HMS Ashanti (F51)
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The HMS Ashanti ( ship ID : F51) was a destroyer of the second Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy , which was made in December 1938 in service. The Ashanti was the first of two ships of the Royal Navy to bear the name of the Ashanti people living in Ghana . She was one of the few new Tribal-class destroyers to survive World War II .
The ship was used in all theaters of war of the Royal Navy in Europe. In 1949 the HMS Ashanti was canceled.
History of the destroyer
The Ashanti belonged to the second order of destroyers of the new Tribal class. The William Denny & Brothers shipyard in Dumbarton received an order in June 1936 for two ships of the new class, which had been approved in the 1936 construction program. The construction of the new buildings took place under construction numbers 1300 and 1301. The keel was laid on November 23, 1936. It was then launched on November 5, 1937 as the first HMS Ashanti . The second followed on December 21, 1938 as HMS Bedouin . The shipyard had already delivered a first Tribal class destroyer in 1909 with the first HMS Maori . A new destroyer delivered by Fairfield with the first order had already been given this name .
Mission history
The Ashanti , which was almost finished in August 1938 , was only put into service on December 21, 1938 for the tribal flotilla of the Home Fleet , as the gun mounts were delivered late. She had done some of her final tests without guns.
In February 1939, the new destroyer ran to Takoradi on the Gold Coast to visit the homeland of the eponymous people. She arrived there on February 27th. During the visit, the Ashanti King ( Asantehene ) Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II gave the ship's crew a silver bell and a gold shield. The ship was visited by a number of members of the Ashanti people, who handed over other gifts.
On March 9, the ship left Takoradi again to take part in the maneuvers of the Home Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet off Gibraltar . In April the Ashanti returned to Chatham . From May 3rd to 8th the Ashanti visited the French allies in Cherbourg with the leader boat Somali of the now 6th destroyer flotilla Eskimo and Matabele . From June 1 to 4, the Ashanti was involved in the unsuccessful efforts to rescue the Thetis submarine , which had crashed near Anglesey and killed 99 men.
In August the flotilla carried out its first exercises with the French in the Atlantic.
War missions
The Ashanti failed in the first month of the war . She had the same propulsion problems as many of her sister ships - damaged turbine blades that were replaced by October 17, 1939. In February 1940 the ship failed again. The cracks in the steam lines that also occurred on sister ships were repaired by Samuel White in Cowes , and a magnetic self-protection system against mines was installed. In March, errors occurred in the feed water preparation for the boilers, which should accompany the ship throughout its entire career.
In April and May 1940 she was used several times off Norway and was temporarily canceled due to a close hit off Trondheim.
On the night of October 14, the Ashanti attacked a German convoy destined for Trondheim near Egersund with the sister ships Cossack , Maori and Sikh under Captain Vian . The Cossack sank the Genoa net layer (1949 GRT) with a torpedo, Ashanti and Maori set fire to the air force transporter Netze (1025 GRT) and the securing minesweeper M 1102 (ex HAW Müller ). The auxiliary warships Triton , Rau VII , M 1105 and M 1106 remained undamaged . The attempt to stop the running destroyers with fighter planes at daybreak was unsuccessful.
When the battleship HMS King George V was completed in October, the Ashanti was part of her security for the transfer via Rosyth to Scapa Flow . The main threat to the battleship was mines and Ashanti ran ahead with four other destroyers on October 16, 1940, trying to detonate mines in the way. The Fame appeared in the dark . The following Ashanti rammed the fame , on the fuel lines broke and started a fire. The Maori ran up nearby and destroyed their ASDIC dome . The destroyed destroyers could not be stopped because of the ebb tide and were pressed against rocks and further damaged by the rising tide. The Ashanti could only be removed after two weeks and the dismantling of equipment and then came to the shipyard in Newcastle at Swan Hunter , where it was repaired and the hull was reinforced.
The ship stayed in the shipyard for almost a year. The propulsion system was fundamentally renewed and the armament changed. The rear mast has been removed and the height of the rear funnel reduced to create better fire areas for the anti-aircraft weapons. The radar equipment has been brought up to date.
