The Sinking of the Heavy Cruiser Blücher: The Battle of Drøbak Sund, 1940

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  • Опубликовано: 26 апр 2024
  • On April 9, 1940, the Battle of Drøbak Sound marked the commencement of World War II in Western Europe. A German fleet, led by the cruiser Blücher, sought to invade Norway by seizing Oslo. The Germans underestimated Oscarsborg Fortress, however...
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Комментарии • 113

  • @HoH
    @HoH  Месяц назад +22

    ✨This video is not sponsored. If you want to help me make more videos and gain early access, consider supporting House of History at www.patreon.com/HouseofHistory!

    • @doncao6838
      @doncao6838 Месяц назад +2

      I like your videos you are awesome at making videos!

    • @kerberos623
      @kerberos623 Месяц назад

      nice. but as far as I understood it, only 2 shells where ever fired from the Oscarborg 28 cm cannons as the reload time of them was too great to reload and fire as they only had 1 guncrew. They never had time to fire the third before Blucher was past them. You animation shows multiple rounds. I thought there where no secondary batteries at the fort?

    • @danielsantiagourtado3430
      @danielsantiagourtado3430 Месяц назад +2

      Love your videos ❤❤❤❤

    • @AltCtrlSpud
      @AltCtrlSpud Месяц назад

      Based. Thank you for maintaining a modicum of dignity in your content. Such a shame to see other creators so willing to plop an ad for some garbage right in the middle of their otherwise high quality content.

  • @James-jl9lm
    @James-jl9lm Месяц назад +120

    "Either I will be decorated or I will be court-martialed. Open fire!" - Birger Eriksen, Battle of Drøbak Sound.

    • @user-kd4eb7py2v
      @user-kd4eb7py2v Месяц назад +9

      The most famous word of Norway In ww2

    • @nathyboi21
      @nathyboi21 Месяц назад +1

      he really said "ALL IN!"

  • @user-mi8ef4qd2k
    @user-mi8ef4qd2k Месяц назад +76

    Imagine being Admiral Kummets after being captured and told that he's been sunk by a 100 years old fortress and 40 years old torpedoes...

    • @paulmeredith2037
      @paulmeredith2037 Месяц назад +11

      And the gun were made by a German factory

    • @user-mi8ef4qd2k
      @user-mi8ef4qd2k Месяц назад +4

      @@paulmeredith2037
      The humiliation he must have felt...

    • @mbryson2899
      @mbryson2899 Месяц назад +8

      -Kummetz did not have all that long to worry. He went down with- _Scharnhorst_ -in late December 1943.-

    • @hazchemel
      @hazchemel Месяц назад +4

      Yeah, the 2 commanders having to swim for dear life, and to be captured, is a new piece of the picture for me.
      Assuming their release after German victory, those men probably had too much Norwegian prison peace to revue and relive the explosions and the carnage on board ship.

    • @hazchemel
      @hazchemel Месяц назад +2

      ​@@mbryson2899thank you, very timely that I find your comment apt.

  • @Khalifrio
    @Khalifrio Месяц назад +55

    A prime example of old and obsolete weapons does not necessarily mean harmless weapons.

    • @torstenbrunke4026
      @torstenbrunke4026 Месяц назад +6

      The "fun fact":
      Eriksen's three 28cm/L40 canons were made and delivered by Krupp (Germany) in 1893 and the two torpedos (40 years old) were delivered by an austrian company...

    • @Martin77641
      @Martin77641 Месяц назад +1

      Yeah true but the germans were to safe what they did. They needed to occupied these positions with paratroops before.
      The forts and weapons are old but ships have one big plus point. In this battle the fast and agile cruiser is an easy target because it can't maneuver out of this situation.
      This is a simliar battle like that what happend in the first wold war. There were france and britian old surface force to destroy the Ottoman Empire but failed.

