page_title: German destroyer Z39
section_title: American and French service
hierarchical_section_title: German destroyer Z39 / Service history / American and French service
caption_attribution_description: The former German destroyer Z 39 underway off Boston, Massachusetts (USA), on 22 August 1945. The U.S. Navy designated the destoyer DD-939.
context_page_description: The Z39 was a Type 1936A destroyer built for Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down in August 1940 and completed three years later. Her anti-aircraft armament was increased extensively during the war. She served with the 6th Destroyer Flotilla her entire German career, which she spent escorting transports in the Baltic Sea, laying mines, and bombarding land forces. She served with a total of three different countries: from 1943 to 1945 with the Kriegsmarine as Z39, from 1945 to 1947 with the US Navy as DD-939, and from 1948 to 1964 with the French Navy as Q-128.
  Throughout her German career, she laid numerous barrages of mines in the Baltic Sea and bombarded Soviet forces several times. In the last months of the war, Z39 helped escort steamships, which were evacuating German soldiers and civilians from Eastern Europe to Denmark. She was damaged twice, once by Soviet planes while in Paldiski, and then by British planes, while in Kiel. At the end of the war, she was transferred to the United States Navy. It conducted experiments testing her equipment—her high-pressure steam propulsion plant in particular.
context_section_description: At some point after the war ended, Z39 was sailed by a mixed German and British crew to Wilhelmshaven, and then, on 6 July 1945, to Plymouth. The US claimed her as a prize ship on 12 July. She left England on 30 July, and arrived in Boston on 7 August, where, on 14 September, after extensive trials, she was commissioned into the US Navy as DD-939. She was used by the US Navy to test her equipment, namely her high-pressure steam propulsion plant. In late 1947, the US Navy deemed her obsolete, and transferred her to the French Navy. After arriving in Casablanca in January 1948, she sailed to Toulon, redesignated Q-128, and was cannibalised for her parts, which were used to repair the French destroyers Kléber (ex-Z6 Theodor Riedel), Hoche (ex-Z25), and Marceau (ex-Z31). She served as a pontoon for minesweepers near Brest until she was broken up in 1964.
caption: Z39 underway off Boston on 22 August 1945
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