The bulkheads on that deck were blown out and the burning oil developed into an intense fire. [27] The message had been sent to the naval base in Horten at 04:10, but the massive communications problems that severely hampered the efforts of the Norwegian military throughout the Norwegian Campaign had prevented it from reaching Oscarsborg in time. Due to this the Blücher is only dived a few times a year. He was well aware that Norway was officially neutral, but that the government was inclined to side with the British in case of direct Norwegian involvement in the war. The heavy cruiser Blücher would sail into the Oslo harbor, turn its cannons against the royal palace, and Norway would surrender. In light of the fall of the capital, and with news of German landings at the village of Son south of Drøbak,[46] Colonel Eriksen decided that further fighting without adequate infantry support was in vain, and agreed to a ceasefire in the evening of 9 April. At this point, however, Blücher entered the sights of Kommandørkaptein Anderssen as she slid past the torpedo battery at a range of only 500 m (550 yd). German transport planes flying through Oslofjord; The Norwegian victory was short lived as, unbeknown to Eriksen, the Blücher was only the first step in the invasion. [49] On 9 April, the Storting was able to convene at Elverum and give the cabinet a wide authorization to govern until a Storting could again assemble. Norwegian shore batteries sink the Blucher From a range of approximately 1800 metres the two 11inch (28cm) shells from the Krupps guns that were capable of firing caused massive damage to the Blucher. 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In one of the more peculiar battles of the war, a hundred year old fortification, manned by raw recruits and pensioners and armed with 40- to 50-year-old weaponry of German and Austro-Hungarian manufacture, had destroyed a ship so new, its crew was still finishing training. Enter a comma separated list of user names. [1][11][12] Brummer was indeed lost in connection with the invasion, but only when she was on her way back to Germany on 14 April, when she was torpedoed by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Sterlet and sank the next day. The Kriegsmarine's newest ship at the outbreak of World War II, having been in commission for just over six months, she was sunk by Norwegian shore defences at the Battle of Drøbak Sound on April 9, 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung). She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet.She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. [27] After pulling out of range of the fortress guns, Lützow employed her remaining turret "Bruno" to bombard the defenders from a range of 9–10 km (4.9–5.4 nmi; 5.6–6.2 mi) down the fjord. The loss of the German flagship, which carried most of the troops and Gestapo agents intended to occupy Oslo, delayed the German occupation long enough for King Haakon VII and his government to escape from the capital. The British managed to intercept German telegrams and send a fleet of 5 battlecruisers. [38] Around 1,000 of the Germans, including Generalmajor Erwin Engelbrecht and Admiral Oskar Kummetz, were eventually moved to a nearby farm and placed under light guard. Thus, the Norwegian government was able to continue the defence of Norway until it had evacuated to exile in the United Kingdom on 7 June, with the Norwegian Army laying down their arms on 10 June. The Battle of Drøbak Sound took place in Drøbak Sound, the northernmost part of the outer Oslofjord in southern Norway, on 9 April 1940. But things would not go fully as planned... As a result of the Blücher sinking, Oslo was not captured for several hours after the planned invasion of the capital, allowing the Norwegian royal family, parliament and cabinet to escape. Dreaded V1 Flying Bomb Flyes Again! [42], By the time Blücher sank, the remaining naval force destined for Oslo had long since turned around and retreated back down the fjord. Young Frankenstein (1974) is Mel Brooks inspired spoof of horror movies, in which Dr. Frankensteins grandson, Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein (Gene Wilder), inherits his grandfathers castle and begins his own attempts at creating a human being and infusing it with the spark of life. [19] Only one gun crew of actual artillerymen was available, and two guns could only be made operational by splitting the real gunners between the two guns and using non-combatant privates to assist the gunners. The invasion included a planned landing of 1,000 troops transported by ship to Oslo. The map created by people like you! Tamelander, Michael & Zetterling, Niklas: "Besøket på Oscarsborg festning lørdag 2 september", Oscarsborg Fortress Museum official website, Oscarsborg Museum – history of the fortress, Norwegian Armed Forces website page about the fortress, 50 year anniversary Aftenposten newspaper article on the invasion of Norway, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Drøbak_Sound&oldid=998625963, Battles and operations of World War II involving Norway, Battles of World War II involving Germany, Articles with Norwegian-language sources (no), Articles with dead external links from June 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with German-language sources (de), Articles containing Norwegian-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 6 January 2021, at 07:51. Mar 4, 2017 - German heavy cruiser "Blücher", in Oslo Fjord, Norway, on April 9th, 1940, early in the morning The flawless waterline hull has extensive superstructure detail cast in situ, as well as anchors, chains, and rolled-up torpedo nets. German Heavy Cruiser Blücher Wreckage Site and Diving (five videos) Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. The whole of Oslo’s sea-traffic goes through, both freight ships and passenger ship to England. But she, like many other ships in history, was created and born in an era where she was vunerable