German Destroyer Z10 Hans Lody

''Z10 Hans Lody'' was a built for Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' in the mid-1930s. At the beginning of World War II on 1 September 1939, the ship was initially deployed to blockade the Polish coast, but she was quickly transferred to the North Sea to lay defensive minefields. In late 1939 the ship laid multiple offensive minefields off the English coast that claimed nine merchant ships and she crippled a British destroyer during one of these missions.

''Hans Lody'' was under repair for most of the Norwegian Campaign and was transferred to France in late 1940 where she participated in several engagements with British ships, crippling another destroyer. The ship returned to Germany in late 1940 for a refit and was transferred to Norway in June 1941 as part of the preparations for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. ''Hans Lody'' spent some time at the beginning of the campaign conducting anti-shipping patrols in Soviet waters, but these were generally fruitless. She escorted a number of German convoys in the Arctic later in the year before returning to Germany in September for machinery repairs.

The ship returned to Norway in mid-1942, but was badly damaged when she ran aground in July and did not return until April 1943. ''Hans Lody'' participated in the German attack (Operation Zitronella) on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen, well north of the Arctic Circle and then spent the next six months on convoy duties in southern Norway. The ship began a lengthy refit in April 1944 and was not operational for the next year. She spent April 1945 escorting convoys in Danish waters before making one voyage to rescue refugees in East Prussia in May. ''Hans Lody'' was assigned to the Royal Navy after the war and used as a training ship and then a barracks ship before being broken up for scrap in 1949.

Design and description

''Z10 Hans Lody'' had an overall length of and was long at the waterline. The ship had a beam of , and a maximum draft of . She displaced at standard load and at deep load. The two Wagner geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft, were designed to produce using steam provided by six high-pressure Wagner boilers. The ship had a designed speed of Gröner, p. 199 and she reached a maximum speed of 37.8 knots from during her sea trials.Koop & Schmolke, p. 89 ''Hans Lody'' carried a maximum of of fuel oil which was intended to give a range of at a speed of , but the ship proved top-heavy in service and 30% of the fuel had to be retained as ballast low in the ship. The effective range proved to be only at 19 knots. The crew numbered 10 officers and 315 enlisted men, plus an additional four officers and 19 enlisted men if serving as a flotilla flagship.

The ship carried five SK C/34 guns in single mounts with gun shields, two each superimposed, fore and aft. The fifth gun was carried on top of the aft superstructure. Her anti-aircraft armament consisted of four SK C/30 guns in two twin mounts abreast the rear funnel and six C/30 guns in single mounts. ''Hans Lody'' carried eight above-water torpedo tubes in two power-operated mounts. A pair of reload torpedoes were provided for each mount. Four depth charge throwers were mounted on the sides of the rear deckhouse and they were supplemented by six racks for individual depth charges on the sides of the stern. Enough depth charges were carried for either two or four patterns of 16 charges each. Mine rails could be fitted on the rear deck that had a maximum capacity of 60 mines. A system of passive hydrophones designated as 'GHG' (''Gruppenhorchgerät'') was fitted to detect submarines and the ''S-Gerät'' active sonar system was scheduled to be installed during February 1940.

During the war the ship's light anti-aircraft armament was augmented several times. In 1941, improved 2 cm C/38 guns replaced the original C/30 guns and three additional guns were added. The two guns on the aft shelter deck were replaced at some point by a single 2 cm quadruple ''Flakvierling'' mount, probably in 1942. During her 1944–45 refit, ''Hans Lody'' received the "Barbara" anti-aircraft refit in which all of her existing 3.7 cm and most of her 2 cm guns were replaced. She retained her ''Flakvierling'' mount and the remainder of her anti-aircraft armament now consisted of seven twin 3.7 cm SK M/42 mounts and three twin 2 cm mounts.

Construction and career

''Z10 Hans Lody'', named after naval reservist Carl Hans Lody who was executed by the British as a spy during World War I, was ordered on 4 August 1934 and laid down at Germaniawerft, Kiel, on 1 April 1935 as yard number G536. She was launched on 14 May 1936 and completed on 13 September 1938. The destroyer was assigned to the 8th Destroyer Division (''8. Zerstörerdivision'') upon completion and participated in the homecoming celebrations for the Condor Legion on 30 May 1939 under her first commander, Lieutenant Commander (''Korvettenkapitän'') Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer.

