[9] After the ship had disappeared from the surface, large quantities of oil floated up and covered the close to two thousand sailors and soldiers fighting for their lives in the freezing water. [1] Design work on the first new light cruiser, ordered as "Ersatz Niobe", began in 1921. The Germans, on the other hand, lost a powerful heavy cruiser, 650-800 dead, approximately 50 wounded, and around 1000 were taken prisoner. 14.08.2014 - German cruiser Blücher in the Oslo fjord, April 9, 1940 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stay safe and healthy. Initially, four machine guns on the roof of the Main Battery also returned fire, but these had to be abandoned early on. During the battle, another burning ship was spotted in the distance from Oscarsborg, leading the Norwegian defenders to believe they had sunk another German warship in addition to Blücher. The occupation forces would then take care of the rest. [31], The return fire from Blücher was ineffective, with the light artillery mostly pointing too high and the main batteries, 20.3 cm guns, unable to fire due to the damage caused by the second 28 cm round from Oscarsborg's Main Battery. Article 190 limited new cruiser designs to 6,000 long tons (6,100 t) and prohibited new construction until the vessel to be replaced was at least twenty years old. All rights reserved. [27] The message had been sent to the naval base in Horten at 04:10, but the massive communications problems that severely hampered the efforts of the Norwegian military throughout the Norwegian Campaign had prevented it from reaching Oscarsborg in time. But she, like many other ships in history, was created and born in an era where she was vunerable to … German cruiser Blücher sinking in the Oslofjord, originally spearheading the capture of the Norwegian capital and Royal Family. Enter a comma separated list of user names. The heavy cruiser Blücher would sail into the Oslo harbor, turn its cannons against the royal palace, and Norway would surrender. The loss of the German flagship, which carried most of the troops and Gestapo agents intended to occupy Oslo, delayed the German occupation long enough for King Haakon VII and his government to escape from the capital. Kummetz flew his flag in Blücher. By 18:30, the Norwegian soldiers withdrew from the area, abandoning the Germans. According to Article 181 of the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that ended World War I, the German Navy was permitted only six light cruisers. It marked the end of the "Phoney War" and the beginning of World War II in Western Europe. Due to this, the retired Kommandørkaptein (Commander Senior Grade) Andreas Anderssen, who lived in nearby Drøbak, had been assigned as temporary commander for the battery. The heavy cruiser Blücher would sail into the Oslo harbor, turn its cannons against the royal palace, and Norway would surrender. SMS Seydlitz was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), built in Hamburg. [7], Obergefreiter Günther Morgalla—who survived the sinking—later said that, swimming toward his shivering crew mates onshore, he heard someone defiantly singing the Deutschlandlied followed by "Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern." She was the only ship of her class and was the first large warship built in Germany after the end of World War I.She was built at the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven; her keel was laid down in December 1921 and her completed hull was launched in January 1925. [50], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}59°42′03″N 10°35′34″E / 59.7009°N 10.5927°E / 59.7009; 10.5927, Battle of World War II in the Norwegian Campaign. The Kriegsmarine's newest ship at the outbreak of World War II, having been in commission for just over six months, she was sunk by Norwegian shore defences at the Battle of Drøbak Sound on April 9, 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung). The oil rapidly caught fire, killing hundreds more Germans. Text and photography by Sten Stockmann Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. After passing the line of fire of the fortress' gun batteries, the cruiser was burning and severely damaged, but her captain still hoped he would be able to save his ship. During this retreat, the fortress managed to damage the heavy cruiser "Lützow". Review of the 1/350 kit of the German Navy's Cruiser Blücher by Trumpeter. The Blucher lies in 92m depth in the Oslo-fjord and is due to prevailing conditions a very demanding dive. Colonel Eriksen, Commander of the Oscarsborg fortress near Drøbak, mainly maintained for historical purposes, sank the German heavy cruiser Blücher in the Drøbak narrows. By this point, Blücher was doomed. The heavy cruiser Blücher would sail into the Oslo harbor, turn its cannons against the royal palace, and Norway would surrender. [38] Around 1,000 of the Germans, including Generalmajor Erwin Engelbrecht and Admiral Oskar Kummetz, were eventually moved to a nearby farm and placed under light guard. [39] The leading German officers reached Oslo at 22:00, moving into the Hotel Continental, though without most of the troops intended to occupy the capital. On board Blücher were troops specially designated to capture the King, the Norwegian cabinet, the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) and the national gold reserve; the delay made it possible for all these to escape. After firing, the two other tubes were reloaded and readied for the next target. And they pumped the remaining fuel out for saving the marine-enviroment reasons. In light of the fall of the capital, and with news of German landings at the village of Son south of Drøbak,[46] Colonel Eriksen decided that further fighting without adequate infantry support was in vain, and agreed to a ceasefire in the evening of 9 April. In one of the more peculiar battles of the war, a hundred year old fortification, manned by raw recruits and pensioners and armed with 40- to 50-year-old weaponry of German and Austro-Hungarian manufacture, had destroyed a ship so new, its crew was still finishing training. [23] There was only time for the Main Battery to fire these two rounds, due to