The Battle in the Baltic Sea, 1944-1945.

first I have ordered a hot little book by R. Güth on the Z-34 so this should help the thread soon with more info....

from several German sources and English.....

Z-34 arrives in Kiel from Norway on February 1, 1945
Sailed for Gotenhafen and attached to the Second Kamf Gruppe on February 3rd.

5th February, escort to Admiral Scheer and involved in shore bombardment in the Tokemit area

16 February, escort convoys to Kurland

February 17th escort of ship ladden with troops and vehicles aboard the steamers Volta and Bukarest to Gotenhafen

20 February, escort for the Hamburg with over 12,000 wounded and refugees to Sassnitz

21 February, escort duty for the Deutschland to Gotenhafen

February 25, to Pillau with the T-33, embark 800 wounded for transfer to Gotehafen

February 28th with the T-33, escort of the Cometa and Stinnes to Libau

4 March 45, on return convoy from Libau to Danzig with wounded

9 March 45, shore bombardment with 190 rounds against Kammin

10 March 45, bombardment off Dievenow, Fritzlow and Kammin with 74 rounds

11 March 45, bombardment off Kolberg

12 March 45, bombardment off Sellnow and taking on wounded on the disengaged side.

15 March 45, bombardment of Kolberg on three different targets; 95 rounds

16 March 45, bombardment of Kolberg' takes on 1400 soldiers and wounded. Number 4 gun bursts !

18 March 45, Returns to Swinemunde

21 March 45, sail for Gotenhafen as screen for Lützow with the T-33 and Z-43; attack sub with depth charges; air raid at Gotenhafen; Soviet artileery forces numerous shifts of the boats in port.

23 March 45, Engage Soviet tanks in Zoppot; fired on by 120mm battery

24 March 45, Flak escort for Prinz Eugen; numerous Soviet air attacks

25 March 45, bombard several targets SW and west of Gotenhafen; more Soviet air attacks....

26 March 45, Flak escort for Lützow; running Soviet air attacks by Pe-2's and Il-2 a/c

27 March 45, bombardment off Oliva-Pelauken, number 2 gun bursts.

28 March 45, shore bombardment of Neufahrwasser und Langfuhr with 130 rounds. flak escort to Lützow and number 3 gun bursts (last single mounting); air attack by two Il-2's and 5 fighters, shore bombardment of Arlen and Lenienthal.

30 March 45, flak escort to the Franken with the Z-31

31 march 45, flak escort to the Prinz Eugen, air attacks; RAG used for the first time....

translating April now......be back.....

~E

 

1st of April 1945, in a convoy to Hela escorting the Deutschalnd with 5,000 wounded and 5,000 refugees., and the Pretoria with 6,000 wounded and refugees.

3rd of April 1945, Z-34 arrives in Copenhagen with the convoy and re-sails for Swinemunde

5 April exchanges guns with Z-33

6th of April, Docks in Swinemunde

10th April 45, the gun exchanges with Z-33 are cancelled.

11 April 45, along with the T-36 become escorts to Sperrbrecher 17, the Goya, the Marburg, Lappland and the mars.

12 April 45, back to Hela; shore bombardment off Oxholt and Schwarzau with 103 rounds.

13th April 45, With the T-36 provides flak duties at Hela; sub attack and the Z-34 drops 37 depth charges.

15th April 45, bombardment off Oxholt' defends loaded refugee ships; number 4 gun bursts again ! fire-fighting party sent to Pretoria as it is hit in an air raid. Z-34 returns to Hela.
2 small shadows sighted at 2310 hrs, in 345 degree; torpedo hit port side and compartments 4 and 5. starboard engine still operative.

16th April 45, Anchored and attacked by 16 Pe-2 a/c and fighter escort. Serious flak damge.
towed west towards Swinemunde for repairs.

Boat later taken over by US forces and loaded with gas ammo and scuttled in Skaggerak on 26 March 1946......sad ending to a gallant ship !

E~

 

Thanx Erich!

Interesting and made me check the net for more data on the battles in the Gulf.

