HDMS Niels Juel 1945
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | HDMS Niels Juel | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1945 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | coastal defense ship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Scuttled | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Denmark | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Kriegsmarine, Royal Danish Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Nearest coast | Germany | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 54.4672, 9.9667 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HDMS Niels Juel was a training ship built for the Royal Danish Navy between 1914 and 1923. Originally designed before World War I as a monitor, construction was slowed by the war and she was redesigned as a training cruiser. Completed in 1923 she made training cruises to the Black and Mediterranean Seas, South America and numerous shorter visits to ports in northern Europe. The ship often served as a flagship and occasionally was used as a royal yacht for visits to overseas possessions and other countries.
Niels Juel was extensively modernized in the mid-1930s and remained operational after Nazi Germany occupied Denmark in 1940. When the Germans attempted to seize the Danish Fleet in August 1943, the ship attempted to escape to Sweden, but was attacked and damaged by German bombers. She was deliberately run aground by her crew to deny the ship to the Germans, but Niels Juel was not badly damaged. The ship was refloated several months later and repaired by the Germans. They renamed her Nordland and used her as a training ship. She was scuttled by them in May 1945 and her wreck was salvaged in 1952.
Diving & visiting
Niels Juel was protected by Krupp cemented armor (KCA) made by Bethlehem Steel. Her waterline belt was 195 millimeters (7.7 in) thick amidships and thinned to 155 millimeters (6.1 in) towards the ship's ends, but did not reach either the bow or the stern. The armor plates were 2.1 meters (6 ft 11 in) high with the lower edge 1.1 meters (3 ft 7 in) below the waterline. Two transverse bulkheads 175 millimeters (6.9 in) (forward) and 165 millimeters (6.5 in) (aft) closed off the ends of the armored citadel. The shields of the 15-centimeter guns had 50-millimeter (2.0 in) faces and 10–20-millimeter (0.4–0.8 in) sides.
Location
- Recorded position: 54.4672, 9.9667 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: Germany
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 HDMS Niels Juel (1918) (revision 1380107967), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Protection”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Germany · Second World War