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RicksFilmRestoration Leidschendam, The Netherlands |
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| The story of Dutch Navy Gunboat Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau |
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| See Part-1 and Part-2 on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Wnbu2UHKY |
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| The Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau was
built by the Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde in Vlissingen, build number 195. It was
launched on July 17, 1931, completed on August 20, 1932 and commissioned on April 5, 1933.
The ship's length was 78.65 meters and the greatest width 11.60 meters with a draft of
3.75 meters. It had Triple Expansion engines with 4 Yarrow boilers and a engine power of
2100 HP. The bunker capacity was 273 tons of fuel oil. The speed was only 15 knots, quite slow for a warship. The crew consisted of 124 heads and the armament of 3 guns of 15 cm, 2 of 40 mm, 4 of 12.7 mm and four 7.7 mm machine guns. This ship played a very important role in the defence of The Netherlands against the German invasion in the early days of WW-II in May 1940. By shelling German positions on the Afsluitdijk, the crew of this ship managed to temporarily halt the German advance towards the populated West of the country. The Johan Maurits sank just 20km West of Calantsoog on the Dutch
coast while attempting to evacuate to England, together with many other Dutch Naval
vessels |
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| Part-1: The voyages of the Hr.Ms.Johan Maurits van Nassau from 1933 to 1939 | ||||
| INTRODUCTION ============ The Hr.Ms. Johan Mautits van Nassau was built by the Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde in Vlissingen, building number 195. It was launched on July 17, 1931, launched on August 20, 1932 and commissioned on April 5, 1933. The ship's spring was 78.65 meters and the greatest beam 11.60 meters with a draft of 3.75 meters It had Triple Expansion engines with 4 Yarrow boilers and a machine power of 2100 hp The bunker capacity was 273 tons of fuel oil. The speed was only 15 knots, quite slow for a warship. The crew consisted of 124 heads and the armament of 3 guns of 15 cm, 2 of 40 mm, 4 of 12.7 mm and four 7.7 mm machine guns. On January 21, 1938, the gunboat returned to Den Helder for maintenance and modernization. A platform was installed at the main mast. This resulted in a small anti-aircraft battery consisting of four 12.7mm machine guns in Solothurn double arrangement. In addition, the bridge was modernized and closed. The ship then departed again on 27 May 1938 for the Strait of Gibraltar, where convoy services continued until 28 September. My father was drafted in the fall of 1938 to serve in the Navy. Ignoring such a call was not an option because it could lead to a 10 months prison sentence. On September 1, 1938 he arrived at Marine Barracks Nieuwediep / Willemsoord, MKWD for short. Entering service was a great experience for everyone like this one images appears. It was also a lot of lugging with duffel bags and the first evening had to be spent marking the received Marine attire. On 6 October 1938 the Johan Maurits returned to Den Helder where the ship was prepared for a new period in the Dutch West Indies. According to the State of In my father's service, he first served for more than two months with the Submarine Service before boarding the ship on January 3rd. On January 12, 1939 the Johan Maurits left for the Antilles. Just like during the maiden voyage of the Johan Maurits in 1933, the ship also called at Punta Delgada in the Azores this time. The Noorder Keerkring was passed on January 23, 1939. Thanks to the preserved data of my father, this information has come to the surface for the first time. The passage of the tropics and the equator has always been an important naval event. For example, passing the Northern Tropic was noted no less than 8 times in the official records of my father. The crossing of the equator was especially celebrated. Every crew member this happened to for the first time had to perform a ritual undergone that can be somewhat compared to the hazing of new students. In addition, they were attacked by an old rotten disguised as Poseidon, or Neptune soaped, shaved and rinsed again. Upon successful completion, each was presented with a certificate personally signed by "Neptune". See it here copy of my father. On February 8, 1939, the ship arrived in the Netherlands Antilles. Details of this period in the West are scarce. From photos of my father it appears that Suriname (around 18 June), Aruba and Caracas in Venezuela were visited. These film images give a good impression of the stay of the Johan Maurits on the quay of Willemstad on Curacao. This is where the famous floating Pontjesbrug, or Emmabrug, comes into the picture. The period in the Antilles was cut short because the mobilization in the Netherlands started in September 1939, in connection with the impending German danger. The New Artillery instruction ship Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen would take over the task of station ship from the Johan Maurits. The Dutch waters were considered too dangerous for artillery courses so that they had to be continued in the West. On October 31, 1939, the Van Kinsbergen arrived in Willemstad. Then the Johan Maurits departed on November 8 1939 to the Netherlands, after which it passed the Noorder Keerkring again on November 13 and arrived in the Netherlands on November 29, 1939. |
