HMS Aurora (12)
 HMS Aurora 1938
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The tenth HMS Aurora (12) of the Royal Navy was a light cruiser and the fourth and final ship of the Arethusa class . Completed in 1937, the cruiser became the flagship of the commander of the destroyers of the Home Fleet . During the Second World War , the ship was primarily used in the Mediterranean from 1941.
In 1948 the cruiser was handed over to National China. He deserted to the communist side on February 25, 1949, but was sunk by national Chinese planes the following month. The cruiser that was later lifted was not repaired.
history
The Aurora was built on Portsmouth Dockyard , where the keel was laid on July 27, 1935. The ship was launched on August 20, 1936 and was put into service on November 12, 1937 as the fourth and last ship of the class.
After its commissioning, the Aurora served as the flagship of the commander of the destroyers of the Home Fleet . The Aurora replaced the old cruiser in this function Cairo the C-Class from. In the summer of 1938 the cruiser visited the Danish capital Copenhagen and the Swedish Malmö .
War missions with the Home Fleet
In September 1939 the cruiser was used by the 2nd Cruiser Squadron , which secured convoys to Scandinavia and was involved in the pursuit of the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau after their advance against the Northern Patrol , in which they sank the British auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi . After trying to prevent the German occupation of Norway , the cruiser took part in further operations by the Home Fleet. From October 1940 the cruiser was commanded by Captain William Gladstone Agnew . The Aurora was involved in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck . When the British air reconnaissance had established the departure of the German ships on May 22, 1941, they belonged to the main association of the Home Fleet under Admiral Tovey , who immediately joined the battleship King George V , the carrier Victorious and the 2nd cruiser squadron also the sister ship Galatea , owned by Kenya and the Hermione , and six available destroyers went to sea. On the 24th, the association split and Aurora , Hermione and Kenya took over the security of the carrier Victorious . On the 26th, Aurora had to be released to Iceland due to lack of fuel. During the subsequent search for supplies for the German surface ships, the Kenya and Aurora discovered the supply ship Belchen (6367 GRT) on June 3, 1941 after supplying U 93 , U 557 and U 111 in the Davis Strait between Greenland and Labrador and sank it. U 93 was able to save 49 survivors of the utility and bring them home.
In July and August 1941, the Aurora was part of Force "K" of the Home Fleet , which carried out missions against Spitsbergen and Bear Island ( Operation Gauntlet ). During the first deployment of Force K under Rear Admiral Philip Vian , the Nigeria and Aurora ran with the destroyers Punjabi and Tartar from July 27 to 31 from Scapa Flow to Svalbard to investigate the Norwegian and Soviet branches there. On the march back, the Norwegian weather station on Bear Island was evacuated and destroyed. On August 19, the Force K ran again with the cruisers Nigeria and Aurora , five destroyers, the troop transporter Empress of Canada and a fleet tanker from Scapa Flow to Svalbard to evacuate the branches there and destroy the industrial facilities. Nigeria and the Empress of Canada transported the 2,000-person Soviet colony to Arkhangelsk and then returned from Barentsburg on September 1 with the Aurora . The two cruisers remained in a Home Fleet combat group around the carrier Victorious in the North Sea and crashed on 6/7. September under Vian again to the north Norwegian coast and discovered a German escort in front of the Porsangerfjord . The cruisers sank the securing training ship Bremse , the troop transporters Trautenfels (6418 GRT) and Barcelona (3101 GRT) escaped into the fjord with around 1,500 mountain troops on board when visibility was poor. On September 10, the two cruisers returned to Scapa Flow.
Operations in the Mediterranean
In the fall of 1941, the Aurora then moved to the Mediterranean . In Gibraltar a force "K" was formed from Aurora , the sister ship Penelope and the destroyers Lance and Lively , which was to be deployed from Malta under the leadership of the Aurora's commander , Captain Agnew . On 14 October, the association went to the Force H under Vice Admiral Somerville to the Mediterranean, on 18 from the carrier Ark Royal eleven Albacore- and two Swordfish - torpedo bombers to 450 nautical miles distant Malta to strengthen the local air forces launched ( operation Callbay ). The two cruisers and the destroyers of the Force K continued alone to Malta, where they arrived on October 21, 1941.
On November 9, shortly after midnight, the four ships of Force K were able to approach the Italian supply convoy "Beta" from Naples to Tripoli with five freighters and two tankers unnoticed with the help of radar . Force K , led by the Aurora , was able to shoot down the convoy and sank all seven transporters, including the German motor ship Duisburg (7389 GRT). The six destroyers in the convoy's cover group that had no radar were unable to intervene effectively. The destroyer Fulmine was also sunk, the destroyers Grecale and Euro were damaged. After this failure, the Italian Navy tried to get through convoys to North Africa. On November 24, an Italian submarine discovered the Force K at sea, which, according to reports from the British aerial reconnaissance, had set sail. All convoys were then ordered to call at the next port. A convoy destined for Benghazi from the Aegean Sea did not receive this order and was attacked by Force K 100 nm west of Crete . The two German transporters in this escort, Maritza (2910 BRT) and Procida (1842 BRT), were sunk by Penelope and Lively . The two freighters unsuccessfully defending torpedo boats Lupo and Cassiopea the Spica class escaped. On the night of the 25th, the ships of Force K discovered the Adriatico transporter (1976 BRT) , which was traveling from Reggio Calabria to Benghazi without escort, and sank it. Another deployment of the Force K, which had meanwhile been reinforced by Ajax , Neptune and the destroyers Kimberley , Kingston , was unsuccessful on November 30th, as the Italian escorts and the cruisers protecting them avoided. The British radio reconnaissance gave the British the opportunity to use their forces specifically against Italian escorts. Indications of the formation of several escorts led to the cooperation of Force B under Rear Admiral Vian from Alexandria with three light cruisers and destroyers with Force K from Malta with the cruisers Aurora , Neptune and Penelope as well as other destroyers in the Ionian Sea against Italian transports .
