Sinking of German Heavy Cruiser Blücher: The Battle of Drøbak Sund, 1940 - Animated

[@HoH]

✨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!

[@WasNathan123]

I like your videos you are awesome at making videos!

[@kerberos623]

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]

Love your videos ❤❤❤❤

[@AltCtrlSpud]

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.

[@Cobalt_Dragon0716]

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

[@AntonioOwens-q4v]

The most famous word of Norway In ww2

[@imabitmid]

he really said "ALL IN!"

[@alaksandutheexorkizein7634]

Sounds like a myth

[@neinei5558]

@@alaksandutheexorkizein7634 The reason is he had no contact with his authority to confirm his action he was about to do.

[@LorenzoFerrari-d5e]

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]

And the gun were made by a German factory

[@LorenzoFerrari-d5e]

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

[@mbryson2899]

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

[@hazchemel]

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]

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

[@Khalifrio]

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

[@torstenbrunke4026]

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]

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]

​@@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]

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]

@@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]

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]

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]

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.

[@lightravenn]

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

[@MarcusAgrippa390]

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

[@KHK001]

Amazing work as always!

[@nick-andre08]

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🙂

[@kjellg6532]

The Blücher dropped her anchors and swayed around due to ingoing tide.

[@rickylarsen8320]

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.

[@Dingsrud]

Fully agree. If Kampfgruppe V had passed Pol III undetected, the Germans would probably have succeeded. E.g. the commander of the torpedo battery was at sleep in his bed in Drøbak at about midnight as Oscarsborg was alerted. The 28 cm guns were not loaded with no crew at the ready. The sae in the Torpedo battery

[@ericfern8869]

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]

Do you know why?

[@woof355]

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

[@yournotgully]

@@jytte-hilden they had very limited ammo

[@Dingsrud]

@@woof355 Yes, and the guns were old and it took a trained crew up to 5 min to reload. At the time of the shots, Blücher was nearly out of range, too close. One may wonder why they did not shoot at Lützow from the preloaded third cannon.

[@classifiedad1]

@@DingsrudThey didn’t have enough men to crew all three guns. Col. Eriksen barely had enough men for two of the guns, and that was achieved by bringing up the cooks and clerks to man them.

[@edwardtroth8630]

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.

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Amazing work as always ❤❤❤❤❤

[@chloehennessey6813]

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]

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]

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

[@shimoncohen1591]

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

[@nicholasconder4703]

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]

"...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.

[@Zarastro54]

Blucher only had 2 guns per turret.

[@kjellg6532]

@@Zarastro54 Yes, but Lützow has 3.

[@helmaksi]

@@Zarastro54 If you are completely and utterly unable to read everything on the page AND comprehend it, don't bother attempting to type a comment.

[@doncam]

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]

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

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

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

[@shahidhossain497]

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]

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

[@jgong1]

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

[@TallDude73]

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

[@Willy_Tepes]

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.

[@ashutosh5762]

The editing style if so similar to BazBattles, love this!

[@yonatanbehar3322]

I think they stole it from them and just put a different voice and slightly changed the visuals

[@frankfreeman1444]

Nice coverage!

[@jaimelopez725]

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

[@brianjones7660]

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

[@Dingsrud]

There was and is no bridge crossing the Oslo fjord, but there is a modern tunnel under Oscarsborg fortress.

[@Dingsrud]

Too many inaccuracies and poor pronunciation of both Norwegian and German words. E.g. the German Navy was named Kriegsmarine, not Kriegsmarin. The last -e- as in egg. Rauøy and Bolærne fortresses are misplaced. Oberst Eriksen was informed that German speak was heard onboard the incoming ships at 03:38. The Main battery at Kaholmen had no searchlight. First and second torpedo both hit amidship. Blúcher did not release any torpedoes but for shortly before she sank. The German Deutschlandlied was probably sung at about 06:20 as the Blücher capsized - to Port, not Starboard, not during the fight.

[@MinedMaker]

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.

[@Raggarn240epaYT]

They where actually not supposed to sink the ship because the germans where promised that they would sail free into Norway without any problems.

[@larsivar8772]

Promised? By who, other germans? Maybe they should have asked the norwegians.

[@Raggarn240epaYT]

@larsivar8772 no, by the government

[@eduardodpino]

Great video.

