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KMS Admiral Hipper

1939 WORLD WAR 2

History of KMS Admiral Hipper

Admiral Hipper was classified as a "heavy cruiser" type ship and was commissioned in April 1939, before the actual World War II. She is the lead ship of her class and should use five such ships in total. KMS Admiral Hipper itself is named after Admiral Franz von Hipper, who commanded a group of battlecruisers that sank British battlecruisers in the Battle of Jutland in World War I in 1916. Of the five ships planned, the KMS Admiral Hipper was the only one completed for the KMS Lutzow. In 1940, under a treaty between the two countries, she was sold to the Soviet Union, and the KMS Seydlitz was converted into an aircraft carrier during the initial construction process, but was never completed due to a shortage of raw materials.

Two other ships - KMS Blucher and KMS Prinz Eugen - were built and commissioned with the German Navy's Hipper during World War II.

In early 1939, many German admirals informed Hitler that the navy was unwilling to wage a protracted war against Britain, let alone the United States. When World War II began in September 1939, the German Navy had no "capital ships", only five battleships in total, four heavy cruisers and four light cruisers, and several ships still under construction.

By comparison, the Royal Navy can deploy 6 aircraft carriers, 17 battleships, 15 heavy cruisers and 25 light cruisers. Because Hitler believed that the Imperial Japanese Navy would tie the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, they would not be a factor in his overall war plan for the Atlantic and future operations in Europe.

However, Hitler was a non-commissioned officer in the German Army during World War I and, as history has shown, he did not fully understand the intricacies of naval warfare.

The German Navy Construction Program (or "Z-Plan") began in January 1939, as the Navy believed that the war with England was still several years away. There were two schools of thought in the German Navy; one group wanted a small surface fleet and a large submarine fleet, while the other thought the best combination was a large surface fleet and a small submarine fleet with multiple ship typesmore In line with the composition of the existing British fleet.

The German Z program planned to build about 800 ships, including 4 aircraft carriers, 13 battleships, 15 heavy cruisers and 22 light cruisers. By 1946, the fleet should be ready for war.

The Hipper is large, but to maintain her speed, it was decided to use an 8" (203mm) gun as the main gun, with four twin-seats - two in the front and two in the rear. Her secondary armament consisted of a 4.1 in (105 mm) gun mounted on six twin seats - three on port and three on starboard. To wreak havoc on enemy convoys, she deployed 12 x 21-inch torpedo tubes and up to 160 mines. For air defense, she carried 53 guns of different calibers - 17 x 40mm anti-aircraft guns, 8 x 37mm guns and 28 x 20mm guns, spread over the upper deck.

She displaces 18,600 tons and can sail 32.5 knots with a crew of 1,600 officers and men.

Her range was reduced to 6,000 miles due to propulsion problems with her three Blohm and Voss steam turbines. Each provides 136,000 shaft horsepower to its three propeller shafts.

Due to the limited number of German capital ships and the lack of cruising diesel engines, their engines were not as reliable as they had been imagined, and the ship broke down more than once in the North Sea. Her three seaplanes are used for over-the-horizon reconnaissance and can be recovered by onboard cranes.

When she entered fleet service in early January 1940, Hipper was used in limited commercial raids.

During Operation Weserubung, KMS Hipper was assigned a destroyer squadron including Z11 Bernd von Arnim and Z18 Hans Ludemann. They were tasked with finding the enemy convoy as they sailed towards the harbour of Dronheim on the Norwegian coast. On the morning of April 8, 1940, HMS Glowworm encountered the German destroyer Z11 and then Z18 in heavy fog en route to the battlecruiser HMS Renown. Firefly opened fire on the German destroyer, and knowing that the Famous was nearby, sent a distress signal to KMS Hipper and retreated. The British G-class destroyer Firefly pursued and eventually found Hippers.

The Firefly's primary armament was greatly surpassed, including a 4 x 4.7-inch gun and 8 x 21-inch torpedo tubes, and when she had a crew of 175, she displaced 1,880 tons. Glowworm's commander Roope decided to engage Hipper, resulting in several direct hits on the British ship. The Firefly rushed towards the Hipper, and the two collided, severing the Firefly's forecastle. She sank with her captain and her crew of 111, while Hipper took in the 39 surviving prisoners of war.

Renown and nine destroyers went to the last known location, but it was too late as Hipper had left the area - she was damaged and needed repairs, so she went to Dronheim.

Hipper was repaired and assigned to Operation Juno on June 8. The battlecruisers KMS Schoemann and KMS Gneisenau with Hipper and four destroyers would invade Norway, forcing the Allies out of the country. The German fleet sank the Allied Orama, the tanker Pioneer, and the submarine Juniper.

Hipper and the destroyer were ordered to Trondheim, Norway, while Schoemann and Gneisenau continued the sortie alone.

Hipper remained in Wilhelmshaven for repairs until December 1940, and after her release, she was assigned to Operation Nordsee??our - Admiral Hipper's first at the end of December Atlantic Mission. Hipper spotted and attacked the WS-5A convoy. The convoy was parachuted by the British cruiser HMS Berwick and a small destroyer. Hipper shelled and damaged two merchant ships and sank another.

HMS Berwick was badly damaged, while Hipper herself suffered engine problems and ran out of fuel, forcing her to return to Brest. On her way to Brest, unescorted, she encountered and sank the freighter Jumna. Final repairs to the Hipper took about a month.

Over the next two years, Hipper made two sorties and converted some of her water tanks into fuel tanks to increase her range. In December 1942, Hipper and her sister ship KMS Lutzow, supported by six destroyers, set out to pursue an enemy convoy and discovered JW51B in the Barents Sea. Hipper attacked the convoy, first seeing and sinking the minesweeper Bramble. She next engaged and set fire to the British destroyer HMS Achates, which eventually sank her. Soon the British cruisers Jamaica and Sheffield appeared with their destroyers, forcing the German attack to retreat.

At the time, Hipper was hit by a direct torpedo when the German destroyer KMS Friedrich Eckoldt was sunk.

Due to battle damage, Hipper had to be repaired again, and upon completion was sent to Germany, arriving in Kiel in July 1943. From August 1944 to January 1944, she was placed there and converted to a training ship. In January 1945, Hipper took in 1,529 refugees in Gdynia, Poland, and the passenger liner Gustloff was also crowded with refugees, but was hit by the Russians.

U-boat.

After being attacked at least 3 times by British aircraft, the KMS Admiral Hipper was transferred to the German shipyard in Kiel and officially sunk by the British in May 1945. The war in Europe officially ended this month, and World War II ended at the end of August this year.