USS Prinz Eugen - A German Cruiser in American Service
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- It was a rare thing for the United States Navy to commission foreign warships. Yet, it happened to a handful of ships in the aftermath of the Second World War. Japanese destroyers, German destroyers and submarines...and, of course, the most famous of them all
USS Prinz Eugen, IX-300.
While only ever used for experimental testing, this cruiser was the largest and most well known foreign ship in the USN. It's a shame, of course, that her service ended in Operation Crossroads. But I still find it an interesting period to look at, in the history of Prinz Eugen.
Prinz Eugen Video:
• KMS Prinz Eugen: The L...
Further Reading:
www.amazon.com/Spoils-War-Ene...
www.amazon.com/Story-Prinz-Eu...
www.amazon.com/German-Cruiser...
www.amazon.com/German-Warship...
How awesome would it have been if the US kept Prinz Eugen and made her into a museum ship.
I doubt they would save a symbol of nazi propaganda, especially just a few years after the war
Like U-505 in Chicago
Nagato too.
I'd definitely visit her. Probably multiple times.
Wehraboos from all over the world would make pilgrimages to visit her.
I always thought that was one of the most aesthetically pleasing ships built. It would have been great example of a foreign ship to be saved. And nuking the ocean was criminal.
Honestly, dumping plastic is a lot worse.
@@timf2279 both you two need to grow up.
@@francischambless5919 go away troll
@@francischambless5919 I think we could say the same to you.
@@RockmanDash based on your limited intellectual observations I'll consider your opinion next time I take a dump. Have yourself a nice day. Buh bye.
It maybe has something to do with me being german, but the Hipper Class, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau plus the Bismarck Class for me show the quintessential Siluette of WW2 Warships.
They are so elegant and functional... like Bauhaus ships
"We build sweet (green) water ships, beauties to behold, but unsuitable for the Atlantic"
some pre WW2 Admiral.
I built over 140 model war ships back in the late 1960s and early 1970s ... nearly all of them in 1:600 scale ... my German models were my favourite ones.
On the subject of Prinz Eugen's main battery, I have heard that the 20.3cm SK C/34 gun barrel at Dahlgren Proving Grounds is still in existence as part of their collection, but access is heavily restricted due to it being an active military facility. Supposedly it still exists, at least according to people I've talked to that have visited Dahlgren Proving Grounds. Her bell is also preserved at the NHHC collection, complete with the Reichsadler and her name. The propeller removed in the 1970s is at the Laboe Naval Memorial. I have never been able to figure out what happened to her hydrophone array, however. I like to think it was stashed away like U-505's periscopes in some out of the way warehouse, and is waiting to be rediscovered. That was really the major technological coup gained from Prinz Eugen, as the U.S. Navy had nothing comparable even with the FM sonar. Eugen was able to pick up HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales well over the horizon, hours before they intercepted her, while making high speed, in 1941, a technological feat which the Allies never managed to replicate during the war. It also served as the predecessor of modern submarine sonar systems! All in all a very impressive bit of equipment that I hope survives somewhere, in some collection.
As for lingering radiation issues, I've never made it out to Kwajalein to dive on her but I have heard that divers are discouraged from penetrating the wreck as contamination was tracked inside the ship and parts of her are still risky to venture into, aside from 80-odd years of corrosion. That doesn't seem to track with how radiation works, and is probably an invention of the local dive operators who don't want their clients getting killed inside her from getting lost, or tangled up in debris.
We had a "FM sonar", it was for mine detection, however. We did install it on subs. The Eugans array would end up on the Flying Fish for testing purposes. Looked silly. Also, I've been told the guns no longer exist and were scrapped a long while ago. I suspect the array was scrapped along with the Flying Fish but I could be wrong.
Think one should not dive into any wreck , especially old ones and ones not upside up as the engineers intended .
Interior diving is prohibited, not due to radiation however. Two divers drowned while exploring the interior passages when they got disoriented and ran out of air. After that the army put restrictions on any further interior dives. I've made quite a few dives on the ship, and poked around a bit inside, but never very deeply, and never without a guideline.
Actually, Prinz Eugen detected the approach of Hood and Prince of Wales by means of her hydrophonic equipment, not her radar.
When your half life is 50K years what's 80 years in all that right? No matter you go near it your contaminated. It'll still kill you.
One of the few ships classes which the sole survivor sucks up all of the luck from the sister ships.
Mogami was the Japanese doppleganger of P.E. until Leyte Gulf
Sucked the luck out of the entire damn Kreigsmarine.
Considering the secrecy of Kwajalein and relative obscurity it seems unusual that it’s a popular diving location.
