The Battle of Drøbak Sound took place in Drøbak Sound, the northernmost part of the outer Oslofjord in southern Norway, on 9 April 1940. German cruiser Blücher sinking in the Oslofjord, originally spearheading the capture of the Norwegian capital and Royal Family. [42], By the time Blücher sank, the remaining naval force destined for Oslo had long since turned around and retreated back down the fjord. At 04:21 on 9 April, Eriksen gave the Main Battery guns the order to fire at the lead ship of the unknown flotilla forcing its way towards Oslo. She was the only ship of her class and was the first large warship built in Germany after the end of World War I.She was built at the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven; her keel was laid down in December 1921 and her completed hull was launched in January 1925. 14.08.2014 - German cruiser Blücher in the Oslo fjord, April 9, 1940 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stay safe and healthy. Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. 9th of April 1940. Text and photography by Sten Stockmann Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. The heavy cruiser Blücher would sail into the Oslo harbor, turn its cannons against the royal palace, and Norway would surrender. The heavy cruiser Blücher would sail into the Oslo harbor, turn its cannons against the royal palace, and Norway would surrender. Wreck of WW2 Italian destroyer found under the Mediterranean Sea waters, Awesome Drone Footage: P-40 fighter aircraft lifted from the bottom of Kerch Strait - It Was Part of Lend-Lease Agreement, Yes! According to Article 181 of the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that ended World War I, the German Navy was permitted only six light cruisers. In addition Norway’s gold reserves were moved out of reach of the invaders and ultimately shipped to the Allies for Norway’s use during the war. The fjord was the scene of a key event in the German invasion of Norway in 1940. [24] Although the main building at the battery caught fire, the Norwegians suffered no casualties. The ship was intended for long-range overseas service, so the designers placed emphasis on a large cruising radius and capaciou… [33] The retired torpedoes the officer was aiming at the cruiser were 40-year-old Whitehead torpedo weapons of Austro-Hungarian manufacture. 4 of the Norwegian Royal Guards under the command of Kaptein (Captain) A. J. T. [23] There was only time for the Main Battery to fire these two rounds, due to their slow reload time with only 30 untrained recruits manning them at the time. Enter a comma separated list of user names. [17] The battery had three torpedo tunnels which could fire six torpedoes without reloading and a total of nine torpedoes were stored and ready for use. [31], The return fire from Blücher was ineffective, with the light artillery mostly pointing too high and the main batteries, 20.3 cm guns, unable to fire due to the damage caused by the second 28 cm round from Oscarsborg's Main Battery. At this point, however, Blücher entered the sights of Kommandørkaptein Anderssen as she slid past the torpedo battery at a range of only 500 m (550 yd). Lützow was assigned to Group 5, alongside the new heavy cruiser Blücher and the light cruiser Emden under the command of Konteradmiral Oskar Kummetz. Due to this, the retired Kommandørkaptein (Commander Senior Grade) Andreas Anderssen, who lived in nearby Drøbak, had been assigned as temporary commander for the battery. [25] As Kommandørkaptein Anderssen pushed the firing mechanism button for the torpedoes, at approximately 04:30, the weapons turned out to work perfectly; first one and then another torpedo raced out of their underwater exit tunnels at 3 m (9.8 ft) below the surface toward the burning warship. 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[23], While fire raged aboard Blücher, the secondary Norwegian coastal batteries fired at her with guns ranging in calibre from the two small 57 mm (2.24 in) pieces at Husvik, intended to protect the fortress' missing mine barrier, to the three 15 cm (5.9 in) guns of the Kopås Battery on the eastern side of the fjord. These torpedoes had been practice-launched well over 200 times before, but no one was certain if they would function or not. Colonel Eriksen, Commander of the Oscarsborg fortress near Drøbak, mainly maintained for historical purposes, sank the German heavy cruiser Blücher in the Drøbak narrows. The ship was launched on 8 June 1937, and was completed slightly over two years later, on 20 September 1939, the day she was commissioned into the German fleet. The reason for the significant effect of the two 28 cm rounds on Blücher was that the first round penetrated the side of the ship and exploded inside a magazine containing cans of oil, smoke dispensers, incendiary bombs, aircraft bombs for the cruiser's Arado Ar 196 reconnaissance floatplanes and depth charges. [1,621 × 1,137] All rights reserved. She sank after an heroic and epic fight against Beatty's own ships at the battle of the Dogger Bank in January 1915. Her keel was laid on 15 August 1936, under construction number 246. Sten Stockmann - www.advanceddivermagazine.com | Snekker Anders (Youtube) | Esben Johannsen (Youtube) | Wouter Groenewegen (Youtube) - Northsea Explorers (Vimeo) - Stig Fredrik Johansson (Vimeo) - Stig Fredrik Johansson (Vimeo). Apart from the officers and NCOs, almost all the soldiers manning the fortress were fresh recruits, having only been conscripted