HMS Beagle (H30)
.jpg) The sister ship Basilisk, built at the same shipyard
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HMS Beagle (H30) was a destroyer of the B-Class of the British Royal Navy . During the Second World War , the ship was awarded the Battle Honors “Norway 1940”, “Atlantic 1940–45”, “North Africa 1942”, “Arctic 1942–44”, “English Channel 1943” and “Normandy 1944”. The ship was involved in the repossession of the British Channel Islands in May 1945 and was then transferred to the reserve. In 1946 the destroyer Beagle was scrapped.
History of the ship
The Beagle was the second new B-Class that was ordered from John Brown & Co. in Clydebank . The keel of the new building with hull number 532 was laid on October 11, 1929 as the last ship of the class. The ship was launched on September 26, 1930 and entered service with the Royal Navy on April 9, 1931 as the eighth B-class destroyer. The destroyer was the eighth ship of the Royal Navy, named Beagle , which was first used in 1804. Most recently, the lead ship of the destroyer of the Beagle class led him from 1910 to 1922, which was also built by John Brown & Co. under construction number 387. The best-known name-bearer was the sloop Beagle used for survey trips , in whose second expedition Charles Darwin took part from 1831 to 1836.
Mission history
The Beagle and her 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 relocated to the Home Fleet at the end of 1936 and replaced by the "2nd Destroyer Flotilla", which had just been converted to the new H-class destroyers. From 1938 the Beagle served as a security destroyer for the new aircraft carrier Ark Royal . In 1939, however, the ship was part of the reserve fleet because a large number of more modern destroyers had been put into service in the meantime. Even before the war began, the destroyer was reactivated and the newly formed “19th Destroyer Flotilla ”in Dover .
War missions
The tasks included in particular the security of convoy trains and warships as well as patrols in the North Sea and the Strait of Dover . In April 1940 the destroyer was assigned to the Home Fleet and was involved in the failed attempt to drive the German troops out of Norway , where they had landed as part of the Weser exercise . The Beagle initially served as a safety shield against submarines on the aircraft carriers. Then she secured the convoys deployed between the Orkneys and Northern Norway. When Northern Norway was evacuated because of the German offensive on the western front ( Operation Alphabet ), the ship remained in use off Norway to secure the return transports to Great Britain.
The destroyer was not available again on the canal until mid-June 1940. He was deployed off St. Nazaire , where he rescued 600 castaways on the passenger ship Lancastria , which was sunk by German aircraft on June 17th . Then the Beagle detonators brought them to Bordeaux and evacuated British nationals from France. In July the destroyer was assigned to the "1st Destroyer Flotilla", which monitored the English Channel and secured escorts. On July 19, the destroyer was attacked by German dive bombers off Dover . Numerous close hits led to damage to the Beagle's compass and the kettles. After the damage was repaired in Devonport , the destroyer was assigned to the "22nd Destroyer Flotilla" stationed there in mid-August, which monitored the south-western access routes to the British Isles and the western canal accesses. With the destroyers Harvester and Highlander , she bombarded Cherbourg, now used by the Germans as a base, on September 13, 1940 .
In October 1940 the destroyer was transferred to the Home Fleet and escorted the old carrier Argus , which served as an aircraft transporter, to Iceland . By the turn of the year, the first mission took place on a transatlantic convoy (HX 83) together with the sister ship Bulldog and the destroyer Hesperus and the Canadian destroyers Ottawa , Saguenay and Skeena . This was followed by further missions together with other units to secure convoy on the north-western access routes and to protect mine operations to complete the Northern Barrage . Finally, the destroyer was assigned to the “4th Escort Group” on the North Atlantic, in which the sister ship Boadicea was also used. In the course of ongoing repair work, the destroyer's anti -submarine and anti-aircraft armament was reinforced at the expense of the main guns and a torpedo tube set. In October 1940, the rear torpedo tube set was exchanged for a 76 mm L / 40 (12 pdr) flak and the rear gun for additional depth charges. In the following months, Beagle was used to secure convoys in the North Atlantic .
