The ship was laid down in April , launched in August , and entered service after the outbreak of war, in August She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy , a distinguished 18th-century general in the service of the Holy Roman Empire. She was armed with a main battery of eight The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser Hood and moderately damaged the battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles.
After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus , a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany. In February , Prinz Eugen was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was curtailed when she was torpedoed by the British submarine Trident days after arriving in Norwegian waters. The torpedo severely damaged the ship's stern, which necessitated repairs in Germany.
Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support for the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front. Having survived the atomic blasts, Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein Atoll , where she ultimately capsized and sank in December The wreck remains partially visible above the water approximately two miles northwest of Bucholz Army Airfield , on the edge of Enubuj.
One of her screw propellers was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany. The Admiral Hipper class of heavy cruisers was ordered in the context of German naval rearmament after the Nazi Party came to power in and repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles.
In , Germany signed the AngloβGerman Naval Agreement with Great Britain, which provided a legal basis for German naval rearmament; the treaty specified that Germany would be able to build five 10, long-ton 10, t " treaty cruisers ". Prinz Eugen was After launching, her straight bow was replaced with a clipper bow, increasing the length overall to The new bow kept her foredeck much drier in heavy weather.
