Prinz Eugen

History

Design

The third ship in the Admiral Hipper class, the design for Prinz Eugen began under the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles. Because Germany was forbidden from constructing heavy cruisers under the limitations of the treaty, the actual building of such ships was — in the early 1930s — politically undesirable. Planning was, however, impossible to prevent, and a design commission was authorized. In June 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Treaty was signed and Germany was authorized to build ships within a 35:100 tonnage ratio to Britain, though Germany was still to remain under the restrictions enforced by the Treaty of Versailles. At the time, Royal Navy possessed total cruiser displacement of 146,800 tons, which provided the Germans an allotment of 51,380 tons for cruisers of their own. The justification for the Admiral Hipper class was to be found under the terms of the First London Naval Treaty which limited cruiser displacement to roughly 10,000 tons per ship for all signatory nations. Though Germany was not a signatory to the First London Naval Treaty, the restrictions under Versailles made the construction of heavy cruisers politically dangerous for Germany and cruisers over 10,000 tons even more so, thus construction of the planned five cruisers of the Admiral Hipper class was begun in secret until the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles removed that necessity.

The design requirements for the Admiral Hipper class required the ships to be comparable to the French Algerie class, faster than the Dunkerque class, and capable of long range operations in the Atlantic Ocean, while still within 10,000 tons limit. While smaller, less politically dangerous designs with diesel or turbo-electric propulsion and 150mm to 190mm guns were initially considered, the final design settled on high pressure steam propulsion and 203mm guns. While the officially stated displacement would be 10,000 tons, the actual design displacement of the Admiral Hipper-class would exceed 14,000 tons.

Having settled the specifics of the design, the first two ships of the class, Admiral Hipper and Blücher, were laid down in 1934 and 1935 respectively. Prinz Eugen was authorized in late 1935 along with two more ships, and laid down in the spring of the following year. Her construction started on 23 April 1936 in the Krupp-Germania Shipyard, Kiel. A slight difference in blueprints sent to dockyards resulted in a shorter hull of 205.9 m compared to 212.5 m of her sister-ships.

Prinz Eugen received the benefit of experience in the construction and trials of her preceding sisters, and was completed with minor differences. At her launch on 22 August 1938, Prinz Eugen still featured a straight bow with triple anchors and open funnels. Before commissioning, she was drydocked to refit a clipper bow and capped funnels. She also possessed a rectangular bridge, larger hangar, and the two radar sets which became typical of the class. In a notable difference between Prinz Eugen and her preceding sisters, Prinz Eugen was also completed with her forward high angle directors exposed, the spherical covers being fitted a year later. Because of the incremental alterations to her basic design, Prinz Eugen measured 5 meters longer, 0.6 meter wider, 0.2 m deeper in draft and 200 tons heavier than Admiral Hipper, while her standard displacement exceeded that of Admiral Hipper by 1,800 tons.

Because German capital ships generally followed similar design characteristics and arrangement of tower mast and funnels, they possessed a very similar appearance. The similarities between the Admiral Hipper class cruisers and Bismarck class battleships could, and did, confuse observers in poor visibility and without scale reference. On 24 May 1941, Admiral Holland aboard HMS Hood made just such an error, mistaking Prinz Eugen for Bismarck.

Prinz Eugen was to receive multiple anti-aircraft modifications throughout her career, with new 20mm batteries being placed on the roofs of her "Bruno" and "Caesar" turrets, as well as replacing landed searchlights (both forward and astride the funnel). Later plans to further augment her anti-aircraft complement with additional 20mm and 40mm guns were at least partially completed by the end of World War II.

Prinz Eugen would, over time, become one of the most heavily sensor-equipped ships in German Navy. Throughout her career, multiple models of radars were equipped and replaced. These include FuMO 27 fitted at aft fire director in 1940; FuMO 27 fitted at foretop in 1940, which replaced by FuMO 26 in 1942; FuMO 25 fitted at mainmast in 1944; and FuMO 81 fitted at foremast in 1944. FuMB 1 passive radar detector also fitted in 1940 which later augmented by FuMB 4, FuMB 9, and FuMB 26 in 1944.

A passive hydrophone system was installed aboard Prinz Eugen in August 1940. The equipment allowed her crews to listen to the acoustic signatures emitted by other ships to a maximum distance of 27 km even at maximum speed, provided said ships were not obscured by her own acoustic shadow.

Service

Prinz Eugen saw combat from before she was officially commissioned when the Royal Air Force bombed the shipyard at Kiel on 1 July 1940, causing minor damage to the ship itself. After undergoing repairs, Prinz Eugen was commissioned into the Kriegsmarine on 1 August 1940. The cruiser spent the remainder of 1940 and early 1941 conducting sea trials and gunnery training. Following the completion of her preliminary tasks, she was scheduled to accompany the newly commissioned battleship Bismarck on Operation Rheinübung; however, this was delayed after Prinz Eugen struck a mine on her voyage to Kiel.

