Black Swan class

*Black Swan* class
	The Black Swan
Ship data
country	United Kingdom ; 1941: India 1948: Pakistan 1949: Egypt 1959: Germany ; ; ;
Ship type	Sloop , frigate
Construction period	1938 to 1946
Launch of the type ship	July 7, 1939
Units built	37 (4 + 27 mod + 6 India)
period of service	1939 to 1965/2003
Ship dimensions and crew
length	91.3 m ( Lüa ) 86.3 m ( Lpp )
width	11.7 m
Draft	Max. 3.5 m
displacement	1250 ts; 1350 ts (mod.)
crew	180 to 219 men
Machine system
machine	2 × Admiralty three-drum steam boiler; 2 × Parsons - geared turbine
Machine ; performance	4,300 PS (3,163 kW)
Top ; speed	19.75 kn (37 km / h)
propeller	2
Armament
	HMS Flamingo , 1st class ship 3 × 2 multipurpose guns 102 mm L / 45 Mk.XVI ; 1 × 4 40 mm L / 39- - Flak ( "pompom"); 2 × 4 12.7mm Vickers - AA-MG ; 4 × depth charges for 40 depth charges ; 34 mines possible; Mine detector; HMS Alacrity , 4.45 in service 3 × 2 102 mm L / 45 Mk.19; 2 × 2 40 mm L / 70 Bofors guns; 2 × 2 - and; 2 × 20 mm L / 70 Oerlikon flak; 8 × depth charges, 2 × drain rails for 110 depth charges;
Sensors
	Radar , sonar

The sloops of the Black-Swan- and modified Black Swan class were in the Royal Navy and Royal Indian Navy ordered and used. The first four ships of the Royal Navy were ordered before the start of World War II . The first order of the Royal Indian Navy came immediately after the outbreak of war. The order for the remaining 27 sloops of the class for the Royal Navy took place during the war, and after the first pair in 1939, British India also ordered two more pairs. All ships were built in British shipyards. It was not until 1942 that the sloops were added to the fleet in large numbers.

With twelve newbuildings, the William Denny & Brothers shipyard in Dumbarton built most of the ships in the class. In addition, eight ships were built at Yarrows , five at Thornycroft and two each at Furness , Cammell Laird , Fairfields , Scotts , Stephens and the Chatham Dockyard . The completion of further awarded contracts did not take place because of the end of the war.

Like corvettes , sloops were warships specialized in escort duties , with anti-aircraft and anti - submarine capabilities . Their sea endurance (range) was greater than that of a destroyer , but their top speed was significantly lower. After all, the ships were but capable of a running water German submarine of type VII or Type IX intercept.

During the Second World War, the Black Swan class sloops sank 29 German submarines . The most famous commander of a sloop was Captain Frederic John Walker . His sloop Starling was involved in the sinking of eleven German submarines and thus probably the most successful British submarine hunter of the Second World War. From 1941, the sloops were primarily used to repel German submarines in the Atlantic, the North Sea, and during the Allied landings in Sicily and Normandy. At the end of the war, some sloops were relocated to the Pacific, where they secured the train of the British Pacific Fleet.

After World War II, some sloops remained in active service with the Royal Navy. The ships were used at various stations abroad. It caused a sensation when the Chinese People's Liberation Army attacked the Amethyst in April 1949 on its way to relieve another station ship between Shanghai and Nanking and blocked it in the river for months. From 1950 some ships of the class were also used in the Korean War ( Black Swan , Pheasant , Amethyst , Hart , Opossum and Sparrow ). The last ships in the Royal Navy were retired in 1965.

The school frigate Scharnhorst

Of the six Indian ships, the two ships in the second group were surrendered to Pakistan in 1948 when the British colony was divided .

Renamed Jhelum and Sindh by Pakistan , the two ships were retired in 1959. The four Indian units remained in service longer and were only canceled in the early 1980s.

Great Britain gave the Whimbrel to Egypt in 1949 . This ship is said to be the last of the class.

Four more ships were bought in 1957 by the German Navy, which was under construction, as school frigates Scharnhorst , Hipper , Graf Spee and Scheer . While the Scharnhorst served as an artillery and the Scheer as a locating training ship, the less conspicuously converted Graf Spee and Hipper made long and far training trips with midshipmen .

Despite the sometimes considerable renovation, the ships were already segregated by 1968.