seven days before, on 2 April. The occupation forces would then take care of the rest. The invasion included a planned landing of 1,000 troops transported by ship to Oslo. The two Norwegian guns had been loaded with live, 255 kg (562 lb) high-explosive shells;[21] firing them "in anger" was a violation of the pre-war Norwegian rules of engagement which dictated warning shots be fired first, as had been the case at Oslofjord Fortress further down the fjord. ("That cannot shake a sailor"). The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust is pleased to announce that the wreck of SMS Scharnhorst has been located off the Falkland Islands. The larger guns wrought havoc on board Blücher, while the 57 mm guns concentrated on the cruiser's superstructure and the anti-aircraft weapons,[24] and were partially successful in suppressing the fire from her light artillery as Blücher slowly sailed past the fortress. Copyright © 2014. The heavy traffic in the straight is another danger. [9] The third torpedo launcher was left loaded in case more ships were to follow close behind Blücher. As built, the ship had a straight stem, though after her launch this was replaced with a clipper bow increasing the overall length to 205.9 meters (676 ft).A raked funnel cap was also installed. SMS Blücher (wreck) SMS Blücher (wreck) SMS Blücher was the last armored cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine. Even though it and the country were ultimately captured and occupied, the effects of delaying the German advance were immediate and considerable. [22] The second 28 cm round hit the base of the forward 20.3 cm (8.0 in) gun turret shortly thereafter, throwing large parts of it into the fjord and igniting further fires on board. "[20] Two rounds from the 28 cm (11.0 in) Krupp guns Moses and Aron engaged the German cruiser Blücher at 1,800 m (2,000 yd) range. The Scharnhorst, an armoured battle-cruiser … In light of the fall of the capital, and with news of German landings at the village of Son south of Drøbak,[46] Colonel Eriksen decided that further fighting without adequate infantry support was in vain, and agreed to a ceasefire in the evening of 9 April. But things would not go fully as planned... As a result of the Blücher sinking, Oslo was not captured for several hours after the planned invasion of the capital, allowing the Norwegian royal family, parliament and cabinet to escape. A German fleet led by the cruiser Blücher was dispatched up the Oslofjord to begin the German invasion of Norway, with the objective of seizing the Norwegian capital of Oslo and capturing King Haakon VII and his government. The fortress's resistance blocked the route to … The German navies of the 1920s through 1945—the Reichsmarine and later Kriegsmarine—built or planned a series of heavy cruisers starting in the late 1920s, initially classified as Panzerschiffe (armored ships). [25][26][28][29][30] Later, at 04:35, Oberst Eriksen received a message from the Norwegian minesweeper HNoMS Otra confirming that the intruding ships were German. [48], The garrison at the main battery and at Håøya were treated separately by the Germans from those captured from the mainland batteries, and were released a week after the battle. Emden was commissioned into the fleet in October 1925. But she, like many other ships in history, was created and born in an era where she was vunerable to … Thus, the Norwegian government was able to continue the defence of Norway until it had evacuated to exile in the United Kingdom on 7 June, with the Norwegian Army laying down their arms on 10 June. She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet.She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. The British managed to intercept German telegrams and send a fleet of 5 battlecruisers. The invasion included a planned landing of 1,000 troops transported by ship to Oslo. [23] This caused catastrophic damage to the cruiser and blew open many of her bulkheads, allowing water to flood her decks while she was burning furiously. Tamelander, Michael & Zetterling, Niklas: "Besøket på Oscarsborg festning lørdag 2 september", Oscarsborg Fortress Museum official website, Oscarsborg Museum – history of the fortress, Norwegian Armed Forces website page about the fortress, 50 year anniversary Aftenposten newspaper article on the invasion of Norway, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Drøbak_Sound&oldid=998625963, Battles and operations of World War II involving Norway, Battles of World War II involving Germany, Articles with Norwegian-language sources (no), Articles with dead external links from June 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with German-language sources (de), Articles containing Norwegian-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 6 January 2021, at 07:51. Article 190 limited new cruiser designs to 6,000 long tons (6,100 t) and prohibited new construction until the vessel to be replaced was at least twenty years old. Seeing the geysers of water from underwater explosions on Blücher, and unaware of the torpedo battery, the commander of the heavy cruiser Lützow (the recently renamed 'pocket battleship' Deutschland) assumed the flagship had hit mines and at 04:40 the decision was made for the flotilla to turn back and land the invasion forces out of range of the Oscarsborg batteries. [27] After pulling out of range of the fortress guns, Lützow employed her remaining turret "Bruno" to bombard the defenders from a range of 9–10 