Grimsby class
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Grimsby , 1934
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The Grimsby class consisted of 13 escort boats . Eight emerged in Great Britain between 1933 and 1936 as "escort sloops" for the British Royal Navy , plus a slightly larger one for the Royal Indian Navy . Another four were built in Australia between 1934 and 1940 for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The British ships were given names of cities, the Australian names of rivers.
During the Second World War, the Royal Navy lost one of its ships of the class with the type ship Grimsby and segregated the remaining ones by 1948. The Wellington became the headquarters of the Master Mariners' Guild in London in 1947 and is still located in this function on the Thames. The Leith was first sold to a civilian user, but then acquired by the Danish Navy and used as a research ship Galathea . From October 1950 the ship made a research trip around the world.
The RAN lost two of its ships ( Parramatta and Yarra ) in World War I and kept the remaining ones in service until 1963/64.
The similar Sloop Indus built for the Indian Navy was sunk by Japanese carrier aircraft in 1942.
The construction of the ships
In September 1927, the Royal Navy began with the appointment of two sloops of Bridgewater class at Hawthorn Leslie & Co. in Hebburn , the development of vessels, which the 112 sloops of the Flower-class and 88 of the Hunt class replace the First World War should. This was followed by four very similar Hastings class and eight Shoreham class sloops by 1931 . These new buildings should be able to handle both the convoy security tasks of the old Flower class and the mine detection tasks of the old Hunt class. In 1932 the British Admiralty decided to procure different ships for these tasks. The Halcyon class mine sweeping sloops were developed as a cheaper variant suitable for mass production , of which seven ships were ordered from 1932 to 1935. In addition, the Grimsby- class sloops were built for the task of securing convoys. Two ships of the new class were ordered from 1932 to 1935 and delivered between May 1934 and November 1936. Seven of the ships were built at the Naval Shipyard in Devonport ; only the Deptford was built in 1934/35 on the Chatham Dockyard .
At the end of 1933, Hawthorn Leslie began building a "Patrol Frigate" for the Royal Indian Navy (RIN), which in parts corresponded to the sloops of the Grimsby class. The ship, completed in 1935 as HMIS Indus , was larger than the Grimsby and her sister ships and had the same hull as the Hindustan previously built for the RIN , which is usually referred to as the extended form of the Hastings class. However, the Indus received 4.7-in main guns like the Grimsby- class.
At the end of 1933 the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) also ordered a sloop of the Grimsby type , which, however, was to be built at the Australian naval shipyard on Cockatoo Island . Another order in 1934 and two additional orders in 1938 followed. The first pair entered the service of the RAN in December 1935 and December 1936, respectively. The two sloops ordered in 1938 entered service in April and August 1940.
With an overall length of 266.25 feet (81.15 m), the new "Escort Sloops" were 4.5 m shorter than the previous Shoreham class (281 ft / 85.64 m), which were hulls but a bit wider and had more depth.
The machine system was largely similar to that of all forerunners with two Admiralty boilers, the steam of which supplied two gear turbines of the Parson design , which worked on two shafts. The machines developed 2000 hp and enabled the ships to reach a top speed of 16.5 knots (kn).
Bridgewater , 1943
Penzance of the
Hastings- class, 1931
Falmouth of the Shoreham- class, 1942
Sharpshooter of the Halcyon class, 1938
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Armament
When arming the Grimsby class, the previous main armament of the escort sloops built since 1929 with 4- inch (in) guns was replaced by two 4.7-in (120-mm) MK.IX guns , the corresponded to the guns of the new destroyers. Since these guns could not be used for defense against air attacks, a 3-in (76-mm) L / 45 anti-aircraft gun was installed between the bow gun and the bridge . In addition, four 3-pdr-Hotchkiss were set up as salute guns and light cannons against pirates on the ships, which were mainly used as gunboats at stations abroad . To combat submarines, the sloops had 15 depth charges , which they could use with two launchers and a drop rail,
This standard armament was deviated from in the last two of the eight ships for the Royal Navy, which returned from the main armament with 4.7-inch guns to 4-inch guns, which could also be used for air defense.
The Aberdeen was completed with two front-mounted 4-in (102-mm) L / 45 Mk.V guns instead of the 4.7 and 3-in guns; In addition, there was a heavy 0.5-inch quadruple machine gun of the Vickers type for close range . The Fleetwood received two twin guns 4 in (102 mm) L / 45 Mk.XVI fore and aft as new main armament and a quadruple Vickers machine gun in front of the bridge.
