German destroyer Z8 Bruno Heinemann Z8 " Bruno Heinemann " was a built for the German Navy ( " Kriegsmarine " ) in the mid - 1930s . After the start of World War II in September 1939 , she blockaded the Polish coast and searched neutral shipping for contraband . In late 1939 and early 1940 the ship made three successful minelaying sortie s off the English coast that claimed 17 merchant ships . " Bruno Heinemann " participated in the early stages of the Norwegian Campaign by transporting troops to the Trondheim area in early April 1940 . The ship was transferred to France a year later to escort German ships that used the French ports on the Atlantic coast . She was returning to France in early 1942 when she struck two mines and sank off the coast of Belgium . Design and description . " Bruno Heinemann " had an overall length of and was long at the waterline . The ship had a beam of , and a maximum draft of . She displaced at standard and at deep load . The Wagner geared steam turbines were designed to produce which would propel the ship at . Steam was provided to the turbines by six high - pressure Wagner boilers with superheater s . " Bruno Heinemann " carried a maximum of of fuel oil which was intended to give a range of at , but the ship proved top - heavy in service and 30 % of the fuel had to be retained as ballast low in the ship . The effective range proved to be only at . " Bruno Heinemann " carried five 12 . 7 cm SK C / 34 guns in single mounts with gun shield s , two each superimposed , fore and aft . The fifth gun was carried on top of the rear deckhouse . Her anti - aircraft armament consisted of four 3 . 7 cm SK C / 30 guns in two twin mounts abreast the rear funnel and six 2 cm C / 30 guns in single mounts . The ship carried eight above - water torpedo tube s in two power - operated mounts . Four depth charge throwers were mounted on the sides of the rear deckhouse and they were supplemented by six racks for individual depth charges on the sides of the stern . Enough depth charges were carried for either two or four patterns of 16 charges each . Mine rails could be fitted on the rear deck that had a maximum capacity of 60 mines . A system of passive hydrophone s designated as ' GHG ' ( ) was fitted to detect submarine s . Career . The ship was ordered on 9 January 1935 and laid down at DeSchiMAG , Bremen on 14 January 1936 as yard number W902 . She was launched on 15 September 1936 and completed on 8 January 1937 . " Bruno Heinemann " and her sister Z5 " Paul Jakobi " sailed to Norway in April 1938 to test the new TbtsK C / 36 gun planned for later classes of destroyers . " Bruno Heinemann " had been fitted with four of the new weapons and they were removed after gunnery trials off Ålesund were completed . The ship participated in the August 1938 Fleet Review as part of the 6th Destroyer Division and the following fleet exercise . Early in 1939 , she spent several months in the Baltic Sea to evaluate whether reduced steam pressure would solve some of the problems of her high - pressure steam plant . When World War II began , " Bruno Heinemann " was initially deployed in the Baltic to operate against the Polish Navy and to enforce a blockade of Poland , but she was soon transferred to the German Bight where she joined her sisters in laying defensive minefields . She also patrolled the Skagerrak to inspect neutral shipping for contraband goods and was also briefly refitted during this time . After completing her refit , " Bruno Heinemann " and " Paul Jakobi " were bound for the Baltic via the Kiel Canal when they were attacked by 11 Handley Page Hampden bombers of No . 144 Squadron RAF on 29 September . The British aircraft failed to damage the German ships and five were shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109 E fighters . Although the other destroyers were busy escorting the German heavy ships and laying minefield s off the British coast in October and November , " Bruno Heinemann " played no part of any of these operations until the night of 12 / 13 December . Under the command of Commodore Friedrich Bonte in his flagship " Hermann Künne " , " Bruno Heinemann " , " Richard Beitzen " , " Friedrich Ihn " , and " Erich Steinbrinck " laid 240 mines off the mouth of the River Tyne , where the navigation lights were still lit . The British were unaware of the minefield ' s existence and lost eleven ships totaling 18 , 979 Gross Register Tons ( GRT ) . While withdrawing at high speed " Bruno Heinemann " suffered a serious fire in one of her turbine rooms and was ordered to heave - to while the fire was put out . The destroyers were later ordered to escort the crippled light cruiser s and which had been torpedoed by the submarine while covering the destroyers ' withdrawal . Despite their escort , the submarine managed to sneak inside the anti - submarine screen and fired a salvo of six torpedoes at " Leipzig " in the Elbe estuary . Two of the torpedoes struck the destroyer escort " F9 " which sank three minutes later with heavy loss of life , but the other torpedoes missed . On the night of 10 / 11 January 1940 the ship laid a minefield off Cromer with her sisters " Wolfgang Zenker " and " Erich Koellner " . Three ships totaling 11 , 155 GRT were sunk by this minefield . The same three ships made another sortie on the night of 9 / 10 February into the same area and laid 157 mines that claimed three more ships totaling 11 , 855 GRT . " Bruno Heinemann " was allocated to Group 2 for the Norwegian portion of Operation Weserübung . The group ' s task was to transport the 138th Mountain Infantry Regiment ( 138 . Gebirgsjäger Regiment ) to seize Trondheim together with the heavy cruiser . The ships began loading troops on 6 April and set sail the next day . " Bruno Heinemann " and her sisters " Paul Jakobi " and " Theodor Riedel " each carried a company of mountain troops tasked to seize the forts defending the entrance to the Trondheimsfjord . After passing the surprised forts the ships were able to land their troops and capture the forts with little difficulty . All of the destroyers had suffered storm damage en route and were low on fuel because none of the oil tankers had arrived yet . " Admiral Hipper " was ordered home on 10 April . Fuel was transferred from " Bruno Heinemann " and " Paul Jakobi " to " Friedrich Eckoldt " sufficient to give the heavy cruiser some anti - submarine protection . However , even this proved to be insufficient fuel , so the " Friedrich Eckoldt " was ordered to return later that night . Two days later enough fuel had been found in Trondheim to allow " Friedrich Eckoldt " and " Bruno Heinemann " to sail on 14 April ; they reached Germany the next day without incident . Sometime in 1939 – 41 the ship was fitted with a FuMO 21 or FuMO 24 radar set above the bridge . The ship escorted a force of minelayers on the nights of 29 / 30 April and 9 / 10 May 1940 in the vicinity of the Great Fisherman ' s Bank , but the second sortie turned back when British destroyers were spotted . " Bruno Heinemann " began a lengthy refit later that month and she was still not combat worthy in November . On 5 April 1941 , " Bruno Heinemann " left Germany for Occupied France and she was attacked by two torpedo bomber s en route , but suffered no damage . The ship and the other destroyers present escorted commerce raiders , blockade runners and major warships as they used the French Atlantic coast ports until she was recalled on 6 September for another refit . " Bruno Heinemann " probably was fitted at this time with a four - barrel 2 - centimeter AA gun on her aft deckhouse that replaced the pair of 2 - centimeter guns originally mounted there . She escorted the battleship in mid - January 1942 as she sailed from the Baltic to Trondheim . " Bruno Heinemann " , together with the rest of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla , sailed from Kiel on 24 January for France as part of the preparations for the Channel Dash . On the evening of 25 January , she struck two mines laid by off the Belgian coast . The first detonated beneath the ship and knocked out Nos . 2 and 3 boiler rooms and the second blew the ship ' s bow off shortly afterwards . 98 members of the ship ' s crew lost their lives : 93 were lost at sea , while another five , who had originally been among the 234 men rescued , died of their wounds .