The heavy cruiser "Prince Eugen" was the pride of the navy of Nazi Germany. It was the most powerful weapon at that time at sea, made taking into account all modern requirements and possessing some of the best characteristics among military vessels of the Second World War. However, the fate of this ship was quite tragic. Let’s find out what the heavy cruiser “Prince Eugen” was, its main characteristics and history until its death.
History of creation
The German cruiser Prinz Eugen was created in the second half of the 30s of the last century. The order for its creation was received at the German shipyard Heinrich Krupp Germaniawerft in November 1935. This company was created by entrepreneur Lloyd Foster in 1867 in the city of Gaarden, near Kiel, three years before the emergence of a unified German empire under the rule of Prussia. Initially, the company was called the North German Construction Company. In 1896, it was acquired by one of the richest entrepreneurs in Germany - the Krupp family. The shipyard produced not only military, but also civilian ships. At the turn of the century, she took second place in the supply of ships for the German imperial fleet. During World War I, the army also supplied submarines.
The “Prince Eugen” was to become the third German ship of the program, under which heavy cruisers of the “Admiral Hipper” type were produced. Two ships have already been launched in this series - the Admiral Hipper, built in 1937, by whose name the entire line of ships was named, as well as the Blucher of the same year of manufacture. In addition, two more cruisers, the Lutzov and the Seidlitz, were to be built. But they were not yet ready for the end of the war. During the construction of "Prince Eugen" received the symbol "J".
Construction began in April 1936 and lasted almost two and a half years. It cost the German treasury in the amount of 109 million Reichsmarks. For comparison, the cost of a British ship of a similar type, "County" was 2.5 times less. In the end, the heavy cruiser “Prince Eugen” was launched in August 1938. But it took another two years to finalize all the internal components and equipment. As a result, the cruiser finally entered service of the German fleet only in August 1940.
Cruiser Name
The heavy German cruiser “Prince Eugen” received its name in honor of the greatest commander of the Austrian state of the Habsburgs of the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, Prince Eugene of Savoy. Although he belonged to one of the ruling feudal duchy families in Italy and was born in Paris, most of his outstanding achievements, in particular his successful actions in the Spanish Succession War and in the Turkish company, were obtained in the service of the Austrian crown. Among his great victories as a military leader are the following battles: the battle of Zent (1697), the reflection of the siege of Turin (1706), the battle of Malplak (1709), the capture of Belgrade (1717).
Just in 1938, the Anschluss (accession) of Austria to Germany took place. This was presented by fascist propaganda as a reunion of the nation. To show the unity of Germany and Austria, it was decided to name the new ship in honor of the outstanding Austrian commander. The glory of Eugene of Savoy was to foreshadow the victories of the cruiser. So the 1938 Prinz Eugen vessel got its name.
Specifications
What was the heavy cruiser "Prince Eugen" in technical terms?
Its length was 199.5 m with standard equipment, and 207.7 m with full. The displacement of the vessel was 14,506 tons with standard equipment, and 19,042 tons with full equipment. The width of the ship is 21.7 m. The maximum cruiser speed reached 32 knots, which was 59.3 km / h. The total capacity of three steam turbines and twelve boilers of the ship is 132,000 horsepower, or 97 MW. The draft of the vessel Prinz Eugen ranged from 5.9 to 7.2 m. At a speed of 16 knots, the cruiser could make non-stop sailing at a distance of up to 6.8 thousand nautical miles. The crew of the ship was manned from a team of 1400-1600 people, which was quite a lot for a ship of this class.
The thickness of the armor on the towers reached 160 mm. At the same time, it was the thinnest on the deck - 30 mm, and on the sides - from 40 mm. The thickness of the armor on the traverses and barbettes was equal to 80 mm.
“Prince Eugen” was equipped with the most modern electronic equipment at that time, the quality of which not all warships in the world could boast of. He was especially famous for the means of detection capable of finding the enemy at sea, in the sky and under water. There were even analog computers on board the ship. However, the abundance of electronics sometimes played a bad joke with the cruiser, as new technologies still had a number of shortcomings, and some were clearly raw. But even despite this, the technological filling of the ship was not equal in Europe.
Armament
Combat power was not a strong point of the Prinz Eugen ship. But at the same time, this drawback was offset by the possibility of more targeted fire control compared to other ships and the availability of modern means of detecting the enemy.
The armament of the ship consisted of eight 203 mm artillery guns, twelve 105 mm universal anti-aircraft guns, six 37 mm automatic guns, and ten 20 mm guns. In addition, the cruiser had four torpedo tubes with a caliber of 533 mm with ammunition of 12 torpedoes. The aviation group consisted of one pneumatic catapult and four reconnaissance seaplanes.
