HMCS Sioux (R64)

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HMCS Sioux
The HMCS Sioux
The HMCS Sioux
Ship data
flag CanadaCanada (naval war flag) Canada
Ship type destroyer
class S to W class
Shipyard J. Samuel White , Cowes ( Isle of Wight )
Order September 1, 1941
Keel laying October 31, 1942 as Vixen
Launch September 14, 1943
Commissioning March 5, 1944 as
HMCS Sioux
Decommissioning May 3, 1964
Whereabouts Demolition in La Spezia in 1965
Ship dimensions and crew
length
110.6 m ( Lüa )
103.5 m ( Lpp )
width 10.9 m
Draft Max. 4.32 m
displacement 1780 tn.l. , max 2505 tn.l.
1953: 2240, max 2850 tn.l.
 
crew 180-254 men,
Machine system
machine 3 Admiralty Kessel
Parson turbines
2 shafts
Machine
performance 		40,000 hp
Top
speed 		36.75 kn (68 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
Sensors

Radar , sonar ,

Armament from 1950

HMCS Sioux (R64) was a Royal Canadian Navy destroyer that was taken over and renamed when it entered service in 1944. The War Emergency -Zerstörer the V group of the Royal Navy was as HMS Vixen (R64) was built. During the Second World War , the Sioux was awarded the Battle Honors Norway 1944, Normandy 1944 and Arctic 1944/45. For a planned mission in the Pacific, the ship was not ready in time and, like its sister ship Algonquin , was decommissioned in early 1946.

From 1950 the modernized Sioux was back in service and was deployed three times off Korea. The destroyer was re-armed with only two 120 mm cannons (on the forecastle), an Oerlikon twin and two individual Oerlikons, only one torpedo tube set and two Squid launchers. Referred to as a frigate from 1959 , the ship then spent most of the time in the Atlantic until it was decommissioned on October 13, 1963.

History of the Sioux

In 1943, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) wanted to reinforce new destroyers of the War Emergency type , which appeared to them to be more versatile and had a greater range than the Tribal-class destroyers still under construction in Canada . In recognition of the Canadians' great efforts in battle on the Atlantic, the Royal Navy decided to give away two V-Group destroyers under construction . It was decided to hand over the destroyers Valentine and Vixen , which were about to be delivered , which were in the final equipment at John Brown & Company in Clydebank and at Samuel White in Cowes . They belonged to the V Group ( 8th Emergency Flotilla ), which had been appointed on September 1, 1941. The official takeover of the two destroyers took place with the final delivery of the destroyers in spring 1944. On February 21, 1944, the Vixen under construction for the RN was taken over as HMCS Sioux in Cowes and then in March as a Canadian ship in the service of the Royal Navy accepted.

Operations in World War II

After the commissioning, the Sioux moved to Scapa Flow , where it was brought in together with its sister ship Algonquin . Until January 1945, the destroyer performed the same tasks as the sister ship Algonquin in the Arctic, off the invasion coast and again in the Arctic.
see HMCS Algonquin

When the sister ship went to Canada at the beginning of February 1945 to be overhauled and equipped for use with the British Pacific Fleet , the Sioux remained with the Home Fleet for two more months and was with the Northern Sea Convoys JW 64 / RA 64 and JW 65 / RA 65 used. At JW 64 , the Allies did not lose any of the 28 cargo ships. but only the corvette HMS Denbigh Castle after a torpedo hit by U 992 off the Soviet coast, the Germans lost twelve of the attacking 80 aircraft. When returning RA 64, U-boats sank the Sloop Lark , the corvette Bluebell and a freighter, the more than 40 machines of the KG 26 only succeeded in sinking the latecomer Henry Bacon (USA, 7174 GRT), the last of the German ones Aircraft in World War II, sunk ship of the Western Allies. Of JW 65 , which only German submarines found, two of the 26 cargo ships and the sloop Lapwing were lost. The Sioux then moved to Halifax (Nova Scotia) on April 6, 1945 in order to be converted and equipped for use with the British Pacific Fleet (BPF), but this did not come about. The ship, which was overhauled in Halifax, then moved to the west coast of Canada in November 1945, where it was decommissioned on February 27, 1946 in Esquimalt .

Use in the Korean War

The destroyer had the identification number 225 from 1949 to 1963 . At the beginning of 1950 the outdated Sioux was modernized and put back into service. As a result of the modernization, the ship lost the rear 12 cm guns 'X' and 'Y', which were replaced by two Squid triple mortars . In addition, she became the first Canadian warship to have fixed bunks instead of the previous hammocks. In March 1950 the Sioux took part in a training trip to Mexico with the cruiser Ontario and the destroyer Cayuga , during which several ports were visited.