    • @rob5944
      @rob5944 Месяц назад +1

      ​@@torstenbrunke4026I noted that the video said they were Krupp guns. As my old dad used to say "They're good engineers, the Germans." Normally, if something is made in Germany its a solid product. Similarly, the Japanese make quality goods. Both nations know and appreciate the value and importance of discipline and hard work.

    • @HingerlAlois
      @HingerlAlois Месяц назад +2

      Obviously old doesn’t mean harmless, I guess nobody would want to be an infantry soldier on the receiving end of a M2 heavy machine gun nowadays…

    • @johnarnold7984
      @johnarnold7984 22 дня назад +1

      @@HingerlAlois The M2 "Ma Deuce" is still in service with the US Army and as an old infantryman, I can tell you, no one wants to be on the receiving end of a .50 cal round. The M2 turns cover into concealment.

  • @BMrider75
    @BMrider75 Месяц назад +20

    It is worth stressing just how new the Blücher was.
    She was completed building in September 1939, but underwent sea trials, training, and modifications for 6 months. Finally officially entered onto the register, and the Admiral coming onboard the brand-new ship on 5th April 1940.
    Thus she was sunk on her 5th day of service!

    • @richardthomas5362
      @richardthomas5362 16 часов назад

      As new as the Blucher was It wasn't quite the top tier of what the Germans had. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were full fledged battleships (9 11in guns in three triple turrets) and Lutzow, Graf Spee, and Scheer each had 2 x triple turrets of 11 in guns. Blucher, Prinz Eugen, Hipper, and one other were just standard heavy cruisers. Good ones but not quite the top tier of the Kriegsmarine.

  • @yumazster
    @yumazster 27 дней назад +5

    I approve of the format of these videos. It is essentially blow by blow recount of the battle but it always places the battle in a wider context of history so the stakes and consequences add tension to the narrative and add real historical education to the tactical recount. Very well thought out approach.

  • @nick-andre08
    @nick-andre08 14 дней назад +1

    The Blücher actually managed to turn around before sinking. There are pictures of her sinking where you can see her stern towards Oslo. And if you look at the wreck now, you can see that the bow is pointed towards Oscarsborg. Just a little detail🙂

  • @edwardtroth8630
    @edwardtroth8630 Месяц назад +6

    I wrote my masters degree with the Norwegian naval museum. If you want some extra eyewitness accounts from the Royal Norwegian Navy from their service, let me know. For example, to do with the sinking of the Scharnhorst.

  • @ericfern8869
    @ericfern8869 Месяц назад +12

    This video gives the wrong impression. Only two 11" shells were fired, while the video keeps showing misses from those guns, which never happened. The crews did not reload after firing those two shells at almost point blank range.

    • @jytte-hilden
      @jytte-hilden Месяц назад

      Do you know why?

    • @woof355
      @woof355 Месяц назад +2

      @@jytte-hilden Lack of crew with necessary training.

    • @yournotgully
      @yournotgully 27 дней назад

      @@jytte-hilden they had very limited ammo

  • @nicholasconder4703
    @nicholasconder4703 21 день назад +1

    One correction to this video. The German "cruiser" Lutzow was actually the renamed pocket battleship Deutschland. She had been renamed Lutzow for three reasons:
    1) Hitler didn't want to give his enemies the propaganda victory of sinking the "Germany" during the war,
    2) sow some confusion amongst the Allies when they were trying to identify which ship was where, and
    3) The Admiral Hipper class cruiser to be named "Lutzow" had been sold to the Soviet Union in an unfinished state. This name was then available to be used for the renaming of Deutschland.
    Fun fact: the Norwegian shore battery that disabled Lutzow's forward turret fired one of the luckiest hits of the war. The round actually penetrated the turret through the aperture that allows the 11" gun to protrude out of the turret. In other words, the round skimmed past the barrel of the main gun, through the opening in the turret and exploded inside the turret. This destroyed the hydraulic mechanism that elevates the gun, causing all three guns to droop to the deck and effectively putting all three guns out of action (source: Drachinifel).

