Acorn class
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|---|---|
| Acorn, then H class | |
_IWM_SP_000320.jpg) The HMS Redpole in 1917 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| units | 20th |
| Shipyard |
4 Thornycroft , Woolston |
| Order | from 1909 |
| Launch | 1910 to 1911 |
| delivery | 1910 to 1912 |
| Whereabouts | 3 losses in World War I from 1920 to 1921 scrapped |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
772 to 970 tons |
| length |
75.1 m above sea level (246.5 ft) |
| width |
7.7 m (25.5 ft) |
| Draft |
2.6 m (7 ft) |
| crew |
72 men |
| drive |
4 Yarrow boilers, |
| speed |
27 kn |
| Range |
> 1620 nm at 11 kn / 170 t oil |
| Armament |
2 × 102 mm L / 40 Mk.VIII guns |
The Acorn class of the Royal Navy was from 1910 put into service class of 20 destroyers that when naming the British destroyer classes by letter from August 1912 to as H-Class was called. For the first time, the boats also had a uniform appearance, as they were all built according to plans by the Admiralty . The destroyers had three funnels, the foremost being thin and taller, and the second thicker. In 1917/1918 two boats under the Japanese flag served in the Mediterranean. In the First World War three destroyers of the class were lost, the remaining boats were scrapped from 1920/1921.
Building history
In the 1909–1910 budget year, the Royal Navy ordered new oil- fired destroyers as successors to the coal-powered Beagle class , as had been procured in 1905 with the large tribal class destroyers and the cricket class coastal destroyers. The change of firing allowed a smaller boat with fewer crew, like the immediately preceding Australian River class , and an increase in armament. The Acorn -class boats were built to a greater extent than before according to the requirements of the Admiralty and were given at least an identical external appearance and also included shipyards that did not develop their own destroyers.
The high, thin front chimney and two short chimneys behind it, of which the front one was considerably thicker, became characteristic of the class. The main armament was reinforced with two 4-inch Mk.VIII cannons , a weapon specially developed for destroyers, the front of which stood directly on the foredeck, which was higher than the previous class, and no longer on a platform. The two 12 pounder 76 mm L / 40 guns stood on the sides between the two forward funnels. The two centrally mounted torpedo tubes followed behind the chimneys and between them there was a raised stand for a searchlight.
The twenty boats of the new class were built in eight shipyards, with John I. Thornycroft in Woolston near Southampton delivering most of them with four boats. The other boats came from John Brown in Clydebank , Fairfield in Govan , Hawthorn Leslie in Hebburn on Tyne, J. Samuel White in Cowes , William Denny in Dumbarton - all builders with experience in building destroyers - as well as a boat each from Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Wallsend and A. & J. Inglis in Glasgow , who first delivered a destroyer to the Navy. With the shipyards Palmers , Cammell Laird and Yarrow , three very experienced shipyards did not build boats of this class. The boats were delivered from November 1910 to February 1912. Depending on the shipyard, the boats displaced between 730 and 780 tn with normal equipment and a maximum of 990 tn. The length of the boats was around 75 m. The four water tube boilers were of the Yarrow type , except for the White boats, which were equipped with their White-Forster type. Except for the Brisk , all boats had Parsons turbines that worked on three waves. The Brisk received Brown Curtis turbines on two shafts. The drive systems of the boats with 13,500 hp enabled a top speed of 27 knots, with boats also reaching over 30 knots. The range of action was later described as somewhat inadequate, with considerable differences between the individual boats.
Mission history
.jpg)
The first boat to enter service in the Navy was John Brown's Acorn in November 1910, which was followed by eighteen boats by June 1911. Only the Fury built by Inglis was not completed until May 1912. The boats formed the 2nd destroyer flotilla with the scout cruiser HMS Bellona as a guide and the scouts HMS Adventure and HMS Attentive as well as the old cruiser HMS Blake as tender. At times four Beagle-class destroyers were also in the flotilla alongside the twenty Acorn- class boats .
