Bath (I17)

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Bath
The sister ship St. Albans
The sister ship St. Albans
Ship data
flag United StatesUnited States (national flag) United States United Kingdom Norway
United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) 
NorwayNorway (service and war flag) 
other ship names

USS Hopewell (DD-181)
HMS Bath (I17)

Ship type destroyer
class Wickes class
Shipyard Newport News Shipbuilding
Build number 223
Keel laying January 19, 1918
Launch June 8, 1918
Commissioning March 22, 1919 USN
September 23, 1940 RN
April 8, 1941 Norwegian Navy
Whereabouts Sunk on August 19, 1941
Ship dimensions and crew
length
95.8 m ( Lüa )
94.5 m ( Lpp )
width 9.65 m
Draft Max. 2.84 m
displacement 1060   ts standard;
1360 ts maximum
 
crew 101-124 men
Machine system
machine 4 boiler
2 Parsons - transmission turbines with cruise turbine
Machine
performance 		26,000 PS (19,123 kW)
Top
speed 		35 kn (65 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

from 1941

Sensors

sonar

The Norwegian destroyer Bath (I17) was sunk on August 19, 1941 in the North Atlantic by U 204 .

The destroyer was built for the US Navy as Hopewell (DD-181) in Newport News at the end of World War I. He belongs to the Wickes class and has rarely been on active service. In September 1940 the destroyer was given to the Royal Navy as part of the " Destroyer Deal ". The 50 destroyers that were taken over were designated Town- class by the Royal Navy . The Hopewell was handed over to the Royal Navy in September 1940 and renamed HMS Bath (I17).

Five of the Town- class ships were manned by the Norwegian Navy in exile between December 1940 and June 1942 and used in the Royal Navy without being renamed. The Bath ex Hopewell received a predominantly Norwegian crew in April 1941. She was the only one of the five destroyers left to the Norwegians to be lost. The others were returned to the Royal Navy between March 1942 and May 1944.

History of the ship

The destroyer USS Hopewell (DD-181) was one of more than 270 four-funneled destroyers that were delivered to the US Navy from 1917 to 1919. The ship built at Newport News Shipbuilding was started in early 1918 and launched on June 8, 1918. It was named Hopewell after a midshipman Pollard Hopewell (* 1789) who fell on June 1, 1813 on the American frigate Chesapeake in action with the British frigate Shannon . On March 22, 1919, the destroyer first entered service for the US Navy.

USS Hopewell (DD-181)

USS Hopewell (DD-181)

The four chimney destroyers were built on the basis of the Naval Appropriation Act of 1916, which called for the creation of a navy for the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The ship types required also included ocean-going destroyers, which were also intended to serve as reconnaissance ships for the fleet. Between 1917 and 1919, six destroyers of the Caldwell class , 111 destroyers of the Wickes class and 156 destroyers of the Clemson class , which together formed the so-called flush deck or four stack class , were built at different shipyards . Despite series production, only a few of these destroyers were finished in time to be used in the First World War .
As early as the 1930s, these destroyers, which were scrapped, sunk as target ships or sold, began to be sorted out. Several have been converted for other uses.

The basic design of the destroyer had a smooth deck , four funnels and a wider hull shape that differed from its predecessor. Smooth deck and wide hull shape gave the new destroyers a high degree of rigidity. The required maximum speed leads to the installation of a relatively extensive machine system of high weight.
The armament with four 4-inch (102-mm) single guns was contemporary; Torpedo armament with initially twelve torpedo tubes above average. The range of the destroyers was not satisfactory for the planned missions, so that the Clemson class of this type already received larger tanks, which did not solve the basic problem.

1. Service phase

USS Hopewell entered service in Portsmouth, Virginia on March 22, 1919 and transferred from Norfolk to the 3rd Destroyer Squadron off New England on April 19, 1919 . In May, the new destroyer was involved in securing the first Atlantic flight of three Curtiss NC flying boats . Over 50 destroyers took over positions at intervals along the planned flight route in order to guarantee the safety of the aircraft. However, they could not help the two machines that did not make the stage from Newfoundland to the Azores. The Hopewell had occupied a position just outside the Azores. After a stay in the Azores, the destroyer returned to New York on June 8, 1919 , to be fully equipped at the local naval shipyard. From August he served again with his squadron and carried out the first artillery tests. The destroyer spent the winter of 1919/20 in the Caribbean with intensive training and many artillery exercises. In May 1920 the destroyer returned to New England and carried out training with reservists and maneuvers with other destroyers stationed there until September. Similar missions from Charleston followed from September 1920 . From May 1921, exercises with reservists based on New York City followed. On October 10, 1921, the destroyer left Newport to be laid up in Charleston as a reserve ship. On April 10, 1922, the Hopewell moved to Philadelphia , where it was decommissioned on July 17, 1922. The destroyer was then not used for 18 years.

2. Service phase

On June 17, 1940, the destroyer was put into service again for the US Navy. The destroyer was used in the American neutrality patrols off New England. It was one of the 50 old destroyers that the United States gave to Great Britain in the destroyer deal . With this agreement, the United States gave Great Britain 43 and Canada 7 old destroyers and in return received base rights in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua as well as in Newfoundland and in British Guyana for 99 years. The Hopewell entered Halifax on September 18 . There the destroyer was decommissioned on September 23, 1940 and handed over to Great Britain.

