Can anyone give me any info on the Maasz class of German destroyers? I believe there were 16 of them. Why were they so-called? Who was Maasz?

I've never heard them refered to as a Maaß class before, but I'm assuming your talking about the destroyer Leberecht Maaß (Z-1). They are commonly refered to as Type 1934 destroyers for the year in which they were ordered. Leberecht Maaß was the Rear Admiral who commanded the German navy in WWI during the Battle of the Heligoland Bight and was killed during the battle.

Hope this helps.

Mikebatzel

Thanks for your response. All I have to go on is three website references I have found, including an 'official' US history of the Battle for the Atlantic, shown in the third reference below.

1) The British convoys were under almost constant attack from German U-Boats, surface ships and, when visibility permitted, aircraft. It was during one of these convoys, (JW51B), that on 31st December, 1942, both HMS Bramble and HMS Achates were sunk by the German cruiser the Admiral Hipper, accompanied by two Maasz class destroyers, the Friedrich Eckholdt and the Richard Bielzen. The complete crew of the Bramble, comprising 121 officers and men, were lost.

2) German Destroyers:
Maasz Class
Narvik Class

· 3) Full text of "The Battle Of The Atlantic September 1939 May ...

4 Cruisers (8-inch) Admiral Hipper, Bluec'her; cruisers (6-inch) Karlsruhe, Koeln, Emden, Leipzig, Nuernberg; destroyers (5*inch), 16 of the Maasz class, ...
www.archive.org/stream/battleoftheatlan001967mbp... - 995k -

Both Eckholdt and Bielzen where part of the 1934 class (sometimes split into 1934 and 1934A groups). So it looks like a typo on your sources.

German World War II destroyers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm Not sure why Germany didn't name the class, But in other countries, and with larger German vessels, it is common to name the class after the lead ship. Leberecht Maaß was the first ship built in the 1934 class, and adding up the 1934 and 1934A classes there were 16 ships built. This is probably the source of the confusion.

__________________
Please give the Combined Fleet the chance to bloom as flowers of death. This is the navy’s earnest request. RADM Tasuku Nakazawa prior to the Battle of Leyte Gulf
It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

A German web source detailing the German fleet writes Admiral Leberecht Maas?'s name with the 'eszet', (which I can't manage to insert into this post but which looks like the Greek beta.) The eszet can be transliterated as 'ss' but I believe is more correctly written as 'sz'. I understand the confusion perfectly as it has made my family history research at times difficult, my own name being Maasz. I have not so far traced any connection with Leberecht but I have my German relatives on the trail...

PS. to my post referring to the eszet. Wikipedia has a very erudite explanation of the history and usage of this symbol. I appears 'ss' is nowadays preferred but it definitely was 'sz'. I'm content to refer to Admiral Maasz and Maasz class destroyers. "But he would say that, wouldn't he?" (Mandy Rice-Davies)

Well then, upon your request I shall refer to the ship as Leberecht Maaß. I have edited my previous post to correct to error.

__________________
Please give the Combined Fleet the chance to bloom as flowers of death. This is the navy’s earnest request. RADM Tasuku Nakazawa prior to the Battle of Leyte Gulf
It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

01.09.1939: Together with the cruisers Köln , Leipzig , Nürnberg and other destroyers operations in the Danzig Beight. 03.09.1939: In a battle against the Polish destroyer Wicher , the mine layer Gryf and costal battieries at Hela, the Leberecht Maaas is hit once. 22.23.02.1940: Operation "Wikinger": Together with Richard Beitzen , Erich Koellner , Theodor Riedel , Max Schulz and Friedrich Eckold , the Leberecht Maaas operate against british fishing boats at the Doggerbank. On their way to the operations area, the destroyers are attacked by a German bomber, sinking the Lebercht Maas . During the evasive manouvers, the destroyers run into British mines and the Max Schulz is lost after a mine hit.

Z1 Leberecht Maas Operational History

Part of the 9th destroyer division at the outbreak of the war, operating in the Baltic Sea near Danzig. On 03.09.1939, the Maas was lightly damages during a battle with Polnish ships and coastal artillery. During a mining mission close to the British coast (Operation Wikinger) on 22.02.1940, the Maas was accidentally attacked by a German Heinkel He 111 bomber at the Doggerbank. During evasive maneuvers, the ship run into an unknown British mine field. Sunk after bomb and mine hits.


Z1 Leberecht Maas History

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

Thanks to all who provided info. Very interesting.

The destroyers of the "Zerstörer 1934" class were the first four destroyers build in Germany after World War I.
Based on the same design principals as the torpedo boats, those ships showed some serious problems after completion, which was partly caused by the fast naval construction programs after 1933. They were very bad seagoing ships, like most other German vessels they took over a high amount of water during heavy seas, making their forward artillery unusable. Further they showed a structural weakness since the hull started to bend in heavy seas and were burdened with heavy vibrations produced by the engines.
Their high pressure turbine engines caused many problems during operations, which were limited by the short range of those ships. The idea was to equip the ships with the newly designed high pressure turbines because this system seemed to have several advantages about normal turbine systems - at least on the paper. Test installations on land were very promising, but when installed on board on the destroyers, the engines rooms got very crowded making maintenance very difficult.
Like all other German destroyers, they were all equipped for mine laying which was intensively used during the first months of the war.
Most ships of this class did not survive the second year of the war, two of them were even sunk by own bombers, but in their few operational months, they did some successful mining operations near the British coast.

Leberecht Maaß (Z-1)
Contruction Data

Laid down: Deutsche Werke Kiel, 15.10.1934
Launched: 18.08.1935
Commissioned: 14.01.1937
Fate: sunk after bomb hits on 22.02.1940
Costs: 13,7 Mio Reichsmark
Commanders

KK Schmidt: 14.01.1937 – 29.09.1937
KK/FK Wagner: 05.10.1937 – 04.04.1939
KK Bassenge: 05.04.1939 – 22.02.1940


http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmari...yer/index.html

__________________
Please give the Combined Fleet the chance to bloom as flowers of death. This is the navy’s earnest request. RADM Tasuku Nakazawa prior to the Battle of Leyte Gulf
It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

If your interested i would recomend The German Fleet at War, 1939-1945 By Vincent P. O'Hara, Published by Naval Institute Press, 2004
ISBN 1591146518, 9781591146513

__________________
Please give the Combined Fleet the chance to bloom as flowers of death. This is the navy’s earnest request. RADM Tasuku Nakazawa prior to the Battle of Leyte Gulf
It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

Mikebatzel: Thanks again for taking the trouble to provide such detail. PM

M. J. Whitney's book "Destroyer; German Destroyers in World War II" says most of the problems were caused by the high pressure boilers, not the turbines. It's a minor point, but an important one to the naval historians. High pressure boilers were being developed in Britain, Germany, and the US, to power warships because they gave important advantages in size, weight, and fuel consumption (thus range). The US was the only nation to successfully develop high pressure steam propulsion plants for destroyers in World War II. Britain also had some success but limited the pressure levels of their propulsion plants in operational destroyers to levels below that of the US.

The German high pressure boilers were unsatisfactory for number of reasons, but seem to have suffered mostly from inadequate operational testing due to the rapid development program, and inadequate training for the boiler room and maintenance crews. German destroyers with these high pressure steam plants were notoriously unreliable.