Black Swan class

The Ibis 1941

The first four ships of the class were ordered by the Royal Navy in January 1938 and by the Royal Navy in mid-1939.

The first pair was ordered from Yarrows in Scotstoun, the second from Furness in Haverton Hill . The sloops had a displacement of 1300 ts (max. 1770 ts), were 91.3 m long, up to 11.4 m wide and had a draft of up to 3.56 m. Their Parsons geared turbines produced an output of 4,300 hp on two shafts and enabled a top speed of 19.75 knots . The ships were a little longer and stronger from the previous sloops of the Egret and Bittern classes and thus a little faster than their predecessors. While the Egrets still had four 102-mm twin guns , the new sloops only got three 4-inch twin guns, but a quadruple pompom (at Black Swan only installed after the first overhaul in 1941).

In addition, Flamingo and Black Swan initially had two heavy anti-aircraft machine gun quadruplets , while the two Erne and Ibis ordered in 1939 were equipped with two more effective 20-mm Oerlikon cannons . The armament was rounded off by 40 depth charges , which were used with four launchers and two drain rails. The Black Swan and Erne also tested the use of a mine clearing device and Black Swan was initially able to take and put down 34 mines .

Flamingo as a frigate 1949

During the war, the ships were converted several times: At the end of the war, the three remaining ships had three 4-inch twin guns, a quadruple “pompom”, up to six Oerlikon automatic cannons , a Hedgehog launcher and 110 depth charges . They could not be differentiated from the war replicas due to the regular adjustment of the state of construction.

Surname	Pennant	shipyard	Keel laying	Launch	in service	fate
flamingo	L / U / F07	Yarrows (BauN ° 1716)	05/26/1938	04/18/1939	November 3, 1939	1949 to 1955 deployment in the Persian Gulf, 11.1957 in the German Navy, 21.02.1959 school frigate Graf Spee , 7.1964 out of service
Black Swan	L / U / F57	Yarrows (BauN ° 1717)	06/20/1938	07/17/1939	01/27/1940	1950/51 Korea, September 1956 sold for demolition.
Erne	U / F03	Furness, (BauN ° 318)	09/22/1939	August 5, 1940	04/26/1941	June 1952 stationary drill ship, sold for demolition in 1965.
Ibis	U99	Furness, (BauN ° 317)	09/22/1939	11/28/1940	08/30/1941	sunk by Italian torpedo bombers near Algiers on November 10, 1942.

Modified Black Swan class

The April 13, 1940 war building program included ten upgraded Black Swan class sloops. However, six orders (two each from White , Thornycroft and Swan Hunter ) were soon converted into orders for destroyer escorts of the Hunt-class . The regular improvement during the missions and the construction time over the entire war period led to an extensive approximation of all ships of the class.

The Cygnet , the first completed sloop of war missions

In 1940, fourteen more sloops were approved, which were appointed in 1941. The first two Denny were appointed on January 9th , then another five pairs on March 27th, 1941 with Cammell Laird , Scotts , Thornycroft, Yarrow and John Brown, and finally another pair with Fairfield on July 18th, 1941. The contract with John Brown had been transferred to the Devonport State Shipyard in March and then went to Denny on December 8, 1942.

Another fourteen ships were approved by the naval budget for 1941, of which the first ship was ordered from Thornycroft on December 3, 1941 and a pair from Stephens in the same year . In 1942, eight more orders were placed, six of which were completed.

Two contracts originally awarded to the Portsmouth State Shipyard in March ( Nonsuch, Nymphe ) were transferred to Chatham Dockyard in June 1943 and then canceled on October 15, 1945. The three other ships originally approved were to be named Star, Steady and Trial .

The Alacrity , the last ship of the class completed in Europe during the war

Further planned and partly also started new buildings were not carried out. The completed sloops were delivered in different armament states, because not all selected weapons were always available in sufficient numbers due to the large number of ships to be equipped. As their main armament, the ships, like their models, had three 102 mm twin guns in versions that differed only in details. As additional anti-aircraft armament, the new sloops were to receive two 40 mm Bofors twin guns in mounts of the Hazemeyer type . The first ship to receive the Whimbrel, completed in 1943 at Yarrow, were these guns, which were also intended for a large number of other Royal Navy units under construction. Of the 17 other ships completed in 1943/44, only Woodcock and Redpole received these guns and then the seven sloops of the class, which were completed in 1945/46. For this purpose, seven ships of the 1945 class were retrofitted with these guns because of the expected use against Japan and the higher threat from the air to be expected there. With the first two ships of the class ( Cygnet , Woodpecker ) and the Kite , three ships had two pom-pom quadruplets , of which the preceding original class had received one. In addition to these 40 mm anti-aircraft guns, which were often not available at the beginning, all sloops completed during the war received up to twelve 20 mm Oerlikon cannons in various combinations of single and twin guns.

