Construction and prewar career

Grille with the Italian heavy cruiser Gorizia in 1936

The ship was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg; her keel was laid down in June 1934 under the provisional name "Flottentender 'C'" (fleet tender). She was launched on 15 December that year and was named Grille after the old aviso Grille; Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Eugen Lindau gave a speech at her launching ceremony. Following builder's sea trials off Helgoland, she was commissioned into the Kriegsmarine (War Navy) on 19 May 1935. Her first commander was Fregattenkapitän (Frigate Captain) Helmuth Brinkmann. The experimental high-pressure turbines with the Benson boilers proved to be unacceptable for use in warships, and Grille returned to Blohm & Voss to have the boilers replaced with a different type of boiler and control equipment for the turbines. The work was carried out between 3 October 1936 and 13 March 1937, after which the ship conducted a long-range test cruise to Iceland in July, which was completed without problems.^[3]

For the next three years, Grille served in a variety of roles: she represented Adolf Hitler as the head of state of Nazi Germany and the Oberkommando der Marine (Naval High Command), as a navigational training ship, and as a target ship during training exercises. Throughout this period, she was based in Kiel in the Baltic Sea. In May 1936, she embarked Hitler and Admiral Erich Raeder, the commander of the Kriegsmarine, and carried them to Laboe for the dedication of the Laboe Naval Memorial and observe a naval review. In October, she carried Generalfeldmarschall (General Field Marshal) Werner von Blomberg, the Minister of War on a visit to Norway, cruising as far north as Nordkapp. On the way back to Germany, she stopped in Narvik, Norway, where Blomberg and his entourage disembarked and traveled by train.^[4]

Grille next carried the Wehrmacht (Defense Force) delegation to represent Germany for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in mid-May 1937. The ship visited Southampton and Spithead during the voyage. In early June, she served as the flagship for Admiral Rolf Carls, the commander of the German fleet, during exercises with the fleet's scouting force in the North Sea. Blomberg again boarded the vessel in October for a cruise into the Atlantic, which included visits to a series of ports, including Funchal, Madeira and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Portugal. In May 1938, Kapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea) Günther von der Forst replaced Brinkmann as the ship's captain. Another naval review was held on 22 August for the launching ceremony for the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, during which Grille hosted Hitler and his entourage, which included Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, who was visiting Germany at the time. Toward the end of 1938, Grille was used as a torpedo target for the aircraft of 3. Staffel, Group 506. The ship was then assigned to the Befehlshaber der Sicherung der Ostsee (BSO—Commander of the Defense of the Baltic Sea) to support the planned Invasion of Poland.^[3] During the Kiel Week sailing regatta in June 1939, Grille hosted Raeder and several foreign naval officers.^[5]

World War II

Grille in Norway during World War II

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.^[4]

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.^[6]

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 sea, 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Postwar

Grille in Beirut in November 1948

The ship's postwar fate is uncertain; according to the naval historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz, Grille was sold in 1946 to a Lebanese shipping company for use as a passenger ship in the Mediterranean Sea.^[9] Others, including a contemporary report of the vessel's disposal in 1951, state that a Lebanese businessman named George Arida purchased the vessel for use as his personal yacht in September 1946.^[10][8] In March 1947, the ship was involved in a collision and repairs were completed in Beirut by November 1947, when she was re-launched from the dry dock.^[9]

In either event, the ship had been disarmed and any equipment with military use was removed by the British before the sale. The intelligence service of the Haganah incorrectly suspected that Arida or the Lebanese company intended to use the vessel for the Lebanese Navy to attack Haifa, so they sent a saboteur to attack it with limpet mines in November 1948. The mines exploded a few days later and blew a hole in the hull below the waterline, but did little serious damage and Grille was quickly repaired.^[10][11][12]

According to reports that indicate Arida purchased the ship, after he realized the very high cost involved in keeping the ship in service, he brought the ship to the United States in 1949 in an attempt to sell her. He was unable to secure a buyer, and Grille was instead moored in New York and left idle for the next two years. While there, the ship became a tourist attraction. In April 1951, she was sold for scrap to the North American Smelting and Refining Company and was transferred to the Doan Salvage Yard in Bordentown, New Jersey.^[10][11][12] The ship was broken up later that year.^[1]

Before the scrapping began, souvenir hunters removed artifacts from the vessel. The yacht's toilet was one of many relics scattered throughout New Jersey, before it was purchased by British military memorabilia collector, Bruce Crompton.^[13][14] A blood transfusion kit taken from the Grille forms part of the permanent collection of the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds, Britain.^[15]

In October 2020 a Maryland auctioneer announced they would offer for sale a large aluminum globe-shaped bar with five barstools from the yacht.^[16]