New missions from winter 1941
At the end of December 1941, the Ashanti took part in "Operation Anklet", a commando attack on Lofoten . The Royal Navy used a total of a light cruiser , six destroyers, three mine sweepers, two dropships, two submarines and a survey ship as well as two tankers, a transporter and a tug. There were also two Norwegian corvettes and two Polish destroyer escorts. Ashanti went with the cruiser Arethusa and the destroyers Somali and Eskimo into the Vestfjord where they captured the Norwegian freighters Kong Harald (1125 GRT) and Nordland (725 GRT) and the Ashanti searched the outpost boat Vp.5904 (ex fish steamer Geier , 145 GRT) , Discovered key records, captured the crew and sank the boat. 300 men were landed, 77 of them Norwegians. On December 26th and 27th, 1941, they occupied the parishes of Reine and Moskenes , only to withdraw without losses with 32 German prisoners and some arrested Norwegian collaborators ( quislings ) as well as 200 Norwegian volunteers. The operation was only a diversionary maneuver compared to the simultaneous Operation Archery in Vågsøy .
When the German battleship Tirpitz with the destroyers Paul Jacobi , Friedrich Ihn , Hermann Schoemann and Z 25 under Vice Admiral Ciliax set sail from Trondheim on March 6, 1942 to attack convoy PQ 12 , this was recognized on the British side and the main part of the Home Fleet under Admiral Tovey with the battleship King George V , the aircraft carrier Victorious , the heavy cruiser Berwick and the Ashanti and the destroyers Onslow , Intrepid , Icarus , Lookout and Bedouin strengthened the usual cover group of the convoy from the battleships Renown , Duke of York , a cruiser and six destroyers. This reinforcement was recognized on the German side and an attack with surface units was waived.
The Ashanti led the security group with the destroyers Martin , Achates , Volunteer and the Polish Garland as well as four corvettes on the northern sea convoy PQ 16 (35 ships, anti- aircraft ship Alynbank ), which left Reykjavík on May 21 . On the 25th, the local security group completed the security with the cruisers Nigeria , Kent , Norfolk , Liverpool and the destroyers Onslow , Oribi and Marne . On May 25, the German aerial reconnaissance captured the PQ 16 , which had bypassed a German submarine deployment. In two air raids by III./KG 26 torpedo planes and III./KG 30 bombers with 19 Heinkel He 111s and six Junkers Ju 88s , two German bombers were lost to massaged flak fire and a torpedo plane was lost in the hurricane of the catapult ship Empire Lawrence , which was in the convoy . The freighter Carlton was damaged by close hits and was brought back to Iceland by the Northern Spray anti -submarine trawler . On the night of May 26, U 703 sank the freighter Syros (6191 GRT). Although U 436 missed a steamer and a corvette and U 591 missed the Ashanti , the cruisers of the local security group were withdrawn from the convoy because of the submarine danger. The defensive convoy lost seven ships with 43,205 GRT and 32,400 tons of cargo, including 147 tanks, 77 aircraft and 770 motor vehicles, to submarines and further air attacks. With the following convoy PQ 17 , the Ashanti belonged to the remote security, which did not intervene in the fight for this convoy, which suffered particularly large losses due to the early withdrawal of its security forces.
Then the Ashanti was used with other units of the Home Fleet in Operation Pedestal to secure a supply convoy for Malta, which left the British Isles with thirteen transporters and a tanker in early August. The transporters were secured by the cruisers Nigeria , Kenya , Manchester , Cairo and, in addition to the Ashanti , the destroyers Intrepid , Icarus , Foresight , Fury , Pathfinder , Penn and the destroyer escorts Derwent , Bramham , Bicester and Ledbury . On August 10, the convoy passed the Strait of Gibraltar and ran into the western Mediterranean where there was still a cover group with two battleships, four carriers, three cruisers and twelve destroyers (including Eskimo and Tartar ) as well as two destroyers escorted by the carriers should fly into Malta. Two empty vans, secured by Matchless and Badsworth, came towards us from Malta .
In anticipation of the supply convoys, two submarine groups with 16 Italian and two German boats were set up. The British units, which were caught early on by aerial reconnaissance, were attacked by the submarines and Italian and German aircraft. On the 12th, the damaged transporter Deucalion remained behind with the destroyer escort Bramham . The Foresight was so badly damaged by Italian aircraft that it later had to be sunk by the Tartar . In the evening, the Italian submarine Axum scored one hit each on the cruisers Nigeria and Cairo and the tanker Ohio . The Cairo had to be abandoned, the Nigeria marched back to Gibraltar with the destroyers escort Bicester , Derwent and Wilton from the cover group. Subsequent attacks by Ju 88 with bombs and He 111 with torpedoes then fell victim to the transporters Empire Hope (12,688 BRT), Glenorchy (8982 BRT) and the Brisbane Star (12,791 BRT) was temporarily struck by air torpedo. The submarine Alagi torpedoed the cruiser Kenya and the transporter Clan Ferguson , but they continued to run.