    • @aaronleverton4221
      @aaronleverton4221 17 дней назад

      "...destroyed the hydraulic mechanism..." The turret gun crew, however, were, for want of a better word, miraculously unharmed and all went home to see their mothers.

  • @KHK001
    @KHK001 Месяц назад +11

    Amazing work as always!

  • @doncam
    @doncam Месяц назад +3

    Sorry, no like this time: there were a few mistakes in your research: - oscarsborg fortress shoot only two times with its big guns. This shoots ignited the plane and fuel and destroyed the bridge.
    The coastal batteries did the rest.
    Blücher didn’t know about the torpedo battery on the northern island of oscarsborg. After the torpedo hits it swam around 1 km to the north and capsized and sunk finally in the morning.
    It’s still there in around 90 m depth

    • @JonGoddard86
      @JonGoddard86 6 дней назад

      That's almost exactly what he said though...

  • @rickylarsen8320
    @rickylarsen8320 12 дней назад

    we Norwegians have everything to thank Captain Leif Olsen and the crew of the guard boat Pool III. Pool III was a small guard boat on neutrality watch that chose to do its duty. They managed to sound the alarm before they had to give up their superiority. The fact that Captain Olsen on Pool III managed to sound the alarm meant that Oskarsborg was told that foreign warships were on their way into Oslo Fjord and thus went on alert.

  • @MarcusAgrippa390
    @MarcusAgrippa390 Месяц назад +7

    These are my favorite videos of yours so far, and that's saying a lot!

  • @danielsantiagourtado3430
    @danielsantiagourtado3430 Месяц назад +6

    Amazing work as always ❤❤❤❤❤

  • @frankfreeman1444
    @frankfreeman1444 Месяц назад

    Nice coverage!

  • @danielsantiagourtado3430
    @danielsantiagourtado3430 Месяц назад +5

    Thanks For this! Love your content Hearth please ❤❤❤❤❤

  • @jgong1
    @jgong1 Месяц назад +3

    The guns on the Oscarborg was not modern. It was an outdated guns from WW1. And each battery fired once.

  • @shimoncohen1591
    @shimoncohen1591 Месяц назад +5

    Very interesting and very good video, thank you very much.❤

  • @lightravenn
    @lightravenn Месяц назад +1

    Definitely a story worth the time.. even if we already know about it.
    A 40 year old service officer, Colonel in his last 6 months of active duty with enough balls to give the order to fire live ammo to unknown battleships, without warning shots as he was ordered by high command.. damn. He really played his experienced cards of a lifetime in those minutes, even if defeat was unavoidable, he made possible for the defenders to take down a titan with old equipment. o7

  • @brokenbridge6316
    @brokenbridge6316 Месяц назад

    Nicely done video

  • @eduardodpino
    @eduardodpino Месяц назад +1

    Great video.

  • @chloehennessey6813
    @chloehennessey6813 Месяц назад +4

    4:38
    Blucher should not have been the lead ship going into that enclosed space.
    Maybe light cruiser like Nuremberg and some destroyers. But not a heavy cruiser.

    • @lightravenn
      @lightravenn Месяц назад

      Overconfident command?
      Or maybe hushed into disembarking into port to take it for the kriegsmarine honor. (We can usually see in many nations in war how different forces compete between them for the glory)

    • @theposeidon6266
      @theposeidon6266 12 дней назад

      I do agree with this one.. “high risk high loot” reward got Blücher

  • @jaimelopez725
    @jaimelopez725 Месяц назад +1

    Oskarsborg's 11in guns only fired Blücher twice (one from cannon Moses and one from Aron) not as many as you showed...Køpas joined later, when Blücher was out of Oskarsborg's main battery arc of fire

  • @mohammedsaysrashid3587
    @mohammedsaysrashid3587 Месяц назад

    Amazing work 👍🏻 by an excellent ( house of history) channel.. brave & professional attitude of that Norway 🇳🇴 naval commander 🙏 .

