Blücher 1940
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | Blücher | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1940 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | heavy cruiser | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Nazi Germany | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Kriegsmarine | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | Operation Weserübung, Battle of Drøbak Sound | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Skagerrak | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Norway | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 7 km from land |
| Position | 59.7000, 10.5917 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
Blücher was the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (lit. 'War Navy'), built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles. Named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo, the ship was laid down in August 1935 and launched in June 1937. She was completed in September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. After completing a series of sea trials and training exercises, the ship was pronounced ready for service with the fleet on 5 April 1940. She was armed with a main battery of eight 203 mm (8 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,260 t).
Immediately upon entering service, Blücher was assigned to the task force that supported the invasion of Norway in April 1940. Blücher served as the flagship of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Oskar Kummetz, the commander of Group 5. The ship led the flotilla of warships into the Oslofjord on the night of 8 April, to seize Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Diving & visiting
Blücher remains at the bottom of the Drøbak Narrows, at a depth of 64 metres (35 fathoms). The wreck is located south-east of the small Askholmen holms (Norwegian: Askholmene). The ship's screws were removed in 1953, and there have been several proposals to raise the wreck since 1963, but none have been carried out. When Blücher left Germany, she had about 2,670 cubic meters (94,000 cu ft) of oil on board. She expended some of the fuel en route to Norway, and some was lost in the sinking, but she was constantly leaking oil. In 1991 the leakage rate increased to 50 liters (11 imp gal; 13 U.S. gal) per day, threatening the environment.
Location
- Recorded position: 59.7000, 10.5917 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Skagerrak
- Nearest coast: Norway
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article German cruiser Blücher (revision 1381346612), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- U-735 1944 · 26 km
- U-1273 1945 · 34 km
- German torpedo boat Albatros 68 km
- HNoMS Thor 1919 · 72 km
- MV Langeland 2009 · 108 km
- SS Rio de Janeiro 1940 · 142 km
Other wrecks of the Operation Weserübung
- German cruiser Karlsruhe 1940
- German submarine U-64 1940
- HMS Glowworm 1940
- HMS Hardy 1940
- HMS Hunter 1940
- Scharnhorst 1943
- HMS Penelope 1944
- U-29 1945
- U-30 1945
- U-48 1945
All 11 wrecks of the Operation Weserübung →
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Norway · Skagerrak · Second World War