German WWII Warship Survived Two Nuclear Bombs – The Unkillable Cruiser Prinz Eugen
The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was the largest German warship to survive WWII. Given to the United States, they decided to use her for atomic weapons tests in the Pacific. This is the incredible story of how this ship survived two atomic explosions!
Prinz Eugen in Copenhagen – Københavns Frihavn – Copenhagen Freeport
The Admiral Hipper class was a group of five heavy cruisers built by Germany‘s Kriegsmarine beginning in the mid-1930s. The class comprised Admiral Hipper, the lead ship, Blücher, Prinz Eugen, Seydlitz, and Lützow. Only the first three ships of the class saw action with the German Navy during World War II. Work on Seydlitz stopped when she was approximately 95 percent complete; it was decided to convert her into an aircraft carrier, but this was not completed either. Lützow was sold incomplete to the Soviet Union in 1940.
Type | Heavy cruiser |
Displacement | Design: 16,170 t (15,910 long tons; 17,820 short tons) Full load: 18,200 long tons (18,500 t) |
Length | 202.8 m (665 ft 4 in) overall |
Beam | 21.3 m (69 ft 11 in) |
Draft | Full load: 7.2 m (24 ft) |
Installed power | 132,000 shp (98 MW) |
Propulsion | 3 × Blohm & Voss steam turbines 3 × propellers |
Speed | 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) |
Range | 6,800 nmi (12,600 km; 7,800 mi) at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Complement | 42 officers1,340 enlisted |
Armament | 8 × 20.3 cm (8 in) guns12 × 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK C/33 guns12 × 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30 guns8 × 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 guns12 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes |
Armor | Belt: 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) Armor deck: 20 to 50 mm (0.79 to 1.97 in) Turret faces: 105 mm (4.1 in) |
Aircraft carried | 3 aircraft |
Aviation facilities | 1 catapult |
Read more at Wikipedia
One of Prinz Eugen‘s three-bladed screws on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial.
Read about WWII here

Prinz Eugen inadvertently rammed the light cruiser Leipzig amidships north of Hela.

The cause of the collision was heavy fog. The light cruiser was nearly cut in half, and the two ships remained wedged together for fourteen hours. Prinz Eugen was taken to Gotenhafen, where repairs were effected with-in a month.