In addition, all sloops had up to 110 depth charges. The second ship of the class, Woodpecker , had received a Hedgehog launcher , with which a total of fourteen ships of the class were equipped during the Second World War. This weapon, which was also installed on a large number of other ships, was also given to the three surviving sloops of the original Black Swan class, the Indian sloops Sutlej , Cauvery and Kistna , but also to Stork and Enchantress or Pelican and Egret of the similar ones previously supplied Sloops in the course of modernization.

Surname	Pennant	shipyard	Keel laying	Launch	in service	fate
Actaeon	U / F07	Thornycroft (BauN ° 4033)	.05.1944	07/25/1945	07/1946	11.1957 to the German Navy, 21.02.1959 school frigate Hipper (F 214) , re-armed in 1961, decommissioned on 7.1964
Alacrity	U / F60	Denny (BauN ° 1381)	April 5, 1943	09/01/1944	April 13, 1945	1956 for demolition
amethyst	U16 / F116	Stephens, (BauN ° 594)	03/25/1942	May 27, 1943	November 2nd, 1943	1951/52 Korea, 1957 for demolition
Chanticleer	U05	Denny (BauN ° 1363)	06/13/1941	09/24/1942	March 29, 1943	Total loss on November 18, 1943 by U 515
Crane	U23 / F123	Denny (BauN ° 1364)	06/13/1941	11/9/1942	May 10, 1943	1965 for demolition
Cygnet	U / F38	Cammell Laird (BauN ° 1100)	08/30/1941	07/28/1942	1.12.1942	Retired March 1956.
Hard	U / F58	Stephens (BauN ° 595)	03/27/1942	07/07/1943	12/12/1943	1951 Korea, November 1957 to the German Navy, became a tracking training ship Scheer (F 216)
Hind	U / F39	Denny (BauN ° 1374)	08/31/1942	09/30/1943	04/11/1944	December 1958 for demolition.
Kite	U87	Cammell Laird (BauN ° 1102)	09/25/1941	10/13/1942	1.03.1943	sunk by U 344 on August 21, 1944
Lapwing	U62	Scotts (BauN ° 605)	December 17, 1941	July 16, 1943	03/21/1944	sunk by U 968 on March 20, 1945
Lark	U11	Scotts (BauN ° 606)	May 5, 1942	08/28/1943	04/10/1944	shot to the wreck by U 968 on February 17, 1945
Magpie	U / F82	Thornycroft (BauN ° 4016)	12/30/1941	March 24, 1943	08/30/1943	July 1959 for demolition.
Mermaid	U / F30	Denny (BauN ° 1375)	12/30/1941	11/11/1943	.09.1945	November 1957 to the German Navy, renamed Scharnhorst , became an artillery training ship with the new weapons
Modeste	U / F42	Chatham Dockyard	02.1943	01/29/1944	.09.1945	March 1961 for demolition.
Nereid	U / F64	Chatham Dockyard	02.1943	01/29/1944	.05.1946	May 1958 for demolition
possum	U / F96	Denny (BauN ° 1382)	07/28/1943	11/30/1944	06/16/1946	1952/53 Korea, most recently 1959 South Atlantic, April 1960 for demolition
Peacock	U / F96	Thornycroft (BauN ° 4017)	11/29/1942	December 11, 1943	May 10, 1944	May 1958 for demolition
Pheasant	U / F49	Yarrows (BauN ° 1780)	03/17/1942	December 21, 1942	May 18, 1943	January 1963 for demolition
Redpole	U / F69	Yarrows (BauN ° 1781)	May 18, 1942	02/25/1943	06/26/1943	1949 stationary training ship, demolished in November 1960
Snipe	U / F20	Denny (BauN ° 1384)	09/21/1944	December 20, 1945	09/09/1946	August 1960 for demolition
Sparrow	U / F71	Denny (BauN ° 1385)	11/30/1944	02/18/1946	12/12/1946	1953 Korea, May 1958 for demolition
Starling	U / F66	Fairfields (BauN ° 701)	10/21/1941	10/14/1942	1.04.1943	1949 stationary training ship, demolished in July 1965
Whimbrel	U / F29	Yarrows (BauN ° 1761)	October 31, 1941	08/25/1942	01/12/1943	1949 to Egypt as El Malek Farouq , 1956 Tariq , 2003 decommissioned
Wild Goose	U / F45	Yarrows (BauN ° 1762)	01/28/1942	10/14/1942	03/11/1943	February 1956 for demolition
Woodcock	U / F90	Fairfields (BauN ° 702)	10/21/1941	11/26/1942	May 29, 1943	November 1955 for demolition
Woodpecker	U08	Denny (BauN ° 1359)	02/23/1941	06/29/1942	December 14, 1942	sunk by U 256 on February 27, 1944
Wren	U / F28	Denny (BauN ° 1360)	02/27/1941	08/11/1942	02/24/1943	February 1956 for demolition