  • @shahidhossain497
    @shahidhossain497 Месяц назад +4

    Great video as always. But I wish u could also make history videos outside battles. Like the Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden. Although it is interesting history but no one has much covered. While there was talk of great powers intervening and burning of documents related to it. Would love to know the details if possible

    • @alltat
      @alltat Месяц назад

      I think that particular union can be adequately summarized as being less of a union of equals and more of an extended occupation.

  • @timothyporter1632
    @timothyporter1632 16 дней назад

    I'd like to see a similar analysis of the raid on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, February 7, 1932 by Admiral Harry Yarnell using the carriers Lexington and Saratoga.

  • @nomooon
    @nomooon Месяц назад

    Great smoke effects!

  • @brianjones7660
    @brianjones7660 17 дней назад

    at 3:50...isn't there a land bridge on the map where it shows the Task Group sailing north??
    Any ideas here??

  • @richardstone5552
    @richardstone5552 Месяц назад

    Thanks

  • @MinedMaker
    @MinedMaker Месяц назад +1

    Tremendous high-quality and accurate rendition of this battle in the Norwegian movie *The King's Choice,* highly recommend for people who want to feel what it must have been like. It's available in English.

  • @eunoci
    @eunoci Месяц назад +1

    Goated work

  • @Willy_Tepes
    @Willy_Tepes Месяц назад +1

    It did not matter for Eriksen if the ships were German or British. They were an invading enemy force. What he meant by his comment "I will either be court marshalled or decorated" is that he knew full well that the Norwegian government was not neutral.

  • @TallDude73
    @TallDude73 Месяц назад +1

    How about a video about Walther Wenck, who saved civilians during the Battle of Berlin?

  • @wang20477
    @wang20477 Месяц назад +2

    The naval battle of Narvik please

  • @user-fq7vs8dl5k
    @user-fq7vs8dl5k Месяц назад

    I'll subscribe.

  • @simmonsfoursome
    @simmonsfoursome Месяц назад

    First, great unbiased presentations of significant historical events. THANK YOU!
    Second, imo, it was bad intelligence by the Germans, - not the first or last time. A more prudent commander might have had his crew at full battle stations and ready for any response to being fired upon when attempting to make this run but hard to justify based on their strategy regarding the invasion of Norway territory.
    The "Channel Run" comes to mind where they coordinated the air and naval assets. However, that "museum" should have been priority #1, erroring on the side of caution, - no lower than 2. And the opposite should have been tracked and targeted in an alternate pattern (left-right) as well.
    Waited too long to respond to the initial shots.
    Regardless, 20/20 hindsight.

  • @Willy_Tepes
    @Willy_Tepes Месяц назад

    There was ample warning. My dad who was 9 years old won a bet on what day they would attack.
    Today I feel that we are in a similar situation, and that lots of people later on will say that it was a surprise.

  • @manuelacosta9463
    @manuelacosta9463 Месяц назад +1

    Quite the victory especially with the Norwegians using outdated weapons and equipment. Apparently the torpedoes used to deliver the killing blow where Austro Hungarian and from the 1890s.

    • @neilbuckley1613
      @neilbuckley1613 Месяц назад +1

      When it's almost point blank range even old weaponry can be devastating.

  • @kasperjensen4149
    @kasperjensen4149 Месяц назад +5

    the Battle of Jutland
    I think it's called.
    The First World War with the great warships England and Germany
    happened from the kiss of Denmark
    called Jutland
    Could be exciting to hear such a story and a video like this one.

  • @unknownmale9486
    @unknownmale9486 Месяц назад

    This looks like BazBattles Drobak Sound video as well.