km (4.9–5.4 nmi; 5.6–6.2 mi) down the fjord. One of the 15 cm rounds from Kopås disabled Blücher's steering gear and forced the cruiser's crew to steer her using the engines to avoid running aground. Norwegian shore batteries sink the Blucher From a range of approximately 1800 metres the two 11inch (28cm) shells from the Krupps guns that were capable of firing caused massive damage to the Blucher. Colonel Eriksen, Commander of the Oscarsborg fortress near Drøbak, mainly maintained for historical purposes, sank the German heavy cruiser Blücher in the Drøbak narrows. German transport planes flying through Oslofjord; The Norwegian victory was short lived as, unbeknown to Eriksen, the Blücher was only the first step in the invasion. Article 190 limited new cruiser designs to 6,000 long tons (6,100 t) and prohibited new construction until the vessel to be replaced was at least twenty years old. The Battle of Drøbak Sound took place in Drøbak Sound, the northernmost part of the outer Oslofjord in southern Norway, on 9 April 1940. The Blücher was the last and arguably the best German armoured cruiser, armed like the new Nassau dreadnoughts. [16] When Anderssen had been called back into duty a month previously, he had been a pensioner for 13 years, having originally retired from his post as commander of the torpedo battery in 1927. The loss of the German flagship, which carried most of the troops and Gestapo agents intended to occupy Oslo, delayed the German occupation long enough for King Haakon VII and his government to escape from the capital. U-637 U-boat Wreck Discovery by Famous Shipwrecks Hunter, Amazing discovery! After firing, the two other tubes were reloaded and readied for the next target. Kommandørkaptein Anderssen donned his old uniform and was transported by boat over the fjord to the torpedo battery. The German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was one of the German Navy’s largest ships. German Heavy Cruiser Blücher Wreckage Site and Diving (five videos) Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. [1] Design work on the first new light cruiser, ordered as "Ersatz Niobe", began in 1921. [7] In total, some 1,200 of the survivors had made it ashore at Frogn near Drøbak. As the small ship had mistaken the events as a military exercise, she kept going until fired upon and set ablaze by the German minesweepers R-18 and R-19. [19] Upon giving the command, Eriksen was questioned. Dreaded V1 Flying Bomb Flyes Again! Blücher's fire-fighting system was also knocked out by shell fragments from the two Norwegian batteries, making attempts to control the fires aboard the ship and rescue the many wounded much more difficult. Initially, four machine guns on the roof of the Main Battery also returned fire, but these had to be abandoned early on. As Anderssen had overestimated the speed of his target slightly, the first torpedo hit near Blücher's forward turret (nicknamed "Anton"), creating only inconsequential damage. The first 28 cm shell hit Blücher right in front of the aft mast,[19] and set the midship area up to the fore mast on fire. The map created by people like you! The bulkheads on that deck were blown out and the burning oil developed into an intense fire. The wreck was originally discovered by sonar by Statnett, a power company inspecting under water lines, back in 2017. The Blücher was a German Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser. Blücher was the second of five Admiral Hipper -class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine, built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles. During the battle, another burning ship was spotted in the distance from Oscarsborg, leading the Norwegian defenders to believe they had sunk another German warship in addition to Blücher. WW2live is a division of Yourwhislist E-commerce, S.L. [34][35][36] The magazine blast ruptured the bulkheads between the boiler rooms and tore open the cruiser's fuel bunkers, igniting further fires. However, unbeknownst to German military intelligence, the fortress' most powerful weapon was a torpedo battery, which would be used to great effect against the German invaders.[14]. She was built as a response to what German intelligence at the time believed were the specifications of... SMS Blücher was the last armored cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine. It marked the end of the "Phoney War" and the beginning of World War II in Western Europe. Estimated Wreckposition of German Heavy Cruiser Blücher. Because of the influx of 450 fresh recruits, the fortress' naval mines were not deployed on 9 April. VHF-radio and a skilled and experienced surface-crew is a must. When the guns on both sides silenced, with all the "passengers" still under deck—"there was a dead silence on board the whole ship, no movement whatsoever was identified".