Buenos Aires class

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Buenos Aires class
ARA Misiones
ARA Misiones
Ship data
country ArgentinaArgentina Argentina
Ship type destroyer
Shipyard 3 Vickers , Barrow
2 John Brown , Clydebank
2 Cammell Laird , Birkenhead
Construction period 1936 to 1938
Launch of the type ship June 24, 1937
ARA San Juan
Units built 7th
period of service 1938 to 1973
Ship dimensions and crew
length
98.5 m ( Lüa )
97.5 m ( Lpp )
width 10.6 m
Draft Max. 3.2 m
displacement Standard : 1,375 tons
Maximum: 2,010 tons
 
crew 130-200 men
Machine system
machine 3 Admiralty boilers
2 sets of Parsons geared turbines
Machine
performance 		34,000
Top
speed 		35.5 kn (66 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

last :

  • 4 × 120 mm Armstrong cannons, '12 ': 3
  • 2 × 2, 2 × 1 40 mm Bofors cannons
  • 1 × 4-way 21-inch torpedo tubes, ' 12': without

 ° ´12´: 2 - Hedgehog thrower
 ° ??? : 2 - TRe for 324mm ASW torpedoes

The Buenos Aires- Class was a destroyer class of the Argentine Navy , whose seven ships were replicas of the G-Class of the Royal Navy . The order was placed together with the school cruiser La Argentina as part of the 1934 construction program and went to three British shipyards. The Corrientes was the only ship lost in service after a collision in 1941.

The remaining six ships were last modernized in 1958/59 and retired between 1971 and 1973.

Building history

The Argentine Navy (Spanish: Armada de la República Argentina - ARA, also Armada Argentina) was one of the strongest in Latin America from the beginning of the 20th century. Competition for ownership of capital ships weakened the strengths of the fleets. At the end of the First World War, most of the argentine navy's fleet was out of date.

The ARA Cervantes , the first modern destroyer of the Argentine Navy

The Argentine government therefore implemented a modernization building program in 1926 and procured two modern cruisers ( Veinticinco de Mayo class) and three submarines ( Santa Fe class) in Italy and five destroyers according to plans in the 1920s British flotilla leader in Spain and Great Britain ( Churruca or Mendoza class ). The new destroyers were called "Exploradores" in the Argentine Navy and were given the designations E-1 to E-5.

ARA San Juan

After a break by the global economic crisis Argentina deposed in 1934 its modernization program continued and procured in the UK school cruiser La Argentina (similar to the British cruisers of the Town-class ) and seven modern destroyers according to the plans of the G class of the Royal Navy. The new Argentine destroyers largely corresponded to the British G-class destroyers. They displaced 1375 t, a maximum of 2010 t. They had the same armament with four 4.7-inch (12-cm) guns of the Armstrong export version "F" of the British standard destroyer gun . Two heavy anti-aircraft machine gun quadruples of the Vickers export version were installed for anti-aircraft defense. The two quadruple sets for 21-inch torpedoes corresponded to the British standard destroyers.

ARA Corrientes

The keel laying of the seven ships took place at the three exporting shipyards in 1936. The first to run at John Brown & Company was the San Juan (hull number 550) on June 24, 1937 and the San Luis (hull number 551) on August 23 . On September 21, 1937, the spectacular launching of the three ships to be built at Vickers in Barrow , Entre Rios , Corrientes and Buenos Aires (hull numbers 719 to 721), followed shortly after each other in a ceremony. On September 23 and November 3, 1937, the launching of the Misiones and Santa Cruz followed at Cammel Laird in Birkenhead . The first ships to be handed over to the Argentine Navy on March 23, 1938, were the two destroyers built by John Brown in Clydebank. The others followed until September 26, 1938, when the Santa Cruz was the last ship of the class to be completed in Birkenhead.

The Santa Fe ,
one of the Yarrow destroyers of 1896

Like the previous destroyers, they were initially referred to as "Exploradores" and had identifiers from E.6 to E.12 . The ships got the names of Argentine provinces. With the names Entre Rios , Corrientes and Misiones , the Argentine Navy operated torpedo boat destroyers of 240 t from 1896/98 to 1930 by Yarrow . San Juan and San Luis were to be named destroyers ordered in France and Great Britain as early as 1914, which had come into service as Téméraire in the French Navy and as Aetos in the Greek Navy. Most recently, these names had led to two survey vessels supplied by Hawthorn , which have now been renamed. The name of the Argentine capital and most important province was borne by the 4,788 t Elswick cruiser Buenos Aires from 1896 to 1932.

