() was an heavy cruiser, the third of a class of five vessels. She served with Nazi Germany's during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936, launched in August 1938, and entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, a distinguished 18th-century general in the service of the Holy Roman Empire. She was armed with a main battery of eight guns and, although nominally under the limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over .
saw action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship in May 1941. The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser and moderately damaged the battleship in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. was detached from during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles. After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus, a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany. In February 1942, was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was curtailed when she was torpedoed by the British submarine days after arriving in Norwegian waters. The torpedo severely damaged the ship's stern, which necessitated repairs in Germany.
Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support for the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front. After the German collapse in May 1945, she was surrendered to the British Royal Navy before being transferred to the US Navy as a war prize. After examining the ship at The Boston Naval Shipyard, the US Navy assigned the cruiser to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. Having survived the atomic blasts, was towed to Kwajalein Atoll, where she ultimately capsized and sank in December 1946. The wreck remains partially visible above the water approximately two miles northwest of Bucholz Army Airfield, on the edge of Enubuj. One of her screw propellers was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.
Design
The of heavy cruisers was ordered in the context of German naval rearmament after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Germany signed the Anglo–German Naval Agreement with Great Britain, which provided a legal basis for German naval rearmament; the treaty specified that Germany would be able to build five "treaty cruisers". The s were nominally within the 10,000-ton limit, though they significantly exceeded the figure.
was long overall, and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . After launching, her straight bow was replaced with a clipper bow, increasing the length overall to . The new bow kept her foredeck much drier in heavy weather. The ship had a design displacement of and a full-load displacement of . was powered by three sets of geared steam turbines, which were supplied with steam by twelve ultra-high pressure oil-fired boilers. The ship's propulsion system was rated for a top speed of from . As designed, her standard complement consisted of 42 officers and 1,340 enlisted men.
The ship's primary armament was eight SK L/60 guns mounted in four twin turrets, placed in superfiring pairs forward and aft. Her anti-aircraft battery consisted of twelve L/65 guns, twelve guns, and eight guns. The ship also carried four triple torpedo launchers. For aerial reconnaissance, she was equipped with three Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult. s armored belt was thick; her upper deck was thick and her main armored deck was thick. The main battery turrets had thick faces and 70 mm thick sides.
Service history
was ordered by the from the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel. Her keel was laid down on 23 April 1936, under construction number 564 and the contract name " J". She was originally to be named after Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, the Austrian victor of the Battle of Lissa, though considerations over the possible insult to Italy, defeated by Tegetthoff at Lissa, led the Kriegsmarine to adopt Prinz Eugen as the ship's namesake. She was launched on 22 August 1938, in a ceremony attended by the Governor () of the Ostmark, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who made the christening speech. Also present at the launch were Adolf Hitler, the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Miklós Horthy (who had commanded the battleship from 24 November 1917 to 1 March 1918), and his wife Magdolna Purgly, who performed the christening. As built, the ship had a straight stem, though after her launch this was replaced with a clipper bow. A raked funnel cap was also installed.
Commissioning was delayed slightly due to light damage sustained during a Royal Air Force attack on Kiel on the night of 1 July 1940. suffered two relatively light hits in the attack, but she was not seriously damaged and was commissioned into service on 1 August. The cruiser spent the remainder of 1940 conducting sea trials in the Baltic Sea. In early 1941, the ship's artillery crews conducted gunnery training. A short period in dry dock for final modifications and improvements followed. In April, the ship joined the newly commissioned battleship for maneuvers in the Baltic. The two ships had been selected for Operation Rheinübung, a breakout into the Atlantic to raid Allied commerce.
On 23 April, while passing through the Fehmarn Belt en route to Kiel, detonated a magnetic mine dropped by British aircraft. The mine damaged the fuel tank, propeller shaft couplings, and fire control equipment. The planned sortie with was delayed while repairs were carried out. Admirals Erich Raeder and Günther Lütjens discussed the possibility of delaying the operation further, in the hopes that repairs to the battleship would be completed or s sistership would complete trials in time for the ships to join and . Raeder and Lütjens decided that it would be most beneficial to resume surface actions in the Atlantic as soon as possible, however, and that the two ships should sortie without reinforcement.
