Z-39

Z-39 underway, date and location unknown. This photo was taken some time after the end of World War II, as she is sailing under the US flag.

History

Design

The destroyers of the Zerstörer 1936A class were the last class of destroyers designed by Germany before the outbreak of World War II. They were slightly larger than the preceding 1936 class, and were designed to be more stable in the seas. The hull was reinforced, and a bulge was installed at the bow to improve seaworthiness. The latter was eventually removed, however, as it proved to have negative side effects on the bow. A double rudder allowed better maneuverability than on the 1934 or 1936 classes.

The result was a 127 meter long and 12 meter wide hull with a draft of up to 4.65m. The displacement ranged between 2,600 and 3,700 tons depending on the loadout, and her engines — with a combined 70,000 shaft horsepower — would allow for a speed of 36 knots (during speed trials, speeds up to 38.5 knots were achieved). The fuel capacity gave these ships a cruising range of up to 2,500 nautical miles. The crew for a single vessel consisted of 11 officers and 320 men.

What made the 1936A class stand out from other destroyers of the era was their main battery armament. The 15cm L/48 was gun was unique to Germany, and the largest main battery rifle to be mounted on a destroyer to date. They were initially tested on the 1934-class destroyer Z-8 Bruno Heinemann, these guns were meant to counter new French and British destroyers, as well as allowing the 1936A class ships to serve as scout units and to compensate for the continual shortage of light cruisers and scouting units. There were two mountings available on the 1934A class, a single mount and a twin turret. Other than the number of guns in these mountings, they also differed in terms of gun elevations: the single mounting allowed for 30° elevations, whereas the twin turret could elevate up to 65°. Each ship of the Z-23 class was slated to receive one twin-barreled mount on the bow and three single-barreled mounts at the stern of the ship, with the sternmost two being superfiring and the central turret facing forward. The only exception for this layout was Z-28, which was used as a fleet command vessel and instead mounted four single mounts in two superfiring pairs, one at the bow and one at the aft. The Torpedo armament did not change from the 1934 series destroyers, with two quadruple 533mm torpedo tubes, and the initial anti-aircraft armament consisted of two twin 37mm Flakzwilling 30's and five single barreled 20mm FlaK 38's.

Availability issues with the 15cm twin turret meant that the first few vessels built only received four 15cm guns in single mountings. However, even the lighter armament showed that the bow was insufficiently designed and that the ships took a tremendous amount of water over the bow in the commonly rough seas of the northern Atlantic. When the twin turret was eventually installed in 1942 the issues with these guns became more noticeable. With the twin turret weighting more than four times that of a single mount, the fore ship was even more prone to being wet. As the turret was not properly designed to be waterproof the electrical systems within would often fail in heavy seas and the fixed ammunition meant that a lot of physical effort was required by the gun crews to reload the gun, which would hamper the ability to maintain a high rate of fire during combat.

With the threat from aircraft rising throughout the war, it was deemed as necessary to increase the anti-air-armament of all destroyers, resulting in the so-called “Barbara-program” which added additional AA guns for almost all ships in 1944. The proposed changes for the 1936A class ships were the removal of a 15cm single mount, and a completely new AA armament of twelve 37mm M42 and eighteen 20mm FlaK 38 guns, with the addition of 8.6cm AA rockets in four single launchers.

Z-39 was laid down on 15 August 1940, launched on 2 December 1941, and commissioned on 21 August 1943. Her commissioning was delayed almost two years due to her lengthy construction, and even after commissioning she was not fully operational until 7 January 1944.

Service

Her first operations were mine-laying duties in the Strait of Denmark until March 1944. She moved to the Gulf of Finland, joining Z-25, Z-28, and Z-35 in the 6th Destroyer Flotilla. Until late June, she and the 6th Destroyer Flotilla rotated between mine-laying duties and coastal bombardment of Soviet forces.

On 23 June, Z-39 was damaged by Soviet bombers off the coast of Estonia, and she later set sail for Kiel via Swinemünde for repairs. On 24 July while under repair at Kiel, she was hit by a bomb when the British air force raided the city; she had to be towed back to safer Swinemünde again to finish her repairs, using parts cannibalized from incomplete destroyers Z-44 and Z-45. Z-39 was sufficiently seaworthy by 28 February 1945. She was initially intended to sail for Copenhagen to finish repairs, but due to lack of fuel, she could only make it to Sassnitz. She was fully repaired by 1 April 1945. From that point forward, Z-39’s duty consisted almost entirely of escort duty and naval gunfire support for the Wehrmacht along the Baltic coastline. She also took part in several evacuation operations, joining evacuation fleets that sailed 55,000 refugees and soldiers to Copenhagen, and 20,000 soldiers and civilians to Glücksburg, arriving there on the 9 May, a day after the German Instrument of Surrender was enacted. She was decommissioned from the Kriegsmarine on 10 May 1945.

After the war, Z-39 initially went to the Royal Navy, but on 11 July 1945 she was instead handed over to the US Navy at Plymouth, arriving back in Boston on 7 August. After extensive trials, she was commissioned into the US Navy on 14 September as DD-939. The US Navy's Bureau of Ships spent time experimenting with her equipment until late 1947, whereupon she was deemed obsolete; DD-939 was transferred to the French Navy, arriving at Toulon in January 1948. Renamed Q-128, she was primarily cannibalized for her parts to repair the other ex-German French destroyers, until eventually, her remains were scrapped in 1964.

Historical Inaccuracies

• Z-39 is depicted in early 1945 condition. Her paint scheme had no camouflage by this time.
• The camouflage paintwork was only worn in 1944, when Z-39 still had three aft main gun turrets.

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  Z-39 sailing with high speed.

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  Z-39 during her early career, still lacking the additional AA that was mounted in 1944.

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  The forward 15cm twin turret on Z-39.

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  The rear section of Z-39, taken after the war. One of the main guns being clearly damaged.

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  A picture taken from directly behind Z-39.

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  This picture shows Z-39 full length from the side, giving a good impression of her profile and her armament. This picture was also taken after the war.

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  A detail shot of the second funnel. Clearly visible is the 37mm Flakzwilling 30 and the 37mm M42 single mount.

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  German destroyer Z-39 underway off Boston, Massachusetts, 12 September 1945.