First battle
The ship “Prince Eugen” received baptism of fire during the naval battle, which became known as the battle in the Danish Strait.
The ship first sailed into the open sea in May 1941. He was accompanied by two destroyers, as well as several boom breakers. Soon, "Prince Eugen" connected with another famous ship of the Second World War - the battleship "Bismarck". Their joint path ran through the Danish Strait.
The movement of German ships was blocked by British ships. On May 24, 1941, a battle took place between them. Several British ships were destroyed in the battle, the Bismarck battleship was damaged, and Prinz Eugen was able to break through the strait. The ship went to the North Sea. However, due to a number of circumstances, he failed to profit from the capture of enemy merchant ships. In June 1941, after a two-week voyage, the cruiser arrived at the port of the French city of Brest, controlled by Wehrmacht forces.
Return to Germany
But in Brest, “Prince Eugen” and other German ships were constantly at risk of destruction due to periodic British air raids. In February 1942, it was decided to return the cruiser along with the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhost to German ports. This event to break through to their native shores was called Operation Cerberus.
Despite the fact that during the return home, the cruiser was repeatedly attacked by aircraft and enemy ships, he nevertheless managed to reach the mouth of the Elbe River in three incomplete days . The operation could be considered successfully completed. It was an unprecedented and daring breakthrough across the English Channel, right under the noses of the British Air Force and Navy. The breakthrough marked the moral victory of the Germans and strengthened their spirit. Although the strategic turning point in the losing situation for Germany at sea did not happen.
In the waters of the Baltic
The next stage of activity of “Prince Eugen” is associated with being in the waters of the Baltic Sea, where he was soon transferred.
This period of the history of the cruiser cannot be called glorious. In fact, at that time he served as the largest gunboat in the Baltic, although, of course, this was not his original purpose. Mostly “Prince Eugen” fired at the coast occupied by the enemy. I even had to shell my own shores and bases. So, for example, what happened when the Red Army approached Gotenhafen. Then even the surroundings of Danzig (modern Gdansk in Poland) suffered from shelling. In the same period of its existence, the cruiser went on a raid to the coast of Norway.
Absurdities happened to him. So, the “Prince Eugen” rammed the German cruiser “Leipzig” that had just left the docks.
In April 1945, "Prince Eugen" was sent to the capital of Denmark - Copenhagen. There he stayed until the signing of the surrender by Germany.
War Results
Despite the fact that the German leadership had high hopes for the cruiser Prince Eugen, the ship was not destined to justify them. The ship was intended for battles in the Atlantic Ocean with the US and British fleets, but most of the time it went like a gunboat in the Baltic Sea. This was mainly due to the fact that Germany was not able to impose a serious war on the Allies at sea. Kriegsmarine (the naval forces of the Third Reich) was clearly inferior in power to the British fleet, firmly holding the primacy in the European seas.
Moreover, as a result of the war, it turned out that the “Prince Eugen” could not sink any of the enemy ships. Although he damaged one of the destroyers in the UK and shot down about a dozen enemy aircraft. But it must be rightly noted that the enemy could not inflict at least some significant damage on him. But by the end of the war, the cruiser’s ammunition was ending. For example, Germany ceased to produce shells for 8-inch guns back in 1942. The shells of the caliber 203 mm, which were the main ones, were less than forty left on board the cruiser.
We can say that the actions of "Prince Eugen" in the Baltic Sea, where he cruised most of his short history, very much resembled shooting at sparrows from a cannon. A heavy cruiser of similar size and technical equipment was too expensive a project to fulfill the functions of “the largest gunboat of the Baltic Sea”. But the greatest feat of the ship was still ahead, after the end of the war. We will talk about it in detail below.
In the US Navy
Following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, Prince Eugen was transferred to the United States of America under the Potsdam Accords. In January 1946, he was transferred to Bremen and joined the United States Navy. However, then he received the status of not a fighting ship, but only a test ship. The command of the cruiser was transferred to Captain 1st Rank A. Graubart, who, despite American citizenship, was an ethnic German.
Soon, the cruiser made a transatlantic voyage, during which he was transferred from Bremen to the American city of Boston. In the port of this settlement, “Prince Eugen” was carefully examined. Also, all equipment, including weapons, was unloaded from the shore. Based on the results of the commission, it was decided to send the ship to Bikini Atoll as a target for testing nuclear weapons.
In March, the cruiser sailed from Boston for transfer to the waters of the Pacific Ocean, which fell through the Panama Canal. Then, already in the Pacific, he moored at San Diego in California. After that, Prince Eugen headed for Hawaii. In the first half of May, he reached the American base on these islands - Pearl Harbor. In June 1946, he arrived at the Bikini Atoll, the final destination.
