In the Second World War the Kriegsmarine used Donau for transport. Mostly she took troops, horses, and supplies from Germany and occupied Denmark to occupied Norway. She also made at least two trips to Finland. In 1942 the SS and Gestapo used Donau to take deport 532 Jews from Norway to Stettin, whence they were taken by train to Auschwitz. Only nine of her deportees survived.
Donau survived an accidental collision in 1940 and grounding in 1942. Two Norwegian resistance divers sank her in 1945. Her wreck was raised and scrapped in 1952.
Building
In 1928–29 Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau built a pair of sister ships at its Vulcan shipyard in Hamburg for NDL. Isar was built as yard number 213, launched on 23 January 1929, and completed on 4 May.[1]Donau was built as yard number 214, launched on 25 March 1929, and completed on 6 June.[2] They were relatively large cargo ships for their time. Donau's registered length was 521.0ft (158.8m), her beam was 63.5ft (19.4m), and her depth was 31.0ft (9.4m). Her tonnages were 9,026GRT, 5,637NRT,[3] and 12,140DWT.[2]42,518 cubic feet (1,204m3) of her holds were refrigerated,[4] and she had berths for 16 passengers.[2] Each ship had four masts, with derricks for handling cargo.
1952 photograph of Donau being salvaged. Her Maierform bow has been raised above the water, showing the part of its profile that would normally be below the waterline.
Isar and Donau each had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple expansion engine, augmented by an exhaust steam turbine that drove the same propeller shaft. The combined power of Donau's engines was rated at 1,000 NHP[3] or 6,500 ihp, and gave her a speed of 14 knots (26km/h).[2]Isar and Donau each had a Maierform bow to reduce water resistance.
From 1930 until 1933 Donau made at least six voyages from Bremen to Los Angeles and San Francisco via the Panama Canal. In 1937 she sailed from Bremen to Brisbane and Sydney. In 1938 she again sailed to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, but calling also in El Salvador, and at Puerto San José in Guatemala. In 1939 she twice sailed to Vancouver via the Panama Canal, Los Angeles and San Francisco.[2]
On 17 August 1939 Donau left Hamburg bound for Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver. On 25 August she arrived at Antwerp, and the next day she was recalled to Bremen.[2]
Second World War service
1952 close-up of Donau being salvaged. It shows two of her anti-aircraft guns on their raised platforms.
On 21 September 1939 the Kriegsmarine requisitioned Donau, and ordered her to Hamburg to serve as a troop ship to East Prussia.[2] She was armed with anti-aircraft guns and depth charges.[7] On 12 November she left Stettin. In December she carried 1,250 passengers from Riga to Danzig, and also worked from Helsinki to Tallinn.[2]
In April 1940 Donau was one of six NDL ships that took part in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. Donau arrived in Oslo in Norway on 23 April, and again on 9 May. On 15 May she left Oslo in a convoy to Frederikshavn in Denmark. She sailed in convoys from Hals, Denmark to Oslo on 11–12 June and 25–26 June.[2]
On 11 July 1940 Donau was designated to take part in Operation Sea Lion. On 22 September she left Antwerp with the NDL ships Isar and Warthe on the orders of the head of maritime transport in occupied Norway.[2]
On 6 June 1941 Donau and four other merchant ships left Stettin in a convoy to Finland. They formed the second squadron of Operation Blaufuchs I, carrying 3,852 men, 621 horses, 625 vehicles and 398 tons of supplies. On 9 June the squadron reached the ports of Vaasa and Kaskinen.[2]
From June to August 1941 Donau sailed in small convoys supplying German forces occupying Norway. She sailed from Aalborg in Denmark and Stettin in Germany, making trips to Kristiansand, Kirkenes, Tromsø, and Honningsvåg.[2]
On 28 January 1942 Donau left Stettin, with the German icebreakerCastor breaking the ice for her. The pair called at Copenhagen, where they left on 6 February, and arrived in Oslo on 8 February. On 18 August Donau became a transport ship for the Organisation Todt. On 26–28 October she was in Bergen.[2]
