Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper 1935 1945

The building contract for heavy cruiser 'H' (Ersatz Hamburg) was placed with Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, on 30 October 1934 and the first keel sections were laid on 6 July 1935 under builder's number 501. The hull was launched by Frau Raeder on 6 February 1937. The Navy C-in-C, Generaladmiral Raeder, who had been an officer on Admiral Franz Flipper's staff in the First World War, delivered the ceremonial speech. Builder's trials were carried out from 18 to 22 March 1939. Following the successful acceptance voyage of 17 April, Admiral Hipper entered service on the 29th of that month. The cruiser left the yards on 6 June and began working up in the Baltic. Reval in Estonia and Hernosand in Sweden were visited between 3 and 24 July. The cruiser was off Kiel during Kiel Week. From 14 August the intensive programme of trials commenced in the Baltic under the Erprobungskommando fur Kriegsschiffneubauten (EKK, the Testing Branch for New Warhips) and the main armament was fired for the first time. On the outbreak of war with Poland on 1 September Admiral Hipper became temporarily operational and took station in the Sund and Belt off the Danish Baltic coast to prevent the break-out of Polish warships and submarines into the North Sea (although most of the merchant fleet had already escaped). In mid-September working-up was continued in the eastern Baltic. On 31 October six hits were obtained by the main armament on the gunnery target ship Hessen during manoeuvres. The Soviet Union was interested in acquiring Seydlitz, Liitzow and Prinz Eugen, and a number of Russian naval officers were aboard Hipper as observers at this time. On 6 November Admiral Hipper returned to Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, for the scheduled completion work and modifications. The ship was fitted with an 'Atlantic' clipper bow and a raked funnel cap was added.