Ciao all,
here the heavy cruisers :
Admiral Hipper
http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=468
Blucher
http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=469
Prinz Eugen
http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=470
Ciao Antonio :D
Ciao all,
well, I do not know if my references do have made somebody curious about all the different camouflages that the ships had during their life, ...
... let see if I will be able to surprise somebody :wink: :
Have you ever seen Prinz Eugen like this :shock: ????
I am sure now you can exactly place it on my reference table list :lol:
When and were was this photo taken :?:
Ciao Antonio :D
Ciao all,
well, .. I really surprised some persons, ..
........ but not the way I was expecting .... :(
Some are telling me that this ship is Admiral Hipper :shock:
NO !!
The ship is the Prinz Eugen, and it is in LoFjord ( Trondheim ) on early May 1942, .. you can see behind her the repair ship Huascaran that helped fixing the temporary rudders on the stern to allow the Prinz Eugen to set sail back to Germany ( Deutsche Werke at Kiel ) were they put the stern back on the cruiser.
The Operation codename Zauberflote took place between May 16th and May 18th 1942, with some RAF airplanes attack on the damaged ship going back to Germany for repairs.
Just check the ship bow, the ship hangar, the funnel and searchlight cover, the aft mainmast, .... but mostly ,.. the crane, .. and you will realize that this ship is the Prinz Eugen.
Other photos are existing of the Prinz Eugen with this camouflage sailing back to Germany.
Here it is :
Hello Antonio,
but realy it is a little confusing, i never saw the Prinz with this Camo .
Best regards
Leo
Ciao Leo and all,
I know very well my friend ; in fact I am the first one to disclose that this ship is the Prinz Eugen and that she had this camouflage for a little period of time.
I know that many persons will still be confused and believe that it is the Admiral Hipper, because they know very little about the 2 ships and the KEY differences among the 3 ships of this class of Heavy cruisers : Admiral Hipper, Blucher and Prinz Eugen.
That is why I am providing all the infos progressively, and try to stimulate discussion and learning while I am putting on the Internet the results of my work / research to be available to everybody.
This is the reason why I showed the 3 camouflages references on the Prinz Eugen for the February –May 1942 Norway adventure of Prinz Eugen in Trondheim ; because I can show them all.
Similarly I can show the 5 Norway camouflages for Admiral Hipper, side by side all the way thru the Norwegian period of Admiral Hipper on 1942 and 1943.
Lutzow and Admiral Scheer, just the same; Graf Spee and Blucher as easy one's even if Graf Spee had 3 camo' s changes on the Atlantic mission.
Many things when you have the correct material and study it deeply, just materialize been different that always showed and thought by the majority of people.
This one of Prinz Eugen is very evident as you correctly underlined, .. nobody ever showed Prinz Eugen like this, ... but it is NOT the only surprise.
Now please do not trsut me blindly, just take a Prinz Eugen drawing, some photos and do the same with Admiral Hipper and Blucher,... and than check the bow, the hangar, the aft mainmast, the funnel platforms and searchlights .... and mostly the crane that for Prinz Eugen is a UNIQUE model.
Than you will start understanding a bit more, .. and beleive less what on many books or captions the majority of the people normally write about those ships.
I normally find all sort of errors ( I am sure NOT done intentionally, just for lack of knowledge or superficial researches, lack of material and so on,... ) wrong captions, wrong places, wrong ships, .. so do not be surprised, .. as I am sure we are far to be done completely, .. on any of those ships, .. trust me.
By the way,.. the above it is NOT the only photo of Prinz Eugen I saw with this camo,.. but unfortunately I cannot show the other 2 I have ( showing the other side ) ... for personal collection reasons,.. but I made the drawing,.. and it is 100 % correct both sides, .. trust me ... it is perfect.
Ciao Antonio :D
Ciao Leo and all,
as I wrote, many do think to know well the differences among Admiral Hipper, Blucher and Prinz Eugen, but than many fail on realize which ship is which when they see a photo of them.
I found that making models and drawings do help you on realize well the key differences, so if it is of any help for everybody to see it, .. here some models were it is possible to evaluate ... almost immediately and very easily ... the main differences among them.
So here a photo were you see an Admiral Hipper between 2 Prinz Eugen models.
You can see the very evident differences between the upperworks, the airplane hangar been the most evident, then the funnel platforms, the top of the main tower, the crane different models, the main mast, the rangefinders, .... and so on.
Ciao Antonio :D
Ciao Leo and all,
and than compare it with the Blucher.
I am sure everybody knows that Blucher was ' shorter ' than Prinz Eugen like Admiral Hipper was.
But having similar type of bow profile as Prinz Eugen.
While at midship she was very similar to Admiral Hipper, same type of cranes and hangar, .....
So Blucher was a mix of the 2, Adm Hipper and Prinz Eugen.
Ciao Antonio :D
Ciao Leo and all,
here is Prinz Eugen during Operation Cerberus :
Ciao Leo and all,
and here the Prinz Eugen after Cerberus, re-painted in Brunsbuttel and with Admiral Scheer sailing to Norway for Operation Sportpalast :
Ciao Leo and all,
and here you can see how the Prinz Eugen was looking for a couple of months after been torpedoed and during the repair the ship had from Huascaran into LoFjord ( Trondheim ).
Than just before sailing back to Germany, they re-painted the ship with teh Op: Zauberflote scheme I started with showing the photo.
Hope my exlanation is clear enough, so now everybody can check the references, all the evidences and books, schemes, drawings and camouflages available and make up their own mind about what I am presenting to you here in.
Of course the 20 mm flak vierling configuration is correct, 5 from Brest properly positioned, .. that when the stern was torpedoed they lost 1 and went down to 4, .. one went into the sea out of Trondheim.
During this period Prinz Eugen did not have any 20 mm flak aside the funnel, it is wrong, .. there were still the searchlights covered in there.
Ciao Antonio :D