HMAS Nestor (G02)
 The Nestor 1941
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HMAS Nestor (G02) was an N-class destroyer . The destroyer entered service on February 3, 1941 as the fourth ship of the class and third for the Royal Australian Navy . Like four of its sister ships, it was on loan from the Royal Navy . During World War II he was awarded the Battle Honors Bismarck 1941 , Atlantic 1941 , Malta Convoys 1941-42 and Indian Ocean 1942 .
During Operation Vigorous , close hits by Italian bombers on June 15, 1942 caused the engine rooms of the Nestor to be flooded and the Javelin dragged the unpowered shipwrecked. When the tow broke the next morning and the water could not be fought, the Javelin took over the crew of the Nestor , who was sunk by detonating their depth charges. Except for four crew members, the crew of the Nestor was saved.
The Nestor was the RAN's only major ship that never operated in Australian waters, and the only one of eight N-class destroyers that was lost in World War II.
history
On April 15, 1939, the Royal Navy ordered eight N-class destroyers as replicas of the J- and K-class ships ordered in 1937 from four shipyards that had already built ships of this type. The later HMAS Nestor was laid down on July 26, 1939 at the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Govan together with her sister ship Napier . On July 9, 1940, she was launched as the fourth N-class ship. She was the third ship in the Royal Navy to take the name of the wise Nestor from Greek mythology. Most recently, the name was given in 1915 to a destroyer of the Admiralty M-class , also built at Fairfield, which sank in the Battle of Skagerrak in 1916 .
While the ships were being equipped, the Royal Navy agreed that these destroyers would be loaned to the Allied navies. On February 12, 1941 , the Nestor was commissioned as the third modern destroyer in the Australian Navy.
Calls
After its commissioning, the Nestor was assigned to the 6th destroyer flotilla in Scapa Flow . On April 9, she was back at the shipyard in Govan, where a new type 285 fire control radar was installed as part of the necessary repairs .
In May 1941, the Nestor was looking for a German weather ship in the North Sea with the cruisers Edinburgh , Manchester and Birmingham and the tribal destroyers Bedouin , Eskimo and Somali in order to steal key materials. The wanted German weather observation ship Munich was boarded by the Somali . The crew of the Munich succeeded in time to throw the ship's Enigma overboard in a weighted sack and sink it. However, the operating manuals of the machine and important coding books were forgotten on board and enabled the Allied code breakers to break through in decoding the German naval codes. The documents were immediately brought to Scapa Flow by Nestor .
At the end of May, the destroyer was involved in the Home Fleet's pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck , but had been released to Iceland to refuel before the battle with the Bismarck . She then directed the battleships King George V and Rodney back to Loch Ewe . Between June 8 and 13, the Nestor's rear torpedo tube set was replaced by a 102 mm gun to improve its anti-aircraft properties.
Assignments with the Force H
On July 12, 1941, the Nestor set sail with other warships to guide the military convoy WS9C to Gibraltar . She arrived there on July 19 and left Gibraltar on July 21 as part of Operation Substance of Force H, which was reinforced by units of the Home Fleet, to supply Malta . She belonged to the "Force X", which should accompany the convoy of six transporters with the cruisers Edinburgh , Arethusa and Hermione as well as the Manxman and ten destroyers after the turning off of the Force H through the strait from Sicily to Malta. When the convoy passed Pantelleria on the night of July 24th , it was attacked by two Italian speedboats which, despite being discovered by the Cossack , managed to torpedo the Sydney Star transporter (12,696 GRT), which got stranded. Nestor took over 487 of the embarked soldiers as well as parts of the crew and then secured the transporter, which then continued on its own to Malta. After the over 500 passengers had landed, she returned to Gibraltar with the other security units.
In the following years she accompanied convoys in the western Mediterranean and the Atlantic and served to protect other warships until she was damaged by the explosion of her own depth charge on September 13 while securing a convoy to Freetown . The repair at the Devonport naval yard took October and November to complete. In the course of the overhaul, the flak capacity was increased through the installation of several 20 mm Oerlikon cannons . After her return to Gibraltar, the Nestor set out on December 14, 1941, accompanied by the destroyer Foxhound and the new Gurkha (2) and the Hunt-class Croome in search of submarines reported by the intelligence service. On December 15, the surface U 127 was sighted southeast of Cape St. Vincent . The destroyer attacked the boat with water bombs and the Nestor slotted it to position 36 ° 28 ' N , 9 ° 12' W . There were no survivors on U 127 .
On December 20, 1941, the Nestor was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet . She moved via Malta to Alexandria together with the cruiser Dido returning to the Mediterranean fleet after repairs in the USA and the destroyers Gurkha of the L-class , Foxhound and Arrow . From Malta, the laying association also secured four empty transporters on their march back to Egypt.
