ADMIRAL SCHEER

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

ADMIRAL SCHEER

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:42 pm

Built as Panzerschiff B (Pocket Battleship) under yard No 173 by the Reichsmarine Werft, Wilhelmshaven for the German Navy.
25 June 1931 keel laid down.
01 April 1933 launched under the name ADMIRAL SCHEER, named after Admiral Reinhard Scheer, he was Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy during World War I. Christened by Frau Marianne Besserer, daughter of the late Admiral Scheer. She was one of the Deutschland Class.
Displacement 13,660 tons standard, maximum 15,180 tons. Dim. 186.00 x 21.34 x 7.25m. (maximum draught)
Powered by eight 9-cyl. MAN diesel engines, 52,050 shp, two shafts, speed 28.3 knots.
Fuel capacity 2.410 m³. Range 9.100 miles at 20 knots.
Armament: 6 – 28cm, 8 – 15cm, 6 – 8.8 cm AA, 8 – 3.7cm AA, 8 – 2.0cm AA, 8 - 53.3cm torpedo tubes.
Two Heinkel He60D planes.
Complement 619, during peace, and from 1935: 1070, as the flagship crew increased.
12 November 1934 commissioned, under command of Kapitän zur See Wilhelm Marschall.

After proving trials and training, which were completed on 18 April 1935, she made some visits to Baltic ports.
From 19 October until 09 November she undertook battle training in the North Atlantic.
From 06 till 19 June 1936 as flagship of Admiral Förster she made together with other German warships a roundtrip to the British Islands.
24 July 1936 she sailed from Wilhelmshaven for Spain. During the Spanish Civil War she did served in the non-intervention patrol. Altogether she made 7 voyages to Spain until 11 October 1937. During her fourth Spanish operation she bombarded coastal positions including the port of Almeria on 29 June 1938.

When World War II broke out she operated in the Baltic and North Sea.
During May 1940, when part of Europe was occupied by German forces, she underwent an extensive refit.
04 September 1939 during the first air raid on Wilhelmshaven by Allied planes she shot down one Blenheim IV bomber.
Until the end of January 1940, she was used for training in the Baltic.
01 February 1940 work commences on her refit and a major engine overhaul in Wilhelmshaven.
15 Feb. 1940 reclassed as a heavy cruiser.
31 July 1940 after her refit, which increased her length by 1.90m, she was transferred to the Baltic port Gotenhafen (Gdynia) for training.

23 October 1940 she sailed from Gotenhafen under command of Capt Kranke for a raiding operation in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean. She sailed via the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal (Kiel Canal) to Brunsbüttel and then to Stavanger escorted by one oiler and three torpedo boats.
Between 31 October and 01 November during heavy weather she broke out to the North Atlantic via the Denmark Strait.
From that time until she arrived back in Germany on 01 April 1941 she played havoc on allied shipping, sinking 14 merchant ships under which the auxiliary merchant cruiser JERVIS BAY when the ADMIRAL SCHEER attacked convoy HX 84.
After arrival she went for another overhaul, docking in the Deutsche Werke shipyard, Kiel from 15 April to 1 July 1941.
It was planned that she would make an other raiding voyage, but after the loss of the BISMARCK, and a failed breakout by the LÜTZOW, the voyage was cancelled.
After a training period in the Baltic she sailed to Norway, but soon ordered back to the Baltic.
25 September 1941 two depth charges exploded on deck caused by a crew handling error.
She sailed to the Blohm & Voss shipyard at Hamburg for repairs.
After the repairs she stayed in the Baltic till February 1942. 20 February together with other German warships she sailed from Brunsbüttel, and arrived 22 February in the Grimstadfjord in Bergen.
From there she headed along the coast to Narvik.
05 July 1942 she together with other German warships made a dash to the open sea, but was ordered back the next day.
16 August 1942 took part in Operation Wunderland when she in company with other ships sailed from Skjomenfjord and via the North Cape headed for Bear Islands and Franz Josef Land, During this voyage she sank the Russian icebreaker ALEXANDER SIBIRYAKOV, (depicted on a Russian stamp) and she bombarded Port Dickson, anchoring in Bogen Bay, Norway on 30 August.
Late December 1942 she was dry-docked at Wilhelmshaven.
26 February 1943 while in dry-dock she was hit by a bomb, which did not explode, during an Allied air raid on the port of Wilhelmshaven, but killed one crew member.
After the raids she was ordered to proceed to Swinemunde and sailed in a half finished condition 14 days later with a full complement of Flak (AA), she arrived safely in Swinemünde, and with much difficulties the remaining repairs were finished there.

After trials and training she was attached to the newly formed Fleet Training Group, with around 500 cadets on board, and within a few months these cadets were supposed to learn everything.

During the summer of 1944 she visited Copenhagen, but stayed mostly at sea in the Baltic.
09 October 1944 she was lucky, she sailed from Gotenhafen, just before Allied bombers attacked the port.
She carried on with her cadet training. In November she was ordered to support shore forces by bombardment of enemy positions on the peninsula of Sworpe (Estonia) after two extra 3.7cm twin AA guns were fitted.
Between 22 and 24 November carried out bombardments on Soviet armoured columns and positions, intended to give the German ground forces the change to escape from the peninsula without heavy losses. She was under constant attack of Russian bombers and torpedo aircraft but she escaped almost unharmed.
After this operation she sailed back to Gotenhafen.

January she was at Pillau, between 2 – 5 January used as a floating battery and came in action against Russian positions on the Samland coast.
From that time till 8 March 1945 she was used as a floating battery and used where necessary along the Baltic coast to fire on enemy positions.
The gun barrels were worn out by constant use and needed urgent re-boring. She sailed via Gothenhafen were she took on board 800 refugees and 200 wounded, who were landed in Swinemunde. She was pressed again into action to assist the German army, and she fired on enemy positions between Kolberg and Dievennow until she ran out of 25cm ammunition.
16 March she sailed from Swinemunde with 400 refugees on board for Kiel, where she berthed on 18 March.
At Kiel she was under constant Allied air attacks, and when on 09 April 1945 a new air-raid warning came, most of the crew went to bunkers ashore leaving only a damage control party on board of around 90 men, she was attacked at 22:30, the first hit was at 22:38, and subsequent hits caused her to list at 16 degrees to starboard at 22:45.
First the list could be controlled but shortly thereafter the list increased to 28 degree, and the order was given to abandon the vessel. She capsized in about 15 meter of water 15 to 17 minutes later.
Salvage teams cut holes in her hull and scoured for survivors. Eight members of Damage Control Party I and seven other crew members died, and were left entombed in the mangled remains of the wreck.

From July 1945 the wreck was stripped of all valuable metals and the hull then abandoned. When work commenced on a new Naval arsenal, the remains of the hull were covered over with rubble to become the foundations for a large car park.

There are many web-sites on the vessel, but the best that I could find was on the web-site of http://www.deutschland-class.dk where most of this info comes from.
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Last edited by Anonymous on Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:42 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Improvement on wording

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