The reason it became a nuke test casualty along with Nagato, so that they WOULDN'T become museum ships, to prevent them being idolized.
It's a shame if not a true tragedy she was never preserved, if not a god's damned disservice, she sailed and fought beside KMS Bismarck in the Battle of the Denmark Straight, she drew first blood on HMS Hood and scored direct hits on Prince of Wales, then blasted the Russian Commie bastards to bits in the afterlife when providing covering fire for the German army, she deserved to be preserved as a museum ship, just as much as
HMS Anson, Howe, Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Valiant, Barham, Revenge, Resolution, Royal Sovereign,
RM Dante Alighieri, Andrea Doria, Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, Duilio, Giulio Cesare,
MN Richelieu, Jean-Bart,
USS New York (BB-34), Pennsylvania (BB-38), Nevada (BB-36), New Mexico (BB-40), Mississippi (BB-41), Idaho (BB-42), Tennessee (BB-43), California (BB-44), Colorado (BB-45), Maryland (BB-46), West Virginia (BB-48), Washington (BB-56), South Dakota (BB-57), Indiana (BB-58), Des Moines (CA-134), Newport News (CA-148), Baltimore (CA-68), Boston (CA-69), Quincy (CA-71), Helena (CA-75), Bremerton (CA-130), Los Angeles (CA-135), Chicago (CA-136), Oregon City (CA-122), Albany (CA-123), Rochester (CA-124), Northampton (CLC-1), Atlanta (CL-51), San Diego (CL-53), Brooklyn (CL-40), Philadelphia (CL-41), Honolulu (CL-48), Cleveland (CL-55), Columbia (CL-56), Montpelier (CL-57), Springfield (CL-66), Fargo (CL-106), Worcester (CL-144), Roanoke (CL-145), Benson (DD-421), Gleaves (DD-423), Fletcher (DD-445), Gatling (DD-671), Allen M. Sumner (DD-692), Gearing (DD-710), Frank Knox (DD-742)
IJN Nagato,
After WW2 all nations including Germany itself went to much effort to erase all WW2 symbols that glorify the Germany side of the war of course. The war lead to tens of millions of dead in Europe and massive devastation all across the continent. German symbols were set out to be destroyed and prevent Germany becoming nationalistic again to prevent a future repeat after both WW1 and WW2. It is not a surprise that no nation wanted to preserves such symbols it is totally logical at the time. Today we are over 70 years removed so thing are different but you need to put your self in people's shoes at the time. The USA turning the German war ship in to a museum would cause major outrage, it is just not logical. If the ships was used in service in to the 1960s or 70s then maybe it would have been preserved but it was sent out for nuclear testing like hundreds of other ships at the time, it was just one of many
I would second that suggestion ... very well said ... good for you.
You know how much money it would take to make all those ships into museum ships, and keep them maintained for a century almost .. I agree, most of those ships served well, and distinguished themselves from the other warships of the era, and it’s a shame to see them willingly blown up by a Nuke, like a piece of garbage , but a lot of insightful information was gleaned from dropping a nuke on those ships.. we can’t save every ship that distinguished itself from the rest.. our coasts would be inundated with obsolete warships
Well its all history now. What you can do however, is you can try and get older war ships today that are retiring to become museum ships of the future but its expensive
Brilliant! Just think of all the get-togethers old nazis and neo-nazis could have had aboard her. All those black uniforms, swastika armbands, and groups of degenerates goose stepping around singing the Horst Wessel song.
They could have sold souvenir plastic busts of their leader, perhaps?
More fortunate than lucky. She more survived due to her unreliable engines than any luck.
Her engines were not unreliable by design but because of poor wartime repairs.
Before her fateful criuse with the Bismarck she ran into a mine.
That caused engine damage thst was never completely fixed ( much like the Warspite's rudder issue).
Her only Atlantic run was cut short due to engine issues.
About the only action/trip she successfully completed was the channel dash.
The damage seemed to restrict her operational range and she remained in the Baltic for the rest of her service with the German navy.
Her only attempt to reach Norway was cut off when she was torpedoed.
Sometimes a ship/crew make their luck, like Enterprise being late to port in Dec, 1941.
It´s a shame what happened to this beautiful ship.
The Prinz was famous for having sailed along the mighty Bismarck in 1941 and taken active part in the battle against the British batleships Hood and Prince of Wales... What's more, in the last decades some historians have reached the conclusion that the salvo that reached the Hood's upper deck and were responsible for the swift sinking of the ship, had been fired by the 8 inch guns of the Prinz, and not from the 15 inch Bismarck's main artillery !
