Naval History Forums

Gents,

I am looking for information about the German destroyers that took part in operation Rösselsprung (the action against convoy PQ17).
I have found sources, but they are conflicting, and I don't know which one is the more reliable.
I am looking for the name of the ships and of their CO, and if possible, the organization of the destroyer force (flottilla and officer in command).

Thanks for any help,

Francis

Hello Francis,

Looking at Koop and Schmolke various titles and Whitley's German cruisers/destroyers the consensus seems to be:

Z24 Korvettenkapitan Martin Saltzweider
Z27 KK Karl Schmidt
Z28 KK Hans Erdmenger
Z29 KK Kurt Rechel
Z30 KK Heinrich Kaiser
Friedrich Ihn KK Gunter Wachsmuth
Richard Beitzen KK Hans Joachim Badow

with two torpedo boats maybe T7 and T15 but these could be wrong.

Lody, Galster & Riedel all ran aground with varying degrees of mission kill damage as did Lutzow.

Hope this helps.

All the best

wadinga

Francis,
Just about everything you will need to know about the PQ17 episode (including fully complete orders of battle) can be found here -

Naval War College Review
Volume 69, Number 3 - Summer 2016
The Destruction of Convoy PQ17: 27 June - 10 July 1942
by Milan Vego

https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/v ... nwc-review

Byron

Thanks !