German cruiser Admiral Hipper Admiral Hipper , the first of five ships of her class , was the lead ship of the " Admiral Hipper " – class of heavy cruiser s which served with the German " Kriegsmarine " during World War II . The ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1935 and launched February 1937 ; " Admiral Hipper " entered service shortly before the outbreak of war , in April 1939 . The ship was named after Admiral Franz von Hipper , commander of the German battlecruiser squadron during the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and later commander - in - chief of the German High Seas Fleet . " Admiral Hipper " saw a significant amount of action during the war . She led the assault on Trondheim during Operation " Weserübung " ; while en route to her objective , she sank the British destroyer . In December 1940 , she broke out into the Atlantic Ocean to operate against Allied merchant shipping , though this operation ended without significant success . In February 1941 , " Admiral Hipper " sortied again , sinking several merchant vessels before eventually returning to Germany via the Denmark Strait . The ship was then transferred to northern Norway to participate in operations against convoys to the Soviet Union , culminating in the Battle of the Barents Sea on 31 December 1942 , where she sunk the destroyer and the Minesweeper but was in turn damaged and forced to withdraw by the light cruisers and . Disappointed by the failure to sink merchant ships in that battle , Adolf Hitler ordered the majority of the surface warships scrapped , though Admiral Karl Dönitz was able to convince Hitler to retain the surface fleet . As a result , " Admiral Hipper " was returned to Germany and decommissioned for repairs . The ship was never restored to operational status , however , and on 3 May 1945 , Royal Air Force bombers severely damaged her while she was in Kiel . Her crew scuttled the ship at her moorings , and in July 1945 , she was raised and towed to Heikendorfer Bay . She was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1948 – 1952 ; her bell resides in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich . Construction . " Admiral Hipper " was ordered by the " Kriegsmarine " from the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg . Her keel was laid on 6 July 1935 , under construction number 246 . The ship was launched on 6 February 1937 , and was completed on 29 April 1939 , the day she was commissioned into the German fleet . As built , the ship had a straight stem , though after her launch this was replaced with a clipper bow . A raked funnel cap was also installed . " Admiral Hipper " was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . The ship had a design displacement of and a full load displacement of . " Admiral Hipper " was powered by three sets of geared steam turbines , which were supplied with steam by twelve ultra - high pressure oil - fired boilers . The ship ' s top speed was , at . As designed , her standard complement consisted of 42 officers and 1 , 340 enlisted men . " Admiral Hipper " s primary armament was eight SK L / 60 guns mounted in four twin gun turret s , placed in superfiring pairs forward and aft . Her anti - aircraft battery was to have consisted of twelve L / 65 guns , twelve guns , and eight guns . The ship also would have carried a pair of triple torpedo launchers abreast of the rear superstructure . The ship was to have been equipped with three Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult . " Admiral Hipper " s armored belt was thick ; her upper deck was thick while the main armored deck was thick . The main battery turrets had thick faces and 70 mm thick sides . History . " Kapitän zur See " Hellmuth Heye was given command of the ship at her commissioning . After her commissioning in April 1939 , " Admiral Hipper " steamed into the Baltic Sea to conduct training maneuvers . The ship also made port calls to various Baltic ports , including cities in Estonia and Sweden . In August , the ship conducted live fire drills in the Baltic . At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 , the ship was still conducting gunnery trials . She was briefly used to patrol the Baltic , but she did not see combat , and was quickly returned to training exercises . In November 1939 , the ship returned to the Blohm & Voss dockyard for modifications ; these included the replacement of the straight stem with a clipper bow and the installation of the funnel cap . Sea trials in the Baltic resumed in January 1940 , but severe ice restrained the ship to port . On 17 February , the Kriegsmarine pronounced the ship fully operational , and on the following day , " Admiral Hipper " began her first major wartime patrol . She joined the battleship s " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " and the destroyer s " Karl