Black Swan loops of the Royal Indian Navy

In addition to the Royal Navy, the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) also received new sloops. Shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe, the RIN ordered two ships from Denny that were to be built according to the plans for the Bittern class . The following budget for 1940 included funds for two more sloops. The other pair were ordered from Thornycroft on August 28, 1940 .

The plans of the Royal Indian Navy included a third pair. This time the two new buildings were ordered from Yarrows in Glasgow-Scotstoun on November 10, 1941 . The two ships were built according to the plans of the modified Black Swan class, which was built at the same time .

The first pair of these sloops ( Jumna , Sutlej ) was delivered with three 102 mm twin guns Mk.XVI, a 12.7 mm Vickers MG quadruple, four depth charge launchers, two drainage rails (supplies 80 to 88 depth charges) . The two sloops remained with the Indian Union , were converted into survey vessels in the mid-1950s and used until the end of the 1970s.

The two following sloops Godavari and Narbada had the same main armament when they were delivered, but also two single 40 mm L / 39-2pdr anti-aircraft guns and the same depth charge equipment. Like all six Indian sloops, they survived the World War and came to the newly created Pakistan in 1948 when the crown colony was divided . The Pakistani Navy used the two ships , which were reclassified as frigates and renamed Jhelum and Sind, respectively, until 1959.

The third pair corresponded to the current British sloops of the improved Black Swan class. Kistna and Cauvery , reclassified as frigates, remained in service with the Indian Navy until the late 1970s.

Surname	Pennant	shipyard	Keel laying	Launch	in service	fate
Sutlej	U / F95	Denny , Dunbarton	4.01.1940	October 1, 1940	04/23/1941	1955 survey ship, decommissioned in 1978, demolished in 1982/83.
Jumna	U21 / F11	Denny, Dunbarton	02/28/1940	11/16/1940	05/13/1941	1957 survey ship, 1968 INS Jamuna , 1980 out of service and abandoned.
Narbada	U40	Thornycroft , Woolston	08/30/1941	11/21/1942	04/29/1943	1948 renamed Jhelum by the Pakistani Navy, sold for demolition on July 15th, 1959.
Godavari	U52	Thornycroft, Woolston	10/30/1941	01/21/1943	06/28/1943	1948 to Pakistan, renamed Sind , sold for demolition on June 2nd, 1959.
Kistna	U / F46	Yarrow , Scotstoun	07/14/1942	04/22/1943	August 26, 1943	Renamed Krishna in the Indian Navy in 1968 , retired and canceled in 1981.
Cauvery	U10 / F110 / F10	Yarrow, Scotstoun	10/28/1942	June 15, 1943	October 21, 1943	Renamed Kaveri in the Indian Navy in 1968, retired in 1979.

Black Swan class losses

In World War II:
- Woodpecker torpedoedby U 764 on February 24, 1944, attempts to drag in the heavily damaged sloop failed on February 27, 1944 near the Scillies , crew rescued by two corvettes

In the Palestine War : (source?)
- El Malek Farouq sunk by two MTM explosive devices of the Israel Defense Forces on October 21, 1948

Submarines sunk by the Black Swan class

U 213 ( VII D ) sunk east of the Azores through Erne , Rochester and Sandwich on July 31, 1942.