their slow reload time with only 30 untrained recruits manning them at the time. The ship was launched on 8 June 1937, and was completed slightly over two years later, on 20 September 1939, the day she was commissioned into the German fleet. [46] Amongst the bombers that attacked Oscarsborg were twenty-two long-range Junkers Ju 87R "Stuka" dive bombers of Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 under the command of Hauptmann Paul-Werner Hozzel, operating from Kiel-Holtenau airport in northern Germany. [25] As Kommandørkaptein Anderssen pushed the firing mechanism button for the torpedoes, at approximately 04:30, the weapons turned out to work perfectly; first one and then another torpedo raced out of their underwater exit tunnels at 3 m (9.8 ft) below the surface toward the burning warship. Emden was a light cruiser built for the German Reichsmarine in the early 1920s. Her keel was laid on 15 August 1936, under construction number 246. She was hit by shells from 15km distance and capsized near Doggersbank. She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet.She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. [1,621 × 1,137] [23] The aim was corrected for the second torpedo launch and the torpedo struck Blücher amidships, hitting the same general area as the first 28 cm shell. Even though it and the country were ultimately captured and occupied, the effects of delaying the German advance were immediate and considerable. The fortress was surrendered intact on the morning of 10 April. [34][35][36] The magazine blast ruptured the bulkheads between the boiler rooms and tore open the cruiser's fuel bunkers, igniting further fires. Blücher's torpedoes were fired against land to avoid them exploding in the uncontrolled fires aboard. Blücher was ordered by the Kriegsmarine from the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel. The remaining ships turned around and landed the German invasion forces out of range of Oscarsborg. Estimated Wreckposition of German Heavy Cruiser Blücher. As the political situation was chaotic, the 64-year-old commander, Oberst (Colonel) Birger Eriksen, had not received any clear orders and had received no notice as to whether the approaching warships were German or Allied. [2], While the main combat station for the Main Battery and the commander of Oscarsborg fortress was on the island Håøya north-west of South Kaholmen, due to the special circumstances in 1940, Oberst Eriksen took position in the backup station on the eastern flank of the main battery at South Kaholmen.[18]. 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[48], The garrison at the main battery and at Håøya were treated separately by the Germans from those captured from the mainland batteries, and were released a week after the battle. German Heavy Cruiser Blücher Wreckage Site and Diving (five videos) Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. The hotel was the temporary improvised location for the Royal Norwegian Navy Hospital, which had been evacuated from Horten at midnight on 8 April. The first 28 cm shell hit Blücher right in front of the aft mast,[19] and set the midship area up to the fore mast on fire. The battle is depicted in the 2016 feature film The King's Choice. Don't Miss. The reserve officers were released on 15 May, while the full-time officers were transferred to Grini prison camp and released in late May 1940.[48]. Kommandørkaptein Anderssen donned his old uniform and was transported by boat over the fjord to the torpedo battery. The German Kriegsmarine, Blücher Operational History, Heavy Cruiser, Blücher, Schwerer Kreuzer 1939-1940, Admiral Hipper class The wreck was originally discovered by sonar by Statnett, a power company inspecting under water lines, back in 2017. According to the report, a major concern is a typhoon damaging the wreck and facilitating a … Because of the influx of 450 fresh recruits, the fortress' naval mines were not deployed on 9 April. The flawless waterline hull has extensive superstructure detail cast in situ, as well as anchors, chains, and rolled-up torpedo nets. The fjord was the scene of a key event in the German invasion of Norway in 1940. German transport planes flying through Oslofjord; The Norwegian victory was short lived as, unbeknown to Eriksen, the Blücher was only the first step in the invasion. Named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo, the ship was laid down in August 1936 and launched in June 1937. U-637 U-boat Wreck Discovery by Famous Shipwrecks Hunter, Amazing discovery! The German navies of the 1920s through 1945—the Reichsmarine and later Kriegsmarine—built or planned a series of heavy cruisers starting in the late 1920s, initially classified as Panzerschiffe (armored ships). Oscarsborg had fulfilled its mission and denied an invader access to the capital. The fjord was the scene of a key event in the German invasion of Norway in 1940. [19] Only one gun crew of actual artillerymen was available, and two guns could only be made operational by splitting the real gunners between the two guns and using non-combatant privates to assist the gunners. Dreaded V1 Flying Bomb Flyes Again! The reality, however, was that the burning ship was the 107 long tons (109 t) Norwegian cargo cutter Sørland that had stumbled into the battle while on her way from Moss to Oslo with a cargo of paper. [35], At 06:22, Blücher sank bow first into the depths of the Oslofjord, first laying over on her port side, then turning upside-down and finally succumbing with her screws the last to disappear below the surface. Sten Stockmann - www.advanceddivermagazine.com | Snekker Anders (Youtube) | Esben Johannsen (Youtube) | Wouter Groenewegen (Youtube) - Northsea Explorers (Vimeo) - Stig Fredrik Johansson (Vimeo) - Stig Fredrik Johansson (Vimeo). VHF-radio and a skilled and experienced surface-crew is a must. The larger guns wrought havoc on board Blücher, while the 57 mm guns concentrated on the cruiser's superstructure and the anti-aircraft weapons,[24] and were partially successful in suppressing the fire from her light artillery as Blücher slowly sailed past the fortress. 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