On August 13, 15 speedboat attacks were carried out on the convoy, which hit the cruiser Manchester , which was later abandoned, sunk the transporters Santa Elisa (8379 BRT), Almeria Lykes (7773 BRT) and Wairangi (12,436 BRT) and the Damaged Rochester Castle . That night, the cruiser Charybdis with the destroyers Eskimo and Somali arrived at the convoy to reinforce them, the latter two of which were dispatched to Manchester and then marched back after taking over survivors. The following air strikes sank the Waimarama (12,843 GRT) and scored hits on the transporters Dorset , Port Chalmers and again on the tanker Ohio and Rochester Castle . In the evening 14 Junkers Ju 87 sank the damaged Dorset (10,624 GRT).
The minesweepers Hebe, Speedy, Hythe and Rye coming from Malta picked up the convoy together with seven clearing boats and escorted the remaining transport ships Port Chalmers , Melbourne Star and Rochester Castle to Malta. The heavily damaged Ohio later arrived in the company of the destroyers Penn , Ledbury and Bramham . The temporarily lagging Brisbane Star followed on the 14th. The remaining British security forces immediately marched back. The association with the cruisers Kenya and Charybdis , the Ashanti and the destroyers Intrepid , Icarus , Fury and Pathfinder were attacked on August 14 by Schnellboot, the submarine Granito and German and Italian aircraft without success . In the afternoon, the group united with the reverse coverage group north of Algiers and entered Gibraltar on the 15th without further damage. In particular, the arrival of the Ohio tanker improved the British supply situation in Malta considerably. From Malta, the Axis powers' supply routes to North Africa could again be effectively combated.
The Ashanti returned to Scapa Flow as the companion of the battleship Rodney and was assigned to the Fighting Escort Group of the Northern Sea Convoy PQ 18 , which was formed by the cruiser Scylla and the sister ships Eskimo , Somali and Tartar and another twelve destroyers and largely successfully defended the convoy . 27 fully loaded ships reached the destination ports and brought more cargo than all the convoys of 1941 put together. The Ashanti also belonged to the security of the return convoys QP 14 and towed the Somali torpedoed by U 703 on September 20 . The destroyers Eskimo , Intrepid , Opportune and the trawler Lord Middleton stayed with the tug . The heavily damaged sister ship without its own propulsion power broke after a 400 nm towing journey on September 24, 1942 in a storm before reaching Iceland and sank with considerable losses.
Like most units of the Home Fleet, the Ashanti was called in to support the Allied landings in North Africa ( Operation Torch ), was deployed off Algiers in November and was mostly deployed from Gibraltar in the first half of 1943. From July to September the ship was overhauled at the Green & Silley Weir shipyard in London. In addition to repairs to the machinery that were necessary again, the tripod mast was replaced by a new lattice mast with new radar devices and additional 20 mm cannons were installed. As of October 15th, the Ashanti was ready for use again in Scapa Flow.
From December 15 to 21, 1943, the Ashanti secured convoy JW 55A with the destroyers Milne , Matchless , Meteor , Musketeer , Opportune , Virago and the Canadian tribal destroyer Athabaskan . On the 23rd, the escort group changes to the return RA 55A . The commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral Bruce Fraser , withdrew the destroyers Matchless , Musketeer , Opportune and Virago from the convoy to the cover groups with which he wanted to confront the departed Scharnhorst . The four destroyers ran the last attack on the already badly damaged German battleship in the evening and sank it. The convoy reached Iceland on January 1, 1944 without losses.
After further work with the Home Fleet, the Ashanti moved to Plymouth for the 10th destroyer flotilla in February 1944 . There she was used with the Tartar and the Canadian sister ships HMCS Athabascan , Haida and Huron as well as the Polish destroyers ORP Piorun and Błyskawica for offensive missions against the Germans on the French Atlantic coast. So she formed with the cruiser Bellona and Tartar on the night of 15./16. March support for an attack by British motor torpedo boats . On April 1, she was attacked twice in the channel by U 739 without success .
