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kaii
Oslo

Posts: 3139
Joined: 2010

German Light Cruiser KMS Karlsruhe found

9/5/2020 7:53:08 PM

The last of the lost major ships from the German WW2 Kriegsmarine has been found at a depth of 490 metres outside Kristiansand in Norway.

The CL KMS Karlsruhe was sunk by the British sub HMS Truant on 9th April 1940 outside Kristiansand where it had landed troops aspartof Operation Weserubung.
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This is in Norwegian unfortunately, but Google Translate might give a rough idea, and there are some nice under water video footage in there.
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K

George
Centre Hastings ON Canada

Posts: 13361
Joined: 2009

German Light Cruiser KMS Karlsruhe found

9/5/2020 10:46:47 PM

Interesting discovery. Kai, I plugged the Norwegian version into Google Translate as you suggested and it wasn't too bad. I could understand that Ole Petter Hobberstad had seen the shadow three years ago.

There was a reference to a "special ship Olympic Taurus" and that it had had a mission cancelled. Is this ship modified for science research? The translation wasn't that clear about the relationship between Ole Petter and the ship. Did he work on it?

When you mentioned the name Karlsruhe, it jogged my memory. That was the same cruiser that docked in the port of Vancouver in 1935. It had been on a world tour and had called at several US ports as well. That's not unusual. Friendly visits from British, American and Japanese ships were common. But this ship was different because of the regime she represented.

The visit of Karlsruhe caused a bit of a stir because the Nazi regime was being criticized in the Canadian press so the people were curious about what these people from an increasingly belligerent nation. There was some hostility toward the crew and concern expressed that they were scouting our port facilities. Anti-Nazi protesters turned out.
Then of course the RCN was very curious about the capabilities of this German ship while it was in the harbour.

I wonder how many of the ship's crew that came to Vancouver were on board the day that HMS Truant fired its torpedoes just five years later. Gives me an eerie feeling.

Cheers,

George

kaii
Oslo

Posts: 3139
Joined: 2010

German Light Cruiser KMS Karlsruhe found

9/6/2020 8:14:09 PM

Quote:

I

There was a reference to a "special ship Olympic Taurus" and that it had had a mission cancelled. Is this ship modified for science research? The translation wasn't that clear about the relationship between Ole Petter and the ship. Did he work on it?

He does not work on the ship as such, but is a project engineer in charge of maintenance of one of the major electricity cables on the seabed between Norway and Denmark. Three years ago he/they discovered a large shadow just some 15 metres from this cable,and this summer they had the chance to investigate it,as the ship Olympic Taurus had another job cancelled and suddenly had a few hours available in the area.

Quote:

I wonder how many of the ship's crew that came to Vancouver were on board the day that HMS Truant fired its torpedoes just five years later. Gives me an eerie feeling.

Cheers,

George

Hard to say George, but as I understand, most of the crew was evacuated before the ship sank,so there were few casualties among them at least.

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