Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp was named after
Machinist's mate (
Obermaschinist)
Wilhelm Heidkamp. He was in charge of the pumps on the
battlecruiser during the
Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915. After a British shell started a large fire in the ship's aft
gun turrets, he was badly burned when he turned the valves to flood the aft
magazines, thus saving the ship. On the night of 17/18 October, the ship led , , , , and
Z20 Karl Galster as they laid a
minefield off the mouth of the
River Humber. The British were unaware of the minefield's existence and lost seven ships totaling . On the night of 12/13 November
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp, now the flagship of the Commander of Destroyers (
Führer der Zerstörer), Captain (
Kapitän zur See)
Friedrich Bonte, escorted
Z18 Hans Lüdemann,
Z19 Hermann Künne, and
Z20 Karl Galster as they laid 288
magnetic mines in the
Thames Estuary. Once again unaware of the minefield's existence, the British lost the destroyer and thirteen merchant ships displacing 48,728 GRT. Less than a week later,
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp,
Z19 Hermann Künne, and laid 180 magnetic mines in the Thames Estuary on the night of 17/18 November. The mines sank the destroyer , a fishing trawler, and seven ships of 27,565 GRT. After a refit in
Stettin between 27 November and 24 December, Bonte and
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp led a minelaying sortie to the
Newcastle area together with Z16
Friedrich Eckoldt,
Z20 Karl Galster, and on the night of 10/11 January 1940. The destroyers and were also supposed to participate, but the former had problems with her boilers that reduced her maximum speed to and she had to be escorted back to Germany by the latter ship. The minefield only claimed one
fishing trawler of 251 GRT. In retaliation for the
Altmark Incident where the
Royal Navy seized captured British sailors from the
German tanker Altmark in neutral Norwegian waters on 16 February, the
Kriegsmarine organized
Operation Nordmark to search for Allied merchant ships in the North Sea as far north as the
Shetland Islands.
Z20 Karl Galster and
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp escorted the
battleships
Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau as well as the
heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper during the
sortie between 18 February and 20 February.
Norwegian Campaign Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp was the flagship for Group 1, commanded by Commodore (
Kommodore) Bonte, for the Norwegian portion of
Operation Weserübung in April 1940. The group's task was to transport the 139th Mountain Infantry Regiment (
139. Gebirgsjäger Regiment) and the headquarters of the
3rd Mountain Division (
3. Gebirgs-Division) to seize
Narvik. The ships began loading troops on 6 April and set sail the next day. On 9 April,
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp sank the old coastal defense ship with torpedoes after an attempt to get her
captain to surrender failed. Afterwards, she landed her troops in Narvik without resistance and then refuelled from the whale
factory ship . Bonte intended for his flagship to patrol the fjord during the night, but
Brigadier General (
Generalmajor) Eduard Dietl, commander of the 3rd Mountain Division, requested that
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp remain in harbor to ease coordination between the Army (
Heer) and the
Kriegsmarine and to facilitate communications with his commanders. Shortly after dawn on 10 April, the ship was
moored aft of
Jan Wellem, in Narvik harbor, when the five destroyers of the British
2nd Destroyer Flotilla,
Hardy,
Havock,
Hunter,
Hotspur, and
Hero appeared.
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp was struck in the stern by a torpedo from
Hardys first
salvo that detonated the ship's aft magazine. The explosion threw her aft guns into the air and killed 81 men, including Bonte. Although
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamps stern was below water, her
captain,
Lieutenant Commander (
Korvettenkapitän)
Hans Erdmenger, managed to moor her to a nearby Swedish
freighter. She
capsized the following day, but not before her torpedoes were transferred to the surviving destroyers. Her survivors joined the other survivors ashore in an ad-hoc
naval infantry unit. ==Notes==