On 26 November 1942 Norwegian police, under Gestapo orders, handed 532 Jewish prisoners to the SS at Pier 1 in Oslo harbour. The ship was under the command of Untersturmführer Klaus Grossmann and Oberleutnant Manig. Men and women were put in separate holds on the ship, where they were deprived of basic sanitary conditions and mistreated by the soldiers.[8] Only nine of the prisoners survived the Second World War.[9]
On 19 December 1942 Donau ran aground in Oslofjord. On 24 October 1943 she left Turku in Finland for Oslo. In January 1944 she was again at the disposal of the head of maritime transport in occupied Norway. From 20 to 23 February she sailed from Oslo to Tallinn. That July she was in the Skagerrak, and in August and October she was in the Baltic.[2]
In November 1944 Donau sailed in a convoy to Norway. Allied aircraft bombed the convoy in the Skagerrak on 26 and 27 November, but the convoy returned fire, and Donau and her sister ship Isar safely reached their destination in Langesund. They made their return voyage in the first week of December.[2]
In January 1945 Donau shuttled between Aarhus in Denmark and Oslo in Norway.[2] On or shortly before 16 January, Roy Nielsen of Milorg and Max Manus of Kompani Linge planted ten limpet mines0.5 metres (1.6ft) below the waterline along a 60-metre (200ft) section of the port side of Donau's hull, while she was docked in Oslo. The mines were meant to detonate in open sea once the ship had left Oslofjord, but her departure on the morning of 17 January 1945 was delayed, so they detonated before she reached Drøbak, where the captain managed to beach her.[10]
Salvage and scrapping
Captain Erling Erichsen, Donau's former commander, assessing the condition of the wreck after she was raised in 1952
In May 1945 ownership of the wreck passed to the Norwegian government. In October 1947 Rederi AS Henneseid of Porsgrunn acquired salvage rights to it. But Henneseid failed to raise the wreck, so in 1951 the rights reverted to the Norwegian government. In September 1951 Jansens Rederi AS of Bergen began salvage work. Jansens succeeded in raising the wreck on 19 April 1952. Akers Mekaniske Verksted was to repair the ship, but she was beyond economic repair. In August 1952 she was towed from Oslo to Bremerhaven, where Eisen & Metall KG Lehr & Co scrapped her.[2]
Tango Maru (丹後丸) was a cargo motor ship that was built in Germany in 1926 and sunk off the coast of Bali in 1944. She was launched as Rendsburg for the Deutsch-Australische Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft (DADG), which in 1926 merged with Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG).
MV Spreewald was a Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) cargo motor ship that was launched in 1922 and sunk in a friendly fire incident in 1942. She was renamed Anubis in 1935, and reverted to her original name Spreewald in 1939.
SS Tregenna was a cargo steamship that was launched in England in 1919 and sunk by a U-boat in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1940 with the loss of 33 of her 37 crew. She was laid down as War Bulldog, but the Hain Steam Ship Co bought her before she was completed and renamed her Tregenna.
MV Domala was a British cargo liner that was launched in 1920 as Magvana, but completed in 1921 as Domala. She was the first major ocean-going passenger ship to be built in the United Kingdom as a motor ship.
SS West Maximus was a steel-hulled cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board's emergency wartime construction program during World War I. Completed too late to see service in the war, West Maximus spent the interwar years in commercial service.
Stettin was a 2,646 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1923 for the Stettiner Dampfer Compagnie. In 1930 she was sold to Norddeutscher Lloyd and renamed Akka. She was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine in 1940. Akka was seized as a war prize in 1945, passing to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and being renamed Empire Calder.
SS Polar Chief was a merchant steamship that was built in England in 1897 and scrapped in Scotland in 1952. In her 55-year career she had previously been called Montcalm, RFA Crenella, Crenella, Rey Alfonso, Anglo-Norse and Empire Chief. Early in the First World War she spent eight months pretending to be the battleship HMS Audacious.
