In 1948, the British dragged out a large warship from the port of Kiel in Germany. The warship was covered with rust and looked dilapidated.
In the end, the warship was towed to the Haikendorf Shack and dismantled and sold as scrap iron. When it comes to this warship, the British are full of anger.
This ship is the Admiral Hippel heavy cruiser , which was once called the "evil dog" of the 3rd German Empire.
The rusty Admiral Hippel
The Admiral Hippel has made outstanding achievements, but his luck is still a little worse than the Prince Eugen mentioned before. The final outcome is rather miserable.
What kind of brilliant experience did this vanguard of the Atlantic Battle have?
. Construction background
Although Germany failed to break through the British siege in Jutland Naval Battle , the strength of the German high seas fleet also caused British Empire to suffer significant losses.
Jetland Naval Battle
After the end of the Battle of One, Germany was defeated. The British, who were extremely insecure, proposed to ban Germany from building large warships. The original warships were either sunk by German sailors or dismantled on the spot by Britain.
1921, at the Washington Conference , the five countries of the United States, Britain, Japan, France and Italy signed the Treaty of Restricting the Navy. This treaty greatly restricted the construction of battleships and battleship , so all countries began to make plans on cruiser .
Washington Naval Treaty signing site
However, the treaty stipulates that the displacement of heavy cruiser cannot exceed 10,000 tons, and the caliber of the main gun must not be greater than 203 mm. This regulation is very strict and creates great obstacles for warship designers. Although "boat-carrying cannons" can also be realized, it must be based on the various performance indicators of the warship. From 1923 to 1933, countries around the world built more than 50 treaty heavy cruisers.
Most of these cruisers have false reports and concealed tonnage, but they still seem very useless and more or less flawed. Either the output scraping, it is as crisp as paper, or it moves slowly like a snail.
US New Orleans-class cruiser, a typical treaty cruiser,
After the World War I, due to changes in the world situation, Britain began to relax its constraints on Germany. In 1935, Britain and Germany signed a naval agreement, allowing the Germans to completely let go of their hands and start building their own navy.
Since Germany is not a party to the party to the Washington Naval Treaty, the provisions of the treaty are not required to be followed in the design of cruisers. The Germans knew their navy's strength well, so they never expected to confront the British navy head-on.
Admiral Hippel
So the new cruiser needs to have separate combat and be able to perform missions to break the handover. In addition, there must be a certain speed in order to quickly evacuate after completing the mission.
2. Basic data
On July 6, 1935, the Germans began to build new heavy cruisers at the Bromforth Shipyard. In order to commemorate Admiral Von Hippel Commander of the High Seas Fleet during the Battle of Jutland, this class of cruisers was named Admiral Hippel Class heavy cruisers . The protagonist of today is the No. 1 ship of this class of warships - Admiral Hippel
Franz von Hippel
Admiral Hippel is the world's first heavy cruiser that is not subject to treaties. The ship is 202.8 meters long and 21.3 meters wide. It has a standard displacement of 14,050 tons and a full load displacement of 18,208 tons.
In order to better perform the mission of breaking the traffic, Admiral Hippel has a powerful power system, including 12 heavy oil boilers and 3 steam turbines , with a maximum output power of 133,000 horsepower and a maximum speed of 33.5 knots.
Admiral Hippel is equipped with 8 SKC/34 60-diameter 203.2 mm main gun, installed on 4 double-mounted turrets, 2 in front and 2 in rear.
Admiral Hippel class heavy cruiser structure diagram
The maximum range of this type of main gun is 33.5 kilometers, and the shell weighs 122 kilograms. Due to the long gun body, the initial velocity of the shell reached 920 meters per second.
Admiral Hippel is also equipped with 6 dual-mounted 105mm high-level dual-purpose secondary guns, three on both sides. This type of sub-air shell weighs 15.1 kilograms, the initial velocity of the shell is 900 meters per second, the maximum range is 17.7 kilometers, and one can be fired every 4 seconds.
Admiral Hippel main gun
In addition to 12 105mm secondary guns, Admiral Hippel is also equipped with 8 dual-mounted 37mm anti-aircraft guns and 28 20mm anti-aircraft guns. Due to changes in the battle situation, the number of 20mm anti-aircraft guns has increased to 32. Overall, Admiral Hippel's air defense capabilities are stronger than those of other countries' warships of the same level.