The modernization of the armament of the ships began as early as 1939 when the 120-mm cannons and the 76-mm anti-aircraft guns on Londonderry and Lowestoft were replaced by two 102-mm twin guns and a quadruple machine-gun based on the Fleetwood model, which were also planned Rearmament of the Grimsby and the Deptford did not take place, as they did not want to do without the ships. Additional quad machine guns were also installed on other ships. In the years 1941/42, the Hotchkiss salute guns were removed from all units during routine docking times and the armament was then reinforced by two 20 mm Oerlikon cannons , to which more were added until the end of the war. They also replaced all heavy Vickers machine guns by 1944.
The possibilities of fighting submarines were increased from 1939 by increasing the depth of the depth charges to 40, from 1943 to 90, for which two more launchers and a second drop rail were installed from 1943. In 1943, a Hedgehog volley launcher was installed on all seven remaining ships in the elevated position on the forecastle, which meant that the Aberdeen lost a third 102 mm gun that had been installed in the meantime and the remaining 120 mm gunboats Deptford , Leith and Wellington lost their 76 -mm-Flak lost.
Mission history of British ships
The British Grimsby-class sloops took on classic gunboat functions on the overseas stations to which they were assigned when they were completed. Grimsby and Lowestoft came to the China Station , Leith and Wellington to the New Zealand Division . The Londonderry and the Fleetwood were stationed on the Red Sea , the Deptford on the Persian Gulf and the Aberdeen came to the Mediterranean Fleet as the "Despatch Vessel" . At the beginning of the war, most of the sloops left their stations for home in order to be used in escort security from there. The Aberdeen was the first of the ships to arrive at home in September 1939, where the others also arrived by January 1940. After brief stays in the shipyard, they were used for escort security on the access routes to the British Isles and on the British east coast. These missions lasted for the majority of the ships until the end of the war.
Only the Grimsby was relocated to the Mediterranean in May 1940 before Italy entered the war. The lead ship of the class then secured convoys in the Red Sea between Aden and Suez until March 1941. From the beginning of April, troop and supply transports were secured in the Mediterranean between Greece and Egypt . The supply and reinforcement of the Allied troops in Greece turned into securing the evacuation of these troops from Greece ( Operation Demon ) at the end of April .
On May 25, 1941, the Grimsby led the tanker Hekla to the besieged Tobruk , when the unit was attacked off the North African coast by Junkers Ju 87 of the Italian Air Force , which sank the Hekla and damaged the Grimsby . A second attack by German II / StG 2 Ju-87 stukas sank the Grimsby , which was the only one of the British ships of the class to be lost in World War II.
With the Allied landings in North Africa, four sloops of the Grimsby class were at least temporarily used in the Mediterranean. In the North Atlantic, the ships were used not only from bases in the British Isles, but also from Gibraltar, Freetown and Canadian bases. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the Aberdeen were stationed in Freetown, Lowestoft and Wellington in Gibraltar and the Leith , Londonderry , Deptford and Fleetwood on the English Channel . In the first months of 1945, the ships stationed on the canal had secured the deployment of new minefields against submarines there.
After the surrender of the German Reich, the sloops of the Grimsby class were all decommissioned by August 1945 and then sold for demolition or civilian use. Only the Fleetwood remained in service as a test ship from February 1946 to 1959. The Wellington , which was sold to the Honorable Company of Master Mariners in 1947 and is an event ship on the Thames, has been preserved to this day .
The Australian sloops
As early as 1933, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) decided to also procure Grimsby-class sloops, which were to be built in Australia. The keel laying of the first construction contract issued on December 22, 1933 took place on May 24, 1934 at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard off Sydney , New South Wales . When it was launched on March 28, 1935, the wife of the then Australian Defense Minister Archdale Parkhill christened the new building with the name Yarra . On January 21, 1936, the RAN then put their second Yarra into service.
On May 1, 1935, the keel of a second new building was carried out at the same shipyard, which was named Swan when it was launched on March 28, 1936 and was then put into service on January 21, 1937.
1938–1939 two more new buildings were ordered, which were only completed in 1940 after the outbreak of the Second World War. With Parramatta and Warrego , they too were given names that had previously carried destroyers of the Australian River class .
The first two ships of the RAN were armed with three individual 4-inch guns, which could also be used against air targets. In the two later units, the two bow guns were replaced by a 4-inch twin gun. Unlike the ships of the Royal Navy, the Australian sloops were also prepared for use as mine sweepers.
In addition, Parramatta and Warrego were equipped with machines of 2200 hp, which allowed a slightly higher maximum speed.
After Italy entered the war, Yarra and Parramatta were transferred to the "Red Sea Force" of the Mediterranean Fleet to secure supplies to Egypt - the British main base on the Mediterranean. Parramatta later moved to the Mediterranean and secured supplies to Tobruk with other ships . On November 27, 1941, she was escorting an ammunition ship to Tobruk with the Hunt destroyer Avon Vale when she was torpedoed by U 559 . The Parramatta immediately sank at 32 ° 20′N 24 ° 35′E. Only 24 men of the crew could be saved, the other 138 on board lost their lives.