When World War II began in September 1939, ''Hans Lody'' was initially deployed in the Baltic to operate against the Polish Navy and to enforce a blockade of Poland, but she was soon transferred to the German Bight where she joined her sisters in laying defensive minefields. While loading mines on 4 September, one exploded aboard ''Hans Lody'', killing two crewmen and wounded six others, and slightly damaging the ship's stern. The ship later patrolled the Skagerrak to inspect neutral shipping for contraband goods, losing one man overboard and three injured during a storm at the end of October. On the night of 18/19 November, Commander (''Fregattenkapitän'') Erich Bey, in his flagship ''Z15 Erich Steinbrinck'', led and ''Hans Lody'', in laying a minefield off the Humber Estuary that claimed another seven ships of 38,710 Gross Register Tons (GRT), including the Polish ocean liner of 14,294 GRT.Whitley, p. 86

Bey, now using ''Hans Lody'' as his flagship, left port on the morning of 6 December with and ''Z11 Bernd von Arnim'' to lay a minefield off Cromer. The latter ship had severe boiler problems and was ordered to return to port in the late afternoon while the other two continued their mission. They spotted several darkened ships as they approached their destination, including the destroyers and , but were not spotted in return. As the two German destroyers withdrew after having laid their mines, they spotted the two British destroyers again at a range of and closed to attack. When the range dropped to , ''Lody'' fired three torpedoes at ''Juno'', the leading British ship, while ''Giese'' fired four at ''Jersey''. None of ''Lody''s torpedoes struck their target, but one of ''Giese''s hit ''Jersey'' abreast her aft torpedo mount. The torpedo detonated in an oil fuel tank and started a major fire. Neither British ship spotted the German destroyers and they continued on while ''Juno'' turned about to help her sister. Two British ships totalling 5,286 GRT were sunk by this minefield. ''Hans Lody'' began a refit at Wesermünde on 9 December that was not finished until 22 May 1940.Koop & Schmolke, p. 90

In June ''Hans Lody'' was tasked to escort the battleships and , as well as the heavy cruiser , in Operation Juno, a planned attack on Harstad, Norway, to relieve pressure on the German garrison at Narvik. The ships sortied on 8 June and sank the troop transport , the oil tanker and the minesweeping trawler en route, ''Hans Lody'' delivering the coup de grâce on the first two of these. The German commander, Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, then ordered the ''Admiral Hipper'' and all four destroyers to Trondheim because of the heavy weather, where they arrived in the morning of 9 June. The two battleships continued the sortie and sank the aircraft carrier and her two escorting destroyers, although ''Scharnhorst'' was badly damaged by a torpedo from the destroyer in the engagement. The battleship was escorted home by ''Hans Lody'' and her sisters ''Steinbrinck'' and for repairs. The destroyer was lightly damaged during an air raid on 13 June, but was back in service a week later. She returned to Norway in time to screen the crippled ''Gneisenau'' as she returned to Kiel on 25 July, suffering a minor collision with the battleship en route.

''Hans Lody'' transferred to France on 9 September in preparation for Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of Great Britain. Now based at Brest, the ship helped to lay a minefield in Falmouth Bay during the night of 28/29 September. Five ships totalling only 2,026 GRT were sunk by this minefield. During a Royal Air Force air raid on Brest on 10 October, ''Hans Lody'' was slightly damaged by bomb splinters and strafing, losing two crewmen killed and seven wounded during the attack. Bey led ''Hans Lody'' and four other destroyers during a sortie for the Southwest Approaches on 17 October and were intercepted by a British force of two light cruisers and five destroyers. The British opened fire at extreme range and were forced to disengage in the face of long-range torpedo volleys and attacks by Luftwaffe bombers without having hit any of the German ships. On the night of 24–25 November, ''Hans Lody'' and the destroyers and sortied from Brest, bound for the Land's End area. En route they encountered some fishing ships south-west of Wolf Rock and engaged them with gunfire with little effect. The German ships then spotted a small convoy and sank one of the three merchantmen and damaged another. The flash from the guns alerted the five destroyers of the British 5th Destroyer Flotilla, but they could not intercept the German destroyers before dawn. Three nights later the German ships sortied again for the same area. They encountered two tugboats and a barge, but only sank one of the former and the barge, totaling 424 GRT. This time the 5th Destroyer Flotilla was able to intercept around 06:30 on 29 November. The Germans opened fire first, each destroyer firing four torpedoes, of which only two from ''Hans Lody'' hit their target, . The torpedoes hit at each end of the ship and blew off her bow and stern, but the British were able to tow her home. ''Hans Lody'' was hit by two 2-pounder (40 mm) shells during the engagement, but suffered no casualties. The ship returned home on 5 December for a refit in Wesermünde that lasted until April 1941.