[@CaptainEarls]

I can't help but feel sorry for the hundreds of German dying in the freezing water. It was surely no more than 1-2 degrees, and then the oil ignited, burning these poor souls while they were freezing to death at the same time. My late grandma lived the last half of her life in the area, and I got to listen to stories from her neighbours as a kid. They described inhuman screams of pain that night. They were the enemy, but still, what a horrible way to go.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

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

[@Willy_Tepes]

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.

[@wang20477]

The naval battle of Narvik please

[@timothyporter1632]

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.

[@brokenbridge6316]

Nicely done video

[@kangomatocryptid86]

Would you be interested in the Battle of Campeche? When old fashioned sailing vessels went up against the mexican steam powered warships crewed by the brits and won? This history has long since been overshadowed by other events and deserves to be Remembered

[@henriquekonradt541]

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

[@brookeshenfield7156]

Aloha! The Battles of Narvik would be a good subject for an episode…

[@manuelacosta9463]

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]

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

[@MikeGill87]

Using a map that has all the late 20th century bridges around Denmark in it is somewhat strange...

[@jonshive5482]

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...🙂

[@simmonsfoursome]

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.

[@Dingsrud]

Everyone onboard the Blücher were at their battle stations. Only delay woud be to train the guns onto targets. The 10,5 cm opened fire immediately. The 20,3 cm main guns did not find any military targets. Besides, the A-tower would probably have had to shoot the bow off Blücher to get low enough to target Oscarsborg.

[@nomooon]

Great smoke effects!

[@obfuscated3090]

Shore fort batteries like AT guns are underappreciated. They cannot maneuver but are rather difficult to sink.

[@Dingsrud]

Yes, and that is why Norway now has zero coastal batteries and zero torpedo batteries. Too easy for the enemy to find and destroy.

[@McDoucheVonDouche]

Is the course they took accurate? Because it looks like they crossed the Jetée twice in the animation.

[@Dingsrud]

The video is ok. The jetee will prohibit any larger ship to pass West of the Kaholmen islands. The Blücher had to sail between the Kaholmen and Dröbak.

[@sebastianruhland5198]

How stupid can you be moving a ship like that.

[@eunoci]

Goated work

[@Martin77641]

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.

[@grossadmiral1]

Brest-Litowsk

[@thesunofkurdistan6521]

%%

[@gregoryvigneault1824]

That was a really dumb plan, sailing right into the most defended part of the country with no air support on the assumption that the Norwegians would be cowering behind their old defenses.

[@geordiedog1749]

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

[@kasperjensen4149]

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.

[@statenthusiast3382]

Please list your sources.

[@saldownik]

Where were the Vikings hiding at that time?

[@unknownmale9486]

This looks like BazBattles Drobak Sound video as well.

[@ShoehornBundy]

I'll subscribe.

[@samstewart4807]

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??

[@Dingsrud]

Noop. He and Oberst Eriksen both were respected by the Germans and they both received Krigskorset med sverd (Highest military medal in Norway) after the war.

[@lolxdani9996]

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

[@richardstone5552]

Thanks

[@armored.angels]

Truly bazbattle new channel 😂

[@muhammads.a.m4727]

Make a video on USS DIABLO

[@MrBejkovec]

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.

[@mikecoglione1308]

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.

[@notthefbi7932]

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

[@chasechristophermurraydola9314]

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.

[@wolf2912]

If you want a norweigan war movie i recomend kings choice

[@DarkFilmDirector]

It didn't matter that the Norwegians had outdated guns and equipment. I firmly believe if they had not been so crippled by traitors in government like Quissling and other obstructionists to full mobilization, they'd have been able to put up a much more effective resistance.

[@christopherhanton6611]

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

[@XxLazeKid]

Reminds me of BazBattles

[@Thecrownswill]

Yet another win for democracy.

[@aaronleverton4221]

Captain Reg Saunders 3RAR.

[@grahambell5340]

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.

[@theyellowjesters]

I think KZbin demonized videos with nazi flags in it.

[@bubbadiesel4961]

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

[@sirql8]

USS Washington in South Pacific

[@Marmamartha]

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

[@Dingsrud]

The torpedo battery was in service up to 1995. Only electric motors for the torpedo hoists and a targeting radar was added from the 1902 installation.

[@Abuamina001]

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

[@julio5prado]

Brave Norwegians !

[@SamAronow]

[neigh]

[@DT-wp4hk]

Getting out of your comfortzone?

[@undrgrnd734]

bazbattles lmao

[@DT-wp4hk]

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

[@PetterVessel]

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]

@@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.

[@blitzy3244]

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

[@alltat]

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]

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

[@orjeetghrajshingbade-d3d]

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