to … The occupation forces would then take care of the rest. [22] The second 28 cm round hit the base of the forward 20.3 cm (8.0 in) gun turret shortly thereafter, throwing large parts of it into the fjord and igniting further fires on board. A German fleet led by the cruiser Blücher was dispatched up the Oslofjord to begin the German invasion of Norway, with the objective of seizing the Norwegian capital of Oslo and capturing King Haakon VII and his government. The larger guns wrought havoc on board Blücher, while the 57 mm guns concentrated on the cruiser's superstructure and the anti-aircraft weapons,[24] and were partially successful in suppressing the fire from her light artillery as Blücher slowly sailed past the fortress. The two Norwegian guns had been loaded with live, 255 kg (562 lb) high-explosive shells;[21] firing them "in anger" was a violation of the pre-war Norwegian rules of engagement which dictated warning shots be fired first, as had been the case at Oslofjord Fortress further down the fjord. 9th of April 1940. These torpedoes had been practice-launched well over 200 times before, but no one was certain if they would function or not. [23] The aim was corrected for the second torpedo launch and the torpedo struck Blücher amidships, hitting the same general area as the first 28 cm shell. As the vessels had continued up the fjord toward the capital, Eriksen was of the opinion that he had the right to consider them enemy warships and to engage them as such. [23] There was only time for the Main Battery to fire these two rounds, due to their slow reload time with only 30 untrained recruits manning them at the time. [1], One of the two 40 mm guns became unserviceable after only 22 rounds; the other gun kept firing until 12:00, but to little effect. Blücher's fire-fighting system was also knocked out by shell fragments from the two Norwegian batteries, making attempts to control the fires aboard the ship and rescue the many wounded much more difficult. Emden was a light cruiser built for the German Reichsmarine in the early 1920s. The oil rapidly caught fire, killing hundreds more Germans. As the force made good its escape, the fortress managed to damage Lützow, the 15 cm guns of the Kopås battery scoring three hits and knocking out the ship's forward 28 cm turret ("Anton"). The occupation forces would then take care of the rest. The fleet was engaged in the fjord by Oscarsborg Fortress, an ageing coastal installation near Drøbak, that had been relegated to training coastal artillery servicemen, leading the Germans to disregard its defensive value. … 4 of the Norwegian Royal Guards under the command of Kaptein (Captain) A. J. T. The fortress' armaments worked flawlessly despite their age, sinking the Blücher in the sound and forcing the German fleet to fall back. [35], At 06:22, Blücher sank bow first into the depths of the Oslofjord, first laying over on her port side, then turning upside-down and finally succumbing with her screws the last to disappear below the surface. [15] Anderssen would show himself worthy of the important task of leading the fortress' most lethal weapon system; having first served at the torpedo battery in 1909, he knew the ageing weapons intimately. [1] Design work on the first new light cruiser, ordered as "Ersatz Niobe", began in 1921. For some time after the battle, the belief was that Oscarsborg had sunk the artillery training ship Brummer. Design work on the first new light cruiser, ordered as "Ersatz Niobe", began in 1921. Lützow was assigned to Group 5, alongside the new heavy cruiser Blücher and the light cruiser Emden under the command of Konteradmiral Oskar Kummetz. [2] The ship was intended for long-range overseas service, so the designers placed emphasis on a large cruising radius and capaciou… One of the 15 cm rounds from Kopås disabled Blücher's steering gear and forced the cruiser's crew to steer her using the engines to avoid running aground. In addition to the depth the vessel is turned upside-down, and strong tides make diving possible only at specific times. Sørland sank with two of her six-man crew near the village of Skiphelle in Drøbak, as the first civilian Norwegian ship lost during the invasion. She was the only ship of her class and was the first large warship built in Germany after the end of World War I.She was built at the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven; her keel was laid down in December 1921 and her completed hull was launched in January 1925. [16] Colonel Eriksen later explained his decision by alluding to the fact that the German naval force already had forced their way past the Oslofjord Fortress' forts and had received both warning shots and live rounds from these more outlying coastal fortifications. [7] In total, some 1,200 of the survivors had made it ashore at Frogn near Drøbak. During this retreat, the fortress managed to damage the heavy cruiser "Lützow". She sank after an heroic and epic fight against Beatty's own ships at the battle of the Dogger Bank in January 1915. [46] Amongst the bombers that attacked Oscarsborg were twenty-two long-range Junkers Ju 87R "Stuka" dive bombers of Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 under the command of Hauptmann Paul-Werner Hozzel, operating from Kiel-Holtenau airport in northern Germany. The soldiers and non-commissioned officers captured at the mainland batteries were released three days after the fortress' surrender, while the officers were held as prisoners of war at Fredriksten Fortress. VHF-radio and a skilled and experienced surface-crew is a must. The shelling lasted only for five to seven minutes. The battle is depicted in the 2016 feature film The King's Choice. The Germans, on the other hand, lost a powerful heavy cruiser, 650-800 dead, approximately 50 wounded, and around 1000 were taken prisoner. Text and photography by Sten Stockmann Hitler’s plan for conquering Norway was simple. 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