Many people, including myself, are fascinated by the German weapons of World War II. These include their ships, some of which were very advanced. The following is a history of some of those ships.

Bismark

Bismarck was a 41,673 ton battleship and she was fast. This was perhaps the most famous German ship of World War II. She really didn't have much of a chance to see a lot of action because 1940 and part of 1941 were spent in training the crew. A sister ship was built, it was the Tirpitz. Accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen she sunk the British battleship Hood and seriously damaged the Prince of Wales, another battleship. On May 27, 1941 she was reduced to a pile of smoldering steel by constant attacks from the air and by British surface ships.

Here are some great photos of the Bismark under construction at Hamburg in 1939

Scharnhorst

The Scharnhorst was a 31,100 ton battleship commissioned in 1939. She was built at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. She was modified after only about 6 months with a new mainmast to improve seakeeping but she was always very wet when at sea. Her sister battleship was the Gneisnau. In 1940 both ships engaged the British battlecruiser Renown and sank the carrier HMS Glorious and two destroyers in later actions. She was hit by a torpedo and bombs and had to be repaired. She was sunk in 1943 by gunfire from the British fleet along with bombs. In 1914 there was an armored cruiser with the same name.

Additional Schernhorst Photos

Above Left: Forward Battery
Above Center: Scharnhorst firing on British Carrier Glorious
Above Right: Hitler present during christening ceremony

Schlesien

The Schlesien was a 13,191 ton battleship commissioned in 1908. It was built at Danzig in Germany and was a Deutschland Class. In 1917 she became a barracks and training ship. After World War I Germany was allowed to keep this ship. She was modernized in the 1930s. She was not only a training ship but was put into combat in the Baltic in World War II. She was scuttled after being badly damaged by mines and bombs in 1943.

Hessen

The Hessen started life as a battleship in 1905. After World War I Germany was allowed to keep it for coastal defense. It was put in an auxiliary status. In the mid 1920s the ship was modernized and returned to battleship status. In 1935 she was reconstructed and became a radio-controlled target ship. She was given more powerful engines and a longer hull but had no armament. She was surrendered to the Soviet Union in 1946 and then served in the Soviet navy as the Tsel.

Koln

The Koln was a light cruiser built in 1930. It weighed in at 6,000 tons and was built at Wilhelmshaven in Germany. She was used to patrol the Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War. Structurally she was a weak ship that used way too much fuel. This was a problem for ships of the Konigsberg class. Her primary duty area was the Baltic but she participated in landing troops at Norway. After 1943 the ship was inactive for almost all the rest of the war. She was sunk while mine laying off the coast of Wilhelmshaven on March 30, 1945 by planes of the U.S. Army.

Tirpitz

The Tirpitz was the sister ship to the Bismark. It was even bigger at 44,755 tons. It was built at Wilhelmshaven, Germany and commissioned in February, 1941. She remained in Norwegian waters for her whole career. September 1943 was the only time she fired her guns at the enemy. In 1943 a British midget submarine hit her with a torpedo. In April 1944 she was repaired. She was then attacked by British carrier planes and was repaired again. On November 12, 1944 she was attacked by British planes with very large bombs and listed. Her ammunition exploded and she rolled over and wrecked.

Additional Photos

1. Tirpitz from front
2. Fitting out at Wilhelmshaven, Germany on February 2, 1940
3. Gun Turrets trained abeam in Norway
4. Camouflaging the Battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fiord

Terpitz in camouflage paint

U-47

The U-47 was a 753 ton Type VIIIB submarine. It was commissioned in 1938. This is the sub that made the daring raid at Scapa Flow, Scotland, where the British Fleet was anchored and sank the battleship Royal Oak. It became the most famous submarine in the world. On March 8, 1941 while the U-47 was attacking a convoy near Iceland the British destroyer Wolverine destroyed the U-47. All hands died.

U-3008 a/k/a USS U-3008

The U-3008 was a 1621 ton Type XXI high performance submarine. In was completed just a few weeks before the war ended and was captured by the Americans. It was put into the American Navy as the USS U-3008 and used as a test and evaluation submarine. Her advanced technology proved troublesome and she was taken out of service in 1948. She was scrapped in 1955.