NIEMIECKI NISZCZYCIEL Z32, BAZA OKRĘTÓW PODWODNYCH BOLKOBURG, ZBIORNIKOWIEC BOLKOBURG

Bolkoburg was a German submarine base from World War II. The unit was launched in 1940. The length of the ship - at the time of launching - was 94.5 meters, and the width was 13.5 meters, with a draft of 4.9 meters. The maximum speed was up to 14 knots and the crew consisted mostly of 57-60 people. The Bolkoburg ship was originally built for the Polish shipowner as a passenger and transport ship "Warsaw". The contractor of the unit was the Dutch shipyard J. Smit De Noord in Ablasserdam. The designer of the vessel was a Polish marine engineer, later a professor, Witold J. Urbanowicz. In 1940, the almost completed "Warsaw" was seized by the German army, and in May 1941 handed over to the Kriegsmarine as a U-boat base ship of the 24th and 25th Submarine Flotilla. In February 1942, the unit underwent a minor modernization. It is worth adding that in August 1943, during the maneuvers in the Gdańsk Bay, Bolkoburg collided with U-670, as a result of which the U-boat sank, becoming a grave for 21 crew members. At the end of 1944, he assisted in the evacuation of German civilians from East Prussia. The vessel was sunk in May 1945 as a result of Allied bombing. After World War II, the ship was awarded to Poland as war reparations, but work on its extraction began only in 1949. The vessel, after being extracted from the seabed, was, however, cut for scrap in the 1950s.The Z32 was a German destroyer, the keel of which was laid in 1940 and launched in August 1941. The destroyer entered the rope service in the German Navy (German Kriegsmarine) in September 1942. The ship was 127 meters long, 12 meters wide, and had a full displacement of 3,600 tons. The maximum speed of the Z32 destroyer was 38.5 knots! The main armament at the time of launch was 5 150 mm guns in one twin and three single turrets, and the secondary armament was: 4 37 mm cannons, 9 20 mm cannons and 8 533 mm torpedo tubes and mines. The Z32 was the tenth ship of the Narvik or 1936A class, but the second of the Mob. These types of destroyers were an extension of the Type 1936 destroyers. The main changes were to strengthen the armament and replace the main artillery from 127 mm cannons with 150 mm cannons. Sea performance has also been slightly improved and the swimming range has been slightly extended. The result was a series of large destroyers that could, under favorable conditions, engage in combat with Allied light cruisers or French large destroyers. The Mob subtype, on the other hand, had reinforced anti-aircraft armament. Destroyer Z32's combat career began in March 1943, when it was transferred to the French coast (to the port of Bordeaux) as part of Operation Karin. Shortly thereafter, he collaborated with the Italian Navy units in the Bay of Biscay. In December 1943, he took part in a battle with British forces (the so-called Battle of the Bay of Biscay) - a defeat for the Kriegsmarine. At the time of the Allied landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944, he was assigned to fight the invasion fleet. He was sunk by the British on June 9 of the same year.