Like

U-250

Sunk 30 July, 1944 19.40 hours, in the Baltic Sea in the Gulf of Finland, in position 60.28N, 28.25E, by depth charges from Russian sub chaser MO-103. 46 dead and 6 survivors.


http://uboat.net/boats/u250.htm

On 30 July, 1944 at 1242 hrs U-250 attacked the 56-ton Russian sub chaser MO 105 with a G7e torpedo, at the north side of the Koivisto strait in the Gulf of Finland. The Russian boat was destroyed easily (19 dead, 7 survivors), but the explosion brought other Russian boats to the location.
At 1910hrs, Russian 'Oberleutnant` Aleksander Kolenko, chief of MO 103, got a sonar contact from U-250 and dropped five depth charges. U-250 was not heavily damaged, but because an air-bubble track was visible on the water MO 103 dropped a second series of five depth charges. One of these exploded over the diesel room. A large hole opened in U-250's hull and she sank. Kapitänleutnant Werner-Karl Schmidt along with five other crewmembers in the control room managed to escape at the last minute.

Needless to say the Russians were thrilled to have a German U-boat captain alive and a sunken U-boat in shallow waters. Russian divers soon discovered that the boat lay at only 27 meters under water and had only a slight list of 14 degrees to the right. A large hole above the diesel room was observed. Two large air tanks, 200 tons each, were transported to the area and the Russians worked behind a smokescreen to raise the boat.

The Germans and the Finnish did what they could to prevent the boat, which was equipped with the new secret T5 acoustic-torpedo, also called Zaunkönig (Wren), from falling into Soviet hands. Finnish coastal artillery and German torpedo boats made frequent attacks on the salvage site, but to no avail.

Finally, in September 1944 the Russian raised U-250 and towed it between air tanks to Kronstadt for examination. On 15 Sept, 1944 U-250 was brought into the dry dock at Kronstadt.



U-250 in the dry dock at Kronstadt.

 

Check the one before this one as well!



The losses around the Bay of Danzig were mostly due to very heavy mining operations by the British in 1944. This helped delay the deployment of the XXI boats in late 1944.
In case of U-416 it's the latter sinking position that I plot. As you can see 4 U-boats were lost in unknown position in the Gulf of Finland. This map does of course not include the more than 200 U-boat scuttled there in May 1945(?).

The eastern front position is drawn as of Aug 29, 1944.

http://uboat.net/maps/baltic_sea.htm

 

Hi!

Here are some links related to this topic

Radars
http://homepages.fh-giessen.de/~hg6339/Articles/DE_RadarKM/MnuArticRadar.htm

TK-boats
http://www.hut.fi/~jaromaa/Navygallery/Smallship/BoatGal/PG5.jpg (Finnish "Viima", ex Soviet TK-141)
http://homepages.fh-giessen.de/~hg6339/data/su/cMC_G5MTB.htm
http://homepages.fh-giessen.de/~hg6339/data/su/cMC_D3typeMTB.htm

Regards, Juha

 

Thanks Juha and welcome aboard the fourms....

strange but I do believe the pic I have is not of a Soviet torpedo boat but possibly a cutter of somesort. It is displayed in the older Schnellboote book by Volkmar Kühn.

~E

 

In my references to the Schnellbootflottille 5 that served primarily in the Ostsee and providing escort protection and evacuation of refugees and soldiers during the last couple months of the war. One of the outstanding figures and former Kommanduer of the 5th is K.Kpt. Bernd Klug


and also one of the earlier S-boots during the ops in Finland during 1941 and later in 44 the S-142 without the armored bridgecap at this time of the photo....


more to come.....

Altenwolf

 

Kai, and others can you post a pic of the islands of Sworbe and Oesel for me ? A map would be fine if possible

~E

 

I think Halbinsel Sworbe and Oesel and Saarenmaa are one and the same thing?!

 

Kai, thanks for the great images ! I had thought through reading that Oesel and Swörbe were two seperate islands or that there was the strait of Swörbe seperating the two ?

more research

~E

 

Hi Erich,

I know it can be quite difficult at times because places have names from the middle-ages or like and as well as the nation that the place belongs to can change and the name as well after that...

