USS Prinz Eugen – A German Cruiser in American Service

In a previous video, I covered the history of the Prince on a German heavy

cruiser

often considered the luckiest ship in their Navy. This was a ship that survived all of Sinker's attempts and in the process became the most sought after prize when Germany surrendered and the ship finally. she would end up in the United States, where she would be commissioned into the Navy for testing and evaluation purposes. Let's look at that strange story now, since I previously covered her

service

in Germany. This video will focus on Prince Oran's time as a war prize. For more details on her German career, I'll link that in the description as well as the design details.

Now this story begins in May 1945 with the German surrender Prince Oan along with the light

cruiser

Nerur were the last large German warships in decent condition. It was also around here, but had never been properly repaired after Prince Oan rammed it, as for Oan and Nernberg they sailed under close escort to Wilhelms Haven on 27 May, once there the ships were left in the place while negotiations over the German fleet continued. The British Soviets and the United States were competing for surrendered Navy pieces with varying degrees of intensity and, for various reasons, the United States was primarily interested in studying the most advanced UOTs while keeping the best ships away from the Soviets.

For their part, the Soviets really really wanted new ships to bolster their Navy and the British wanted to keep ships away from the Red Navy while still being able to transfer their own prizes to France. During this process, the German fleet was divided into three categories: category A ships, including Prince, were fully in

service

with, at worst, minor work requiring category B ships, on the other hand. , needed more work but could still be returned to service within 3-6 months and then there were the Category C ships which were Ricks ships that could not be returned to service. within a year or that she would never be able to repair herself at all.

Graphic Zeppelin, for example, falls into this category. Each of the major navies would get a selection of these ships. However, the main prizes were the Prince Oan and the fancier new uots, while the latter could be split. between each fleet there was only one Prince and both the British and the Soviets were quite interested in winning the ship, so the United States, apart from denying the ship to the Soviet Union, at this point things vary a little between the sources on which they agree. a point where the remaining ships are divided into three batches, one with Prince oan, one with Nernberg and another with destroyers as the main feature, this is pretty well confirmed, on the other hand, there is a story about the American representative, Captain Arthur Grobart, who suggests lots being drawn from a hat, the luck of the draw and all the meanings of the word, the most surprising thing about this story, if true, is that he managed to get the Soviet and British representatives to accept the idea and any event as the story goes from the British to the Soviets. drew first, the Soviets ended up with Nernberg, which was commissioned into the Red Navy while I covered in my video of Axis ships in Soviet service, the British, for their part, ended up with a batch full of destroyers and the United States ended up with Prince oan was this.

In any case, this took place in October 1945, the ship was refitted and resupplied for the voyage across the Atlantic under the command of Captain Grobart. He took most of the German crew that the former Captain included for During the voyage, this mixed crew consisted of 574 Germans and 93 Americans. By this time, the cruiser had been formally commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Prince oan ex300; That designation was used for various unclassified ships, from old sailing ships to Wolverine and Sable, and in this case, the Prince, makes it one of the few cases of a foreign warship commissioned into the United States Navy with that new designation.

The Prince oan departed Germany on January 13, 1946, sailing to Boston. During this process, the mixed crew put the Cruiser through its paces these first few days. The tests revolved around finding out how the ship performed and how she compared to American ships. However, the real tests began upon arriving in Boston. The cruise arrived on January 22, where a swarm of technicians and engineers descended on the ship, absolutely everything that was of interest, even remote. The Navy was studied at this point with quite a bit of equipment removed, for example the passive sonar was removed and installed on a USS Flying Fish submarine, which seems quite interesting with that sonar installed, much of the fire control equipment was also removed. would eliminate, not However, all this when sailing from Boston to Philadelphia in February, the cruiser used its 8 203 mm guns.

In this case, the Navy was testing how those weapons performed compared to its own models, which is probably a topic for a video of its own. Although the simple answer is very high speed and probably a very good belt piercer after the Navy finished testing those aboard the cruiser Prince Oan would lose both guns on her turret, most photos of her as USS Prince John Will as a result have the main turret empty, those guns were tested a bit more before one was scrapped in the 1950s, the other was put on display in Virginia where it was also scrapped sometime in the 1950s. 1970, two of the 105 mm mounts were also removed along with a set of torpedo tubes and some light anti-aircraft weapons.

What happened to them is an open question. I have not found any information one way or another, as testing of the cruiser continued on her until May 1946, by which time the rest of the German crew were sent home, this group had been gradually reduced as the Men were freed and American sailors took control in May. The last of them left at that moment. Prince Oan was on the west coast of San Diego. The cruise ship had transited the Panama Canal before moving to California. It was here that the last German crew departed and the fate of the cruiser was decided.

Prince Oan would sail to Bikini Atoll as one of three war prizes for Operation Crossroads. The tests would not pass without incident, however, without the German crew aboard the ship it began almost immediately. The sources of decay will be different, but at least some of the boilers had major problems. This differs between one boiler, a few boilers, or all but one. The cruise ship's breakdown would still reach Hawaii on May 19, 1946, at which time she went bikini-clad. The cruise arrived on June 11, 1946, where she would remain until July 1 of that day. The first of two atomic tests was carried out.

This air pump would completely destroy her axle mate. The cruiser Sakua Prince Oan, however, emerged without major damage, only a bending of the mast and the top of the main mass breaking off. This story would continue with the Baker test on 25 July. Prince Oan also escaped this without notable damage, however the cruiser was so radioactive that she was towed to Quadulan for decontamination of her. All good up to this point, however, while the apparent damage was minimal, in reality there was a persistent leak, a leak that worsened over time until on 21 December 1946 the cruiser was found listing and, along with the Prince's stern, had been too radioactive to repair.

And that was backfiring on her, her boarding parties rushed aboard and found a faulty sea valve that was rapidly flooding the cruise ship while attempting to beach Prince. But this ultimately failed, the tugs lacked adequate power and strong winds made the problem worse. Oan ended up running aground on a coral ledge and finally capsized around midnight on December 22, 1946. The cruiser was now capsized and sinking; However, she could have been lifted if not for the lingering radiation, with that problem in mind, the Navy moved away from Prince Oan and left. She instead remains there to this day quietly rusting away.

An operation in 2018 removed much of the oil left in her tanks and one of the fittings was removed in 1979. Otherwise, the cruiser remains very similar to when she sank. , except now it is not particularly radioactive and is a popular diving spot, certainly not the worst end for a ship. I guess thanks for looking. Remember to like, comment and subscribe if you enjoy the content and I'll see you next time.