[32]. In all, the fortress was subjected to nearly nine hours of air attack, during which time around five hundred bombs—ranging from 50–200 kg (110–440 lb) in size—were dropped on Oscarsborg. [40][41] Many of the German wounded were initially taken to Åsgården summer hotel in Åsgårdstrand for medical care, where Norwegian wounded had already been brought. The remaining ships turned around and landed the German invasion forces out of range of Oscarsborg. In one famous incident the German battle cruiser Blücher … It marked the end of the "Phoney War" and the beginning of World War II in Western Europe. Oscarsborg had fulfilled its mission and denied an invader access to the capital. Sørland sank with two of her six-man crew near the village of Skiphelle in Drøbak, as the first civilian Norwegian ship lost during the invasion. None of the prisoners were interrogated. By 18:30, the Norwegian soldiers withdrew from the area, abandoning the Germans. [2] The ship was intended for long-range overseas service, so the designers placed emphasis on a large cruising radius and capaciou… With all engines knocked out by the second torpedo hit, the cruiser anchored near the Askholmene islets just north and out of the arc of fire of the fort's guns to try to fight the ferocious fires raging throughout the vessel. [37], In all, 650–800 Germans died,[9] and 550 of the approximately 1,400 wet and cold survivors of Blücher were captured by soldiers from Company no. Emden was a light cruiser built for the German Reichsmarine in the early 1920s. For some time after the battle, the belief was that Oscarsborg had sunk the artillery training ship Brummer. [19] Only one gun crew of actual artillerymen was available, and two guns could only be made operational by splitting the real gunners between the two guns and using non-combatant privates to assist the gunners. … [39] The leading German officers reached Oslo at 22:00, moving into the Hotel Continental, though without most of the troops intended to occupy the capital. The guardsmen were supposed to take all the Germans prisoner, but mainly focused on caring for the many wounded and dying. As the vessels had continued up the fjord toward the capital, Eriksen was of the opinion that he had the right to consider them enemy warships and to engage them as such. [7], Obergefreiter Günther Morgalla—who survived the sinking—later said that, swimming toward his shivering crew mates onshore, he heard someone defiantly singing the Deutschlandlied followed by "Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern." The Blucher lies in 92m depth in the Oslo-fjord and is due to prevailing conditions a very demanding dive. The Germans, on the other hand, lost a powerful heavy cruiser, 650-800 dead, approximately 50 wounded, and around 1000 were taken prisoner. The wreck counts as a war-grave, hundreds of sailors and soldiers died on it. He was well aware that Norway was officially neutral, but that the government was inclined to side with the British in case of direct Norwegian involvement in the war. The reserve officers were released on 15 May, while the full-time officers were transferred to Grini prison camp and released in late May 1940.[48]. Kummetz flew his flag in Blücher. As the force made good its escape, the fortress managed to damage Lützow, the 15 cm guns of the Kopås battery scoring three hits and knocking out the ship's forward 28 cm turret ("Anton"). Named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo, the ship was laid down in August 1936 and launched in June 1937. And they pumped the remaining fuel out for saving the marine-enviroment reasons. During this retreat, the fortress managed to damage the heavy cruiser "Lützow". Group 5 was tasked with capturing Oslo, the capital of Norway, and transported a force of … The shelling lasted only for five to seven minutes. The occupation forces would then take care of the rest. After passing the line of fire of the fortress' gun batteries, the cruiser was burning and severely damaged, but her captain still hoped he would be able to save his ship. In addition to the depth the vessel is turned upside-down, and strong tides make diving possible only at specific times. In one of the more peculiar battles of the war, a hundred year old fortification, manned by raw recruits and pensioners and armed with 40- to 50-year-old weaponry of German and Austro-Hungarian manufacture, had destroyed a ship so new, its crew was still finishing training. The WSW 1:700th SMS Blucher is typical of the high quality we’ve come to expect from this German producer. She was hit by shells from 15km distance and capsized near Doggersbank. The reality, however, was that the burning ship was the 107 long tons (109 t) Norwegian cargo cutter Sørland that had stumbled into the battle while on her way from Moss to Oslo with a cargo of paper. The Kriegsmarine's newest ship at the outbreak of World War II, having been in commission for just over six months, she was sunk by Norwegian shore defences at the Battle of Drøbak Sound on April 9, 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung). [15] Anderssen would show himself worthy of the important task of leading the fortress' most lethal weapon system; having first served at the torpedo battery in 1909, he knew the ageing weapons intimately. The flawless waterline hull has extensive superstructure detail cast in situ, as well as anchors, chains, and rolled-up torpedo nets. As the political situation was chaotic, the 64-year-old commander, Oberst (Colonel) Birger Eriksen, had not received any clear orders and had received no notice as to whether the approaching warships were German or Allied. According to Article 181 of the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that ended World War I, the German Navy was permitted only six light cruisers. [34] The crew's struggle ended when, at 05:30,[34] fires reached a midship ammunition hold for the 10.5 cm (4.13 in) Flak guns, blowing a large gap in the ship's side. Captain ) A. J. T. Petersson flawless waterline hull has extensive superstructure detail cast in,... 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