For instance one thing that irritated me was that Platen see is the Balaton....

http://www.hut.fi/~jaromaa/Navygallery/Misc/misc.htm

Saarenmaa=Ösel ( actually means Island=Ösel )

And I found this remark:

"peninsula of Sworbe, in the south of Oese." and I guess the Halbinsel Sworbe means the same thing.

 

I am so sorry I am late to post here. But after some research now I am able to answer Ta's questions about the Prinz Eugen and Leipzig .

The toxic gases on-board the Leipzig ship were probably remains of toxic products used by British industry.

Yes, the German Navy had radars. But for some reasons both ships had their radar equippments turn-off when then crashed. Perhaps they considered that it was a quiet sector of the front and that Russian ships or submarines wouldn't go that far with such weather.

And then, the Prinz Eugen was christened after Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736) who was first a favourite of Louis XIV until Eugene's mother was expelled from the Versailles Court after a scandal. The French King ordered Eugene to become a priest, the latter refused and ran away. Then he started serving under Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, where he started a remarkablñe military career. He defeated the Turkish Armies in the last years of the XVII century during the Turkish siege of Vienna. And in the first years of the XVIII century, Eugene met John Churchill, I Duke of Malbourough and both became close friends. Then Austrian and English Armies defeated the French when they sieged Vienna and later in the decisive battle of Blenheim.



Prince Eugene of Savoy

 

[ 23. September 2003, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: Crapgame ]

 

Despite the disaster at Hela, the other ships of "Thiele’s Fighting Squadron", named like that in honour of its commander, vice admiral August Thiele, kept getting into land battles as the situation seemed more and more desperate. On November 18th 1944, after an intense preliminary bombardment of twelve hours against Sworbe peninsula, the Russians attacked. The outnumbered Germans, of course, could not face such an opposition and decided to withdraw; though they expected to evacuate the troops and their precious equipment, which could be done only by halting the Russian advance. That is why the heavy guns of the navy had to intervene; to allow the land troops to get away from the enemy. Vice admiral Thiele sailed towards Sworbe with the just-repaired Prinz Eugen and the Lützow.

After thirty-six hours of shelling and smashing the Russian positions with terrific accuracy, the ships ran out of ammunition, but then arrived the Admiral Hipper and the Admiral Scheer to relieve them. The shelling went on uninterrupted.

However, things weren’t as easy as they had been in August, during the first bombardment at Tukkum. Day by day, the Russians realised the great damages and losses made by the German ships and they were determined to neutralise them at any cost. When Russian batteries —of 170mm calibre— started counter-battery fire, the ships simply pulled back to the sea and kept firing —because their range was superior to the Russian’s and then sent torpedo and high-altitude bomber planes. The Admiral Scheer changed course and manœuvred desperately to prevent being subjected to massive fire —she was obviously, the main target of Russian 11-inch guns. Heavy bombs exploded beside her and huge water splashes broke on her decks. It was a tribute by the Russians to her enormous power. But no bombs or torpedoes hit the target.

The fact that the land troops were able to withdraw from Sworbe was a good sign of the effectiveness of the ships. The Army commanders sent wireless messages to their comrades at sea to express their gratitude and Thiele smiled, happily. For four years he had been forced to use his hips for training in the Baltic and now he saw that the waiting hadn’t been in vain, as the Army observers’ enthusiastic descriptions by ultra-short wave devices could prove.
The Russians tried to prevent the Germans from withdrawing, using gun boats and light vessels, but they only found fierce opposition by minesweepers, frigates and gun boats, part of 9th division of rescue, under whose protection German troops and almost all of their equipment were carried to Courland. On the morning of 25th November, the red divisions advanced to the extremes of the peninsula, but they attacked empty positions and only found destroyed ships.

A week or two later, the Admiral Scheer went back to her base in Gotenhafen. Her crew had just tight her to the pier, when they noticed several Army soldiers —with bandages and crutches— walking towards the ship. "What are you looking for around here?" asked someone on deck. "Were you guys at Sworbe?" asked the soldiers. "Of course we were. Why?" Without answering, the soldiers went onboard and hugged the mariners. "Thank you" was the only thing they could say "Thank you a lot!"