When on August 30, 1912 the Admiralty ordered the renaming of all destroyer classes by letter, the Acorn- class boats formed the H-class . From September 1913, the boats also had a capital "H" on the hull below the bridge and on one of the chimneys.
War effort
In 1914, the 20 Acorn- class boats were all with the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla in the Home Fleet . The flagship of the fleet's four destroyer flotillas was the cruiser HMS Amethyst , the lead ship of the 2nd flotilla was the HMS Active . In September 1914, the under construction HMS Broke of the Faulknor class under construction for Chile was designated as a semi-flotilla commander, which arrived in December with the flotilla. In addition, the sister ship HMS Fearless replaced the Active as a flotilla cruiser , which, however, was replaced by the HMS Galatea in January 1915 , before the Active returned to the flotilla in March and ran it together with the Broke .
On the night of February 19, 1915, the Goldfinch ran aground in the fog at Start Point near Sanday Island . It could not be removed again and was demolished on site from April 1919. Parts can still be found today. The HMS Goldfinch was the Acorn- class's first loss .
Use in escort security
From October 1915 a detached unit of the flotilla was established under the flotilla leader Tipperary at the west entrance to the canal with the initially seven boats ( Acorn, Comet, Fury, Hope, Redpole, Sheldrake, Staunch ) to which more boats came in the following months, so that in the January 1916 only nemesis and nymph were at the Grand Fleet in northern Great Britain. However, eight boats moved into the Mediterranean around the turn of the year. In April 1916, the 2nd destroyer flotilla was relieved of the Grand Fleet and was now with eleven boats ( Alarm, Brisk, Cameleon, Hope, Larne, Lyra, Nemesis, Nereide, Nymphe, Martin and Ruby ) in Devonport without a command cruiser or flotilla leader for Escort duties stationed.
In October 1917 the flotilla was transferred to Buncrana in Donegal, where it took the Acasta boats Alarm, Brisk, Hope, Martin and Ruby with it, while the Lyra was transferred to the 4th destroyer flotilla.
On October 2, 1917, the Brisk was hit by a mine when it rushed to the aid of the torpedoed armored cruiser HMS Drake . The foredeck of the destroyer was torn down and 32 men died. The severely damaged destroyer was repaired and went into the Mediterranean in 1918. All other destroyers of the Acasta class were gradually moved there as well.
5. Destroyer Flotilla
_IWM_Q_021108.jpg)
In January 1915, a new 5th destroyer flotilla with seven destroyers of the "River" class was set up in the Mediterranean fleet . At the turn of the year 1915/1916 the first eight boats of the Acasta class ( Comet, Fury, Redpole and Staunch , then Acorn, Minstrel, Rifleman and Sheldrake ) were handed over to the flotilla in the Mediterranean. Fury and Staunch also earned the Battle Honor Dardanelles . At the end of 1916, Cameleon, Nereide, Larne and Nemesis also moved from the canal to the Adriatic Squadron, which was subordinate to the 5th Flotilla. In May 1917 another sub-unit was formed with the “Malta Flotilla”, initially from the eight boats Acorn, Minstrel, Rifleman, Sheldrake, Cameleon, Larne, Nemesis and Nereid of the Acorn class. In June 1917, Minstrel and Nemesis were loaned to the Japanese Navy and remained in service from Malta as Sendan and Kanran .
In 1917 and 1918, the Acorn-class boats that had remained in Great Britain were gradually relocated to the Mediterranean. The last boat to arrive there in June 1918 was the Brisk, which had been repaired after a severe mine hit .
Two boats of the class were lost in the Mediterranean:
On November 11, 1917, the Staunch sank after a torpedo hit by UC 38 off the coast of Palestine , killing eight men. On August 6, 1918, after a severe explosion, the Comet sank in tow en route to Malta east of Sicily. A submarine cannot claim the initially suspected torpedo hit, so a mine hit is more likely. The boat had been damaged in a collision two days earlier and lost eight men in the two accidents. In 1918 River-class boats replaced the Acorn boats in Malta except for the two under the Japanese flag.
