Z10 Hans Lody was a built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine in the mid-1930s. At the beginning of World War II on 1 September 1939, the ship was initially deployed to blockade the Polish coast, but she was quickly transferred to the North Sea to lay defensive minefields. In late 1939 the ship laid multiple offensive minefields off the English coast that claimed nine merchant ships and she crippled a British destroyer during one of these missions.
Hans Lody was under repair for most of the Norwegian Campaign and was transferred to France in late 1940 where she participated in several engagements with British ships, crippling another destroyer. The ship returned to Germany in late 1940 for a refit and was transferred to Norway in June 1941 as part of the preparations for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Hans Lody spent some time at the beginning of the campaign conducting anti-shipping patrols in Soviet waters, but these were generally fruitless. She escorted a number of German convoys in the Arctic later in the year before returning to Germany in September for machinery repairs.
The ship returned to Norway in mid-1942, but was badly damaged when she ran aground in July and did not return until April 1943. Hans Lody participated in the German attack (Operation Zitronella) on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen, well north of the Arctic Circle and then spent the next six months on convoy duties in southern Norway. The ship began a lengthy refit in April 1944 and was not operational for the next year. She spent April 1945 escorting convoys in Danish waters before making one voyage to rescue refugees in East Prussia in May. Hans Lody was assigned to the Royal Navy after the war and used as a training ship and then a barracks ship before being broken up for scrap in 1949.
Design and description Z10 Hans Lody had an overall length of and was long at the waterline. The ship had a beam of , and a maximum draft of . She displaced at standard load and at deep load. The two Wagner geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft, were designed to produce using steam provided by six high-pressure Wagner boilers. The ship had a designed speed of Gröner, p. 199 and she reached a maximum speed of 37.8 knots from during her sea trials.Koop & Schmolke, p. 89 Hans Lody carried a maximum of of fuel oil which was intended to give a range of at a speed of , but the ship proved top-heavy in service and 30% of the fuel had to be retained as ballast low in the ship.Whitley, p. 18 The effective range proved to be only at 19 knots.Koop & Schmolke, p. 26 The crew numbered 10 officers and 315 enlisted men, plus an additional four officers and 19 enlisted men if serving as a flotilla flagship.
The ship carried five SK C/34 guns in single mounts with gun shields, two each superimposed, fore and aft. The fifth gun was carried on top of the aft superstructure. Her anti-aircraft armament consisted of four SK C/30 guns in two twin mounts abreast the rear funnel and six C/30 guns in single mounts. Hans Lody carried eight above-water torpedo tubes in two power-operated mounts. A pair of reload torpedoes were provided for each mount.Whitley, p. 68 Four depth charge throwers were mounted on the sides of the rear deckhouse and they were supplemented by six racks for individual depth charges on the sides of the stern. Enough depth charges were carried for either two or four patterns of 16 charges each.Whitley, p. 215 Mine rails could be fitted on the rear deck that had a maximum capacity of 60 mines. A system of passive hydrophones designated as 'GHG' (Gruppenhorchgerät) was fitted to detect submarines and the S-Gerät active sonar system was scheduled to be installed during February 1940.Whitley, pp. 71–72
During the war the ship's light anti-aircraft armament was augmented several times. In 1941, improved 2 cm C/38 guns replaced the original C/30 guns and three additional guns were added. The two guns on the aft shelter deck were replaced at some point by a single 2 cm quadruple Flakvierling mount, probably in 1942. During her 1944–45 refit, Hans Lody received the "Barbara" anti-aircraft refit in which all of her existing 3.7 cm and most of her 2 cm guns were replaced. She retained her Flakvierling mount and the remainder of her anti-aircraft armament now consisted of seven twin 3.7 cm SK M/42 mounts and three twin 2 cm mounts.Whitley, pp. 73–74
Construction and career Z10 Hans Lody, named after naval reservist Carl Hans Lody who was executed by the British as a spy during World War I, was ordered on 4 August 1934 and laid down at Germaniawerft, Kiel, on 1 April 1935 as yard number G536. She was launched on 14 May 1936 and completed on 13 September 1938.Whitley, p. 204 The destroyer was assigned to the 8th Destroyer Division (8. Zerstörerdivision) upon completion and participated in the homecoming celebrations for the Condor Legion on 30 May 1939 under her first commander, Lieutenant Commander (Korvettenkapitän) Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer.
