World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAlthough the supply ship Franken was launched prior to the outbreak of the European War in Sep 1939, the final completion work progressed slowly due to other war demands. In 1940, she was towed to the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she would finally be completed and commissioned into service in Mar 1943. With a capacity of 10,000 tons of fuel, she supplied cruiser Prinz Eugen, torpedo boats, minesweepers, and patrol boats in the Baltic Sea. In Apr 1945, she was struck by Soviet aircraft, broke into two pieces, and sank to a depth of between 48 and 72 meters, with some of the fuel tanks still filled. After the war, the sunken wreck was deemed the property of the Polish government. Because the recovery of the lost fuel was not deemed profitable, and that the wreck posed no maritime danger, she remained at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. In 2018, maritime experts concluded that salt water could breach the steel tanks in the near future, and in such case the estimated 3,136 cubic meter fuel that still remained in the wreck would create an environmental disaster.

Auxiliary Franken Interactive Map

Franken Operational Timeline