HDMS Niels Juel
1943
(Optatus WDS-K14)
- Class: Niels Juel - 1 coastal defense ship
- Displacement: 3,400 tons
- Dimensions: 295'1" x 53'6" x 17'1"
- Machinery: 5,500 hp = 16 knots
- Armament: 10-5.9in (10x1), 4-57mm AA, 2-18in TT
- Complement: 329
- Builder: Royal Naval Dock Yard, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Laid Down: 1914
- Launched: 3 Jul 1918
- Commissioned: 23 May 1923
- Decommissioned: 30 Aug 1953
- Notes: HDMS Niels Juel was a coastal defense ship of the Royal Danish Navy from 1923 to 1943. Originally intended as an upgraded version of HDMS Peder Skram, a pre-World War I coastal defence ship. After initially being laid down in 1914, construction was halted as the original armament orders from the German manufacturer Krupp were delayed by World War I; later the armament was changed to Bofors-built guns. She went on several tours after commissioning, to the Faeroes, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and South America, including royal tours in 1926 and 1930.
During the German occupation in World War II, the Danish navy remained independent until 28 Aug 1943, when the Germans moved to seize the fleet at Copenhagen. Niels Juel attempted to flee to Sweden, but was scuttled by her crew after a Luftwaffe attack. In 1944 the ship was refloated for use by the German Kriegsmarine as a training ship and renamed Nordland. She was sunk during Allied air raids 3 May 1945 in the Eckernforde inlet. Postwar, the wreck was salvaged for scrap in 1952.
Up