Den tyske jageren Bernd Von Arnim tilhørte i den tyske kampgruppe Kriegsschiffgruppe 1 som hadde som mål å ta Narvik by for å sikre malmtransporten fra Kiruna i Sverige under invasjonen i Norge april 1940. I denne gruppen befant det seg ti tyske jagere. Kommandant på Bernd Von Arnim var Korvettenkapitän Curt Rechel som hadde tatt sin siste eksamen på den tyske torpedobåt T-7 tidligere. Under det andre sjøslaget ved Narvik den 13 april går Arnim i likhet med flere andre tyske jagere tom for ammunisjon og setter kursen inn mot Rombaksfjorden og blir senket av egen besetning kort tid etter. Bernd Von Arnim var også den tyske jageren som torpederte panserskipet Norge i Narvik havn på morgenen den 9 april 1040. Etter kampen berget jageren kommandanten på panserskipet Norge og ni mann fra hans mannskap fra det kalde vannet. Idag hviler vraket av Bernd Von Arnim innerst i Rombakfjorden på grunt vann. Vraket står relativt godt intakt på en dybde av ti til femten meters nært land. Stedet kan lett nås med bil, men det er ikke lov å dykke på dette vraket...

The German destroyer Bernd Von Arnim was assigned to the German battle group Kriegsschiffgruppe 1 which had the target to take Narvik city to secure the iron ore transport from Kiruna in Sweden under the invasion of Norway in April 1940. Commander on board Bernd Von Arnim is Korvettenkapitän Curt Rechel which had taken his final exam on the German torpedoboat T-7 earlier. Under the second naval battle at Narvik on April 13th Arnim runs out like several of the other German destroyers of ammunition and set her course in towards Rombaksfjorden and is sunk by her own crew shortly after. Bernd Von Arnim was also the German destroyer who torpedoed the panzership Norge in Narvik harbor on the morning of 9. April 1940. After the battle the destroyer rescued the commandant on Norge and nine men from his crew from the cold water. Today the wreck of Bernd Von Arnim rest farthest inn Rombaksfjorden in shallow waters. The wreck stands relatively good intact on a depth of ten to fifteen meters close to land. The site can easily be reached by car, but it is not allowed to dive on this wreck...


Name:
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Bernd Von Arnim
 
Steel
119,0x 11,3x 4,23 m.
       
Tons: Built: Homeport: Cargo:
3412 grt Kiel ( D ) 1935 Danzig ( D )  


Crew: 325 men.
Korvettenkapitän Max Ecart Wolff.

The destroyers of the "Zerstörer 1934A" class were the first four destroyers build in Germany after World War I.
Based on the same design principals as the torpedo boats, those ships showed some serious problems after
completion, which was partly caused by the fast naval construction programs after 1933. They were very bad
seagoing ships, like most other German vessels they took over a high amount of water during heavy seas, making
their forward artillery unusable. Further they showed a structural weakness since the hull started to bend in heavy
seas and were burdened with heavy vibrations produced by the engines. Their high pressure turbine engines caused many problems during operations, which were limited by the short range of those ships. The idea was to equip the ships with the newly designed high pressure turbines because this system seemed to have several advantages about normal turbine systems - at least on the paper. Test installations on land were very promising, but when installed on board on the destroyers, the engines rooms got very crowded making maintenance very difficult.
Like all other German destroyers, they were all equipped for mine laying which was intensively used during the first
months of the war. Most ships of this class did not survive the second year of the war, two of them were even sunk by own bombers, but in their few operational months, they did some successful mining operations near the British coast.

"Germany is now waiting to see what the Allies intend to do in stopping shipments of
Swedish iron ore down the Norwegian coast to the Reich. It's accepted here as a foregone
conclusion that the British will go into Scandinavian territorial waters in order to halt this
traffic. It's also accepted as a foregone conclusion here that the Germans will react.....
Germany imports ten million tons of Swedish iron ore a year. Germany cannot afford
to see these shipments of iron stopped without fighting to prevent it.
"William L.Shirer Berlin Diary 1934-1941 BBS Publishing 1940,1941"


Edited 29.06.2007