Documents From Destroyer Wilhelm Heidkampf, Sunk At Narvik.

[leigh kitchen]

I was given these 2 chits a couple of days ago, I'm told that they're from the above ship.
Can anybody tell me what these documents are please?

[Ian Jewison]

Incidentally the FP Nr. was 01345, it was actually Wilhlelm Heidkamp and not Heidkampf.

Also Leigh, could you show scans of both stamps?

/Ian

[Simon O.]

Yes, can we see close ups please Leigh? Empfangsschein means receipt i think.

[Ian Jewison]

Ahh.. I hit edit instead of reply and overwrote my first response.....

Never mind, as Simon has mentioned it is a certificate/ticket of receipt, however for what?

I did ask if you could provide larger scans of the tickets individually....

[leigh kitchen]

Yep, will do - but not at the moment as it's late & girlfriend has just got in & can't understand why I'm on the computer instead of watching "Predator" ..........& drinking wine (well, it'll do in the absence of real alcohol).
I'd noticed that a Google search shows "Heidkamp" & "Heidkampf" within the same articles - these were sent to me out of the blue by a Swedish mate who likes diving & checking out old ship wrecks etc.
One of the stamps is of "5 Torpedoboot" something or other, the other is com-letely different, so I thought that they may be receipts for supplies of some kind.
I'll posty close ups later this am.

[Simon O.]

Well if this came from the wreck, your friend ought to know that whilst diving on Heidkamp is allowed with permission from the council, removing anything from the wreck is illegal. All German wrecks in Norwegian waters are actually owned by a scrap company.
I don't mean to sound anal about it but only a few weeks ago i was accused of removing something from a wreck by someone going of on a tangent and in the process getting the wrong end of the stick (it was actually a swede in our group who found something on the shore near a wreck) .

[leigh kitchen]

Know what you mean, personally I'd find it rather less acceptable to take from war graves than to pinch somebody else's scrap paper, but I don't know how these things turned up other than that they arrived in the post out of the blue.
Beware of beach combing Swedes armed with tangents & sticks & bearing gifts?

[leigh kitchen]

& the other stamp...........

[leigh kitchen]

According to a web site: http://www.skovheim.org/located/nordland/wheidk/wheidk.html
The German destroyer Wilhelm Heidkamp was one of a total of ten German destroyers that ended their history in the waters around Narvik city in April 1940. Wilhelm Heidkamp and the nine other destroyers were put together as the Kriegsschiffgruppe 1, and their mission was to secure the city of Narvik. W.Heidkamp was also the destroyer who sunk the Norwegian pansership Eidsvold in the morning of April 9th. In the time that followed there were heavy fighting between the Germans and the allied forces, and on the 10th of April Wilhelm Heidkamp was hit by a torpedo from the British destroyer Hardy. The torpedo blew away all the stern part of Wilhelm Heidkamp, and of the crew 81 German men lost their lives. But the ship did not sink after this torpedo attack and the commander Hans Erdmenger got the destroyer towed in to the harbor where she on the 11th of April had an explosion that shocked the vessel and she quickly sank. And here the vessel rested until 1963 were she as many other wreck from the days of second world war was removed. Norsk Bjergningskompani removed the wreck and dumped her just outside the airport outside Narvik city. The wreck of Wilhelm Heidkamp lies today on a depth of ten to twenty five meters relatively in a good condition. The site is easily accessed by car...

[Ian Jewison]

I can not see any Wilhelm Heidkamp connection....the first one is stamped 5 Torpedobootsflotille and the second Sperrwaffeninspektion. Wilhelm Heidkamp was in 3 Zerstörerflottille and Kriegsschiffgruppe 1 during Unternehmen "Weserübung".

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/...llen/TF5-R.htm

Heres another re: Heidkamp
http://www.steinarweb.com/dykking/en...m-hidekamp.htm

[Simon O.]

Well, I see both chits (to use a good British term) are from October '39. The Sperrwaffen stamp might for example have something to do with mines taken onboard or the like. I'll see if i can place the Heidkamp and the 5 T-boot flottilla for Oct. '39. Off the top of my head i can recall that German destroyers were engaged in minelaying in the North Sea of the UK coast during that period.

[Simon O.]

The Heidkamp was Gunther Lütjen's flagship as Führer der Torpedoboote up until the 21st October when he was posted away and the new position of Führer der Zerstörer was created headed by Friedrich Bonte. On the 17th Oct. '39 Heidkamp sailed along with the rest of the '5th division' on a minelaying operation off the Humber, Heidkamp as command ship and escort carried no mines. The operation claimed 7 merchantmen sunk.

After the operation the 5th division crossed over into the baltic to Swinemünde where Lütjens left the ship on the 21st, as mentioned and 5 days later, on the 26th Bonte and staff came onboard.

So that's what Heidkamp was up to around the dates seen in those chits.

[leigh kitchen]

Thanks, assuming that these chits do come from the Wilhelm Heidkamp, would they be receipts for items received by that vessel or from it by the vessel / unit as per the stamps?

That's assuming that they do actually come from the Wilhelm Heidkamp.