Admiral Hippel Admiral Class Cruiser Sub-gun
Admiral Hippel is also equipped with 4 triple 533mm torpedo tubes and 3 Aladdo Ar.196 seaplanes.
Because the overall displacement is there, the protection capacity is much stronger than that of heavy cruisers in other countries. Although the thickness of the main armor belt is not outstanding, it is only 80 mm. But the horizontal armor on the deck reached 110 mm.
Aladdo Ar196 Seaplane
Main gun turret has a front armor of 165 mm, with 70 mm on the top and sides and 150 mm on the rear. The command tower is also wrapped in 150mm armor.
So Admiral Hippel is both offensive and defensive, and runs fast, no wonder it is called the "evil dog" of the Atlantic Ocean.
3. Service history
On April 29, 1939, Admiral Hippel officially entered the German Navy. In April 1940, he and his sister ship Blüchel participated in the German attack on Norway .
Main gun of Blüchel
In this operation, Admiral Hippel and two Schonhorst-class battlecruisers together covered 14 destroyers , and captured Navik and Trondheim .
On April 8, Admiral Hippel met the British destroyer Firefly in the waters near Norway. The Firefly was outnumbered, but the captain finally ordered the shaky warship to crash into Admiral Hippel, who was knocked open a 39.6-meter-long hole and poured into more than 500 tons of sea water.
Firefly destroyer
Admiral Hippel is very chivalrous. He rescued the sailors on Firefly for an hour, and 31 people were finally rescued. After returning to Hong Kong for maintenance, Admiral Hippel has been conducting a break-in mission in the Atlantic Ocean, sinking 8 Allied merchant ships. In June 1940, Admiral Hippel and two Schanehorst-class battlecruisers sank an Allied troop carrier, an oil tanker, and an anti-submarine trawler.
At the end of 1940, Admiral Hippel participated in the "North Sea Journey" operation and attacked the WS5A escort fleet. The British Navy's heavy cruiser Berwick and a merchant ship were injured, while another merchant ship was sunk.
Admiral Hippel Admiral
However, Admiral Hippel was also hit with 4 main gun shells, and then returned to the Port of Brest, France for maintenance.
In December 1942, in the Barents waters, Admiral Hippel and Luzov battleships and six destroyers attacked the JW51B escort fleet. Admiral Hippel sank the British Navy's Blambel minesweeper, severely damaging the Achatis destroyer (and then sank).
But the British Navy's Sheffield cruiser and Jamaica cruiser launched a counterattack against the German ship, the German army lost a destroyer, and Admiral Hippel was also injured.
Sheffield light cruiser
In this operation, the Allied forces lost only one merchant ship, so they became more determined to use submarine to carry out the battle. Since then, Admiral Hippel and other large warships have been staying in the port and sitting on the bench.
In 1945, the German Navy dispatched Admiral Hippel to assist the evacuation of German troops and refugees in East Prussia . After that, he stayed in the port and did not participate in any operation.
In April, British Air Force attacked a German port. Admiral Hippel was injured and then went to Kiel Port for repairs, spending the entire World War II years.
Admiral Hippel
On May 2, 1945, in order to avoid the warship being captured by the Allies, the officers and soldiers on Admiral Hippel sank the warship in Kill Port.
7 In July, the Americans organized a salvage team to salvage Admiral Hippel. In the end, the meritorious warship was successfully salvaged. However, since the Germans did not pay attention to the maintenance and maintenance of large warships for several consecutive years, Admiral Hippel was not in good condition before sinking.
is now soaking in the sea water for another two months. By the time the Americans salvage it, it has no value for repair. The Americans had to abandon it in German ports.
Admiral Hippel Admiral
However, the British were still quite interested inAdmiral Hippel. This ship caused significant losses to the British, and the British were angry when they looked at it.
In 1947, the UK towed away the dilapidated Admiral Hippel with a tugboat. By 1948, it was officially dismantled and sold to the shipyard as scrap steel. From then on, the "evil dog" of the Atlantic ended its life.
Looking back on Admiral Hippel's life, he has made outstanding achievements. To put it bluntly, his service career is sufficient. As a meritorious warship, it may be a pity that there is no battlefield as heroic as the Bismarck and Schanehorst.
Sharenhorst's last battle
However, weapons are used to kill people. Although the ending of Admiral Hippel is a bit miserable, it may be a blessing for humans.
Here is brief talk about the history of war , thank you for your attention.