Deployments in 1942
On New Year's Eve, the Nestor took part in a bombardment of Bardia together with the sister ships Napier and Nizam . On January 2, 1942, the German-Italian troops trapped there capitulated.
On January 3, 1942, the three Australian destroyers were parked for service in the Indian Ocean and moved to Aden , where they arrived on January 7. From 9 January, escorted the three to aircraft carriers Indomitable , the 14 Port Sudan as an aircraft transporter with 48 Hurricane fighters of the Royal Air Force to strengthen the air defense of Singapore left. The association ran over the Addu Atoll (21st) and the Cocos Islands (January 25th, fuel supplement) into the sea area south of Java , from where the 48 hurricane fighters on January 27-28. Moved to the Dutch East Indies on January 1st. The association reached Trincomalee in Ceylon on February 2nd . The Australian destroyers then stayed with the carrier and the Nestor served as the carrier's security destroyer . During the take-offs of his fighter planes, if necessary, he should rescue the crews of the machines in the event of false starts. Indomitable took over another cargo of aircraft on February 24th in Port Sudan for the Dutch East Indies. Due to the course of the war, the delivery was canceled and the association went to Ceylon. Napier and her sisters belonged to the fast group of the Eastern Fleet .
The end of Nestor
In June 1942, the Nestor returned to the Mediterranean to accompany supply convoys between Alexandria and Malta as part of Operation Vigorous . Due to constant and strong air attacks by the Axis powers , these convoys could only be carried out under strong escort. A western convoy (“Harpoon”) from Gibraltar and an eastern convoy (“Vigorous”) from Alexandria were set off by the Allies at the same time. The eastern convoy with its eleven transporters had close security of three destroyers, nine escort destroyers, four corvettes and two minesweepers. There was also a cover group under Rear Admiral Philip Vian with seven light cruisers and fourteen destroyers, including the “7. Destroyer Flotilla "with the Australian Napier , Nestor , Nizam and Norman as well as the" 14. Flotilla ”with the British Jervis , Kelvin and Javelin .
On June 15, the convoy was attacked by German speedboats ; the escort ships Newcastle and Hasty were so badly damaged that they had to leave the convoy. On the way there were constant air raids, in the course of which the strongest ship in the eastern convoy, the cruiser Birmingham , was badly damaged and the destroyer escort Airedale had to be abandoned. The Nestor was also damaged. Three near hits by an Italian bomber flooded the engine room and made the ship propulsion. Since an Italian naval formation around the battleship Littorio continued to approach the convoy, the eastern convoy was broken off, especially since the western convoy was supposed to bring some transports through to Malta.
Nestor was towed by the destroyer Javelin ; but when the tow broke the next day, it was decided to abandon the ship. The crew was picked up by the Javelin and the Nestor was sunk by depth charges at position 33 ° 36 ' N , 24 ° 30' E. Four crew members lost their lives.
On the march back, the Eastern Union lost the cruiser Hermione , which was sunk by U 205 .
Armament
The armament consisted of six 120 mm cannons in double mounts Mk XII for use against sea and (limited) air targets (two twin mounts in front of the bridge, the rear in an elevated position, another on a platform in the rear). As anti-aircraft armament, the destroyer had a 2-pounder quadruple gun Mk VIII on a platform behind the funnel and two quadruple anti-aircraft machine guns of caliber 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) . Ten torpedo tubes in two sets of five tubes each and depth charges completed the armament. The rear set of torpedo tubes was replaced by a 4-inch (102-mm) anti-aircraft gun in the first half of June 1941 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g HMAS Nestor
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 7.5.1941, North Sea, radio reconnaissance.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 18–27, 1941, North Atlantic, Operation Rhine Exercise
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. July 21-27, 1941, Mediterranean Sea, Operation Substance.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 14-23, 1941, North Atlantic.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 22-29, 1941, Mediterranean Sea.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 31, 1941, Mediterranean.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 14.1. – 2.2.1942, Indian Ocean.
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 (Original: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms & Armours Press, London), pp. 114-118 (N-Class), 219, 215.
Web links
- HMAS Nestor on Royal Australian Navy
- HMAS NESTOR (G 02) - N-class Destroyer on naval-history.net (engl.)
- HMAS Nestor on uboat.net (engl.)
J-class Jackal | Jaguar | Janus | Javelin | Jersey | Jervis | Juno | Jupiter
K-class Kandahar | Kashmir | Kelly | Kelvin | Khartoum | Kimberley | Kingston | Kipling
N class Napier | Nepal | Nerissa | Nestor | Nizam | Noble (G84) | Noble (G65) | Nonpareil | Norman
Australia :
Napier |
Nepal |
Nestor |
Nizam |
Norman