SS Barlind was a steam coaster. She was built in Germany in 1938 for a German shipowner, who named her Süderau. In 1945 the Allies seized her; the UK Ministry of War Transport took possession of her; and she was renamed Empire Content. In 1946 she was transferred the Norwegian Directorate for Enemy Property, and renamed Svartnes. In 1947 she joined the fleet of Fred. Olsen & Co. and was renamed Barlind. In 1971 a Greek owner bought her and renamed her Ikaria. She was bought by Italian ship breakers in 1972.
SS Empire Energy was a cargo steamship. She was built in Germany in 1923 as Grete for small German tramp shipping company. In 1934 the Italian shipping magnate Achille Lauro bought her and renamed her Gabbiano.
SS Calabria was a passenger and cargo steamship. AG Weser built her for Norddeutscher Lloyd. She was launched as D/S Werra and completed in 1922.
SS Hertford was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was launched in Germany in 1917, seized by the United Kingdom in 1920 as World War I reparations, and sunk by a U-boat in 1942 with the loss of four members of her crew.
Spichern was a motor tanker that was built in Denmark for Norwegian owners and launched in 1935 as Krossfonn. In 1940 the German navy captured her, renamed her Spichern and converted her into an oiler. In 1944 she was damaged in an air raid and then scuttled.
MS Seattle was a Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) cargo liner that was launched in 1928. Her regular route was between Hamburg and Vancouver via the Panama Canal and the West Coast of the United States.
SS Santa Fé was a German refrigerated cargo steamship. She is now a Black Sea shipwreck and part of her cargo is of interest to marine archaeologists.
SS Teiryu Maru was a steam cargo ship that was launched in England in 1914 as Northwestern Miller. Furness, Withy & Co managed her until 1927, when Norddeutscher Lloyd bought her and renamed her Augsburg.
Goslar is a partly-submerged shipwreck in the Suriname River in Paramaribo, Suriname. It is the remains of a Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) steam turbine cargo ship that was built in 1929. When the Second World War began in 1939, she sought refuge in Surinam, which was then a Dutch colony. When Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, her crew scuttled her.
SS Algarve was a Danish cargo steamship that was built in 1921 for DFDS. After Germany invaded Denmark in April 1940 Algarve was transferred to the UK Ministry of War Transport. In 1941 an E-boat sank her with all hands in the North Sea.
MS Gotenland was a cargo motor ship that was built in Denmark during the Second World War and scrapped in China in 1970. Her first operator was the German Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) line. In 1945 she passed to Norwegian ownership and was renamed Hopeville. In 1967 she was acquired by Greek owners, who at first renamed her Oinoussian Hope, and then changed her name to Esperanza.
Empire Mariner was a cargo steamship. She was built in Germany in 1922 for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG), who named her Schwarzwald. In 1935 H. Vogemann bought her and renamed her Rheingold. In October 1939 a Royal Navy cruiser captured her, and the United Kingdom government renamed her as the Empire ship Empire Mariner. She survived numerous transatlantic convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic. In 1946 South American Saint Line bought her and renamed her Saint Ina. In 1948 Bristol City Line bought her and renamed her Wells City. In 1951 the Pakistani-owned East & West Steamship Company bought her and renamed her Fausta. She was scrapped in Pakistan in 1964.
SS Nyassa was a steam ocean liner that was launched in Germany in 1906 as Bülow for Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL). In 1916 Portugal seized her, renamed her Trás-os-Montes, and placed her under the management of Transportes Marítimos do Estado (TME). In 1924 Companhia Nacional de Navegação (CNN) bought her and renamed her Nyassa. After a long career with CNN she was scrapped in England in 1951.
References
↑ "Isar". Historisches Marinearchiv (in German). Retrieved 2 January 2024.
↑ dead link: "D/S Donau" (in Norwegian). The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.I.–Steamers and Motorships under 300 tons. Trawlers, tugs, dredgers, &c. Sailing vessels, shipowners, &c. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1930 – via Southampton City Council.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships of 300 tons gross and over. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1934 – via Southampton City Council.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships over 300 tons. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1937 – via Southampton City Council.
Ottosen, Kristian (1994). "Overfarten". I slik en natt – historien om deportasjonen av jøder fra Norge (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aschehoug. pp.67–72. ISBN82-03-26049-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Germany 
