Shipbucket

Once again a (late) thank your from me to everyone.

The previous ship of the class was the heavy cruiser Blücher. Named after the military hero Gebhard Leberecht Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt and her name predecessors in the Imperial Navy (a Bismarck-class corvette and an armoured cruiser), she was laid down in Hamburg on August 15th, 1936, launched on June 8th, 1937 and comissioned on September 20th, 1939. Although launched with a vertical bow, she recieved a new bow during fitting out. The design, a bit shorter than the next ship, Prinz Eugen, was nearly identical to the lead ship of the class, Admiral Hipper

_________________
My worklist
Any help and source material is always welcome.

Amazing job DG!.

Interesting to see how different was Prinz eugen when compared to her sister(s) Blucher (and Hipper)

_________________
My Worklist
Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

-Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)
-Koko's carrier-based aircrafts of WWII
-Koko Kaiun Yuso Kaisha - KoKaYu Line (Koko AU spinoff)
-Koko - Civil Aviation

Weird...I was just wondering to myself when another Kriegsmarine masterpiece was going to come from DG_Alpha, and lo and behold... Incredible work, my friend!

_________________

MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Sorry I are not allowed to explain how god this work is, thanks to mr. Klagdlsf

Fantastic work!

Beautiful art work DG.

_________________
Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Spectacular work...

Wonderful work!

_________________
- - -> My Worklist! <- - -

Wow, this is great!

_________________
R.I.P. Admiral Furashita.
May you sail to glory forever. *salutes*

Thanks once again for the kind comments! Much appreciated!

After being comissioned in late 1939, Blücher spent most the following months either on shakedown cruises or in port for additional modifications. The ice winter of early 1940 forced her to stay out of the war entirely. The modifications included an enclosed Admiral's Bridge, a funnel cap and a single FuMO-22 radar matress on top of her tower mast rangefinder. She was finally declared ready for combat duty on April 5th, 1940, just in time for the Invasion of Norway, however in practice, Blücher would still need a months worth of further testing to be ready.

Under the command of Konteradmiral Kummetz, Blücher led Warship Group 5 against Oslo, together with heavy cruiser Lützow, light cruiser Emden, torpedo boats Möwe, Albatros and Kondor, minesweepers R17 - R22 and picket ships Rau 7 and Rau 8. Blücher herself was carrying around 800 German ground troops plus their equippment.

During the night of April 8th to April 9th, the warships were spotted and unseccessfully attacked by the British submarine HMS Triton. Norwegian searchlights spotted the advancing ships, but no shots were initially fired. During the transit, most of the ground troops were transferred from Blücher over to the accompaning ships, as the heavy cruiser was leading the charge. At 5:21 ocklock Blücher came under heavy fire from the 280mm coastal cannons of the fortress of Oskarborg and immediatly scored crippling hits. Blücher tried to run past the batteries, but also came under fire from the 150mm guns of Dobrak and finally a torpedo battery. She eventually got past the artillery fire, but was now crippled and isolated in the fjord. The other German ships, shocked by the inferno on the flagship, backed away as heavy artillery on Oskarborg scored a crippling hit on Lützow's front tower.

The fires on Blücher were further fed by the ammunition and equipped of the ground troops that had been previously onboard. The final blow came when a magzine with heavy 105mm flak ammunition exploded. As the nearly full fuel bunkers caught fire and the cruiser began to list, order was given to abandon ship. Blücher finally sunk at 7:30 on April 9th, 1940, the numbers of lifes lost vary by source, ranging from 320 to 1000 members of both Navy and Army.

In the years after the war there were several propses to raise the wreck as it lay in relatively shallow waters (~70m depth), but none were carried out. Blücher's anchor and screws were recovered as was a large portion of her oil and an Ar-196 floatplane in 1994. The rotting wreck had began to leak up to 50l per day into the environment from her bunkers, which had been filled to the brim when had left Germany.

After a little discussion with KimWerner, the crest has been a little modified.

_________________
My worklist
Any help and source material is always welcome.