The man who sank the Blücher

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Sigge
Unregistered
(11/10/00 11:49:41 pm)
Reply The man who sank the Blücher
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What happend to the man who sank the Blücher during the invasion of Norway?
Was he punished by the Germans, considered a hero in Norway or was he simply forgotten?

IronPirate
New Member
Posts: 2
(11/11/00 1:44:04 am)
Reply Re:
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Blucher was sunk by shore battery's. I'm not even sure if they know the one responsible or if it was a compination of several if not all.

Marcus Wendel
Webmaster
Posts: 729
(11/13/00 11:20:58 am)
Reply Re: The man who sank the Blücher
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The text below is from a message written by Kurt Monsen:
"The guns that fired upon Blucher was Aron and Moses. Both guns hit Blucher and was under the command of Colonel Birger Eriksen. I do not know the names of the men manning the guns. Due to lack of personell, the commander decided to man two out of three guns. Considering that these where near antique guns, hitting the ship with both guns was quite a unique situation. The where also a torpedobattery situated at the shore of Oscarsborg, this fired two torpedoes who both hit the already sinking ship. I think the Germans was more afraid of the mines and torpedobattery than the guns, it's ironic that both guns hit bullseye and stopped the Kreuzer Blucher. At 06:21 Blucher sunk and around 1000 men perished."

The text below is from a message written by Geir Strøm.
"I found this in '1940: Fra kampene i Norge' (1960):
There was only one reasonably experienced cannon crew at Oscarsborg. Colonel BIRGER ERIKSEN decided to split the crew on two of the three ancient ancient 28 cm cannon (vintage 1892!) and supplement them with cooks and other 'non-combatants'. 49 men, all told.
-Colonel Eriksen ordered fire at 04:21.
-Cannon no. 1 ('Moses') was fired by sergeant RÆKKEN.
-Cannon no. 2 ('Aron') was fired by sergeant STRØM.
-Immediatdely afterwards fire was opend by the fortress light 57mm guns under second lieutenant BERTELSEN, and also from battry Kopås and battery Husvik.
From the same source, supplemented by Münter Rolfsen: 'Fra Oscarsborg til Hegra' (1945) and Bjørnsen: 'Det utrolige døgnet' (1977):
Battery Kopås and Husvik was manned by 20 cadets from Kystartilleriets Befalsskole, supplemented by a group of raw recruits with only one week of training. They were commanded by captain VAGN ENGER from the reserve, a local dentist who had been summoned by colonel Eriksen just a few hours earlier.
The battery at Kopås had three 15 cm cannon. Cannon no. 2 was led by cadet JØRGENSEN.
The commander at Oscarsborg torpedo battery was on sick leave. At 23:30 the night before, colonel Eriksen had phoned the pensioned pilot master in Drøbak ANDREAS ANDRESSEN, who had commanded the torpedo battery earlier in his career (beginning in 1909 - the equipment and indeed the torpedoes were still the same!). The elderly Andressen performed to perfection, and dealt Blücher the last blow."

/Marcus

[Natter]

Both colonel Birger Eriksen (commander of Oscarsborg fortress) and commander Andreas Andersen (commanding officer of the torpedo battery) were decorated with norway's highest ranking medal for action in war - "Krigskorset" ("Cross of War"), in december 1945.

Wether the ship would have sunk by the damage caused from the artillery alone is hard to tell (it caused no damage to the hull below the waterline), but there's no doubt that the second torpedohit was the last "nail in the coffin", causing massive breech of the hull and the subsequent sinking of Blücher.

A correction to the information in the initial post: Andersen were drafted in early april to take over command of the torpedobattery (not the evening before the german attack).

[jwsleser]

An interesting bit of history. Thank you.

Pista! Jeff