HMS Basilisk (H11)
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HMS Basilisk (H11) was a destroyer of the B-Class of the British Royal Navy . During the Second World War , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Norway 1940" and "Dunkirk 1940".
On June 1, 1940, the ship was sunk by the German Air Force during the evacuation of British troops near Dunkirk .
History of the destroyer
On March 4, 1929, the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, in addition to Hawthorn Leslie, was commissioned to manufacture two ships of the second class destroyer of the Royal Navy, which were built after the end of the First World War . In 1928 the shipyard had already received construction contracts for two destroyers of the previous A-class .
The basilisk was laid on August 19, 1929 with hull number 531. The Royal Navy's tenth basilisk was launched on August 6, 1930 and was put into service on March 4, 1931. The previous Basilisk was a Beagle-class destroyer built by J. Samuel White and served in the Royal Navy from 1910 to 1921.
Mission history
The basilisk and its sister ships were first assigned to the “4th Destroyer Flotilla” in the Mediterranean Fleet . Since the British Mediterranean fleet mostly received the latest destroyers, the flotilla was transferred to the Home Fleet in 1936 and replaced by the "2nd Destroyer Flotilla", which had just been converted to the new H-class destroyers. Because of the increasing political tensions, the Basilisk , like other ships of the class, continued to operate off the Spanish coast in 1937 and took part in the so-called neutrality patrols because of the Spanish civil war . After the conquest of Málaga by Franco's troops in February 1937, the basilisk entered there and its commander campaigned for British citizens living there. When the old "4th Destroyer Flotilla" was disbanded in March 1939, the Basilisk alarm destroyer in Devonport and then with the sister ships of the newly formed "19th Destroyer Flotilla ”in Dover .
War missions
At the start of the war, the destroyer's duties included securing convoys and warships in the waters of the British North Sea coast, as well as patrols in front of and in the Dover Strait .
On the night of November 12th to 13th, 1939, the ship led together with the sister ship Blanche the mine-layer Adventure on a march from Grimsby to Portsmouth . In the Thames estuary , the mine got into a mine barrier that had been laid a few hours earlier by the German destroyers Karl Galster , Hans Lüdemann , Hermann Künne and Wilhelm Heidkamp . When the destroyers tried to lead the damaged minelayer out of the minefield, Blanche also ran into a mine and sank some time later in tow. The Basilisk took the crew of the Blanche and the wounded of the badly damaged Adventure on board and brought them ashore.
The destroyer was seconded to the Home Fleet in mid-April 1940, the Allied troops, in order to drive away the German troops that had landed in Norway as part of the Weser exercise . The basilisk moved on April 24 with the battleship Resolution and the destroyers Wren and Hesperus in the Narvik area , which should be recaptured with amphibious operations. The destroyer also intervened in land battles with its guns. On May 20, the destroyer was withdrawn from Norway and returned to Dover on May 30.
The end of the basilisk
The basilisk was then used together with many other ships in the evacuation of the Allied troops encircled around Dunkirk ( Operation Dynamo ). On her first day of action, May 31, 1940, she was able to make two trips and bring 338 and 357 soldiers back to the British Isles.
On June 1, the ship ran back to the French Channel coast. It was attacked by German dive bombers just off the coast and badly damaged by bomb hits . An attempt was made to tow the unmaneuverable destroyer, which in a further attack on 51 ° 8 ' N , 2 ° 35' O sank. The Belgian fish steamer Jolie Mascotte and the old destroyer Whitehall rescued 131 men from the sinking ship. The Whitehall completely destroyed the sinking wreck with her artillery and torpedoes.
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literature
- Norman Friedman: British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2009, ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8 .
- WJR Gardner: The Evacuation from Dunkirk: Operation Dynamo, 26 May-4 June 1940 , Frank Cass, London (2000), ISBN 0-7146-5120-6
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms and Armor Press, London 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , June 1, 1940 Canal
- ↑ a b c d Service History HMS Basilisk
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 12-13 November 1939, North Sea
- ^ Gardner: The Evacuation from Dunkirk . P. 61.
- ^ Gardner: The Evacuation from Dunkirk , p. 91.
HMS Keith (Flotilla Leader) †
HMS Basilisk † |
Beagle |
Blanche † |
Boadicea † |
Boreas / Salamis 
|
Brazen † |
Brilliant |
Bulldog