Dönitz and U-Boot crew

Meeting on high sea

A good photo of German Flakschiff Niobe. Originaly  Dutch Holland-class protected cruiser Gelderland, she was seized by the Germans during invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. In 1944 she operated as an anti-aircraft cruiser protecting Finnish city of Kotka during the the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. She was tought to be the Finnish armored costal defence ship Väinämöinen and attacked by the Soviet air force on July 16. Niobe was attacked and sunk in the harbor. 70 men were killed on board. Five attacking planes were shot down. Russians learned only after the war that the ship they had destroyed was not the Väinämöinen, and what I have heard, they were really surprised. The ship was transferred to Soviet navy in 1947, and scrapped in the -60. Niobe was raised and scrapped in 1953. The carried these AA weapons during the sinking: 
8× 10.5 cm FlaK L/45 C/32
4× 40 mm Bofors L/60
4× 20 mm (4×4) Vierlinge C/38

The picture really shows the ammount of firepower that the attacking force would have had to face. VC