Anyway, after the Hood's explosion and the Wales escaping from the feared Bismarck, the Prinz was ordered to break away and sail to reach a French port, which she did unscathed.
@@orlandonavarro5674 Yeah, that´s common knowledge of every shiplover.
I agree with Andreas. A video on the gun tests would be super interesting. Thanks for the video.
I would like to add that the prop that was taken off of her was placed at a maritime-memorial site in Laboe, Germany near Kiel.
Da gehört er ja auch hin.
Just across the Memorial site in Laboe you can see the only remaining WW2 Type 7 U-Boot in the world, the U- 995 ! Truly a must-see spot !
What a shame. This ship should've remained intact even today for historical reasons & could be used in the fleet if necessary. Pride overrides common sense. This is just one case out of many. Thanks for posting.
Those poor sailors who went on top of that ship to scrub it they wouldn't have a nice life after that. 😢
Well done,clean,concise,to the point with good information
Capured and used as a target ship in the Bikini Atom bomb test in the Marshall Islanids after WW2. My Uncle was a USN sailor who witnessed the test.
Prinz Eugen was never really in US service. She was taken as a war prize to keep her and her advanced systems away from the Soviets. The US Navy was never really able to sail her or operate her weapons and other systems without assistance of her German crew as and officers. At that point the Navy was not in the market for used warships.
The U.S. didn’t need an old heavy cruiser. They had plenty of better heavy cruisers and the Des Moines class would be in service in a couple years.
25 year old post on Sci.Military.Naval from nephew of American P.E. crew represented that the enlisted accommodations were "yacht like" compared to an American cruiser, but they were pretty sure a Baltimore Class would get the better in a 1 to 1 action. (Perhaps as a result of the gunnery trials vs. 1946 radar ranging capabilities? Of course not having a full wartime compliment on board might make a sailor that way as well.)
I would imagine nobody knew about the Sonar yet?
I think I saw that in the video.
I always wondered about this ship and its journey through the Panama Canal. Thanks for the video.
Very well done report. She was a good looking ship!
Lets not forget that Prinz Eugen was taking on the Hood and Prince of Wales single handedly for several salvos before Bismarck finally engaged and was making a good show of it!
The Bismarck dispatching the Hood with a salvo which landed in the Hood's magazine completely obliterating the pride of the British Fleet is the stuff of legend.
@@jacktaggart2489 What became of Bismarck three days later, I wonder?
@@dovetonsturdee7033the entire royal navy having to chase down a crippled ship?
@@princeporridge6928 You are confusing war with a game of tennis. If you have superior resources, you use them. I refer you to the excellent example of the US Navy at Leyte Gulf.
As to her sinking, one torpedo hit to destroy her steering, and two battleships to destroy her as a warship.
Wow! I had no idea! Great story and well told!
That one shot of her being escorted looks like there is a 4 engine flying boat or a B-24 Liberator with RAF roundels on the back between the second mast and aft portion of the ship. Great video.
If ship have souls the she for sure had one .
Lucky enough to survive the war , even though it was massively tried to undue her .
At a time, she got her rear blown loose .
She ultimately refused to work for her former enemy as most of her boiler failed .
Survived two nukes
In the end, it took an ending that didn't involve a crew at all, just her slowly rolling over .
She didn't refuse to do anything. Her commanders handed her over to the British in Copenhagen at the end of the war. HMS Dido & HMS Devonshire then took her to Wilhelmshaven.
HMS Dido had ten WW2 battle honours. It must have been a novel experience for Eugen's crew to encounter a real warship.
Her boilers, just like those of her sisters, had been failing regularly throughout the war anyway.
She was an interesting sight even without much there to see. Still had both screws the last time I saw her in Kwajalein too. The best view is submerged of course.
What a coincidence that I just came home Laboe in Northern Germany, having seen one of Prinz Eugens propellers displayed there
Thanks, Skynea. Take care man.
Hanazuki had a USN hull number DD-934. The 1957 Akizuki-class ships were ordered by US and also had USN hull numbers.
Still for the most part in one piece is a good thing. At the breakers being torn apart not so much. Thank you for the video.
Another war prize the Americans had was German Destroyer Z39 (DD-939 under American designation). It would later be commissioned into the French navy until the mid 60s. I would be very interested it is history and a video analysis on the ship.
Very interesting video plus this is a good video
Amazing to compare here sleek hull to those small oilers on the aerial photograph.
hi, I would really like to see a video on the german 8 inch guns and their range finding target aquestion qualities vs the various American u.s. 8 inch crusier guns.
One correction, the propeller was removed in 1978. I was a kid and actually witnessed this. The Propeller was placed at the Laboe Naval Memorial in 1979.
