page_title: German aviso Grille
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: German aviso Grille / Service history / World War II
caption_attribution_description: Aviso "Grille" til kai i Hopla i Åsen, under eller like etter 2. verdenskrig. Fotograf / Photographer: Ukjent Fotoeier / Photo owner: Åsen Museum og Historielag Digitalisering / Digitizing: Arne Langås Foto-ID / Photo ID: 001-1003 Har du utfyllende opplysninger? Legg gjerne igjen en kommentar nedenfor eller send e-post til post@aasenhistorie.no. | Do you have additional information? Please leave a comment or send an e-mail to post@aasenhistorie.no. | www.aasenhistorie.no
context_page_description: Grille was an aviso built in Nazi Germany for the Kriegsmarine in the mid-1930s for use as a state yacht by the dictator Adolf Hitler and other individuals in the Nazi regime. The ship received a light armament of three 12.7-centimeter 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.
context_section_description: At the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, Grille was mobilized wartime service. She was initially used for minelaying operations, and from 1 to 9 September, Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Wilhelm Marschall used her as a temporary flagship. Marschall was at that time the Befehlshaber der Panzerschiffe (Commander of Armored Ships). Grille was transferred back to the BSO in mid-September, where she was used to patrol for enemy merchant shipping in the Baltic. She accidentally collided with the German steamer SS Axel on 10 January 1940, sinking the latter. Grille's bow was damaged in the incident and required repairs that were concluded on 5 February. The ship was then transferred to the North Sea to assist in the laying of minefields to guard against British attacks. She embarked on two operations to lay Minensperre (mine barrier) 16 in company with the light cruiser Köln and several destroyers, the first on 17–18 May and the second on 19–20 May. Grille was then attached to the gunnery school for training purposes.
  For Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Great Britain in September 1940, Grille was assigned as the flagship of KzS Walter Krastel, the deputy commander of mine warfare vessels under Marinegruppenkommando Nord (Navy Group Command North). She led the Eastern Group to Ostend, Belgium in early September; the Eastern Group was tasked with covering the landing beaches by laying minefields on either side to prevent the British Royal Navy from intervening. The invasion was postponed "until further notice" on 17 September, and three days later Grille and the other vessels were moved to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The next day, the German high command cancelled the operation outright and Grille was immediately transferred back to the gunnery school. During Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began in June 1941, Grille was again assigned to the minelayer command. She assisted in the laying of a minefield in the Baltic in late June, and she served as the unit flagship from 5 July to 15 August.
  She was transferred back to the gunnery school on 15 August, where she served for the next seven months. During this period, she was also used as a target ship for U-boat crews. She was decommissioned in March 1942 and on 24 August, was assigned as a stationary headquarters ship for the commander of naval forces in occupied Norway. She arrived in Narvik, where on 2 October, KAdm Otto Klüber came aboard. The ship was moved from Narvik to Ankenes between 25 and 31 July 1943. She had her crew reduced there on 10 January 1944; she was still capable of going to see, but lacked crew for her weapons. In March, the staff for the commander was reduced, and Grille was then used as a headquarters ship for the commander of U-boats in Norway, KzS Rudolf Peters. She remained in Norwegian waters until the end of the war in May 1945, when she was seized by British forces. They set up one of the rooms as "Eva Braun's bedroom", but she had never visited the ship. According to the naval historians J. J. Colledge and Ben Warlow, Grille returned to northern Germany at some point after the war, and it was there that she was occupied by British forces, in August 1945.
caption: Grille in Norway during World War II
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