When World War II began in September 1939, Hans Lody was initially deployed in the Baltic to operate against the Polish Navy and to enforce a blockade of Poland, but she was soon transferred to the German Bight where she joined her sisters in laying defensive minefields.Rohwer, pp. 2–3 While loading mines on 4 September, one exploded aboard Hans Lody, killing two crewmen and wounded six others, and slightly damaging the ship's stern.Whitley, p. 84 The ship later patrolled the Skagerrak to inspect neutral shipping for contraband goods, losing one man overboard and three injured during a storm at the end of October. On the night of 18/19 November, Commander (Fregattenkapitän) Erich Bey, in his flagship Z15 Erich Steinbrinck, led and Hans Lody, in laying a minefield off the Humber Estuary that claimed another seven ships of 38,710 Gross Register Tons (GRT), including the Polish ocean liner Hervieux, p. 112 of 14,294 GRT.Whitley, p. 86
Bey, now using Hans Lody as his flagship, left port on the morning of 6 December with and Z11 Bernd von Arnim to lay a minefield off Cromer. The latter ship had severe boiler problems and was ordered to return to port in the late afternoon while the other two continued their mission.Whitley, pp. 89–90 They spotted several darkened ships as they approached their destination, including the destroyers and , but were not spotted in return. As the two German destroyers withdrew after having laid their mines, they spotted the two British destroyers again at a range of and closed to attack. When the range dropped to , Lody fired three torpedoes at Juno, the leading British ship, while Giese fired four at Jersey. None of Lodys torpedoes struck their target, but one of Gieses hit Jersey abreast her aft torpedo mount.Hervieux, pp. 112–13 The torpedo detonated in an oil fuel tank and started a major fire. Neither British ship spotted the German destroyers and they continued on while Juno turned about to help her sister.Whitley, p. 90 Two British ships totalling 5,286 GRT were sunk by this minefield.Rohwer, p. 11 Hans Lody began a refit at Wesermünde on 9 December that was not finished until 22 May 1940.Koop & Schmolke, p. 90
In June Hans Lody was tasked to escort the battleships and , as well as the heavy cruiser , in Operation Juno, a planned attack on Harstad, Norway, to relieve pressure on the German garrison at Narvik. The ships sortied on 8 June and sank the troop transport , the oil tanker and the minesweeping trawler en route, Hans Lody delivering the coup de grâce on the first two of these. The German commander, Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, then ordered the Admiral Hipper and all four destroyers to Trondheim because of the heavy weather, where they arrived in the morning of 9 June. The two battleships continued the sortie and sank the aircraft carrier and her two escorting destroyers, although Scharnhorst was badly damaged by a torpedo from the destroyer in the engagement. The battleship was escorted home by Hans Lody and her sisters Steinbrinck and for repairs.Rohwer, p. 26; Whitley, pp. 105–06 The destroyer was lightly damaged during an air raid on 13 June, but was back in service a week later. She returned to Norway in time to screen the crippled Gneisenau as she returned to Kiel on 25 July, suffering a minor collision with the battleship en route.
Hans Lody transferred to France on 9 September in preparation for Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of Great Britain. Now based at Brest, the ship helped to lay a minefield in Falmouth Bay during the night of 28/29 September. Five ships totalling only 2,026 GRT were sunk by this minefield.Whitley, pp. 106–07 During a Royal Air Force air raid on Brest on 10 October, Hans Lody was slightly damaged by bomb splinters and strafing, losing two crewmen killed and seven wounded during the attack. Bey led Hans Lody and four other destroyers during a sortie for the Southwest Approaches on 17 October and were intercepted by a British force of two light cruisers and five destroyers. The British opened fire at extreme range and were forced to disengage in the face of long-range torpedo volleys and attacks by Luftwaffe bombers without having hit any of the German ships. On the night of 24–25 November, Hans Lody and the destroyers and sortied from Brest, bound for the Land's End area. En route they encountered some fishing ships south-west of Wolf Rock and engaged them with gunfire with little effect. The German ships then spotted a small convoy and sank one of the three merchantmen and damaged another. The flash from the guns alerted the five destroyers of the British 5th Destroyer Flotilla, but they could not intercept the German destroyers before dawn. Three nights later the German ships sortied again for the same area. They encountered two tugboats and a barge, but only sank one of the former and the barge, totaling 424 GRT. This time the 5th Destroyer Flotilla was able to intercept around 06:30 on 29 November. The Germans opened fire first, each destroyer firing four torpedoes, of which only two from Hans Lody hit their target, . The torpedoes hit at each end of the ship and blew off her bow and stern, but the British were able to tow her home. Hans Lody was hit by two 2-pounder (40 mm) shells during the engagement, but suffered no casualties.Whitley, pp. 107–14 The ship returned home on 5 December for a refit in Wesermünde that lasted until April 1941.
1941–1942