HMS Bath

Renamed HMS Bath , the destroyer crossed the Atlantic and reached Devonport on October 12, 1940 . A short overhaul took place there, then the Bath moved to the 1st Minelaying Squadron in Kyle of Lochalsh . First deployments were made to secure operations of mine layers and convoy trains in the North Western Approaches . At the end of January 1941, the Bath was overhauled and modernized in Chatham so that it could be better used as an escort ship. She received British sonar, the rear 102 mm gun was replaced by a British 3 inch anti-aircraft gun. The previous American 3-inch gun and a rear pair of torpedo tube sets were removed. Four depth charges were installed. The rear mast was removed and the front shortened to reduce the destroyer's high top weight.

HNoMS Bath

During the overhaul, negotiations began about the takeover of the destroyer by the Norwegian Navy in exile . On December 18, 1940, the Norwegian Navy "in exile" took over a Town- class destroyer, Mansfield ex USS Evans (DD-78) . At the same time, the handover of two more town destroyers was negotiated ( Newport , St. Albans ), which were currently also being converted. All ships kept their British names and identifications and were referred to as H (is) No (rwegian) M (ajesty) S (hip). The ships served individually in different escort groups. On April 12, 1941, the Mansfield was openly used as a ship in the Norwegian Navy when she docked at one o'clock in the morning at Øksfjord pier in northern Norway and put commands ashore that blew up a fish oil factory used by the Germans. The aim was to demonstrate to the residents of occupied Norway that the Norwegian Navy was operating on the Norwegian coast. The destroyer ran out again after two hours and the residents of the village said goodbye to it with the Norwegian national anthem.

On April 9, 1941, the Norwegians took over Bath , assigned to the Liverpool Escort Force and deployed with the 5th Escort Group between Great Britain and Gibraltar from June onwards .

The end of the bath

In August 1941, the Bath belonged to the security of the convoy OG 71 in addition to the Sloop Leith , six corvettes and a submarine trawler. The convoy was recognized on August 17th by a Fw 200 Condor of I./KG 40 and submarines were placed on the convoy. On the 18th and 19th, individual Ju-88 bombers owned by Fliegerführer Atlantik found the convoy without achieving any success. 400 miles southwest of Ireland early in the morning of the 19th U 204 hit Bath, which was running behind the convoy, with a torpedo amidships. The destroyer capsized at about 49 ° 0 '  N , 17 ° 0'  W, coordinates: 49 ° 0 '0 "  N , 17 ° 0' 0"  W and sank quickly. During the sinking, the depth charges detonated the destroyer and killed several castaways in the water, including the commander, the Norwegian Lieutenant Commander CFT Melsom. 71 Norwegians and 12 British lost their lives in the sinking. The corvette Hydrangea , which rushed to the rescue, was able to recover 39 castaways, the destroyer Wanderer another four. Two of the rescued died on the way to Gibraltar. Although the security was strengthened, the convoy OG 71 lost eight of its 23 merchant ships against eight attacking submarines. Only five reached Gibraltar on schedule; the others started at Portugal. The corvette Zinnia was also sunk. Over 400 people lost their lives.

The (Norwegian) town destroyers

Between December 1940 and February 1942, the Norwegian Navy took over five Town-class destroyers, which they largely manned and used in the Royal Navy with their British names and identifications.

Surname ex USS Shipyard Launch finished Norwegian service Final fate
Mansfield (G76) Evans (DD78) Bath Iron Works 10/30/1918 11.1918 December 18, 1940 - February 11, 1942 October 1944 demolition
Newport (G54) Sigourney (DD81) Bethlehem , Quincy December 16, 1917 05.1918 2.03.1941 - 05.1942 RN again, February 1947 broken off
Bath (I17) Hopewell (DD181) Newport News June 8, 1918 March 22, 1919 April 9. - Aug 19, 1941 † sunk by U 204, 83 dead
St. Albans (I15) Thomas (DD182) Newport News 4.07.1918 4.1919 April 14, 1941 - 10.1942 Awarded July 16, 1944 to the USSR , Dostoynyy there , scrapped in the UK in May 1949
Lincoln (G42) Yarnall (DD143) Cramp , Philadelphia 06/19/1918 11.1918 03.1942 - 12.1943 . Awarded to the USSR on August 26, 1944, Druzhnyy there , scrapped in GB in September 1952

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c HMS, later Norwegian HNorMS BATH (I 17) - ex-US Destroyer
  2. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 10-23 August 1941, North Atlantic

literature

  • Roger Chesneau (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
  • Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2009, ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
  • Arnold Hague: The Towns: A history of the fifty destroyers transferred from the United States to Great Britain in 1940. World Ship Society, Kendal 1988, ISBN 0-905617-48-7 .
  • Henry Trevor Lenton: British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1998, ISBN 1-55750-048-7 .
  • Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .

Web links

Commons : Town class destroyers  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files