KMS Prinz Eugen: The Lucky Cruiser

lucky for us Raeder was one stupid admiral..... instead building pocket battleships he built this garbage....

Tbh the US just wants Nagato, so that they can beat the ever living shit out of the Flagship of the Pearl harbor Attack

"sunny" pacific vacation. i know what you did there ;)

My favorite ship. Stood toe to toe with two ships twice her size and scored hits on both of them. Then stuck 8" middle fingers at two atomic bombs.

I dont remember the name of it but there was a Japanese destroyer called a lucky ship for the same thing. Ironically having it in your battle group was considered a bad omen.

If something is "lucky", you don't get rid of it. Those nuclear tests after the war proved it was lucky, and it meant something. But by then it was too late. Hood, Bismarck, Yamato, Arizona, etc....those are unlucky.

Its amazing to think had the "USS Prinz Eugen" (as IX300) been donated to say, South Vietnam or Taiwan or Argentina etc. then this ship might have been used in the Vietnam War, Quemoy Straits or even the Falklands.

Such a beautiful ship

She should have been preserved,

No establishment politicians are named Saratoga, so the name will probably never be used again.

Visually, the most beautiful ship of that era IMO.

I’ve found one of her ships bells in the village council dump back in the late 1980s , in north west mainland Scotland and has been hanging in my house ever since , just stumbled on this ,and her very interesting history , did not realise she was such a important and famous ship during the war . Always liked the bell , and is quite amazing where some things end up in our world . Love my Bell .

Prinz Eugen's luck spread to her captain. Helmuth Brinkmann lived to his 80's. Hood's officers, Lancelot Holland and Ralph Kerr, died in the Denmark Straits the day of the Battle and Bismarck's officers, Gunther Lutjens and Ernst Lindemann, died 3 days later when Bismarck was sunk. The captain of Prince of Wales, John Leach, went down with Prince of Wales December 10 that year.

A question. Are there any photos of her late war radar fit?. Like when she was surrendered in Denmark?. And another thing that I find strange is why didn't the German Navy install Wrezburg sets on all of the anti- aircraft director's???.

Her luck ran out when the US got their DUMB hands on her and made her a target for their STUPID Bikini Atoll tests. She should have been saved for historical reasons and made into a museum ship....but in seeing the fate of the USS Nevada and USS Enterprise, the US at that time was about as DUMB AS A ROTTED STUMP!

She truly was one of the luckiest ships

Photos dont make you understand the giant beast that was even the 10.5 canons looked giant compared to a marine

On here return from Norway, to repair the stern she downed several British bombers, some even with her 8" guns, so there is a reason why no hits were scored. Apart from the unreliable machinery the Hippers was the best CAs of the war.

Lucky, but badly designed and pointless.

She reminded me of a cranky grandma that just keeps living somehow. Her internals basically fall apart when she gets to the USA. Then she mostly survives the nuke tests and just sits pouting in a shallow lagoon.

Thank you for pronouncing Prinz Eugen correctly.

Naming her after the Duke of Marlborough's greatest ally may have been a smart move. Blucher, named after the Duke of Wellington's greatest ally, was sunk by Norway, not the Royal Navy.

What a waste of a beautiful ship that was a great part of history, and belonged to all of us. What our navy did to her was criminal. Terrible that no German capital ships were allowed to survive as museums. They had no part in any atrocities, and served with honor.

Good overview of a beautiful ship, but I think your thumbnail shows her older sister, Hipper - the straight bow being a giveaway.