Paul Jacobi

Paul Jacobi

Z5 Paul Jacobi was a Type 1934A destroyer built for the Kriegsmarine in the mid-1930s. The ship was being refitted when World War II began on 1 September 1939 and was tasked to inspect neutral shipping for contraband goods in the Kattegat until early 1940. She participated in the early stages of the Norwegian Campaign by transporting troops to the Trondheim area in early April 1940 and was transferred to France later that year where she made several attacks on British shipping. Paul Jacobi spent most of 1941 under repair and returned to France in early 1942 to successfully escort two German battleships and a heavy cruiser home through the English Channel (the Channel Dash). The following month, the ship helped to escort another German battleship to northern Norway and returned in May to begin another lengthy refit. Paul Jacobi spent most of 1943 inactive in the Arctic before returning to Germany in September for another refit. She was badly damaged by Allied air attacks on Kiel and was not operational again until late 1944. She spent most of the rest of the war escorting ships as the Germans evacuated East Prussia and bombarding Soviet forces. The ship was captured by the Allies in May 1945 and spent the rest of the year under British control as the Allies decided how to dispose of the captured German ships. Paul Jacobi was ultimately allotted to France in early 1946 and renamed Desaix. She became operational later that year, but her service with the French Navy was fairly brief, with only cruises to French colonies in Africa during 1947 of note before she was paid off in late 1948 and placed in reserve in early 1949. The ship was used as a source of spare parts of the other ex-German ships in French service until she was condemned and sold for scrap in 1954.

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