Operation Rheinübung
By 11 May 1941, repairs to had been completed. Under the command of (KzS—Captain at Sea) Helmuth Brinkmann, the ship steamed to Gotenhafen, where the crew readied her for her Atlantic sortie. On 18 May, rendezvoused with off Cape Arkona. The two ships were escorted by three destroyers—, , and —and a flotilla of minesweepers. The Luftwaffe provided air cover during the voyage out of German waters. At around 13:00 on 20 May, the German flotilla encountered the Swedish cruiser ; the cruiser shadowed the Germans for two hours in the Kattegat. transmitted a report to naval headquarters, stating: "Two large ships, three destroyers, five escort vessels, and 10–12 aircraft passed Marstrand, course 205°/20'." The (OKM—Naval High Command) was not concerned about the security risk posed by , though Lütjens believed operational security had been lost. The report eventually made its way to Captain Henry Denham, the British naval attaché to Sweden, who transmitted the information to the Admiralty.
The code-breakers at Bletchley Park confirmed that an Atlantic raid was imminent, as they had decrypted reports that and had taken on prize crews and requested additional navigational charts from headquarters. A pair of Supermarine Spitfires were ordered to search the Norwegian coast for the German flotilla. On the evening of 20 May, and the rest of the flotilla reached the Norwegian coast; the minesweepers were detached and the two raiders and their destroyer escorts continued north. The following morning, radio-intercept officers on board picked up a signal ordering British reconnaissance aircraft to search for two battleships and three destroyers northbound off the Norwegian coast. At 7:00 on the 21st, the Germans spotted four unidentified aircraft that quickly departed. Shortly after 12:00, the flotilla reached Bergen and anchored at Grimstadfjord. While there, the ships' crews painted over the Baltic camouflage with the standard "outboard gray" worn by German warships operating in the Atlantic.
While in Bergen, took on of fuel; inexplicably failed to similarly refuel. At 19:30 on 21 May, , , and the three escorting destroyers left port. By midnight, the force was in the open sea and headed toward the Arctic Ocean. At this time, Admiral Raeder finally informed Hitler of the operation, who reluctantly allowed it to continue as planned. The three escorting destroyers were detached at 04:14 on 22 May, while the force steamed off Trondheim. At around 12:00, Lütjens ordered his two ships to turn toward the Denmark Strait to attempt the breakout into the open waters of the Atlantic.
By 04:00 on 23 May, Lütjens ordered and to increase speed to to make the dash through the Denmark Strait. Upon entering the Strait, both ships activated their FuMO radar detection equipment sets. led by about ; mist reduced visibility to . The Germans encountered some ice at around 10:00, which necessitated a reduction in speed to . Two hours later, the pair had reached a point north of Iceland. The ships were forced to zigzag to avoid ice floes. At 19:22, hydrophone and radar operators aboard the German warships detected the cruiser at a range of approximately . s radio-intercept team decrypted the radio signals being sent by Suffolk and learned that their location had indeed been reported.
Admiral Lütjens gave permission for to engage Suffolk, though the captain of the German cruiser could not clearly make out his target and so held fire. Suffolk quickly retreated to a safe distance and shadowed the German ships. At 20:30, the heavy cruiser joined Suffolk, but approached the German raiders too closely. Lütjens ordered his ships to engage the British cruiser; fired five salvoes, three of which straddled Norfolk and rained shell splinters on her decks. The cruiser laid a smoke screen and fled into a fog bank, ending the brief engagement. The concussion from the 38 cm guns disabled s FuMo 23 radar set; this prompted Lütjens to order to take station ahead so she could use her functioning radar to scout for the formation. The British cruisers tracked and through the night, continually relaying the location and bearing of the German ships.
Battle of the Denmark Strait
The harsh weather broke on the morning of 24 May, revealing a clear sky. At 05:07 that morning, hydrophone operators aboard detected a pair of unidentified vessels approaching the German formation at a range of , reporting "Noise of two fast-moving turbine ships at 280° relative bearing!". At 05:45, lookouts on the German ships spotted smoke on the horizon; these turned out to be from and , under the command of Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland. Lütjens ordered his ships' crews to battle stations. By 05:52, the range had fallen to and Hood opened fire, followed by Prince of Wales a minute later. Hood engaged , which the British thought to be , while Prince of Wales fired on .
The British ships approached the Germans head on, which permitted them to use only their forward guns, while and could fire full broadsides. Several minutes after opening fire, Holland ordered a 20° turn to port, which would allow his ships to engage with their rear gun turrets. Both German ships concentrated their fire on Hood. About a minute after opening fire, scored a hit with a high-explosive 20.3 cm shell, detonating unrotated projectile ammunition and starting a large fire on Hood, which was quickly extinguished. Holland then ordered a second 20° turn to port, to bring his ships on a parallel course with and . By this time, had found the range to Hood, so Lütjens ordered to shift fire and target Prince of Wales to keep both of his opponents under fire. Within a few minutes, scored a pair of hits on the battleship and reported that a small fire had been started.