In order to bring the transporter Breconshire (9776 GRT) from Alexandria to Malta, the Force B accompanied the transporter from the 15th with Naiad , Euryalus and Carlisle as well as seven destroyers, to transport it to the cruisers Aurora , Penelope and from the 16th surrender six destroyers to oncoming Force K. After the meeting on the 17th, the British discovered Italian warships at sea and began a battle that became known as the → First Sea Battle in the Gulf of Syrte . When the Italian battleship Littorio intervened, the British withdrew. Italian air strikes were unsuccessful and the Force K arrived with the Breconshire in Malta on the 18th. Only then did the British realize that they had met an Italian escort and the Force K ran out again on December 19, 1941 with the cruisers Neptune , Aurora and Penelope and the destroyers Kandahar , Lance , Lively and Havock for the convoy to attack even before Tripoli. However, the British association got into a newly laid mine barrier: Neptune sank after four mine hits with around 550 men of the crew; only one survivor could be saved. The Kandahar also had to be abandoned after a mine hit. The only slightly damaged Penelope and the Aurora , which was badly damaged by a hit, could be brought to Malta. It was poorly repaired in Malta and then moved back home on March 29, 1942, in order to be repaired in Liverpool by the end of June 1942.
In November 1942, the cruiser became part of the Center Task Force for landing in North Africa ( Operation Torch ). Before Oran there was a battle on November 8, 1942 with the destroyers Tramontane and Tornade of the Vichy forces of the Bourrasque type ; it sank the tornade and badly damaged the Tramontane , which was beached. The following day she damaged the Aigle- type large destroyer Épervier , which was also beached. From December onwards, she was deployed as part of Force "Q" from Bône against the convoys of the Axis powers between Trapani and Tunis to prevent the supply and evacuation of their armed forces in North Africa.
In the association of the 15th Cruiser Squadron , the Aurora was involved in the landing in Sicily and the landing near Salerno ( Operation Avalanche ).
From October 1943 the cruiser was used in the Aegean Sea. It was badly damaged on October 30 before Castellorizo and had to be withdrawn for repairs.
From April 1944, the cruiser was operational again and was deployed in August 1944 to support the Allied landing in southern France . Another mission followed in the Aegean Sea to support the monarchist Greeks, including the liberation of Athens .
In China
After the World War, the Aurora was handed over to the Chinese National Navy on May 19, 1948 as compensation for six Chinese customs cruisers and one freighter that the British had confiscated in Hong Kong and which were then lost during the war. The cruiser was named Chung King after the Chinese capital Chung King during the war, and became the flagship of the Chinese National Navy.
On February 25, 1949, the crew defected to the communists with their cruiser. In March 1949, China National Air Force aircraft sank the cruiser in Taku. The cruiser was lifted with Soviet help, with many pieces of equipment supposedly removed by Soviet forces as payment. The largely empty hull was then used as a living and storage ship.
In October 1959, the ship was brought to Shanghai and renamed Huang He and was to be converted into a salvage ship. After consuming a tenth of the planned cost, the plan was abandoned. In 1965 the ship was moved to Tianjin and used there as a barracks ship named Beijing . The ship was scrapped in the 1990s. Her nameplate and ship's bell are kept in the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution .
literature
- Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
- Alan Raven, John Roberts: British Cruisers of World War Two. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD 1980, ISBN 0-87021-922-7 .
- Jürgen Rohwer : Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945. The Naval History of World War Two. 3. Edition. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2005, ISBN 1-59114-119-2 .
- MJ Whitley: Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Cassell, London 1995, ISBN 1-86019-874-0 .
Web links
- HMS Aurora on Uboat.net
- Chung King cruiser
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Whitley: Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Pp. 100, 101.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 18-27, 1941, North Atlantic, company »Rhine Exercise«
- ↑ HMS AURORA - Arethusa-class Light Cruiser
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. June 1–22, 1941, North Atlantic
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. July 27 - August 6, 1941, North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. August 19 - September 3, 1941, North Sea.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. September 3–11, 1941, North Sea / Norway
- ↑ Caroline Vernon: Our Name Wasn't Written - a Malta Memoir. , Canberra 1992 ISBN 0-646-07198-X , p. 37.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. October 14-19, 1941, Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 7–9, 1941, Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 23-25, 1941, Mediterranean Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 28 - December 2, 1941, Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 13-16, 1941, Mediterranean Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 15-19, 1941, Mediterranean Sea