HMS Foxhound (H69)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HMS Foxhound
The Foxhound 1942
The Foxhound 1942
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom of Canada
CanadaCanada (naval war flag) 
other ship names

1944: HMCS Qu'Appelle

Ship type destroyer
class F class
Shipyard John Brown & Company , Clydebank
Build number 539
Order March 15, 1933
Keel laying August 15, 1933
Launch October 12, 1934
Commissioning June 21, 1935
February 8, 1944 RCN
Whereabouts Deleted in 1946, scrapped in 1948
Ship dimensions and crew
length
100.28 m ( Lüa )
97.0 m ( Lpp )
width 10.13 m
Draft Max. 3.81 m
displacement 1405 ts standard
1901 ts maximum
 
crew 145-196 men
Machine system
machine 3 Admiralty three drum boilers
2 Parsons - geared turbines
Machine
performance 		36,000 PS (26,478 kW)
Top
speed 		36 kn (67 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

last

Sensors

lastly radar , sonar , huff-duff

HMS Foxhound (H69) was one of the eight destroyers of the F class of the British Royal Navy . During the Second World War , the ship was awarded the Battle Honors "Atlantic 1939-41", "Narvik 1940", "Norway 1940", " Malta Convoys 1941 " and "Mediterranean 1941".

On February 8, 1944, the destroyer was taken over by the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS Qu'Appelle . The destroyer was used by Londonderry as a base against submarines in the area of ​​the North Western Approaches and in 1944 also to secure the landing area in Normandy and then against the remaining German bases on the French Atlantic coast. From May to September 1945 the destroyer served as a troop transport between Europe and Canada. The destroyer was decommissioned on October 11, 1945. After a brief use as a stationary training ship, the ship was sold for demolition in December 1947. This took place from 1948 in Sydney (Nova Scotia) .

History of the ship

The ship was launched on October 12, 1934 as part of a class of eight destroyers at John Brown & Company in Clydebank . The Foxhound entered service on June 6, 1935. She was the sixth ship in the Royal Navy to receive this name since 1806. Previously, the destroyer Foxhound of the Beagle class, also built by John Brown, had worn it from 1909 to 1920, which was awarded for its service in front of the Dardanelles in the First World War .

Mission history

Together with her sister ships, the Foxhound first formed the 6th, later the 8th destroyer flotilla, which was assigned to the Home Fleet . In September 1938, the destroyer collided with the HMS Seahorse submarine , which was damaged.

After the start of the war, the ship remained with the Home Fleet , but was repeatedly used for submarine hunts together with other destroyers . During one of these search trips he succeeded, together with HMS Faulknor and HMS Firedrake , on September 14, 1939, as the first to sink a German submarine in the Second World War U 39 northwest of Ireland after a failed attack on HMS Ark Royal .

In 1940, the destroyer was then used in the attempted defense against the German landing in Norway ( Enterprise Weser Exercise ) to cover ships of the Home Fleet. He took part in the second naval battle off Narvik on April 13, during which all German destroyers still located there were rendered harmless.

Two months later, the Admiralty assigned HMS Foxhound to the newly formed Force H , based in Gibraltar . The first task of the new unit was the neutralization of the French navy in Mers-el-Kébir ( Operation Catapult ).

In the following year, the destroyer was repeatedly used with the Force H in the Mediterranean . It served as an escort for aircraft carriers , from which fighter planes were flown to Malta , and for convoys , which mostly transported war material for the British troops in North Africa and supplies for Malta. The ship was also used as a fast mine sweeper.

With the Force H, the ship was also involved in the search for the Bismarck . During a subsequent advance into the Atlantic Ocean in the course of the search for German suppliers , HMS Foxhound succeeded together with its sister ships HMS Faulknor , HMS Forester , HMS Foresight and HMS Fearless on June 18, 1941, the German submarine U 138 west of Cape Sink Trafalgar . A week later, the Alstertor blockade breaker had to be sunk when the destroyer group approached.

In the following weeks, the destroyer ran back into the Mediterranean as part of the remote security for other Malta convoys. After a brief deployment to protect convoys on the North Atlantic route and further months with the Force H, the ship was assigned to the British Eastern Fleet in Trincomalee , Ceylon . During the Japanese attack in the Indian Ocean , it was assigned to cover for the rapid formation.
After returning to home waters in mid-1943, HMS Foxhound was again used to secure Atlantic convoys.

In Canadian service

In February 1944, the destroyer was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy , which renamed it HMCS Qu'Appelle (H69) . Initially, however, nothing changed in terms of the mission profile. From the spring of 1944 until the end of the war, the focus of operations was then in the English Channel and the Biscay , where the destroyer hunted German submarines and outpost boats . In the repeated skirmishes, the flotilla to which he belonged succeeded in sinking several outpost boats. However, it was damaged several times in the process.

From May to September 1945 the destroyer served as a troop transport between Europe and Canada. The destroyer was decommissioned on October 11, 1945. After a brief use as a stationary training ship, the ship was sold for demolition in December 1947. This took place from 1948 in Sydney (Nova Scotia) .

literature

  • John English: Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. World Ship Society, Kendal (1993), ISBN 0-905617-64-9 .
  • Michael J. Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. An international encyclopedia. Arms and Armor Press, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .

Web links