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| Part-2: The sinking of the Hr.Ms.Johan Maurits van Nassau in May 1940 van Nassau in WW-II | ||||
| BACK IN THE NETHERLANDS =================== After a maintenance period in Den Helder, Vlissingen became her new base from which she performed security services together with the gunboat Hr. Ms. Flores, here on archive image. One day before the German invasion, Hr. Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau on 9 May 1940, commanded by LTZ1 Kronenberg, on the roadstead of Vlissingen. Her job until then was maintaining Dutch neutrality. For this purpose, foreign ships sailing up the Scheldt were detained and searched if necessary. During the night the first radio reports that the Germans would invade the Netherlands. BEGINNING OF WW-II ================== At dawn on May 10, strange aircraft flew over and the ship was put on alert. The planes turned out to be of German origin that carried magnetic dropped mines in the Scheldt estuary and bombed targets in Vlissingen. The Johan Maurits opened fire on the mine-dropping Heinkel 115B aircraft, from the Küstenfliegergruppe 196, with the 40mm machine guns and shot one down. Shortly afterwards, the ship was sent to Hoek van Holland where a pilot would be taken on board and then steamed up the Waterweg and under the Waalhaven airport to take fire. German paratroops had occupied the Rotterdam airport and in this way could bring even more troops by plane. Arriving at the Hoek, all kinds of confusing radio messages came in, one of which was to return to Vlissingen. Commander Kronenberg decided on this to obtain clarity on the shore and entered the Waterweg and moored a little later in Hoek van Holland. Later it turned out that the mouth of the Waterweg was full of magnetic fields mines but the gunboat had been unbelievably lucky. Admiral Heeris, of the Naval Staff in Den Helder, was contacted by telephone confirmed that they had to return to Vlissingen. He further stated that the destroyer Hr. Ms. Van Galen had had the same assignment as the gunboat and was sunk by German bombs. The Johan Maurits returned in the evening, but to avoid the minefield, a course was set between the buoys and the Zuiderpier. The chain of a light buoy caught by the port propeller. The ship was obscured and the light buoy extinguished but the gunboat remained very vulnerable in this situation.air raids. They worked all night to free the propeller. Only when the buoy was sunk by morning, by making a hole in it with a block of prinine acid, the ship was able to free itself from the chain and buoy. With the help of a few tugs, the Johan Maurits could now be towed to Hoek van Holland where the ship moored at the jetty of the Harwich line where the damage sustained was repaired as much as possible. AFSLUITDIJK AND KOORNWERDERZAND =================================== During the construction of the Afsluitdijk, it was realized that this would create easy access to North Holland for a possible aggressor advancing from the East. In this way an enemy could easily bypass the Dutch Waterline between the IJsselmeer and the Biesbosch. That is why 17 . were built on the Frisian side of the dike casemates were built that together formed the Kornwerderzand position. During the German invasion on May 10, 1940, the Kornwerderzand position was defended by 227 soldiers under command of Captain C.F.J. Boers. The defenders had four 5cm guns and 21 M`08 Schwarzlose machine guns at their disposal. Captain Boers had also requested reinforcements from the Commander of the Marine Willemsoord in Den Helder, Rear Admiral Jolles. It had three 20mm anti-aircraft guns and four anti-aircraft machine guns were sent to the position on the Afsluitdijk, which arrived at one o'clock in the night of 12-13 May. With the help of this equipment, the Defenders of Kornwerderzand successfully repulsed the air raids on the position that took place in the course of 13 May. At least four enemy planes down. In addition, Rear Admiral Jolles Hr. Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau rushed over from Hoek van Holland to help defend the Kornwerderzand position. The ship was attacked by a Heinkel bomber en route but the bomb missed and the gunboat's anti-aircraft defenses managed to bring down the German aircraft. After the ship had arrived at the roadstead of Den Helder, in the early morning of May 13, it was directed to the Wadden Sea. To provide aerial cover, the Commander had Marine Willemsoord asked for help from the British destroyer HMS Valorous, which had a lot of anti-aircraft guns at its disposal. When the Dutch gunboat together with the British However, the air sweeper up the Texelstroom did not dare to go any further, afraid of running aground. After some time the destroyer signaled: "please don't take me any further" and then return to Den Helder. The Johan Maurits continued alone and when passing the sandbank Riepel, on the northern edge of the Texelstroom, the two motorboats were loaded with life and bandages and treble hooks to serve as a possible refuge. The gunboat itself continued into the Doove Balg, the fairway in the eastern extension of the Texel River. Commander Kronenberg did not dare to go further because of the shallow depth of the water. At the end of the afternoon of 13 May, the position on the Afsluitdijk came under fire from 88 and 75 mm guns belonging to the 1. Kavallerie-Division. The shelling of this artillery had little success as the concrete bunkers of the position were too solid. Under cover of artillery, the Kornwerderzand position was attacked by German shock troops early in the evening. Captain Boers let the 600 soldiers of the Wehrmacht approach to within 800 meters and then had them fired successfully from some of the casemates. The Germans withdrew chaotically. There were three killed and many wounded among the German troops. In the night of 13 to 14 May, Rear Admiral Hoyte Jolles de Johan Maurits van Nassau fired three salvos of two shots at the eastern head of the Afsluitdijk in order to see if the distance of 18,000 meters could be bridged. This distance proved feasible and the gunboat was ordered to remain "stand by". The next morning, 14 May, Captain Boers asked Den Helder to open fire from the Johan Maurits on the German artillery. The ship went back to Doove Balg and anchored there despite the danger of being hit by an air raid. Fortunately it was a very misty morning so the ship from the air was hard to see. With the aid of the map and tables, the direction and distance to the head of the Afsluitdijk were calculated and the 15cm gun fired several grenades. The impacts were observed from the Kornwerderzand position and by telephone via the Commander Marine Willemsoord, who again radiographed them. sent to the gunboat, corrected. When the fire was good, almost a hundred 15cm shells were fired at the German artillery, which was knocked out. Moreover, the German tanks and armored cars, which had gathered on the Frisian Dike and surroundings, withdrew in confusion towards Bolsward. The planned new attack on the Dutch position was canceled by the German commander General Feldt. The 21. Kavallerie-Regiment was left behind as cover and the rest of the German troops were moved to Stavoren and Lemmer. The Kornwerderzand position was not taken. After the elimination of the German artillery, the Johan Maurits van Nassau returned to the Den Helder roadstead. During this retreat, the ship was wrecked several times attacked by German dive bombers but not hit. TO ENGLAND ============== After receiving the order around 3:00 PM on 15 May 1940, the Johan Maurits steamed seawards from the Nieuwe Diep roadstead at 4:30 PM with a number of other Dutch warships to divert to England. Between Callantsoog and Petten the ship was attacked by three German aircraft. It immediately got a bomb on the conning tower near gun 2, which caused fire in the lower ship. On board they continued to repel the attacks. With the last attack of the Germans, bombs hit the ground height of the engine room and in the chimney. The gunboat broke; the bow sank quickly and from the stern the surviving crew members jumped into the water. An some of them were rescued by the minelayers Hr.Ms. Nautilus and Jan van Brakel and the torpedo boat Hr.Ms. G 13. Nine crew members found a seaman's grave, while the The remains of eight people on board washed ashore a few weeks later. In addition to the Johan Maurits, a large number of warships also attempted to escape from Den Helder on 14 May. Late in the afternoon a convoy consisting of the minelayers Hr.Ms. Medusa, Hr.Ms. Jan van Brakel, Hr.Ms. Douwe Aukes and Hr.Ms. Nautilus and the torpedo boat Hr.Ms. G13 and was captained by the gunboat Hr. Ms. Johan Maurice van Nassau, towards England. The Hr.Ms. Medusa (HW-1) was an old Dutch minesweeper of the Hydra class, built by the Amsterdam Rijkswerf in 1911. The Hr.Ms. Jan van Brakel (M80) was a Dutch minelayer, built by the Koninklijke Maatschappij de Schelde from Vlissingen in 1935/36, here on archive image. The Hr.Ms. Douwe Aukes (ML 1, N 81) was a Dutch minelayer of the Douwe Aukes class, built by the Schiedam shipyard Gusto in 1922. The Hr.Ms. G13 and G15 were