Galster " and " Wilhelm Heidkamp " in a sortie into the North Sea off Bergen , Norway . A third destroyer , " Wolfgang Zenker " , was forced to turn back after sustaining damage from ice . The ships operated under the command of Admiral Wilhelm Marschall . The ships attempted to locate British merchant shipping , but failed and returned to port on 20 February . Operation " Weserübung " . Following her return from the North Sea sortie , " Admiral Hipper " was assigned to the forces tasked with the invasion of Norway , codenamed Operation " Weserübung " . The ship was assigned as the flagship of Group 2 , along with the destroyers " Paul Jakobi " , " Theodor Riedel " , " Friedrich Eckoldt " , and " Bruno Heinemann " . " KzS " Heye was given command of Group 2 during the operation . The five ships carried a total of 1 , 700 Wehrmacht mountain troops , whose objective was the port of Trondheim ; the ships loaded the troops in Cuxhaven . The ships steamed to the Schillig roadstead outside Wilhelmshaven , where they joined Group 1 , consisting of ten destroyers , and the battleships " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " , which were assigned to cover Groups 1 and 2 . The ships steamed out of the roadstead at midnight on the night of 6 – 7 April . While steaming off the Norwegian coast , " Admiral Hipper " was ordered to divert course to locate the destroyer " Bernd von Arnim " , which had fallen behind Group 1 . In the mist , the destroyer encountered the British destroyer ; the two destroyers engaged each other until " Bernd von Arnim " s commander requested assistance from " Admiral Hipper " . Upon arriving on the scene , " Admiral Hipper " was initially misidentified by " Glowworm " to be a friendly vessel , which allowed the German ship to close the distance and fire first . " Admiral Hipper " rained fire on " Glowworm " , scoring several hits . " Glowworm " attempted to flee , but when it became apparent she could not break away from the pursuing cruiser , she turned toward " Admiral Hipper " and fired a spread of torpedoes , all of which missed . The British destroyer scored one hit on " Admiral Hipper " s starboard bow before a rudder malfunction set the ship on a collision course with the German cruiser . The collision with " Glowworm " tore off a section of " Admiral Hipper " s armored belt on the starboard side , as well as the ship ' s starboard torpedo launcher . Minor flooding caused a four degree list to starboard , though the ship was able to continue with the mission . " Glowworm " s boilers exploded shortly after the collision , causing her to sink quickly . Forty survivors were picked up by the German ship . " Admiral Hipper " then resumed course toward Trondheim . The British destroyer had survived long enough to send a wireless message to the Royal Navy headquarters , which allowed the battlecruiser time to move into position to engage " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " , though the German battleships used their superior speed to break off contact . One of " Admiral Hipper " ' s Arado seaplanes had to make an emergency landing in Eide , Norway on 8 April . After trying to purchase fuel from locals , the aircrew were detained and handed over to the police . The Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service captured the Arado , which was painted in Norwegian colors and used by the Norwegians until 18 April when it was evacuated to Britain . After arriving off Trondheim , " Admiral Hipper " successfully passed herself off as a British warship long enough to steam past the Norwegian coastal artillery batteries . The ship entered the harbor and docked shortly before 05 : 30 to debark the mountain troops . After the ground troops seized control of the coastal batteries , the ship left Trondheim , bound for Germany . She was escorted by " Friedrich Eckoldt " ; she reached Wilhelmshaven on 12 April , and went into drydock . The dockyard workers discovered the ship had been damaged more severely by the collision with " Glowworm " than had previously been thought . Nevertheless , repairs were completed in the span of two weeks . Admiral Marschall organized a mission to seize Harstad in early June 1940 ; " Admiral Hipper " , the battleships " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " , and four destroyers were tasked with the operation . The ships departed on 4 June , and while en route , " Admiral Hipper " encountered and sank the empty troopship " Orama " on 9 June . Before they reached Harstad , the Germans learned that the Allies had already abandoned the port . Marschall ' s squadron was then tasked with intercepting an Allied convoy that was reported to be in the area . The ships failed to find the convoy , and returned to Trondheim to refuel . On 13 June , the ship ' s anti - aircraft gunners shot down an attacking British