Project SS "Pionier"
SS "Pionier"
Name "Pionier" Type Steamship Owner Afrikanische Frucht-Companie A. G. Built 1933, Bremer Vulcan Verft, Germany Tonnage 3285 BRT. - 2335 NRT. Length 107,1 meter Beam 13,59 meter Draft 7,29 meter Port Hamburg The Last Voyage
- SS "Pionier" was travelling from Frederikshavn in Denmark to Frederiksstad in Norway with military personnel and equipment to be used in the on going invasion of Norway. The ship departed from Frederikshavn on the 2nd September 1940 and got approximately 9 nautical miles north of Skagen, when it was discovered by the British submarine HMS "Sturgeon".
- The submarine log record the event as follows:
- "At 19.39 a large transport could be seen escorted by a "T"-class torpedo boat on either bow. There were some smaller vessels astern. Two torpedoes were fired at 19.53 from a range of 6000 yards. The target was silhouetted against the sun. One explosion was heard at 19.58 and when the periscope was raised a dense column of black smoke was seen rising from the target to a hight of about 2000 feet. The small vessel astern of "Pionier" scattered and no attack on them was possible. "Sturgeon" went deep to reload her torpedo tubes at 21.15 and at that time "Pionier" was burning furiously and settling low in the water. "Sturgeon" surfaced at 22.30 and by that time the "Pionier" had disappeared."
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