On April 25, 1944, the 4th German T-Flotilla ran out of St. Malo with the fleet torpedo boats T 29 , T 24 and T 27 and threw a mine barrier northwest of Sept Îles . On the night of the 26th there was a battle with the British cruiser Black Prince , the Ashanti and the Canadian tribals Athabaskan , Haida and Huron . T 27 received hits at the start of the battle and was released to Morlaix . Haida sunk T 29 ; T 24 reached St. Malo again damaged. On the march back, the Ashanti collided with the Huron .
To Eskimo and Javelin enhances the British 10th Destroyer Flotilla was formed on 6th June 1944 to cover association against attacks from surface forces in front of the western channel access with a group of frigates and eight groups of MTB and MGB . On the night of June 9th, the 8th German destroyer flotilla attempted to advance with Z 32 , Z 24 , ZH 1 and T 24 from Brest to the invasion area, but was northwest of the Isle de Bas through Ashanti , Tartar , Haida , Huron , Blyskawica , Piorun , Eskimo and Javelin intercepted. In the battle, the Ashanti sank the formerly Dutch ZH 1 (ex Gerald Callenburgh ) by torpedoes, Z 32 was touched down and blown up in the battle with Haida and Huron near the Isle de Bas, Tartar was badly damaged; Z 24 and T 24 escaped to Brest and later to Bordeaux.
On the 13th, Ashanti and Piorun attacked a German escort between St. Malo and Jersey and sank the M 343 minesweeper from the escort . The other minesweepers M 412 , M 422 , M 432 , M 442 and M 452 were damaged, as was the attacking Polish Piorun .
On the night of August 6, the Ashanti attacked a German escort north of the Ile d'Yeu near St. Nazaire with the destroyers Tartar , Haida and Iroquois and the cruiser Bellona and the minesweepers M 263 and M 486 , the outpost boat V 414 and the coaster Otto (217 GRT) was sunk. The Haida was slightly damaged in the process.
The end of the Ashanti
After this mission, the capabilities of the ship were checked and local escort duties were restricted in the area of the south-western access routes to the British Isles. In September, the destroyer to a thorough overhaul of Plymouth moved to Tyne where the repair in October in the meantime to Vickers Armstrong belonging Palmer's shipyard began in Hebburn at Newcastle. Parts of the drive systems and electrical installations should be repaired and replaced again. The major overhaul was completed in August 1945, including new radar equipment. However, the first tests still showed problems with the waves. The end of the war in East Asia led to the transfer of the ship to the category B reserve on August 21, 1945.
In 1947 the Ashanti was briefly used as a target ship. In 1948 she was towed to Troon , where demolition began in April 1948.
Renewed use of the name
On March 9, 1959, the Royal Navy's first new frigate of the third tribal class (Type 81) was renamed Ashanti again when it was launched at Yarrow Shipbuilders in Glasgow-Scotstoun . This ship entered service in 1961 and was used until 1977. In 1988 she was sunk as a target ship.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 13./14. October 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer, December 22, 1941 - January 1, 1942, Nordmeer
- ^ Rohwer, March 1–13, 1942, Nordmeer
- ^ Rohwer, May 25 - June 1, 1942, Nordmeer
- ↑ PQ-17 - The greatest convoy disaster.
- ↑ Rohwer, 10. – 15. August 1942, Mediterranean Operation "Pedestal"
- ↑ Rohwer, 12. – 18. September 1942, Northern Sea
- ↑ Rohwer, 20. – 26. September 1942, Northern Sea
- ↑ Rohwer, 12. – 31. December 1943, Northern Sea
- ^ Rohwer, April 12 - May 1, 1944, Kanal
- ^ Rohwer, June 6, 1944, Canal, allied invasion ("Decision Day") in Normandy
- ↑ Rohwer, 6. – 13. June 1944, Canal / North Sea
- ↑ Rohwer, 6. – 14. June 1944, canal
- ^ Rohwer, August 5 - September 2, 1944, Biskaya / Bretagne
Web links
literature
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-0097 .
- David Lyon: HMS Cossack / Tribal Class destroyer. Profile Publication, N ° 2, Windsor 1970.
Royal Navy (HMS): Afridi | Ashanti | Bedouin | Cossack | Eskimo | Gurkha | Maori | Mashona | Matabele | Mohawk | Nubian | Punjabi | Sikh | Somali | Tartare | Zulu
Australian Navy (HMAS): Arunta | Bataan | Warramunga
Canadian Navy (HMCS): Athabaskan (I) | Athabaskan (II) | Cayuga | Haida | Huron | Iroquois | Micmac | Nootka