Germany - Admiral Hipper class Heavy Cruiser - Page 19

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Post subject: Re: Germany - Admiral Hipper class Heavy Cruiser

Posted: February 23rd, 2014, 3:30 pm

Posts: 762
Joined: January 1st, 2012, 7:01 pm
Location: Germany

In early days of December, Admiral Hipper had to fight with ongoing engine troubles, heavy weather and the resulting damages to equipment, weapons and electrical system and the constant need for refueling. The weather also prevented the use of the onboard aircraft; December 21st was the first day to do so and unfortunately, the aircraft launched (T3+KH) was never heard from again. With the second aircraft damaged by the moving hangar ceiling, this left Admiral Hipper with only once functional aircraft.

Finally on December 24th, radar picked up a convoy. The first sneak attack with torpedoes in the night (to put the ‘blame’ on a U-Boat) failed and Hipper returned for a second attack in the morning. It was then that Captain Meisel realized his prey included the British cruiser HMS Berwick (which Admiral Hipper had narrowly avoided when returning from Norway) and the convoy did not consisted of freighters, but troop transports. The aircraft carrier Furious, also part of this convoy and transporting airplanes, did not have any aircraft in the air, which had allowed Admiral Hipper to get so close in the first place. After a brief battle, Admiral Hipper was able to disengage, scoring some critical hits on Berwick and damaging the troop transport Empire Trooper. Captain Meise retreated to a friendly port in France after that, sinking the freighter Jumna.

The first Atlantic tour had been only slightly successful, but brought a ton of experience: The electrical systems of the flak and torpedoes were susceptible to water, the hangar construction was flawed, the engines were unreliable and a network of support tankers was required to keep those engines fed. Additionally, those tankers had to be staffed by a well-trained crew and better be dedicated for refueling (except for Dithmarschen, all other support ships had been modified, captured French tankers.). The bridge had field of view was too narrow and the aft rangefinder was too low and susceptible to smoke and the onboard aircraft could only be launched and retrieved on three of the twenty-eight days. On the plus side, the heavy artillery worked fine, the radar had proven its worth and the onboard codebreaking team had proven useful and the overall hull design had shown to be seaworthy. The divisionary effect of this tour had been minimal, since Admiral Hipper had been remained undetected until the battle with Berwick.

The second Atlantic tour of Admiral Hipper began on February 1st, 1941. The first success came on February 11th, sinking the British freighter Iceland (which, interestingly, had been the ex-German Delia, captured by the British). The big prize came in the following night: The radar picked up the first contacts of convoy SLS 64, consisting of twelve British, four Greek and three Norwegian freighters without any escorts. In the following battle in the early morning, Admiral Hipper sank seven freighters: Perseus, Borgestadt, Shrewsbury, Oswestry Grange, Westbury, Dorrynane and the convoy flagship Warlaby and damaging Volturno, Lornaston and Kalliopi. With his limited information at the time, Meisel reported all ten ships sunk.

At the same time, the cruiser expended almost its entire supply of ammunition. All twelve torpedoes from the tubes had to be fired and only two could be reloaded because the badly constructed reload mechanism. Not wanting to risk resupply and refueling at sea, Captain Meisel decided to return to Brest, ending the second Atlantic tour. The results confirmed that this cruiser class was not suited for commerce raiding: Their speed came at the cost of extreme high fuel consumption, making the Deutschland-class with their diesel engines the better option. The combination of land-based aircrafts and U-Boats also proved to be the better option for hunting convoys.

Admiral Hipper was now stuck in Brest and in need of repairs and overhaul. The shipyards in Brest were not capable of those works and the threat of British bombers became very real when bombs missed the cruiser by 200m on February 24th. Leaving on March 15th and taking the long route via Greenland and Island, Admiral Hipper arrived in Kiel on March 31st.

And here is Hipper when she arrived back in Germany:

[ img ]

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Germany - Admiral Hipper class Heavy Cruiser

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