bomber . On 25 July , " Admiral Hipper " steamed out on a commerce raiding patrol in the area between Spitzbergen and Tromsø ; the cruise lasted until 9 August . While on the patrol , " Admiral Hipper " encountered the Finnish freighter " Ester Thorden " , which was found to be carrying of gold . The ship was seized and sent to occupied Norway with a prize crew . Atlantic operations . " Admiral Hipper " left the Norwegian theater in September 1940 for an overhaul in Wilhelmshaven . After the routine maintenance was completed toward the end of the month , the ship attempted to break out into the Atlantic Ocean to raid merchant traffic . The engine oil feed system caught fire and was severely damaged . The fire forced the crew to shut down the ship ' s propulsion system until the blaze could be brought under control ; this rendered " Admiral Hipper " motionless for several hours on the open sea . British reconnaissance failed to locate the ship , and after the fire was extinguished , the ship returned to Hamburg ' s Blohm & Voss shipyard , where repairs lasted slightly over a week . The ship made a second attempt to break out into the Atlantic on 30 November ; she successfully navigated the Denmark Strait undetected on 6 December . " Admiral Hipper " intercepted a convoy of 20 troopships on 24 December , some west of Cape Finisterre . Five of the twenty ships were allocated to Operation " Excess " . The convoy was protected by a powerful escort composed of the aircraft carrier s and , the cruisers , , and , and six destroyers . " Admiral Hipper " did not initially spot the escorting warships , and so began attacking the convoy . She badly damaged two ships , one of which was the transport " Empire Trooper " , with her main guns before spotting the heavy cruiser " Berwick " and destroyers steaming toward her . She quickly withdrew , using her main guns to keep the destroyers at bay . Ten minutes later , " Berwick " reappeared off " Admiral Hipper " s port bow ; the German cruiser fired several salvos from her forward turrets and scored hits on the British cruiser ' s rear turrets , waterline , and forward superstructure . " Admiral Hipper " then disengaged , to prevent the British destroyers from closing to launch a torpedo attack . By now , the ship was running low on fuel , and so she put into Brest in occupied France on 27 December . While en route , " Admiral Hipper " encountered and sank an isolated cargo ship . Another round of routine maintenance work was effected while the ship was in Brest , readying her for another sortie into the Atlantic shipping lanes . On 1 February 1941 , " Admiral Hipper " embarked on her second Atlantic sortie . The " Kriegsmarine " had initially sought to send the battleships " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " to operate in concert with " Admiral Hipper " , but after " Gneisenau " suffered storm damage in December that prevented the participation of the two ships . Repairs were effected quickly , however , and the two battleships broke out into the Atlantic in early February . " Admiral Hipper " rendezvoused with a tanker off the Azores to top up her fuel tanks . On 11 February , the ship encountered and sank an isolated transport from convoy HG 53 , which had been dispersed by U - boat and Luftwaffe attacks . That evening , she picked up the unescorted convoy SLS 64 , which contained nineteen merchant ships . The following morning , " Admiral Hipper " closed in and sank several of the ships . The British reported only seven ships were lost , totaling , along with damage to two more . The Germans claimed " Admiral Hipper " had sunk thirteen of the nineteen freighters , while some survivors reported fourteen ships of the convoy were sunk . Following the attack on convoy SLS 64 , " Admiral Hipper " s fuel stocks were running low . She therefore returned to Brest on 15 February . British bombers were regularly attacking the port , however , and the " Kriegsmarine " therefore decided " Admiral Hipper " should return to Germany , where it could be better protected . Before the ship could leave , damage caused to the ship ' s hull by wrecks in the harbor had to be repaired . On 15 March , the ship slipped out of Brest , unobserved , and passed through the Denmark Strait eight days later . While en route , " Admiral Hipper " stopped to refuel in Bergen . By 28 March , the cruiser was docked in Kiel , having made the entire journey without being detected by the British . Upon arrival , the ship went into the Deutsche Werke shipyard for an extensive overhaul , which lasted for seven months . After completion of the refit , " Admiral Hipper " conducted sea trials in the Baltic before putting into Gotenhafen on 21 December for some minor refitting . In January 1942 , the ship had her steam turbines overhauled at the Blohm & Voss shipyard ; a degaussing coil was