1941–1942

She was one of the escorts for the battleship and the heavy cruiser from Cape Arkona to Trondheim on 19–22 May as they sortied into the North Atlantic. The following month, ''Hans Lody'' escorted the heavy cruiser '' Lützow'' from Kiel to Norway as the latter ship attempted to break through the British blockade. Several Bristol Beaufort aircraft spotted ''Lützow'' and her escorts en route and one managed to surprise the ships and torpedo the cruiser early on the morning of 13 June, forcing her to return to Germany for repairs. ''Z10 Hans Lody'' was then sent to Kirkenes, Norway, in July. Now a part of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla (''6. Zerstörerflottille''), she participated in a sortie on 12–13 July that sank two small Soviet ships at the cost of expending 80% of their ammunition. Her participation in another sortie on 22 July had to be cancelled due to condenser problems. When the British aircraft carriers and attacked Petsamo and Kirkenes on 29 July, the destroyers were far to the east and could not catch the British ships before they left the area. The German destroyers sortied into the Kola Inlet on 9 August where they sank one small Soviet patrol vessel. The flotilla was now assigned to escort convoys between Tromsø and Kirkenes; during one of these missions, the submarine ''Trident'' sank two troop-carrying freighters, and despite the destroyers. ''Hans Lody'' depth-charged ''Trident'' without significant effect and rescued 38 survivors from the two ships. The ship departed for Germany for repairs to her boilers on 27 September.

After repairs were completed, she screened ''Lützow'' during her voyage to Trondheim 15–20 May 1942 and laid a minefield in the Skaggerak en route. ''Hans Lody'' was damaged when a valve was left open and flooded the starboard engine room in early June and required two weeks to be repaired. She was one of four destroyers assigned to escort the battleship during Operation ''Rösselsprung'' ( Knight's Move), an attack on the Russia-bound Convoy PQ 17. The ships sailed from Trondheim on 2 July for the first stage of the operation, although three of the destroyers, including ''Hans Lody'', assigned to ''Tirpitz''s escort ran aground in the dark and heavy fog and were forced to return to port for repairs. After temporary repairs, she was towed back to Kiel for permanent repairs on 25 July. Three days later the ships were attacked without effect by three Beaufort torpedo bombers. ''Korvettenkapitän'' Karl-Adolf Zenker assumed command in August. The dockyard estimated the time to repair ''Hans Lody'' at six months or more and the Kriegsmarine gave serious consideration to decommissioning her as uneconomical to repair, but was persuaded to repair her anyway.

1943–1949

By 1943, the ship had received a FuMO 21 search radar. During sea trials on 15 February 1943, a fire broke out in an engine room; repairs were not completed until 22 April and the ship then returned to Norway. In September the ship participated in Operation Zitronella, ferrying troops of the 349th Grenadier Regiment (''Grenadier-Regiment'') of the 230th Infantry Division to destroy Norwegian facilities on the island of Spitzbergen, together with ''Tirpitz'' and the battleship ''Scharnhorst'', escorted by eight other destroyers. While successful, the operation was primarily intended to boost the morale of the ships stationed in the Arctic when fuel shortages limited their activities and the Allies reestablished the bases five weeks later. ''Hans Lody'' and her sisters then spent the next six months in southern Norway laying minefields at the entrance to the Skaggerak and escorting convoys to and from Norway. She was ordered to Kiel at the end of April 1944 for a lengthy refit that lasted until February 1945. Sometime in 1944, the ship had her radar replaced by a FuMO 24 search radar and her foremast was rebuilt in a goal-post shape to allow the antenna to fully rotate. A FuMO 63 K Hohentwiel radar replaced the searchlight on its platform abaft the rear funnel. After working up, the ship was assigned convoy escort duties in the Skaggerak on 5 April. A month later, ''Hans Lody'' departed Copenhagen to load refugees at the Hela Peninsula in East Prussia; she had about 1,500 aboard when she returned on 7 May. The ship sailed to Kiel the next day and was decommissioned on 9 May.

The Royal Navy assumed control of her the following day and sailed her to Wilhelmshaven where she waited while the Allies decided on the disposition of the captured ships. She was allocated to Britain at the end of 1945 and arrived at Portsmouth on 7 January 1946 where she was allocated the pennant number of R38, later H40. The ship was initially used to familiarize the British on her high-pressure boilers until October when she was used as accommodation ship in Southampton. ''Hans Lody'' arrived at Sunderland under tow on 17 July 1949 to be broken up.Whitley, pp. 191–192

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Kriegsmarine destroyers

{{DEFAULTSORT:Z10 Hans Lody
1936 ships
Ships built in Kiel
Type 1934 destroyers