Leo & the Prinz

[Beerhunter623]

In 1967-68, my dad worked for Raytheon involved with some serious electronics and Raytheon decided to send him out to the Island in the south Sea chain of the Marshalls known as Kwajalein. While he was out there, a favorite weekend past-time was to load up the boat with fishing rods and the beer cooler(s) and head out for the day. Some days they would snorkel and just spend all day in the water...one saturday they decided to head to a nearby island where remains the capsized hull of the German Heavy Cruiser, the Prinz Eugen and fortunately,photos were taken...this was a ship of remarkable resolve having survived Operation "Rheinübung" and not 1 or not 2 but 3 atomic bomb blasts, courtesy of the Bikini Series of tests...any way, here they are...

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Btw:thats my dad in he top most pic (in case you were wondering)

[Beerhunter623]

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[eddie]

Nice pictures! My Dad was on that island too, but he was in the Marine Corps when they invaded it!

[Onkel Neal]

Cool, and look at that jungle behind the ship.

[Eichhörnchen]

Unique photos; they are very interesting in showing size/scale.

[Jimbuna]

Nice shots coupled with some interesting historical background

[Beerhunter623]

Courtesy of, but without permission, Wikipedia:
Prinz Eugen (German pronunciation: [ˈpʁɪnts ɔʏˈɡeːn]) was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third member of the class of five vessels. She served with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down on April 23, 1936, (my birthday) and launched in August 1938, and entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an 18th-century Austrian general.
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 moderately damaged the battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of the 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.

[vienna]

Question of curiosity: since the ship was used in two A-Bomb tests, is there any residual radiation on the hulk? Was s it really safe to be on or near? The reason I ask is because the Pentagon is the same group of people who thought it was a good idea to have troops march into ground zero immediately after the above ground A-Bomb tests...



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