fitted to the ship ' s hull during this overhaul . By March , the ship was again fully operational . Deployment to Norway . On 19 March 1942 , " Admiral Hipper " steamed to Trondheim , escorted by the destroyers " Z24 " , " Z26 " , and " Z30 " and the torpedo boats " T15 " , " T16 " , and " T17 " . Several British submarines were patrolling the area , but failed to intercept the German flotilla . " Admiral Hipper " and her escorts reached their destination on 21 March . There , they joined the heavy cruisers " Lützow " and " Prinz Eugen " , though the latter soon returned to Germany for repairs . On 3 July , " Admiral Hipper " joined the cruisers " Lützow " and " Admiral Scheer " and the battleship " Tirpitz " for Operation " Rösselsprung " , an attack on convoy PQ 17 . Escorting the convoy were the battleships and and the carrier . " Admiral Hipper " , " Tirpitz " , and six destroyers sortied from Trondheim , while a second task force consisting of " Lützow " , " Admiral Scheer " , and six destroyers operated out of Narvik . " Lützow " and three of the destroyers struck uncharted rocks while en route to the rendezvous and had to return to port . Swedish intelligence had meanwhile reported the German departures to the British Admiralty , which ordered the convoy to disperse . Aware that they had been detected , the Germans aborted the operation and turned over the attack to U - boat s and the Luftwaffe . The scattered vessels could no longer be protected by the convoy escorts , and the Germans sank 21 of the 34 isolated transports . The British submarine unsuccessfully attempted to torpedo " Admiral Hipper " on 10 September , while the ship was patrolling with " Admiral Scheer " and the light cruiser " Köln " . The cruiser escorted the destroyers " Z23 " , " Z28 " , " Z29 " , and " Z30 " on 24 – 28 September to lay a minefield off the north - west coast of Novaya Zemlya . The goal of the operation was to funnel merchant traffic further south , closer to the reach of German naval units in Norway . After her return to port , " Admiral Hipper " was transferred to Bogen Bay near Narvik for repairs to her propulsion system . On 28 – 29 October , " Admiral Hipper " and the destroyers " Friedrich Eckoldt " and " Richard Beitzen " were transferred further north from Narvik to the Altafjord . Starting on 5 November , " Admiral Hipper " and the 5th Destroyer Flotilla , composed of " Z27 " , " Z30 " , " Richard Beitzen " , and " Friedrich Eckoldt " , patrolled for Allied shipping in the Arctic . " Vizeadmiral " Oskar Kummetz commanded the squadron from " Admiral Hipper " On 7 November , the cruiser ' s Arado Ar 196 floatplane located the Soviet tanker " Donbass " and its escort , the auxiliary warship " BO - 78 " . Kummetz dispatched the destroyer " Z27 " to sink the two Soviet ships . Battle of the Barents Sea . In December 1942 , convoy traffic to the Soviet Union resumed . " Großadmiral " Erich Raeder , the commander in chief of the " Kriegsmarine " , ordered a plan , Operation " Regenbogen " , to use the available surface units in Norway to launch an attack on the convoys . The first convoy of the month , JW 51A , passed to the Soviet Union without incident . The second , however , convoy JW 51B , were spotted by the submarine U - 354 south of Bear Island . Raeder ordered the forces assigned to Operation " Regenbogen " into action . " Admiral Hipper " , again served as Kummetz ' s flagship ; the squadron comprised " Lützow " and the destroyers " Friederich Eckoldt " , " Richard Beitzen " , " Theodor Riedel " , " Z29 " , " Z30 " , and " Z31 " . The force left Altafjord at 18 : 00 on 30 December , under orders to avoid confrontation with even an equal opponent . Kummetz ' s plan was to divide his force in half ; he would take " Admiral Hipper " and three destroyers north of the convoy to attack it and draw away the escorts . " Lützow " and the remaining three destroyers would then attack the undefended convoy from the south . At 09 : 15 on the 31st , the British destroyer spotted the three destroyers screening for " Admiral Hipper " ; the Germans opened fire first . Four of the other five destroyers escorting the convoy rushed to join the fight , while laid a smoke screen to cover the convoy . " Admiral Hipper " fired several salvos at " Achates " , raining shell splinters on the destroyer that severed steam lines and reduced her speed to . Kummetz then turned back north to draw the destroyers away . Captain Robert Sherbrooke , the British escort commander , left two destroyers to cover the convoy while he took the remaining four to pursue " Admiral Hipper " . Rear Admiral Robert Burnett ' s Force R , centered on the cruisers and , standing by in distant support of the Allied convoy , raced to the scene . The cruisers engaged " Admiral Hipper " , which had been firing to port at the destroyer . Burnett ' s ships approached from " Admiral Hipper " s starboard side and achieved complete surprise . In the initial series of salvos from the British cruisers , " Admiral Hipper " was hit three times . One of the hits damaged the ship ' s propulsion system ; the No . 