Nuclear test
The death of the ship “Prince Eugen” occurred as a result of a test of nuclear weapons by the United States on the Bikini Atoll. The explosions were carried out on July 1, 1946. In addition to the cruiser Prince Eugen, other warships of the world, in particular captured and decommissioned American ships, took part in it.
The first nuclear strike was launched on the cruiser from the air. The horizon was lit up with a bright blinding light, a peal of terrifying power sounded. The epicenter of the explosion from the dropped nuclear bomb was 8-10 cable from the ship. Everyone believed that the ship was torn to shreds. But, despite expectations, the damage to the cruiser was not significant. In fact, they consisted only with the paint completely torn off the board.
The next nuclear warhead explosion was carried out underwater. This time the damage was much more significant. Sheathing sheets were pressed into the cruiser, and it leaked, but it did not sink and did not give a roll. Such resilience of the German ship struck the Americans. They planned to completely destroy it during the above explosions. Now, “Prince Eugen” was towed to the Atoll Quazilen and expected future trials.
But, unfortunately, the hull was too radioactive. Therefore, the cruiser decided to destroy in the course. However, even after the third explosion, the ship remained afloat. Its flooding occurred gradually, when one compartment was flooded after another. In the end, on the 20th of December 1946, the pumps could no longer cope with the incoming amount of water. The ship gave a roll, and the windows were below sea level. The US military nevertheless made an attempt to save the ship, but it was too late, the cruiser sank near the atoll Quazilen, leaving only a keel on the surface. In that place, his remains are at the bottom of the sea to this day.
Truly surprising is the durability of the ship. But there are some questions. What if the cruiser was not just a target for nuclear bombs, but on it would be a team that fought for the life of the ship, closed up holes, helped pump out water? It is possible that in this case, even three explosions would not be enough to sink the Prince Eugen.
But be that as it may, the ship, which was built by the Germans to terrify the Americans and their allies, became an unwitting accomplice in testing the world's most powerful weapons, designed to serve as a symbol of US military power. However, the Americans now had another major rival. After the collapse of the Third Reich, it became the Soviet Union.
General characteristics of the vessel
The cruiser Prince Eugen was a unique ship of its kind. Like all heavy cruisers of the Admiral Hipper type, the ship's displacement exceeded 10 tons, although this mark was the boundary mark for ships of this class according to Washington restrictions. But Germany itself set the limits for what is permissible. True, due to the increase in the displacement of the ship, its speed and maneuverability suffered.
Although the original goal of building the Eugen Principle was to strengthen the German fleet in battles for the Atlantic, in fact, he cruised for the most part in the waters of the Baltic Sea or even stood up for fun. The ship participated only in one more or less serious battle, at the very beginning of its combat history - in the battle in the Danish Channel. At the same time, over the entire period of its existence, this cruiser was not able to destroy a single enemy ship.
However, even the enemy failed to seriously damage the Prince Eugen vessel, although the attacks were carried out from the sea, and from the sky, and from the earth. He became the only German cruiser that remained intact by the end of the war. Even the third time nuclear weapons could crush this titanium, it was so firmly made. And even then, if there was a team on board, it is quite possible that three times would not be enough.
Although many experts criticize the design of the cruiser, calling it clumsy. It was the fault of the shipbuilders that they made a fully armored ship, unlike most ships of that time, which reserved only the most vulnerable and important sections for maintaining operability. The Prince Eugen was fully armored. In many areas, the armor was too thin to be a real defense, but at the same time it was an additional burden for the ship, reducing its speed. Even the reservation of especially important parts was thinner than that of similar enemy ships. But, as it turned out, the reservation of the German cruiser was still sufficient to withstand the numerous bombardments from the sky and from the sea, and even challenge nuclear weapons. So the facts shatter all the theoretical fabrications of critics to smithereens.
A lot in the direction taken by the creators of "Prince Eugen" is relevant in our days. For example, universality, multitasking, the priority of aiming over the power of a volley, the important place of electronics in control, the special role of enemy detection tools.
But in general, it should be noted that the cruiser Prince Eugen did not manage to fulfill any of the main tasks that were set before him globally, due to a number of objective and subjective circumstances. This was due to both the general failure of the Germans in the Atlantic Ocean, and the reassessment of the capabilities of this particular cruiser. He could not become a decisive force in the Atlantic or even could not inflict at least some significant harm on the enemy fleet.
It can hardly be said that the ship paid back its value of 109 million Reichsmarks. Nevertheless, he still managed to go down in history thanks to his uniqueness and unprecedented resilience during the nuclear tests of the American army, which surprised even the military and scientists who had seen a lot.