At the end of the war, the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, the Royal Navy's largest destroyer flotilla, operated as the "British Aegean Squadron" over 51 boats, including all 17 Acorn boats ( Acorn, Alarm, Brisk; Cameleon; Fury; Hope; Larne, Lyra, Martin , Sendan ex HMS Minstrel ; Kanran ex HMS Nemesis , Nereide, Nymphe; Redpole, Rifleman, Ruby; Sheldrake ), whereby the two boats made available to the Japanese with eight river class boats formed the "Malta Contingent".
Final fate
The seventeen boats of the class that had survived the war were mostly relocated back home from 1919 and scrapped there in 1920/1921; Hope and Martin was canceled in Malta from 1920.
The Acorn class boats
| Surname | Shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acorn | John Brown Building No. 393 | 02.02.1910 | 07/01/1910 | 11/1/1910 | November 1921 for demolition |
| alarm | Brown construction no. 394 | February 7, 1910 | 08/29/1910 | March 28, 1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Brisk | Brown construction no. 395 | 02/21/1910 | 09/20/1910 | 06/16/1911 | November 1921 for demolition |
| Nemesis | Hawthorn Leslie Building No. 434 | 11/26/1909 | August 9, 1910 | March 7, 1911 | Awarded Kanran to Japan in June 1917, canceled in November 1921 |
| Nereid | Hawthorn construction no. 435 | December 3, 1909 | September 6, 1910 | April 6, 1911 | December 1921 for demolition |
| nymph | Hawthorn construction no. 436 | December 8, 1909 | January 31, 1911 | May 18, 1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Cameleon | Fairfield building no. 471 | 12/6/1909 | 2.06.1910 | 12.1910 | December 1921 for demolition |
| Comet | Fairfield building no. 472 | 1.02.1910 | 06/23/1910 | 01/12/1911 | sunk in the Mediterranean on August 4 and 6, 1918 after a collision, eight dead |
| Goldfinch | Fairfield building no. 473 | 02/23/1910 | 07/12/1910 | 02/15/1911 | Accumulated and lost February 19, 1915 |
| Redpole | J. Samuel White | 12/10/1909 | 06/24/1910 | 1.02.1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Rifleman | White | 12.1909 | 08/22/1910 | 03.1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Ruby | White | 02.1910 | November 4, 1910 | 04.1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Larne | Thornycroft | December 8, 1909 | 08/23/1910 | 02.1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Lyre | Thornycroft | 12.1909 | October 4, 1910 | 02.1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Martin | Thornycroft | 12.1909 | December 5, 1910 | 03.1911 | August 1920 for demolition |
| Minstrel | Thornycroft | 03.1910 | 02/02/1911 | 05.1911 | Granted to Japan as Sendan in June 1917, canceled in December 1921 |
| Hope | Swan Hunter construction no. 861 | 12/9/1909 | September 6, 1910 | 2.03.1911 | February 1920 for demolition |
| Sheldrake | William Denny building no. 918 | 01.1910 | January 18, 1911 | 05.1911 | May 1921 for demolition |
| Staunch | W. Denny building no. 919 | 01.1910 | October 29, 1910 | 03.1911 | Sunk in the Mediterranean on November 11, 1917, eight dead |
| Fury | Inglis building no. 293 | 3.03.1910 | 04/25/1911 | 02/23/1912 | November 1921 for demolition |
Individual evidence
- ^ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906 to 1922. pp. 17ff.
- ↑ Pictures at Start Point
- ↑ Torpedoing the HMS Staunch
- ↑ Sinking of the HMS Comet
literature
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981. Ian Allen (1983), ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
- Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Seaforth Publishing (Barnsley 2009), ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
- David Lyon: The First Destroyers. Chatham Publishing (1996), ISBN 1-86176-005-1 .
- TD Manning: The British Destroyer. Putnam 1961.
- Antony Preston: Destroyers. Hamlyn, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
- Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. Conway Maritime Press, 1985, pp. 72f.
- Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. (Ed. John Moore), Studio, London 1990, ISBN 1-85170-378-0 .