  • @henriquekonradt541
    @henriquekonradt541 Месяц назад

    Remember kids, old doesn't mean it won't hurt you

  • @armored.angels
    @armored.angels Месяц назад

    Truly bazbattle new channel 😂

  • @jonshive5482
    @jonshive5482 29 дней назад

    Not meaning to be picky but the map shows something like a causeway between Zealand and mainland Denmark. Was wondering how Admiral Kummetz' task force got past it...🙂

  • @geordiedog1749
    @geordiedog1749 Месяц назад +1

    Did not know that there were British subs in the area.

  • @samstewart4807
    @samstewart4807 Месяц назад

    hi, and wow! This the most detailed report of this battle I have ever seen! I believe the commander who fired the torpedoes was shot by the Germans??

  • @scaeronnezaneestiaga1943
    @scaeronnezaneestiaga1943 Месяц назад

    Reminds me of BazBattles

  • @lolxdani9996
    @lolxdani9996 Месяц назад +1

    Day 3 asking for a video about the Battle of Cárdenas during the Spanish-American War

  • @muhammads.a.m4727
    @muhammads.a.m4727 Месяц назад

    Make a video on USS DIABLO

  • @saldownik
    @saldownik Месяц назад

    Where were the Vikings hiding at that time?

  • @Martin77641
    @Martin77641 Месяц назад

    Great animation and explanation. Like the videos here.
    Sadly a little mistake in the map Brest a town you see in occupied poland is in france.
    This story shows that the germans like Kummetz didn't expected that the forts fire at them or their informations were bad.
    Come on you need to fly above this forts and occupied them with paratroops before you sail strait in this street.

  • @wolf2912
    @wolf2912 Месяц назад +1

    If you want a norweigan war movie i recomend kings choice

  • @aaronleverton4221
    @aaronleverton4221 17 дней назад

    Captain Reg Saunders 3RAR.

  • @statenthusiast3382
    @statenthusiast3382 Месяц назад

    Please list your sources.

  • @bubbadiesel4961
    @bubbadiesel4961 Месяц назад

    Is this bazzbattles?! If not yall sound the exact same. Good video

  • @chasechristophermurraydola9314
    @chasechristophermurraydola9314 Месяц назад

    Can you do the 1864 battle of Cherbourg and I am asking because the battle was a single ship action and the battle was fought between the US Navy and The confederate states navy and the opposing forces in the battle was the Uss Kearsarge with 163 sailors facing against the notorious CSS Alabama and 149 sailors and the battle was a U.S. victory with one sailor dying of wounds and 2 sailors wounded however the confederates lost the Alabama which was sunk and when it went down the Alabama took with it 19 sailors with 9 of them killed and 10 of them drowning however the confederates also lost 21 sailors wounded and 70 captured with between 38 and 41 being rescued by a British yacht and among those rescued was confederate rear admiral Raphael Semmes and the Alabama has an interesting link to the fictional ship Nautilus from the Jules Verne 1869 novel twenty thousand leagues under the sea and their are two links between the css Alabama and the Nautilus the first link is that the Alabama had covered 75,000 miles which equates to just over 21,700 leagues in two years and the second link is a very interesting one and the second link is that Raphael Semmes laments the loss of the British built css Alabama and it’s largely British crew as if it were the loss of his wife and children whereas captain Nemo of the Nautilus laments the actual loss of his wife and children who were killed by the British and the battle of Cherbourg is in my opinion a very overlooked, underrated and not well known battle as the public at that time wasn’t focused on events overseas but instead they were focused on the events that were taking place on the land at the time and in my opinion it’s an event that every civil war buff and members of the French and American navy’s should know about and the reason is because this ship was the only ship in the American civil war that I know of to hunt the waters of the Atlantic, Indian and southern Pacific Oceans.

  • @notthefbi7932
    @notthefbi7932 Месяц назад

    What a waste of a good ship, but the King's Choice did an amazing job showing the sinking of it in that movie

  • @Thecrownswill
    @Thecrownswill Месяц назад

    Yet another win for democracy.