Questions and answers went hither and thither. The crew of the Admiral Scheer was delighted when listening about how effective their fire had been. Effectively, the soldiers had just arrived from Sworbe. "We had started losing all hope when you guys came and gave the Russkies your heavy shells…"

Little after, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz published the following message:

December 1944.
To Grand Admiral Dönitz, Commander in Chief of the German Navy:

After the battle of Sworbe, I feel I have to express how thanked I am, as the whole Eastern Army is, to all the members of the Navy for their heroic efforts, sacrifices and decision in helping us. I am convinced that our struggle against an enemy immensely superior has strengthened in great shape the brotherhood liaisons between the German Army and the German Navy.

Colonel general Heinz Guderian, Chief of Staff of the Army.



Vice admiral August Thiele.



Admiral Scheer



Lützow



Admiral Hipper



Prinz Eugen

[ 21. January 2004, 05:37 PM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]

 

In mid January 1945 the German light cruiser Emden went into shipyard at Sichau, in Königsberg Port. The Emden was the first half-size ship built by the German Reich after World War I.

Despite her engines needed to be repaired, she had been quiet for days. There were no noise of hammers, carpenters, crane operators nor any other worker, only quietness and immobility. In the distance, guns firing could be heard: the Russians. The situation was so bad that by January 19th, the shipyard’s workers had been drafted into the local Volkssturm —People’s Guard— to defend the city, now called ‘Festung Königsberg’ —Fortress Königsberg.

From then onwards, the shipyard at Sichau remained quiet. All was a mess onboard the ship. The crew had left everything exactly where the last turn of workers had been working. The crew only stared, doubting. What would happen next? Which would be the next movement of the Emden?

The noise of the guns was closer everyday, as well as the fighting.

On January 23rd, the first officer of the Emden, Fregattenkapitän —commander— Wickmann, who had assumed command, received a telephone call. Directly from the OKM —Oberkommando der Marine, High Command of the Navy— in Berlin. The light cruiser had to prepare to sail at once; an ice-breaker would come to her aid and helped by tugboats she had to cross the Königsberg Canal until Pillau. From there, she would have to steam full-ahead —at five knots, the maximum speed her engines could provide— and get to Kiel, where the repairs would be resumed.

While the ship was preparing to part, Wickmann received another call from Berlin, indicating him that the ship had to wait until a very important charge was loaded onboard the ship: The coffins of Field marshal and Reich’s President Paul von Hindenburg and his wife, Gertrud.

A few hours before Russian armoured units reached the Monument of the battle of Tannenberg, a captain from an engineer battalion managed to load the two coffins into two heavy lorries that were now heading to Königsberg. The coastal route was the safest of the motorways still opened.

Meanwhile, hundreds of sailors tried to put in order the mess on board the Emden. The main deck was cleared and space was made for the coffins.

Hours went by. She was ready to sail, the ditch had been flooded and the ice-breaker was in position. By sunshine, it started snowing and silence invaded the scene. A car parked beside the ship and a general came out: lieutenant general Oskar von Hindeburg, who wanted to say goodbye to his parents for the last time; since he wasn’t sure if he was to survive the fighting to come at Königsberg —he survived and could see the coffins again in August 1946 and where buried at the Elizabethan church of Marburg, along the corpses of Friedrich Wilhelm I and Friedrich II.

The crew didn’t know the hour in which the convoy was to arrive, so they had to wait in the cold ship. Her mechanical situation didn’t permit electricity to be used for heating. However, at three o’clock in the night, the convoy finally arrived.

Everything was calmed and quiet, as if the Russians and the war weren’t there. The thick snow fell delicately and covered all slowly. The caps and shoulders of the improvised honour-guard became white. The honour flags and standars of the monument were held in the side of the ship, with the lifeboats. The ship’s cranes lifted the big coffins —six-feet long and three-feet wide— and laid them on their improvised honour spot. Only indispensable orders were given in weak voices.

At four o’clock, the Emden steamed off the pier and following the ice-breaker’s path, headed to Pillau, leaving Königsberg at her stern. Wasn’t it a symbol of the last months of the war? The winner of 1914 escaping from the winner of 1945? Hindenburg had left Eastern Prussia.



