This silent German newsreel shows the launching of the Prinz Eugen, an enlarged Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser which served with the Kriegsmarine of Germany during World War II. The entire launch process is seen, with groups of workers moving the blocks holding the hull in position on the ways. Adolph Hitler and ministers attend the christening ceremony and can be seen at the 10 minute mark. Most of the superstructure and weaponry for the ship will be installed after launch.
The vessel was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy and was the third ship of the Hipper-class heavy cruisers. Like her sister ships, Admiral Hipper and Blücher, she was built in the mid-1930s. During the planning and design stage, she was known as “Kreuzer J” (Cruiser J). Her keel was laid at the Krupp Germania shipyard in Kiel on 23 April 1936, and her full cost would be 104.5 million Reichsmark. Prinz Eugen was launched on 22 August 1938 and commissioned on 1 August 1940. Considered a “lucky ship”, she survived to the end of the war, although she participated in only two major actions at sea. The ship sank following Operation Crossroads at Kwajalein Atoll in 1946 and its upside-down hull remains beached nearby.
Prinz Eugen saw action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship Bismarck in May 1941. The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser Hood and severely damaged the battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of Denmark Strait. Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles. After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus, a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany. In February 1942, Prinz Eugen was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was curtailed when she was torpedoed by the British submarine Trident days after arriving in Norwegian waters. The torpedo severely damaged the ship’s stern, which necessitated repairs in Germany.
Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support for the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front. After the German collapse in May 1945, she was surrendered to the British Royal Navy before being transferred to the US Navy as a war prize. After examining the ship in the United States, the US Navy assigned the cruiser to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. Having survived the atomic blasts, Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein Atoll, where she ultimately capsized and sank in December 1946. The wreck remains partially visible above the water approximately two miles northwest of Bucholz Army Airfield, on the edge of Enubuj. One of her screw propellers was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.
The ship’s primary armament was eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) SK L/60 guns mounted in four twin turrets, placed in superfiring pairs forward and aft.[a] Her anti-aircraft battery consisted of twelve 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 guns, twelve 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns, and eight 2 cm (0.79 in) guns. The ship also carried a pair of triple 53.3 cm (21.0 in) torpedo launchers abreast of the rear superstructure. For aerial reconnaissance, she was equipped with three Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult. Prinz Eugen ’s armored belt was 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) thick; her upper deck was 12 to 30 mm (0.47 to 1.18 in) thick and her main armored deck was 20 to 50 mm (0.79 to 1.97 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 105 mm (4.1 in) thick faces and 70 mm thick sides.
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