  • @christopherhanton6611
    @christopherhanton6611 Месяц назад +2

    very good video the movie (The Kings Choice) did a good job on that one scene of this battle in this video you are talking about.
    also, the famous Quote Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialed. Open fire!" from the commander Birger Eriksen. also, that fort is still there now part of their historical landmarks in Norway

  • @julio5prado
    @julio5prado Месяц назад

    Brave Norwegians !

  • @undrgrnd734
    @undrgrnd734 Месяц назад +1

    bazbattles lmao

  • @grahambell5340
    @grahambell5340 19 дней назад

    The Norwegian flag is correct. Unfortunately, a mistake has been made with the German flag of 1940 .The flag of Nazi Germany did not look like that.

  • @SamAronow
    @SamAronow Месяц назад +1

    [neigh]

    • @DT-wp4hk
      @DT-wp4hk Месяц назад

      Getting out of your comfortzone?

  • @Abuamina001
    @Abuamina001 Месяц назад

    Oh, you should review anti-partisan warfare in Yugoslavia during WWII.

  • @Marmamartha
    @Marmamartha Месяц назад

    The fortress had outdated guns no? EDIT: Yeah you claim that later on in the video. At least outdated torpedo launchers I believe. U claim it to be modernized but I dont believe that was true

  • @Willindor
    @Willindor 8 дней назад

    *Deranged neighing*

  • @blitzy3244
    @blitzy3244 Месяц назад

    Reminder that England violated Norway's neutrality first by mining their waters.

    • @alltat
      @alltat Месяц назад +2

      It was basically a race to see who could occupy Norway first. Empires were still fashionable back then, and neither side cared all that much about neutrality except when it suited them. Stalin was supposedly one of the good guys, after all.

    • @PetterVessel
      @PetterVessel Месяц назад +1

      We should not forget why they did this. They didn't trust the Norwegians would or could mining their own waters, which is true.

  • @MrBejkovec
    @MrBejkovec Месяц назад

    For the next videos to come, I'd just slightly change the map description. 'Occupied Czechoslovakia' is wrong. The Czech part was occupied. Slovaks joined the Third Reich willingly and openly collaborated with them.

  • @DT-wp4hk
    @DT-wp4hk Месяц назад +1

    So again the British lied. They wanted to invade Norway to 'help' Finland. They wanted to invade first.

    • @PetterVessel
      @PetterVessel Месяц назад

      The British had all right to set Britain first, though the Norwegian Royals where close related to the British. Still, the British forces in the Norwegian Campaign was nothing but disastrous. with one exception, the effort the Royal Navy made. I have no doubt that if the British was to occupy Norway at that point, they would lose tremendiously.

    • @DT-wp4hk
      @DT-wp4hk Месяц назад

      @@PetterVessel Yes all monarchies were inbreds somewhere at some point. That's why Der Kaiser wasn't allowed back by Adi. They were done with those wellknown methods of the nobilty.

  • @mikecoglione1308
    @mikecoglione1308 12 дней назад

    Warships are surprisingly fragile. It doesn't take a lot of hits to score a mission kill and set up wrong (as in having ammunition and bombs and fuel strewn about) they can be destroyed very easily. Of note the Blucher despite its 16,000 tons it wasn't that strong of a ship. A lot of the weight was for the powerplant which was horridly inefficient and oversized but despite being one of the heaviest cruisers ever made on par with the USS Salem class, the Hippers only had about 3-3.5" armor tops and in many places far less to the Salem's 8" or more in their belts, turrets and conning tower. This is because the American double reduction gear allowed for far smaller (and faster rotating) turbines that didn't occupy the same space.
    You can see this difference in LA: visit the Queen Mary and see how massive those engines are noting that it only has a single reduction gear the turbines of that ship are the size of a house! When you visit the nearby USS Iowa which has a lot more power, the turbines are a tiny fraction of the size and can fit in a living room.