How is the heavy cruiser Blücher, sunk by the Norwegians, taking revenge on them 85 years later? (6 photos)

The German Navy was actively adding surface ships to its fleet on the eve of World War II. Among them was the heavy cruiser Blücher. Although not fully tested, it was nevertheless commissioned and took part in its first and last operation, the capture of Norway.

Blücher was the second ship in the Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers. It was named after the Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.





Heavy cruiser Blücher on trials, December 1939

The ship was built under the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, which set the upper limit of displacement at 10,000 tons. However, the Germans ignored the agreement.

Blücher had a full displacement of 18,210 tons with a length of 203 m, a width of 22 m and a draft of 7.2 m. The power plant with a capacity of 132,000 hp consisted of three Blohm & Voss steam turbines with a gearbox, which drove three propellers and allowed a speed of 32 knots. Steam was generated by twelve boilers running on fuel oil.

The heavy cruiser carried a main armor belt 70-80 mm thick, the upper deck and the main armored deck had a thickness of 12-30 mm and 20-50 mm, respectively, and the slopes were 50 mm. The armament consisted of 4×2 203-mm/60 main guns and 6×2 105-mm/65 universal caliber guns, 6×2 37-mm/83 and 10×1 20-mm/65 anti-aircraft guns, as well as 4×3 533-mm torpedo tubes. In addition, there was a catapult for launching aircraft on board. One Arado Ar 196 reconnaissance floatplane was always on the catapult, another one was in the hangar. The remaining space was used for ammunition.



Launch of the heavy cruiser Blücher, June 8, 1937. Here she still has a straight stem

Blücher was laid down at the shipyard in Kiel on August 15, 1935, and launched on June 8, 1937. After that, a number of alterations began, in particular, the ship's bow was changed from straight to clipper, which increased the length by 2 meters. Thus, the completion was delayed, and the commissioning took place only on September 20, 1939, after the war had already begun.

The ship's godmother was the widow of the commander of the armored cruiser SMS Blücher, who died in the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915. By the end of November 1939, after being outfitted, the ship left for Gotenhafen, where it was on sea trials until mid-December. Then it returned to Kiel to correct the problems found and to modernize. However, it was not possible to test the improvements - the thick ice in the Baltic forced the ship to remain in port. On April 5, it was declared ready and assigned to an operation in Norway.





Blücher en route to Norway, 8 April 1940. Photo taken from the cruiser Emden

Admiral Oskar Kummetz boarded the ship in Swinemünde that same day with 800 infantrymen from the 163rd Division. The interior and main deck were filled with equipment for the landing force, including ammunition. On 8 April, Blücher set out to sea as the flagship of Group 5 and was soon spotted by the Royal Navy submarines HMS Sunfish and HMS Triton. The latter attempted to attack the cruiser, but failed.

Around 11 p.m., the Germans arrived at the Oslofjord, where they were spotted by a Norwegian torpedo boat, which managed to warn its own before it was sunk. Batteries on the islands of Rauøy and Bolærne opened fire, but failed to hit, and the Germans disappeared unhindered into the darkness. Between midnight and 2 a.m., the cruisers, including Blücher, transferred some of their infantry to landing barges, after which they headed into the fjord, hoping to reach Oslo by dawn.

At 4:20 a.m., Norwegian searchlights illuminated the German squadron, and the guns of the Oscarsborg fortress opened fire on Blücher. From close range, two 280 mm shells hit the left side of the cruiser. The first one above the bridge hit the anti-aircraft gun commander's station, knocking out the main rangefinder. The second shell hit the aircraft hangar. Since there was a load of shells there, a fire started, followed by the detonation of explosives from the infantry supplies. The explosion also set both seaplanes on fire: in the hangar and on the catapult, and also punched a hole in the armored deck, damaging the turbine room. As a result, one of the turbines and the generator room connected to it were left without steam and stopped working.



One of the 280 mm guns of Oscarsborg Fortress, which were the first to hit Blücher

The Germans were unable to see the Norwegians, so they decided to increase speed and slip between the batteries. However, they came even closer to the enemy - from a distance of only 370 meters, several 150 mm guns of the city of Drøbak opened fire on both Blücher and the cruiser Lützow following behind. After the first salvo from the batteries of Drøbak, Blücher's steering from the bridge was disabled, and the ship began to turn to the left side. The commander managed to return it to course using the side shafts, but speed was lost.



The Sinking Blücher

At 04:34, two torpedoes from a hidden battery in Oscarsborg Fortress hit the Blücher. As Admiral Kummetz later claimed, one of the torpedoes hit the boiler room, and the second hit the turbine room for the side shafts. The ship was heavily damaged, but at that moment it had passed the Norwegian fortifications and was out of range of most of the guns. Only some of the 150 mm guns could fire, but the Norwegian commander ordered the Germans to be left alone.

The Germans, meanwhile, believed that they could still get the situation under control. The crew began to extinguish the fires, and the 18-degree list that had appeared did not cause concern. However, the fire then reached one of the 105 mm gun magazines, causing an explosion that pierced several bulkheads in the engine rooms and ignited the fuel depots. Blücher began to capsize, and the commander ordered the ship to be abandoned. At 7:30 on April 9, the cruiser capsized and sank. The exact German losses are still unknown, but it is believed that 125 crew members and 195 infantrymen perished.

The sinking of Blücher and the damage to Lützow forced the Germans to retreat. They subsequently landed troops on the eastern side of the fjord and captured Oscarsborg, and by the morning of April 10, having secured the passage, they surrounded Oslo at 14:00. The delay that arose played into the hands of the Norwegians: they were able to evacuate the government, the most important specialists, the gold reserves and retreat into the interior of the country. This allowed Norway to continue the war until 1945.



The anchor of the heavy cruiser Blücher, raised in 1953. On display in Oslo

Blücher sank to the bottom at a depth of 64 meters. In 1953, the Norwegians removed the anchors from the ship, and ten years later they began to think about how to raise the cruiser from the bottom. However, the project did not go beyond the plans, which created a number of problems in the future. It is worth mentioning that when leaving Germany, Blücher had about 2,670 tons of oil, most of which survived and eventually began to leak into the sea. In 1991, the leak rate was 50 liters per day, which finally prompted the Norwegians to take certain measures.

In 1994, Rockwater AS, with the help of divers, made holes in 133 fuel bunkers and pumped out about 1,000 tons of oil, cleaned it and sold it. In addition, one of the seaplanes was raised - after restoration, it ended up in the aviation museum of Sola Airport near Stavanger. However, there were still 47 fuel bunkers, access to which was difficult. Subsequently, it was possible to pump out another 1,600 tons, and by 2023, according to experts, 20-30 tons of oil remained on Blücher.

These remains continue to leak out to this day, forming visible stains on the surface. It can be said that the sunken Blücher continues to plague the Norwegians, serving as a sad reminder of those distant events of 85 years ago.