The ships in Argentine service

The transfer of the finished destroyer was delayed in 1938 in part due to the tensions prevailing in Europe, which triggered increased demands on the Royal Navy at the shipyards. As the first ships of the class, the two destroyers built by Brown in Clydebank arrived in Buenos Aires at the end of September 1938. On October 19, the first two units completed by Vickers in Barrow followed, which first called at the Argentine naval base in Puerto Belgrano , where all ships of the class were stationed. The last three destroyers of the class arrived there on December 27, 1938.
The originally planned decommissioning of the four Catamarca- class destroyers built in Germany before the First World War did not take place. The new destroyers took part in the fleet's maneuvers and also made their first trips along the Argentine coast. When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Misiones were on their first major international voyage in Rio de Janeiro with the battleships Rivadavia and Moreno . Brazil had in the meantime ordered almost identical destroyers with the six ships of the Javary class in Great Britain, but these never came into service with the Brazilian Navy due to the war events .

The Almirante Brown

The main mission of the Argentine Navy during World War II was to secure the coastal waters from abuse by the warring parties, as Argentina remained neutral until March 27, 1945. There were no active acts of war in World War II.

The sinking Corrientes

The sinking of the Corrientes

During a fleet maneuver off the Argentine coast on October 3, 1941, in poor visibility conditions, the heavy cruiser Almirante Brown rammed the destroyer Corrientes , which sank within a short time. The 2nd Division of the Destroyer Flotilla of the Argentine Navy had carried out a mine search operation and then a torpedo attack on the cruiser La Argentina with Entre Rios , Corrientes and Buenos Aires ( Mendoza was in a shipyard layover) that day . In the afternoon the division ran back to the roadstead of Mar del Plata at 18 knots behind the cruiser Veinticinco de Mayo . The rising fog caused the speed to be reduced, which was probably not implemented uniformly due to poor communication facilities on the Argentinean ships. The Corrientes stayed a little too fast, which led to an evasive maneuver and brought her into the course of the heavy units running in parallel. The heavy cruiser Almirante Brown overlooked the destroyer in his way and hit him starboard at the level of the machine, which immediately failed. The tank of the aircraft system of the cruiser in the forecastle burst and there was an acute danger of a serious explosion. The sinking destroyer was evacuated, but had lost part of the life-saving equipment as a result of the collision. The Brown also launched a cutter to aid the rescue. The battleship Moreno , running at 10 knots behind the cruiser, had no knowledge of the collision, recognized it too late and hit the cruiser in the stern. The Brown lost a shaft and a screw and was unscrewed from the Corrientes , which then sank quickly 54 nautical miles northeast of Mar del Plata. The other two wreckers drove from the scene of the accident. The following battleship Rivadavia recognized what was happening in front of her correctly, stopped and organized the rescue of the castaways. Fourteen seamen were killed in the sinking of the Corrientes , 155 men were rescued by Almirante Brown and Rivadavia . A planned replacement procurement from the warring previous suppliers was ruled out and the attempt to acquire a Spanish destroyer of the Churruca class, of which the Argentine Navy already owned two, also failed. The repair of the enemy in the collision proved extremely difficult and in many dives parts of the cruiser were taken out of the water for reuse or as samples.

Further whereabouts

The destroyer Santa Cruz

After the end of the Second World War, Argentina took over four frigates of the River / Tacoma class from the USA for anti-submarine defense by 1948 . The previous main supplier Great Britain only delivered the used light aircraft carrier Warrior in 1958 . The Argentine Navy received newer destroyers from the USA only from 1961. The ships of the Buenos Aires class were therefore re-armed slightly between 1956 and 1959. First, the anti-aircraft machine gun quadruplets between the funnels were replaced by two individual 40 mm Bofors cannons . A second modification concerned the change of the aft section from the headlight platform. The rear torpedo tube set was removed and two 40 mm twin Bofors guns were installed side by side on a new deckhouse.
In 1958, the San Juan was involved in the dispute over territorial ownership in the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina, known as the Snipe Incident . At least on the Santa Cruz , the raised gun in the B position was replaced by two Hedgehog launchers . The remaining six ships were separated and scrapped between 1971 and 1973.

The ships of the class

ERA start of building Launch finished No. period of service
Buenos Aires 1936 09/21/1937 4.04.1938 E / T / D 6 Vickers BauN ° 719 1971 deleted  
Entre Rios 1936 09/21/1937 05/15/1938 E / T / D 7 - "- BauN ° 720 1973 deleted
Corrientes 1936 09/21/1937 07/01/1938 E / T 8 - "- BauN ° 721, October 3, 1941 sunk after the collision
San Juan 1936 06/24/1937 03/23/1938 E / T / D 9 J.Brown BauN ° 550 deleted in 1973
San Luis 1936 08/23/1937 03/23/1938 E / T / D 10 - "- BauN ° 551 5.1971 deleted  
Misiones 1936 09/23/1937 September 5, 1938 E / T / D 11 5/1971 deleted  
Santa Cruz 1936 November 3, 1937 09/26/1938 E / T / D 12 Deleted in 1973

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Weyer's pocket book of the war fleets 1941/42. P. 19.
  2. ↑ Corrientes ARA (D 8) († 1941)
  3. ^ Fall of the Corrientes

literature

Web links

Commons : Buenos Aires class destroyer  - collection of images, videos and audio files