How far do I have to scroll down before I find the, "They should have made it a museum ship 😢" comment? Top comment. 🙄
The _USS Enterprise_ couldn't even be saved as a museum ship! People who fight in wars usually don't want to keep memories for a reason. Then there's the cost to maitain them. I drove by so many rusting Shermans in front of VFW halls in my youth because NOBODY wanted them. Then they became worth something. Now it's an industry.
Awesome history
The US was never interested in her, probably didn't learn much either. Denying Russia was top of mind. I'm sure they wanted her gone at Bikini like Nagato. I do wonder if the British or USSR would have treated her differently. Thanks for the video. Cheers!
British Empire would have scrapped her at the 1st chance where as the Soviet union would have abused her
@@Knight6831 good points. Probably better overturned in Kwajalein.
Always thought the French navy would have been the best place for her.
At the 0.18 mark shows her in the port of boston, custom house tower in the back ground !
I have visited her on Google Earth several times!
I see in your Panama Canal picture that the rearmost 8 inch guns had also been removed.
I have a book about Prinz Eugen, written by her deputy gunnery officer.
Interesting read.
Have more info/pics of both crews during US service. How can I commo securely w/u?
My father Ray Dass was on board Prinz Eugen & Japanese ships as well preparing for the Big Boom at
Bikini atoll. A young Seabee doing
his job.
He also told me the people of Bikini
did not want to leave their home.
The most bad ass ship of the Krigsmarime 🤘😎🤘 and a beautiful vessel.
We need the video of the gun tests
Captain Groubart was good friends with my Dad and I handled his estate….some interesting papers
They sure made them pretty
Feel pretty uneasy painting my WIP model of this ship with the Kriegsmarine paint scheme, so I’m using its USN paint scheme instead!
I have a Kriegsmarine Schreibmaschine from the Prinz Eugen that was unloaded in Philadelphia after the war.
The Kreigsmarine was 90% Ls and 10% Prince Eugen
I met a Prinz Eugen crew member in the 1990s in California.
My father served on IX-300 from San Diego to Bikini as a CPO electrician. Said the engines were questionable but the instrumentation and gauges were first rate. Spent a day or two on board post Baker and then was told to get off. Lived until age 80, no apparent effects from radioactivity.
Got to snorkel on her in Kwajalein in 1980. Impressive.
I wonder if the USCG TALL sail ship thee oldest German warprize still in service.
A lot of commenters don’t seem to understand that this ship was not a good ship. Unreliable with old technology. Further it was not historically notable at all for the time. There is really no argument to maintain a ship that was unreliable and obsolete with no notable historical value.
I've read that nobody wanted her only the russians ...america and the uk really did not want her.
The prince eugen is my favourite ship of the second world war ...the lucky ship survived a world war and two atomic bombs ...WOW!!
Irs a beautiful ship .
Kreigsmarine was 90% losses, 10% prinz eugen
Hello, friends - let me introduce her: Mesdames & Messieurs - Her beautiful Excellency, the 'Prinz Eugen'! Or more simple, just Prince Eugene. The famous soldier became namesake of ships in four Navies: the k.u.k. Marine, the Kriegsmarine, the Regia Marina and... the Royal Navy! There were two Prinz Eugens, one Eugenio di Savoia, and one Prince Eugene. The latter - a British monitor during WW1. I myself would be delighted, if in a Navy there would have been a PRINZESS, or PRINCESS EUGENIE!!... By the way - 'Eugenia' was the first name of my late Mother.♍ 👍
A scan of Kwajalein Atoll on Google Earth, reveals that the hull of the Prinz Eugen can still be seen, just below the surface.
The Germans were particularly adept at building aesthetically pleasing ships. Prinz Eugen was typical. Same with the BIsmarck. Functionality was another story, though.
What a beautiful schiff! I mean ship...😂
SO AT 1:40 IS THAT A B24 ON HER STERN??
And yes... that removed prop successfully made it back to Germany. Greetings from Kiel!😉
It honestly astonishes me that a vehicle the size of a skyscraper, can just be thrown away like a disposable razor after 20 years of existence..
The amount of man hours it took to design, build and maintain ships like these, just to be sunk in a nuke test .. all the materials the ships made out of that could have been recycled (I know there’s billions of tons of steel on the planet, but it’s still such a waste of time, man power, and materials
Had no idea she had survived the war! Like all German design and engineering superb!! Great shame she was mutilated and had an ignominious end!! She should have been kept as a museum exhibit!
Nothing about her sonar array being installed on SS-229? Wacky setup that was.
Heartbreaking to see any of these old vessels go away. If only people would act more mindful.