U 124 ( IX B ) sunk west of Oran by the corvette Sannecrop and Black Swan on April 2, 1943.
U 449 ( VII C ) sunk on April 2, 1943 northwest of Cape Ortegal by Wren , Woodpecker , Kite and Wild Goose .
U 202 (VII C) sunk at 0:30 a.m. on June 2, 1943, southeast of Cape Farewell , Greenland , by Starling .
U 119 ( XB ) sunk in the Bay of Biscay by Starling on June 24, 1943.
U 462 (VII C) sunk in the Bay of Biscay by a Handley Page Halifax bomber and Wren , Kite , Woodpecker , Wild Goose and Woodcock on July 30, 1943.
U 504 ( IX C ) sunk northwest of Cape Ortegal by Kite , Woodpecker , Wren and Wild Goose on July 30, 1943.
U 226 (VII C) sunk east of Newfoundland by Starling , Woodcock and Kite on November 6, 1943.
U 842 ( IX C / 40 ) sunk by Starling and Wild Goose on November 6, 1943.
U 538 (IX C / 40) sunk southwest of Ireland by the frigate Foley and the Crane on November 21, 1943.

U 592 (VII C) sunk southwest of Ireland by Starling , Wild Goose and Magpie on January 31, 1944.
U 762 (VII C) sunk by Woodpecker and Wild Goose on February 8, 1944.
U 734 (VII C) sunk southwest of Ireland by Wild Goose and Starling on February 9, 1944.
U 238 (VII C) sunk southwest of Ireland by Kite , Magpie and Starling on February 9, 1944.
U 424 (VII C) sunk southwest of Ireland by Wild Goose and Woodpecker on February 11, 1944.
U 264 (VII C) sunk by Woodpecker and Starling on February 19, 1944.
U 653 (VII C) sunk by a Fairey Swordfish from the escort aircraft carrier Vindex and the sloops Starling and Wild Goose on March 15, 1944.
U 961 (VII C) sunk east of Iceland by Starling on March 29, 1944.
U 962 (VII C) sunk northwest of Cape Finisterre by Crane and Cygnet on April 8, 1944.
U 473 (VII C) sunk southwest of Ireland by Starling , Wren and Wild Goose on May 6, 1944.
U 333 (VII C) sunk west of the Isles of Scilly by Starling and the frigate Loch Killin on July 31, 1944.
U 608 (VII C) sunk in the Bay of Biscay by Wren and a B-24 Liberator bomber on August 10, 1944.
U 385 (VII C) sunk in the Bay of Biscay by Starling and a Short Sunderland on August 11, 1944.
U 198 (IX D2) sunk near the Seychelles by the frigate Findhorn and the Indian sloop Godavari on August 12, 1944.
U 354 (VII C) sunk in the Barents Sea by Mermaid , Peacock , the frigate Loch Dunvegan and the destroyer Keppel on August 24, 1944.
U 394 (VII C) sunk in the Norwegian Sea by a Fairey Swordfish from the escort aircraft carrier Vindex , the destroyers Keppel and Whitehall and the sloops Mermaid and Peacock on September 2, 1944.

U 425 (VII C) sunk in the Barents Sea by Lark and the corvette Alnwick Castle on February 17, 1945.
U 1276 (VII C) sunk south of Waterford by amethyst on February 20, 1945.
U 327 (VII C) sunk in the English Channel by the frigates Labuan and Loch Fada and the Wild Goose on February 27, 1945.

Individual evidence

Web links

Commons : Black Swan class - collection of images, videos, and audio files

literature

Arnold Hague: Sloops: A History of the 71 Sloops Built in Britain and Australia for the British, Australian and Indian Navies 1926-1946. World Ship Society, Kendal (1993), ISBN 0-905617-67-3
Bodo Herzog: 60 years of German submarines 1906–1966. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968.
Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford, seven volumes
Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-0097

[npdBSw-1] BLACK SWAN sloops (1939–1941) on navypedia.org

[2] HMS Flamingo (L 18) - Black Swan-class Sloop

[3] HMS BLACK SWAN (L 57) - Black Swan-class sloop

[4] HMS ERNE (U 03) - Black Swan-class Sloop

[5] HMS Ibis (U 99) - Black Swan-class Sloop

[6] HMS Flamingo (L 18) - Black Swan-class Sloop

[7] HMS_Woodpecker.htm_Ibis.htm Service History HMS Ibis

[8] Service History HMS Chanticleer

[9] Service History HMS Woodpecker

[10] Service History HMS Kite

[11] Service History HMS Lark bi

[12] Service History HMS Lapwing

[13] Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, World War 2, 1st - 31st MARCH 1945