HMCS Cayuga (218) in Kure

When the Korean War began, the Canadian government ordered three Pacific Division destroyers from Esquimalt to be deployed off Korea, but they would not be deployed until the end of June. The Sioux was still in dry dock. Thanks to the great efforts of the shipyard crews, it was also possible to get the Sioux ready for action, so that they could sail to Korea on July 5, 1950 with the tribal destroyers Cayuga and the second Athabaskan . The three ships reached Sasebo on July 30, 1950. Initially, the Canadian destroyers secured convoys from Japan to Pusan . After a deployment as a reserve destroyer, the Sioux was assigned to a unit in Sasebo on August 12, 1950, which was to provide artillery support on the west coast of Korea. The Sioux shot at various targets, partly together with the British cruiser Kenya and the Cayuga . It also gave artillery support to troops landed at Incheon in September 1950 along with American and British cruisers. Sioux , Cayuga and Athabaskan shelled the landing area at Wŏlmido in the Battle of Incheon shortly before the Allied troops landed. When the associations were reorganized on October 20, 1940, Sioux came to Task Group 95.1 in the new organization, where it remained until the end of the year. The destroyer was part of the blockade fleet until it was withdrawn to Sasebo at the end of the month. On November 5, 1950, the destroyer went on a visit from Hong Kong . On the way, the destroyer got caught in the Typhoon Clara and suffered minor damage, which was repaired immediately upon arrival. When the destroyer returned, he was assigned to the blockade in front of Inchon and the Yalu estuary and formed Task Element 95.12 with other Canadian units.

When there were no British cruisers on site, the destroyers of 95.12 had to secure the withdrawal of Allied troops from Chinnampo from December 3, 1950 . The warships mostly retreated in difficult situations and at night. They were then forced to return to a freshly cleared canal that night. When Sioux drove upstream in a cleared area in the morning, the destroyer ran aground. He managed to free himself, but damaged the starboard propeller and had to be pulled. With the Australian warramunga of the tribal class , despite the damage, she secured the final withdrawal of the western troops the following day.

Sioux spent the remainder of their first deployment off Korea in the security of the British aircraft carrier Theseus , who monitored the coast and assisted in the retreat and evacuation over Inchon. The destroyer then returned to Sasebo on January 2, 1951, to begin the journey home two weeks later. Before Korea, the Canadian tribal destroyer Nootka replaced the Sioux .

Sioux was used two more times off Korea's coast (April 1951 to February 1952 and, after the armistice, from December 1954 to September 1955), making it the last Canadian warship to be withdrawn from these waters.

Further tasks

Between the Korean missions in 1953 , the Sioux was one of the RCN units that took part in the fleet parade on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation . From November 1959, the Sioux was referred to as a frigate . It carried two 4.7-inch cannons, four torpedo tubes, and two squid launchers.

HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22) 1961

In December 1959, the Sioux got into a severe storm during a six-week mission (with participation in a NATO exercise) with the carrier Bonaventure and the destroyers Algonquin , Iroquois and Athabaskan . During the exercise, the destroyer in Antwerp lost a crew member who fell overboard when returning to the ship at night. After that, the former destroyer was mainly used for training purposes. On July 30, 1962, the RCN sent the 3rd Destroyer Escort Squadron (Atlantic) on a visiting and training trip with Sioux 225 , Huron 216 and Iroquois 217 as the flagship from Halifax via Bermuda to Jamaica , where they arrived on August 5, 1962. There the Canadians met many ships from different countries of the Commonwealth and the USA . This resulted in one of the largest Allied fleets since World War II, celebrating Jamaica's independence from Great Britain for six days from August 6, 1962. The Canadian flotilla then ran back to Bermuda and then on to Prince Edward Island to take part in the local lobster festival. The association then obtained fuel and other supplies in Halifax and then ran back to Bermuda. From there it went on to Trinidad & Tobago to participate in the independence celebrations. From September 12 to 17, 1962, the 3rd Destroyer Escort Squadron visited Newfoundland to attend the 67th annual meeting of the National Council of the Navy League of Canada .

The Sioux was decommissioned on October 30, 1963. After its disposal, the old destroyer was towed to La Spezia and broken up there in 1965.

literature

  • James A. Boutiller: RCN in Retrospect, 1910-1968 , University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver (1982), ISBN 0-7748-0196-4
  • Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981 , Ian Allan 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7 .
  • Hans H. Hildebrand / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present , Koehler's publishing company, Herford, seven volumes
  • Ken Macpherson / Ron Barrie: The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910–2002 (3rd ed.), Vanwell Publishing, St. Catharines (2002), ISBN 1-55125-072-1 .
  • Anthony Preston: Destroyers , Bison Books Ltd. 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0
  • Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945 , Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH, Herrsching (1968), ISBN 3-88199-0097
  • Joseph Schull: The Far Distant Ships: An official account of Canadian naval operations in World War II , Queen's Printer, Canada, Ottawa 1961,

Web links

Commons : Canadian Destroyers  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schull: The Far Distant Ships , p. 230.
  2. ^ Macpherson: The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910-2002 , p. 64
  3. ↑ a b c d Macpherson and Barrie (2002), p. 317
  4. ↑ Boutiller, p. 322
  5. ↑ Thorgrimsson / Russell, pp. 3f.
  6. ↑ Thorgrimsson / Russell, p. 12
  7. ↑ a b Thorgrimsson / Russell, p. 17
  8. ↑ Thorgrimsson / Russell, p. 20
  9. ↑ Thorgrimsson / Russell, p. 24ff.
  10. ↑ Thorgrimsson / Russell, p. 29
  11. ↑ a b Thorgrimsson / Russell, p. 31ff.
  12. ↑ Thorgrimsson / Russell, p. 36
  13. ↑ Colledge, p. 670