page_title: HNoMS Æger (1936)
section_title: Air attacks
hierarchical_section_title: HNoMS Æger (1936) / Second World War / The German invasion / Air attacks
caption_attribution_description: A 12,7 mm Colt MG52 anti-aircraft machine gun on board the Norwegian destroyer Sleipner.
context_page_description: HNoMS Æger was a Sleipner-class destroyer launched at Karljohansvern naval shipyard in Horten in 1936. The Sleipner class was part of a Norwegian rearmament scheme started as war became ever more likely in the 1930s. When the Germans invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, Æger intercepted and sank the clandestine German supply ship Roda. She was shortly afterwards attacked and sunk by German bombers, claiming two of the attacking aircraft with her anti-aircraft armament before being taken out of action by a heavy bomb.
context_section_description: A short while after the sinking of Roda Luftwaffe aircraft started appearing overhead. At 08:30 the first three of in total ten Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bombers from III/Kampfgeschwader 4 began attacking Æger at low altitude. Junkers Ju 87s from StG 1 also attacked the ship and have been credited with its sinking.
  Responding with her single 40 mm Bofors gun and two 12.7 mm Colt anti-aircraft machine guns Æger claimed two of the attacking bombers shot down while zig-zagging to avoid the stacks of bombs being unleashed at her. However, while trying to avoid an attack by three aircraft all from different directions Æger was hit amidships by a 250 kg bomb, tearing up the deck of the destroyer and blowing out the sides of the ship.
  Seven crew members were killed outright, one mortally and three lightly wounded, with the ship being left dead in the water. Three of the dead were officers and five were enlisted men. As seven more German aircraft continued to attack the crippled destroyer another bomb hit the mast, leaving it bent out of shape but bouncing off into the sea without exploding. Yet another bomb hit the side of the ship midship, but stuck without exploding. All the time the attacking aircraft were pelting the crippled vessel with their machine guns.
  As all of the ship's anti-aircraft weapons were by now knocked out, Captain Bruun ordered his crew to abandon ship. The entire surviving crew managed to get ashore without any further casualties.
caption: Colt MG52 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun on the destroyer Sleipner
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