 Grille in 1935 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Nazi Germany | |
| Name | Grille |
| Namesake | Grille |
| Builder | Blohm + Voss, Hamburg |
| Laid down | June 1934 |
| Launched | 15 December 1934 |
| Commissioned | 19 May 1935 |
| Fate | Sold for private use 1946. Scrapped 1951 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Aviso |
| Displacement | 3,430 long tons (3,490 t) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 13.5 m (44 ft) |
| Draft | 4.20 m (13.8 ft) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph) |
| Range | 9,500 nmi (17,600 km; 10,900 mi) |
| Complement | 248 |
| Armament |
|
Grille was an aviso built in Nazi Germany for the Kriegsmarine (War Navy) in the mid-1930s for use as a state yacht by Adolf Hitler and other leading individuals in the Nazi regime. The ship received a light armament of three 12.7-centimeter (5 in) guns and was fitted to be capable of serving as an auxiliary minelayer. Completed in 1935, her experimental high-pressure steam turbines, which were installed to test them before they were used in destroyers, required significant modifications and the ship finally entered service in 1937. Over the next two years, she was used in a variety of roles, including as a training vessel and a target ship, in addition to her duties as a yacht.
After the start of World War II in September 1939, Grille was used as a minelayer and as a patrol vessel in the Baltic Sea, tasked with searching for enemy merchant vessels. She collided with a German transport ship in January 1940 and after repairs, resumed minelaying duties in the North Sea, thereafter being used as a gunnery training ship. She was briefly assigned to the minelaying unit tasked with supporting Operation Sea Lion in September before the planned invasion of Britain was cancelled, and she was reassigned to the Baltic during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Gunnery training duties followed from August 1941 until March 1942, when she was reduced to a headquarters ship for the commander of naval forces based in occupied Norway; she served in this capacity for the rest of the war.
Seized by British forces as war reparations in 1945, she was later sold either to a Lebanese businessman who intended to use the ship as a yacht or a Lebanese shipping company for use as a passenger vessel. During this period, she was involved in a collision in March 1947, and in November 1948, she was attacked by a Jewish saboteur with limpet mines after the intelligence arm of the Haganah incorrectly assessed the vessel as having been intended to attack the Jewish fleet. After repairs were completed, the owner instead brought the ship to the United States in 1949 in an unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer. He ultimately sold Grille for scrap in 1951.