As the second of the Australian ships, the Yarra was lost on March 4, 1942 south of Java when she tried to guide some supply ships to Australia. The small convoy was discovered and destroyed by the Japanese heavy cruisers Atago , Takao and Maya as well as two destroyers. Of the 151-man crew of the Yarra, the Dutch submarine K XI was only able to save thirteen men on March 9.
The Swan and Warrego last used as school frigates and survey ships were only scrapped in the 1960s.
The Indian sloop
The Grimsby class is mostly assigned to the considerably longer and slightly differently armed HMIS Indus , which was sunk off Burma on April 6, 1942 by a Japanese air raid.
The ships of the class
| Surname | Shipyard | start of building | Launch | finished | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Navy | |||||
|
Grimsby (L / U16) |
Devonport Dockyard | January 23, 1933 | July 19, 1933 | May 17, 1934 | Sank on May 25, 1941 near Tobruk after being hit by bombs |
|
Leith (L / U36) |
Devonport Dockyard | February 6, 1933 | September 9, 1933 | July 10, 1934 | Sold in 1946, Danish research vessel Galathea from 1949 to 1955 |
|
Lowestoft (L / U59) |
Devonport Dockyard | August 21, 1933 | April 11, 1934 | November 22, 1934 | Sold October 1946; renamed Miraflores , canceled in 1955. |
|
Wellington (L / U65) |
Devonport Dockyard | September 25, 1933 | May 29, 1934 | January 24, 1935 | Sold in 1947, still as an event ship on the Thames |
|
Londonderry (L / U78) |
Devonport Dockyard | June 11, 1934 | January 16, 1935 | September 20, 1935 | March 1948 sold for demolition. |
|
Deptford (L / U53) |
Chatham Dockyard | April 30, 1934 | February 5, 1935 | August 14, 1935 | sold for demolition in March 1948. |
|
Aberdeen (L / U87) |
Devonport Dockyard | June 12, 1935 | January 22, 1936 | September 17, 1936 | sold for demolition in December 1948 |
|
Fleetwood (L / U47) |
Devonport Dockyard | August 14, 1935 | March 24, 1936 | November 19, 1936 | 1959 sold for demolition |
| Indian Navy | |||||
|
Indus (L / U67) |
Hawthorn, Leslie BauNo. 592 |
December 8, 1933 | August 24, 1934 | March 15, 1935 | sunk on April 6, 1942 after being hit by bombs. |
| Australian Navy | |||||
|
Yarra (U77) |
Cockatoo Dockyard | May 24, 1934 | March 28, 1935 | December 19, 1935 | Sunk by Japanese units on March 4, 1942 |
|
Swan (U74) |
Cockatoo Dockyard | May 1, 1935 | March 28, 1936 | January 21, 1937 | from February 1956 training ship, sold for demolition in 1964 |
|
Parramatta (U44) |
Cockatoo Dockyard | November 9, 1938 | June 18, 1939 | April 8, 1940 | sunk by submarine on November 27, 1941 off the Libyan coast. |
|
Warrego (U73) |
Cockatoo Dockyard | May 10, 1939 | February 10, 1940 | August 21, 1940 | Sold for demolition in 1966. |
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, England 1993, ISBN 0-905617-67-3 .
- Ross Gillett: Warships of Australia. Illustrated by Colin Graham, Rigby Limited, 1977, ISBN 0-7270-0472-7 .
- HT Lenton: British and Empire Warships of the Second World War. Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-277-7 .
- Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships. 1922-1946. Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0-87021-913-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, p. 56
- ↑ Hague: Sloops. P. 13.
- ^ Hague: Sloops, p. 42
- ↑ a b Service History HMS Grimsby (L 16) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 25–31, 1941, Mediterranean Sea
- ↑ HMAS Parramatta (II)
- ↑ HMAS Yarra (II)
Web links
- Service History HMS Grimsby (L 16) - Grimsby-class sloop
- Service History HMS Leith (L 36) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- Service History HMS Lowestoft (L 59) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- Service History HMS Wellington (L 65) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- Service History HMS Londonderry (L 76) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- Service History HMS Deptford (L 53) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- Service History HMS Aberdeen (L 97) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- Service History HMS FLEETWOOD (L 47) - Grimsby-class Sloop
- The Galathea Expedition 1950–52 (Danish)
- HQS Wellington (engl.)
- HMAS Yarra (II)
- HMAS Swan (II)
- HMAS Parramatta (II)
- HMAS Warrego (II)