Emden



Reichspräsident and Generalfeldmarschall Paul Ludwig Karl von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg.

 

am here for only a moment, but Gottfried, what happened to the forward "A" turret on the Prinz ?

wish I could somehow get my own images up on this site to add to your excellent materials. have some very interesting multi-page docs on the Prinz during the shore-bombardements that I will try and post, time and hands permitting.

also wish I could get this lengthy thread over to the Atlantic forum OR maybe we should rename that forum naval warfare as Martin so put it... ?

bis bald, and thumbs up !

~E

 

Thanks for the response, Erich.

That detailed account on the bombardment would be nice.

And about the Prinz's turret... I'm really not sure if that's the Prinz Eugen in the first place and then I think the turret is there, behind a crane, and I think the guns might be pointing starboard...

 

On December 1944 the German Fleet lost the old battleship Schleswig Holstein, which sank after being bombed in front of Gotenhafen; but, from January 1945 onwards, the cruisers went back into action bombarding the Baltic shores again. Now it was needed to save the troops at Memel, which were doing anything possible to get to Samland through Kurische Nehrung —the sand hills between the Baltic and Courland Bay. Despite the Russians attacked towards the sea at Cranz, the ships stopped them and held the line open, thus allowing thousands of men and refugees to get to Samland.

They were heading to Pillau, where they expected to get to the sea, further west. But the small port was completely inadequate for the innumerable amount of soldiers and refugees and there were terrible scenes. The merchant and war ships made amazing efforts to manage the situation; but when refugees were boarding the ships had to sail off because the Russians had already surrounded the town. The Red Army had reached Frische Haff and cut the liaison between Königsberg and Pillau. The Admiral Scheer and the Lützow threw their artillery’s weight upon the Soviet lines north of Pillau. The German Army made a second try and re-established contact with the capital of Eastern Prussia. Once more, thousands of refugees resumed their escape from Königsberg to the port at Pillau in their last chance of salvation.

Through the Admiral Scheer’s artillery optics, her crew could see the long and black lines of civilians marching through the freezing Haff: people, vehicles and animals marched on the ice. Russian artillery soon started to fall upon the refugees on open ground and the German mariners only could stare. They were desperate to get fuel and ammunition enough to allow their guns to ‘talk’ again. By early February, the naval guns were able to give a breath to the Army, which could now withdraw to the Gulf at Elbing, Tolkemit and Frauenburg.
During this action, the Admiral Scheer opened fire within a range of twenty-two miles; the longest range she had ever used. The Soviet shooting stopped but the ship had to flee for Kiel to make repairs. She sailed from Gotenhafen to Kiel on early March, carrying eight-hundred refugees and two-hundred wounded, plus her crew. Even with her passenger overload, she kept her guns ‘talking’ between Kolberg and Dievenow, when a long refugee-column marching along the shore was subjected to Russian artillery fire. The ship open fire in three different occasions and blew all Russian batteries up.
By this time, the British air-reconnaissance had become so effective that they found the ‘pocket battleship’ very soon at Kiel’s shipyards. The RAF then started ‘visiting’ her, day and night. The Admiral Scheer was lucky until April 9th and even during the first stages of the raid on the night of the 10th; after twenty minutes of heavy bombardment no bomb had hit her; but then some bombs exploded in the water very near and broke the plates in the sides. She then rise her keel to the air and sank in a few minutes.

Most of the crew had taken shelter in land. The maintenance and guarding crew, as well as the commander managed to flee, but thirty-two sailors lost their lives.

That was the end of the last big ship of the Kriegsmarine.



Schleswig Holstein



Lützow


Admiral Scheer

And the man who gave his name to this fabulous ship:



Admiral Reinhard von Scheer.

 

Maybe Martin could help us by posting information about the RAF raids which sank the Admiral Scheer and the Schleswig Holstein?

 

I managed to get some photos of the Hindenburg family:



Lieutenat general Oskar von Hindenburg.



The Hindenburg Family.



The President's funeral at Tannenberg Monument.



Paul von Hindenburg and Gertrud von Sperling finally resting to-gether at Marburg.