large Dutch torpedo boats that were built by the shipyard Koninklijke Maatschappij de Schelde from Vlissingen in 1914. THE SINKING OF THE JOHAN MAURITS ================================ After having made the necessary preparations, the ships departed about half past four, sailing in connection with a speed of 13 knots towards safer waters. Also the torpedo boat Hr. Ms. G 13 and the minelayer Hr. Ms. Medusa joined this party. About 10 miles west of Callantsoog the ships were attacked by German bombers. The planes, with the sun in their backs, initially targeted the Johan Maurits van Nassau, the largest of the kielinie sailing ships. At about half past six the gunboat was hit by two bombs, one of which landed on the bow and by the ammunition lift several decks below, near the ammunition store of the forward 15cm gun, exploded causing a heavy fire. The second bomb hit the starboard motorboat and exploded, outboard, at the level of the waterline. This second bomb caused a number of holes in the ship's hull, which were not fatal. As a precaution, the port was quickly turned off motor sloop ironed. However, the fire at the front 15cm ammunition store, which was fought with all possible means under the command of First Officer LTZ 1 Schoo, was fatal. The fire was too fierce and could not be contained. After about 10 minutes, the ammunition depot exploded, causing the fate of the Johan Maurits van Nassau was quickly sealed. The bow immediately began to sink, causing the stern to rise and reveal the propellers. This is how the gunboat stayed for another ten minutes float so all survivors could jump aboard. The crew of the motor sloop immediately started to pick up injured people from the water and also Hr. Ms. Jan van Brakel, Nautilus and G 13 came to the rescue. While on the sinking ship the attacking German aircraft were still being fired with one of the 40mm machine guns Hr.Ms. Medusa and Douwe Aukes headed west and did not participate in the rescue work as they still had a large number of mines on board. There were 17 deaths to be regretted at the demise of the Johan Maurits. Shortly after this gunboat had disappeared into the waves of the North Sea, all the drowning had been picked up from the sea. The rescue work was facilitated by a calm sea and the fact that it was still plenty of light. The commander of the Nautilus, the oldest officer present, Captain Lieutenant Commander J.A. soon, ordered the G 13 to return as many wounded or shocked survivors as possible to Den Helder. The torpedo boat took on board 45 rescued people, including Commander Kronenberg, while the other more than 60 survivors remained on board the minelayers. Meanwhile, commander LTZ 1 Wessels of the G 13 had heard by radio of the news of the capitulation and actually preferred not to sail back to Den Helder, because then he would have to surrender to the Germans, but carried out the order out anyway. The Dorus Rijkers, a ship of the North and South Holland Rescue Company (NZHRM), had left the port of Den Helder at seven o'clock in response to SOS signals.coming from Mr. Ms. Jan van Brakel. The Dorus Rijkers sailed through the Schulpengat and a little later met Hr. Ms. G 13. The 45 wounded castaways were taken over and the Dorus Rijkers immediately returned to Nieuwendiep, the port of Den Helder. Despite the capitulation, the lifeboat was still bombarded with bombs and on the way back machine-gun fire from German aircraft but was not hit. The G 13 went against course to make another rendezvous with the other England sailors. The other ships escaped, taking the survivors of the Johan Maurits van Nassau with them. The torpedo boat Hr. Ms. G15 escaped to England, but Hr. Ms. G16, the one in Den Helder was under repair, fell into German hands. The torpedo boats Hr. Ms. Z 6 and Mr. Ms. Z 8 also escaped on 14 May, while sister ship Hr. Ms. Z 7 already on May 11 from Den Helder had crossed the North Sea. Hr.Ms. Jan van Brakel was later, around half past nine, attacked by a German plane and the machine gun fire of the enemy plane left one more dead and some injured. Furthermore, the four minelayers and Hr. Ms. G 13 encountered no particular difficulties on their journey to England and they arrived in the afternoon from 15 May in The Downs, the waters between Dover and the Goodwin Sands, the sandbar in the Pas de Calais. After the capitulation of the Netherlands on 15 May 1945, the role of the Dutch army was over. For the Navy, the situation was significantly different, as the ships that had escaped the Germans joined them under the command of the English Navy. In the following documentary, extensive attention is paid to the sad story of the Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers. |
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RicksFilmRestoration Leidschendam The Netherlands E-mail: ricksfilmrestoration@gmail.com We only communicate via E-mail. |
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