“Altmark” ( German: Altmark ) - a tanker, an auxiliary vessel of the cruiser Kriegsmarine “ Admiral Count Spee ”, which was boarded in 1940 by a British ship in the territorial waters of neutral Norway in order to free prisoners .
| Altmark | |
|---|---|
| Uckermark (from August 6, 1940) "Altmark" | |
 Altmark delivery early 1940 Jøssingfjord, Norway | |
| Flag |  |
| Class and type of vessel | Tanker , ship |
| Organization | Kriegsmarine |
| Manufacturer | Howaldtswerke ( German: Howaldtswerke ), Kiel ( Germany ) |
| Launched | November 13, 1937 |
| Commissioned | August 14, 1939 |
| Withdrawn from the fleet | November 30, 1942 |
| Status | Destroyed by the explosion in Yokohama ( Japan ) |
| Main characteristics | |
| Displacement | 20 858 tons |
| Length | 178.25 m |
| Width | 22 m |
| Draft | 9.3 m |
| Engines | 4 diesel engines MAN |
| Power | 22 000 h.p. |
| Mover | 2 screws |
| Speed | 21.1 knots |
| Autonomy of swimming | 12,500 nautical miles |
| Crew | 94 - 208 people |
The vessel was manufactured and launched in Kiel at the Howaldtswerke shipyard ( German: Howaldtswerke ) as a tanker with a displacement of 10,688 BRT in 1937. It went into operation on November 14, 1938 as a base - an auxiliary vessel of the German Navy. In August 1939, it was seconded to the German raider - the heavy cruiser Admiral Count Spee , leading cruising operations in the Atlantic .
Content
Incident
On December 17, 1939, “Admiral Count Spee”, after a battle with English ships, was badly damaged and sunk by his team at the mouth of La Plata . However, Altmark managed to escape to the north, having on board 302 captured sailors from merchant ships sunk by the cruiser.
On February 14 of the following 1940, the tanker was nevertheless discovered off the coast of Norway, and on February 16 it met with an English cruiser and five destroyers. Captain Heinrich Dau ( German Henrich Dau ) did not stop the ship, despite a warning shot, and hid in Josingfjord , surrounded by high cliffs and having a length of about 2 km and a width of up to 250 m. Two Norwegian gunboats who were present came out to meet the British and said that “Altmark »Is unarmed and has permission from the Norwegian authorities to continue their voyage in the territorial waters of Norway.
As soon as the information reached the English Admiralty, Churchill sent a telegram to Captain Philip Vian, commander of the destroyer Cossack :
If the Norwegian gunboats are not allowed to “Altmark” escort to Bergen under an Anglo-Norwegian escort, capture him, release the prisoners and capture his team.
After that, the “Cossack”, having violated the territorial waters of Norway, entered the fjord and gave a searchlight a signal to prepare for the transfer of people. "Altmark" tried to ram the destroyer, on the deck of which a prize team had already been called. As a result of a short skirmish, 7 Germans were killed and five wounded. About 23 hours, the prisoners were released.
The destroyer was greeted with glee in England on Saturday , February 24, 1940 .
Further fate
The tanker, renamed on August 6, 1940, into the Uckermark ( German: Uckermark ), continued to be used as an auxiliary and supply vessel for the kriegsmarine. Between January and March 1941, the tanker provided operations for the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Atlantic.
On September 9, 1942, the tanker left France for Japan with a load of vegetable oil and fuel. Having completed the bunkering of the auxiliary cruiser Mikhel on the way, on November 24, 1942, the Ukkermark arrived at the port of Yokohama . The tanker was moored near the Tor kriegsmarine raider and the Australian Nanjing passenger liner captured by Thor in March 1942 .
On November 30, 1942, a large-scale explosion occurred, tearing the Ukkermark apart and destroying neighboring vessels. Ukkermark, Tor and Nanjing sank as a result of injuries. The explosion killed 53 crew members of the Ukkermark. The cause of the explosion was an accidental spark during repair work in fuel tanks.
The surviving crew members of the Ukkermark went to their homeland on the auxiliary vessel Kriegsmarine Doggerbank ( German: Doggerbank ). On the evening of March 3, 1943, the Doggerbank was mistakenly attacked by a German U-43 submarine and sunk. Only one survivor (out of 365) was on board [1] .
Notes
Literature
- Der II.Weltkrieg "/ Dokumentation Das III.Reich. Gütersloch: Mohndruck Graphische Betriebe GmbH, 1989 ISBN 3-88199-536-6 (German)
- Chronik 1940. Chronik Verlag. Dortmund 1989. ISBN 3-611-00075-2 (German)