In April 1942, the destroyer was used for the first time as an escort of a northern sea escort , through which the Soviet Union was supplied with war material. The destroyer was part of the so-called "Ocean Escort" of the convoy PQ 14 , which accompanied the convoy from Iceland to Kola Bay . In addition to the Beagle , this backup group also included the sister ship Bulldog and the destroyers Amazon and Beverley . There were also four Flower-class corvettes and three submarine trawlers. The close cover not standing directly on the convoy formed the cruisers Edinburgh and Norfolk with the destroyers Foresight and Forester . At Jan Mayen , the convoy got into pack ice, through which 16 ships and two Halcyon class mine sweepers ( Hebe and Speedy ) had to turn back with ice damage and QP 10 ran back in the opposite direction . The remaining ships from PQ 14 were attacked by the Germans from the air and by submarines, but only one freighter was lost. From April 17th to 19th, the remaining eleven freighters were picked up by two Soviet destroyers and four British Halcyon class mine sweepers ( Gossamer, Harrier, Hussar and Niger ) and led by them as an additional "Eastern Local Escort" to Murmansk .
The ships of the "Ocean Escort", which arrived in Murmansk on April 19, left again on April 28, 1942 to protect the convoy QP 11 with thirteen ships on the voyage to Iceland. The German aerial reconnaissance discovered the convoy early on and brought in submarines, of which U 456 torpedoed Edinburgh , which was again forming local security, on April 30th . On May 1, the German destroyers Z 7 Hermann Schoemann , Z 24 and Z 25 attacked the escort, sank a freighter and damaged the Amazon . Beagle succeeded in pushing her sister ship Bulldog and the destroyer prototype Amazon , the Germans away from the escort, who then found the immobile Edinburgh and sank it, and severely damaged her escort destroyer.The British cruiser was able to damage the Hermann Schoemann so badly that the German destroyer himself even sank in order not to endanger the retreat of the other German units.
Bulldog , Beagle and Amazon secured the remaining merchant ships as far as Iceland. The two B-class destroyers had only suffered splinter damage in the destroyer battle. The Beagle was immediately able to resume its service in convoys in the North Atlantic. The other two destroyers had to visit shipyards for repairs and were out of action for several weeks.
During the winter of 1942/43 and 1943/44, further deployments in the North Sea followed with the convoy trains JW 57 , JW 58 , RA 52 , RA 57 , RA 59 and RA 62 . In the meantime, when these convoys were suspended because of the long summer days and the associated special hazards, the destroyer was entrusted with escort and anti-submarine tasks in the Atlantic.
During the landing in Normandy in June 1944, the destroyer was initially used as part of the submarine hunt, while later it was assigned to escort convoys. Another deployment in the Arctic followed in the winter of 1944/45.
On May 8, 1945, the destroyer accepted the surrender of the German troops on the Channel Islands together with the sister ship HMS Bulldog .
On May 24, 1945, HMS Beagle was decommissioned and sold for demolition at the end of the year. In January 1946 the destroyer arrived in tow at the dismantling yard in Charlestown near Rosyth .
literature
- 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 4-10, 1940 Norway Evacuation of Narvik by the Allies.
- ↑ Rohwer: Sea War , June 19–25, 1940 Biskaya.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , April 8–17, 1942 Northern Sea, operations against convoys PQ.14 and QP.10.
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 26.4.- 12.5.1942 North Sea operations against the convoys PQ.15 and QP.11.
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 6.5.- 07.06.1945 Northern / Western Europe, German occupation and occupied by Germany ports by the Allies.
- ^ Service History HMS Beagle
HMS Keith (Flotilla Leader) †
HMS Basilisk † |
Beagle |
Blanche † |
Boadicea † |
Boreas / Salamis 
|
Brazen † |
Brilliant |
Bulldog