😟
Several years ago, while visiting our daughter and her husband on Kwajalien island, we dove in the Prinz Eugen and under it. Its an incredible thing to behold. However I am amazed that some Jewish or concerned citizen organization organization does not use it, as an absolutely appropriate memorial to the ending to the Nazi disaster for the world. There is nothing more awful for a nations ship, for it to be almost beached, with its screw and rudder above water near the beach. Very appropriate .
Eugenio di Savoia è tato un importante generale che si è distinto specialmente nelle guerre contro gli ottomani.
The Untied States has one of Germanys ship in The Coastguard The Training ship the Eagles
It won't be fun if a diver is going along and sees a ghost in one of the portals.
Damn... those were some lucky German sailors. I wonder how many peeled off and stayed in America... must have been tempting fornsome of them... either stay in 1940s San Diego or return to bombed out Berlin...?
Can u go inside it?
US should have turned it into a tourist attraction!
And didn't sink it was scrubbed because it was radioactive
Little Bismarck?? sink in Crossroads Operation??
You need to stress 'Eugen' more on the 'e'.
Eugeeeeen, hehe
It got blown up with nuclear bomb
It’s a shame prinz eugan was used as a target, but I find it kinda funny that the U.S. didn’t even want the ship, they just didn’t want anyone else having it.. so instead of letting a country that could actually use it, have it, they took it and dropped a nuke on it, just to drive the point home to everyone that they really didn’t give a shit about it, they just didn’t want anyone else having it 😂👍🤷♂️
Use it for what?
The USA could not run the ship as the geared steam turbines have been alien technology for them, so they needed a partly German crew, this made the ship for them worthless. The USA started to use geared steam turbines only in the 1970´s.
Don't feel bad Germans. The Nevada got it worse and it was an historic hero in our nations history
What was USA thinking sacrificing them in nuclear tests? If I was a decision maker back then in US Navy, I would have gladly adopted ex-Axis warships (especially quality ships like Prinz Eugen) into service and made them museum ships for educational purposes for next generations.
I have read the US Navy personnel damaged the boilers beyond repair .
@@TKM1951 Sounds like US Navy servicemen, used only to American boilers, were new to the German Blohm & Voss infrastructure.
@@Cybernaut76
Remember when Prinz Eugen broke away from Bismarck to go out into the Atlantic alone.
Couldn’t pull it off. The propulsion machine started having problems.
Had to go back to Brest. Even the Germans couldn’t fix her at sea.
@@RonaldGilbert-de1ui It was probably a misguided move to order a propulsion system for Prinz Eugen from Blohm & Voss. Should maybe have ordered it from Germaniawerft, Brown-Boweri or the same company that provided it for Bismarck class battleships.
@@TKM1951 They didn't need to. The boilers of the Hipper class regularly managed to break down without outside assistance.
Every sign and warning in German, difficult to sail with English speaking crew perhaps?
Good German engineering!
Since she was commissioned, can we reuse the name. A new arleigh burke class destroyer named USS Prinz Eugen
That sounds so cursed ngl
*But SmallHats cry about German "war prizes" taken after victory.*
Not sure why the German crew was not given a Hawaiian vacation. It would have been good for them. Especially a visit to the Arizona.
Warum?
An interesting quick overview. The ship during study and operation was likely completely detailed.
A very wasteful treatment of Prinz Eugen, and other ships.
The Nuke weapons tests in Bikini to test ships, and use Bikini natives, naval personnel as lab-rats, along with animals, sea creatures.
All the more ironic after Nuke bombs on civilian cities of Hiroshima and Nagaski in August 1945 as political sales pitch ended WW2.
The above began Cold War by instatly alienating US, UK ally USSR. It was futher confirmed and intensified by Nuke tests in 1946 and thereafter.
Thank you.
Another ship wasted
Wilhelmhaven is pronounced Vilhelmhaven.
You forgot the s in Wilhelmshaven.
@@gerhardschirlo2220 True
Bikini atoll
what a sad ending for a great ship. The USA fucks everything up! Turn it into a floating museum? Nope cant have that!
Who cares about the ships care about the poor sailors who had Scrubs those ships after they use atomic bombs radiation my god not nice way to die😮😢😢😢
This was a disgusting display by our country. Destroying a five year old ship out of revenge. If those morans were going to nuke her they should have given her to England, what a stupid waste!
What use would the US or British navies have had for such a ship? Overweight, with no spare parts available, and with seriously unreliable engines? The late war US Navy heavy cruisers were massively superior to this thing.
Nope
Sehr guter Beitrag ☝️😀
The removed prop is now at display at Laboe...