HDMS Niels Juel (1918)

Type

Coastal Defence Ship

Period

20th Century

Nation

Denmark

Overview: HDMS Niels Juel was a Danish coastal defence ship of the Royal Danish Navy, originally conceived in 1914 as a monitor-like coastal battleship but redesigned during her long construction into a training cruiser. Danish politicians felt the originally planned 305 mm guns would be seen as provocative, so the ship was completed with an extra deck and a battery of 150 mm guns instead, giving her a distinctive, un-monitor-like silhouette for a modeler to capture. Specifications: As built she displaced 3,800 long tons standard (4,100 at deep load), was 90 m long with a 16.3 m beam and 5 m draught, powered by two triple-expansion steam engines and four Yarrow boilers (oil and coal fired) for 6,000 ihp and roughly 14.5-16 knots. Her armament comprised ten 150 mm/45 guns, two 57 mm AA guns (later replaced by Madsen 20 mm autocannon and Bofors 40 mm guns), and two submerged 450 mm torpedo tubes, protected by a Krupp cemented armor belt of 155-195 mm. Service History: Completed in 1923, she undertook extensive training cruises to the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and South America, and served as flagship on royal tours to the Faroe Islands (1926) and the Faroes/Iceland (1930). During the German occupation she remained in limited Danish service until August 1943, when, during the German attempt to seize the Danish fleet, she tried to break out to Sweden through the Isefjord but was attacked and damaged by Luftwaffe dive bombers and deliberately run aground by her own crew. Notable Facts: Refloated by the Germans in late 1943, she was disarmed, renamed Nordland, and used as a stationary Kriegsmarine training ship before being scuttled a second time at Eckernförde Bay on 3 May 1945. Her wreck was eventually salvaged and the ship sold for scrap in 1952, closing out a career that spanned both World Wars under two different navies' flags.