parts of the population of eastern Germany fled the approaching Red Army out of fear for Soviet retaliation (mass rapes, killings, and looting by Soviet troops did occur ). The Kriegsmarine evacuated two million civilians and troops in
9000-598: Was involved in eight war patrols and sank 16 merchant ships, totalling 86,165 gross register tons (GRT) and one auxiliary warship of 325 GRT . U-30 also damaged one commercial ship of 5,642 GRT and damaged the British battleship HMS Barham . All of these attacks took place under the command of Kptlt. Fritz-Julius Lemp . U-30 went to sea on 22 August 1939, before World War II began. Her active service career began on 3 September 1939, just 12 days after leaving Wilhelmshaven and only 10 hours after Great Britain declared war on Germany, she sank
9100-751: Was later raised and broken up for scrap in 1948. U-30 was ordered by the Kriegsmarine on 1 April 1935 (as part of Plan Z and in violation of the Treaty of Versailles). Her keel was laid down on 24 January 1936 by AG Weser , Bremen as yard number 911. She was launched on 4 August and formally commissioned into the Kriegsmarine on 8 October under the command of Kapitänleutnant ( Kptlt. ) Hans Cohausz. Like all Type VIIA submarines, U-30 had two MAN 6-cylinder 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesel engines totalling 2,100–2,310 PS (1,540–1,700 kW; 2,070–2,280 bhp) as well as two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 electric motors, that produced 750 PS (550 kW; 740 shp) and allowed her to travel at
9200-406: Was much more successful. Having left Wilhelmshaven on 23 December 1939, she journeyed into the North Sea. She then circumnavigated the British Isles and travelled along the southern coast of Ireland. It was near to the west coast of Scotland that U-30 sank her first enemy vessel during her third patrol, the 325 GRT anti-submarine trawler HMS Barbara Robertson , on 28 December. That same day, she hit
9300-461: Was not formally declared, leading to the sinking of the USS ; Reuben James . This course of events were the result of the American decision to support Britain with its Lend-Lease program and the subsequent decision to escort Lend-Lease convoys with US war ships through the western part of the Atlantic. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent German declaration of war against
9400-433: Was powered by an engine fed by a mixture of compressed air and steam. Decaline fuel was burning in a combustion chamber, creating steam from fresh water. The torpedo's speed was determined by the level of pressure (three settings for 30/40/44 kn) from the low-pressure regulator feeding air to the bottom of the combustion chamber. The resulting superheated steam powered a four cylinder reciprocating engine , in turn powering
9500-517: Was retired from front-line service on 15 September 1940 and was assigned to training flotillas in the Baltic for the rest of the war. After her retirement, many of U-30 ' s experienced crew members, including Lemp, were transferred to U-110 . In the last months of the war, U-30 was used as a range boat (gunnery platform) before being scuttled by her crew on 5 May 1945 at Flensburg in Kupfermühlen Bay , in order to avoid surrendering
9600-462: Was sentenced to 10 years in prison, reduced to 7 years on appeal, for the illegal sinking of ships and criminal negligence for failing to protect the downed crew of the SS Anglo Saxon . Ruckteschell died in prison in 1948. After the war, the German surface ships that remained afloat (only the cruisers Prinz Eugen and [Nürnberg] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |4= ( help ) , and
9700-468: Was soon remedied. During the later war years, the Monsun Boats were also used as a means of exchanging vital war supplies with Japan. During 1943 and 1944, due to Allied anti-submarine tactics and better equipment, the U-boat fleet started to suffer heavy losses. The turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic was during Black May in 1943, when the U-boat fleet started suffering heavy losses and
9800-491: Was subsequently scuttled after being rendered a burning wreck by two British battleships. In November 1941 during the Battle of the Mediterranean, German submarine U-331 sank the British battleship Barham , which had a magazine explosion and sank in minutes, with the loss of 862, or 2/3 of her crew. During 1941, the Kriegsmarine and the United States Navy became de facto belligerents , although war
9900-752: Was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic . The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches , along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe , of the Wehrmacht , the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945. In violation of
10000-534: Was then also replaced by the TIII with improved batteries. There is at least one recorded case of a U-boat being bombed based upon her position being given away by a TI's wake. On 14 September 1939, U-30 was attacked by loitering United Kingdom Fairey Swordfish naval bombers when she fired a TI from her stern torpedo tube at the SS Fanad Head . U-30 was undamaged in the attack and served until she
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