On 11 May 1941, with her repairs complete, Prinz Eugen set off into the Atlantic to rendezvous with Bismarck. On 20 May 1940, the Swedish cruiser Gotland located the German fleet and reported their whereabouts to the Royal Navy. After stopping in Bergen for fuel and to be painted in the standard Baltic camouflage, Prinz Eugen and Bismarck set course for the Denmark Strait. On 23 May, the British cruiser HMS Suffolk spotted the two German warships and along with HMS Norfolk, shadowed them through the icy strait. Prinz Eugen was given the orders to fire at the HMS Suffolk but refrained due to the misty conditions which limited visibility. The following day, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen engaged the English warships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood near the southwestern coast of Iceland. Prinz Eugen herself did not participate extensively in this engagement, choosing the stay behind Bismarck and monitor the shadowing cruisers. However, the cruiser was still able to land several hits on HMS Prince of Wales and is reported to have started a small fire on her deck. Following this short engagement, Prinz Eugen detached from Bismarck’s formation to begin her commerce raid in the North Atlantic but was forced to retreat to Brest, France after suffering an engine failure.

While receiving repairs in Brest, Prinz Eugen was hit by a bomb during one of the Royal Air Force’s raid on the shipyard which destroyed her main control room, further delaying her return to service. Following several more bombings from the Royal Air Force, the German forces decided to relocate Prinz Eugen and the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau through the English Channel and into safer shipyards. On the night of 11 February 1942, the three German vessels, accompanied by a flotilla of torpedo boats, embarked on their voyage through the dangerous English Channel. The German forces faced heavy fire from aircraft and coastal artillery units but managed to traverse the Channel with only minimal damage and arrived in Germany two nights later.

On 21 February 1942, Prinz Eugen — accompanied by Admiral Scheer and several destroyers — departed from Germany on their voyage to Norway. While conducting patrol operations off the coast of Trondheimsfjord, Prinz Eugen was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Trident. The torpedo hit caused extensive damage to the ship’s stern and completely disabled her rudder. Prinz Eugen was towed to Lofjord where she received emergency repairs before returning to Germany in May to complete her repairs.

In January 1943, Prinz Eugen was assigned to the Fleet Training Squadron in the Baltic Sea; however, she returned to combat service in October to help counter the Russian offense on the Eastern Front. Together with the heavy cruiser Lützow, Prinz Eugen spent the greater part of 1943 and 1944 providing coastal support during the German withdrawal from Finland and the attempted invasion Hogland. The cruiser was again put out of service for repairs in October 1944 after ramming the light cruiser Leipzig. By January 1945, the ship returned to providing coastal support until Lützow’s sinking on 16 April. Four days later, Prinz Eugen arrived in Copenhagen where on 7 May, she was decommissioned and surrendered to the Royal Navy.

On 13 December 1945, Prinz Eugen was gifted to the United States as a war prize. Though the United States Navy was not interested in keeping the ship, they wanted to prevent Soviet Russia from acquiring it. As a result, the cruiser was commissioned as a miscellaneous vessel under the name USS Prinz Eugen. The cruiser arrived in the Philadelphia Navy Yard in January 1946 where her radar and both guns from turret "Anton" were removed. The ship was then assigned to function as a target ship for Operation Crossroads in Bikini Atoll. Prinz Eugen survived both atomic detonations but was severely irradiated. After being towed to Kwajalein Atoll, the ship began to take on water and list heavily. Attempts were made to keep the vessel afloat, but all were unsuccessful. On 22 December 1946, the ship capsized in the shallow waters of the atoll where she remains visible today.

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  The crest of Prinz Eugen.

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  US Office of Naval Intelligence recognition drawing of an Admiral Hipper-class cruiser.

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  Launching of Prinz Eugen, 22 August 1938.

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  Launching of Prinz Eugen, 22 August 1938.

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  Prinz Eugen under fire during the Battle of the Denmark Strait, 20 May 1940. Photo taken aboard.

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  Prinz Eugen moored at the Germania Werft Krupp yards in Kiel, autumn 1940.

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  Prinz Eugen (center) under repair in the Lofjord; next to her, on her starboard side, is the repair ship Huascaran; Admiral Scheer is also moored behind anti-torpedo nets.

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  Prinz Eugen underway, date unknown.

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  Prinz Eugen under escort from Copenhagen to Wilhelmshaven after surrendering, May 1945.

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  USS Prinz Eugen docked at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in January 1946. The removal of the guns from turret "Anton" is underway.

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  USS Prinz Eugen transiting the Gatun locks of the Panama Canal on her way to Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, 1946.

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  USS Prinz Eugen moored in Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads, June 1946.

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  One of Prinz Eugen’s propellers, salvaged from Kwajalein Atoll and on display at the German Naval Memorial in Laboe.

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  Prinz Eugen’s bell, on display at the National Museum of the United States Navy in Washington, DC.