3 boiler filled with a mix of oil and water , which forced the crew to turn off the starboard turbine engine . This reduced her speed to . The other two hits started a fire in her aircraft hangar . She fired a single salvo at the cruisers before turning toward them , her escorting destroyers screening her with smoke . After emerging from the smoke screen , Hipper was again engaged by Burnett ' s cruisers . Owing to the uncertainty over the condition of his flagship and the ferocity of the British defense , Kummetz issued the following order at 10 : 37 : " Break off action and retire to the west . " Mistakenly identifying " Sheffield " as " Admiral Hipper " , the destroyer " Friederich Eckoldt " approached too closely and was sunk . Meanwhile , " Lützow " closed to within of the convoy , but due to poor visibility , she held her fire . She then received Kummetz ' s order , and turned west to rendezvous with " Admiral Hipper " . " Lützow " inadvertently came alongside " Sheffield " and " Jamaica " , and after identifying them as hostile , engaged them . The British cruisers turned toward " Lützow " and came under fire from both German cruisers . " Admiral Hipper " s firing was more accurate and quickly straddled " Sheffield " , though the British cruiser escaped unscathed . Burnett quickly decided to withdraw in the face of superior German firepower ; his ships were armed with guns , while " Admiral Hipper " and " Lützow " carried and guns , respectively . Based on the order issued at the outset of the operation to avoid action with a force equal in strength to his own , poor visibility , and the damage to his flagship , Kummetz decided to abort the attack . In the course of the battle , the British destroyer " Achates " was sunk by the damage inflicted by " Admiral Hipper " . The Germans also sank the minesweeper and damaged the destroyers , " Obedient " , and " Obdurate " . In return , the British sank " Friederich Eckoldt " and damaged " Admiral Hipper " , and forced the Germans to abandon the attack on the convoy . In the aftermath of the failed operation , a furious Hitler proclaimed that the " Kriegsmarine " ' s surface forces would be paid off and dismantled , and their guns used to reinforce the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall . Admiral Karl Dönitz , Raeder ' s successor , convinced Hitler to retain the surface fleet , however . After returning to Altafjord , emergency repairs to " Admiral Hipper " were effected , which allowed her to return to Bogen Bay on 23 January 1943 . That day , " Admiral Hipper " , " Köln " , and the destroyer " Richard Beitzen " left the Altafjord to return to Germany . The three ships stopped in Narvik on 25 January , and in Trondheim from 30 January to 2 February . After resuming the voyage south , the ships searched for Norwegian blockade runners in the Skagerrak on 6 February before putting into port at Kiel on 8 February . On 28 February , the ship was decommissioned in accordance with Hitler ' s decree . Fate . Despite being decommissioned , repair work on the ship continued . The ship was moved in April to Pillau in the Baltic , to put " Admiral Hipper " out of the reach of Allied bombers . A year later , the ship was moved to Gotenhafen ; the " Kriegsmarine " intended to re - commission the ship so she could be used in the Baltic . Over the next five months , " Admiral Hipper " ran a series of sea trials in the Baltic , but failed to reach operational status . As the Soviet army pushed the Germans back on the Eastern Front , her crew was drafted into construction work on the defenses of the city , further impairing " Admiral Hipper " s ability to enter active service . The Royal Air Force also laid an extensive minefield around the port , which forced the ship to remain in the harbor . By the end of 1944 , the ship was due for another overhaul ; work was to have lasted for three months . The Soviet Army had advanced so far , however , that it was necessary to move the ship back to Germany , despite the fact that she had only one working turbine . On 29 January 1945 , the ship left Gotenhafen , arriving in Kiel on 2 February . She entered the Germaniawerft shipyard for refitting . On 3 May , RAF bombers attacked the harbor and severely damaged the ship . Her crew scuttled the wrecked ship at her moorings at 04 : 25 on 3 May . In July 1945 , after the end of the war , " Admiral Hipper " was raised and towed to Heikendorfer Bay and subsequently broken up for scrap in 1948 – 1952 . Her bell is currently on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich . Footnotes . Notes Citations