HMS Campbeltown (I42)
 after ramming the dock, before the explosion
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The HMS Campbeltown (ID: I42) was a destroyer in the Royal Navy and the first ship to bear this name. She belonged to the American Wickes class and had joined the Royal Navy in the fall of 1940 as part of the destroyer-for-base agreement . The 50 destroyers that the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy received through this agreement formed the Town class there . Temporarily used by the Royal Netherlands Navy from January to September 1941 , Campbeltown was returned to the Royal Navy in September and was used again to secure convoy to West Africa.
From January 1942, the conversion for use in Operation Chariot took place in Devonport . As part of this commando operation, the ship was deliberately sacrificed on March 29, 1942 in St. Nazaire as a mobile explosive device against the dry dock there .
history
The destroyer was laid down for the United States Navy on June 29, 1918 at the Bath Iron Works shipyard and was launched on January 2, 1919 as the USS Buchanan (ID: DD-131). It was named after the American Rear Admiral Franklin Buchanan . First in command of the destroyer when it was commissioned on January 20, 1919, Lieutenant HHJ Bensen became. The Buchanan reported to the Commander of the Destroyer Force in Guantánamo Bay , Cuba , and was temporarily assigned to "Destroyer Squadron 2" (2nd Destroyer Squadron) until it was transferred to "Destroyer Flotilla 4" of the Pacific Fleet in July 1919 .
From June 7, 1922 to April 10, 1930, the ship was decommissioned in San Diego .
Then the Buchanan was assigned to the "Destroyer Division 10" (10th Destroyer Division) and operated on the American west coast, where it performed routine tasks. During this time she was commanded by Theodore E. Chandler, who later rose to Admiral and died in the fighting in the South Pacific in January 1945 during World War II . In the summer of 1934, the ship undertook a trip to Alaska with members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and was then put into reduced operational readiness (reduced commission). During this time she was under the "Rotating Reserve Destroyer Squadron 20" in San Diego. After being reinstated in regular service, the Buchanan was assigned to the "Destroyer Division 5" of the battle fleet in December 1934. On April 9, 1937, she was decommissioned again.
The outbreak of war in Europe, however, led to the re-activation of the destroyer on September 30, 1939, which was transferred to the "Division 65, Destroyer Squadron 32" (Atlantic Squadron). From December 1939 to February 22, 1940, the destroyer operated with the neutrality patrol and the "Antilles Detachment" in the Gulf of Mexico off Galveston (Texas) and later off Key West and in the Florida Street .
On September 2, 1940, the Buchanan entered the Boston Navy Yard and then transferred from there to Halifax , Canada . There she was decommissioned for the last time on September 9, 1940 and handed over to the Royal Navy as part of the destroyer-for-bases agreement , where it was given its new name Campbeltown . In the Royal Navy, the ship was assigned to the so-called Town class .
After arriving at the HMNB Devonport on September 29, 1940, Campbeltown was assigned to the 7th Escort Group (7th escort group) of the "Western Approaches Command" in Liverpool . In January 1941 she was temporarily released to the Royal Netherlands Navy , but came back in September of the same year. Between September 1941 and March 1942 she was on a convoy on the Atlantic . This resulted in multiple enemy contact with German submarines and aircraft. However, she suffered no damage and no personnel losses. On September 15, 1941, she took on the survivors of the Norwegian motor tanker Vinga, which was sunk by a German aircraft .
Command against St. Nazaire
In 1942 the German battleship Tirpitz was moored in a fjord near Trondheim , where it posed a serious threat to the Allied Atlantic convoys. Should the ship's operational area actually be relocated to the mid-Atlantic, the Normandy dry dock in Saint-Nazaire would be the only way to carry out major repairs. If this dock were to be disabled, it was foreseeable that the Tirpitz could not be relocated to the threatened waters.
It was therefore decided to shut down the dock through a commando operation , Operation Chariot . For this, the outdated was Campbeltown by cosmetic changes as much as possible the appearance of a German torpedo boat of the Raptor class adapted and the bow section with a number of water bombs packed with a total weight of about 4 tons. Using original German identification signals, the unit approached the port within about a kilometer before the maneuver was seen through by the German guards and fire was opened. The largest ship of the attackers, Campbeltown , attracted the most fire. Their armament consisted only of a 76-mm cannon on the foredeck and several 20-mm anti-aircraft cannons . At 1:34 a.m. on March 28, 1942 (only four minutes later than planned), Campbeltown rammed the lock gate. The crew and commandos disembarked and began to destroy the mechanism of the gate under heavy fire. Ultimately, 169 of the 611 English soldiers were killed (64 commandos and 105 sailors ). 215 soldiers were captured, and another 222 escaped in the waiting motor boats. Two of the prisoners escaped and made their way to Gibraltar via Spain . The time fuse in the bow of Campbeltown detonated during the day, killing 250 German soldiers and French civilian workers. The bow of the ship was torn and the lock gate pushed in. This washed the remains of Campbeltown into the basin. Repair of the dock was only possible in 1947.
The ship's bell
The ship's bell had been given to the city of Campbelltown, Pennsylvania , as a token of gratitude to the United States for the lend lease program. When she was commissioned in 1989, she loaned it to the British frigate Campbeltown , where she was to remain as long as the ship was in service.
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In 2013, HMS Campbeltown (F86) , a Type 22 frigate, was sold for demolition. The ship's bell of old Campbeltown was returned to Campbelltown, Pennsylvania by the Royal Navy and envoys from Campbeltown , Scotland .
Movie theme
The story of Campbeltown was widely discussed in 1952 in the film " A Food for the Fish " (Original: "The Gift Horse"), as well as in the film " Storm on the Iron Coast " (Original: "Attack On The Iron Coast") from 1968.
literature
- History of HMS Campbeltown (I42) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- HMS Campbeltown Commemorates the Raid on St Nazaire 28 March 1942 . In: UK Ministry of Defense . Archived from the original on October 25, 2008. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
- "The Greatest Raid of All" and other Wartime Memories of the Royal Navy . In: WW2 People's War (BBC) . Archived from the original on April 2, 2011. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ His Majesty's Naval Base
- ^ The Chariot Story . In: St Nazaire Society . Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved March 24, 2007.
- ↑ Winston Churchill: The Second World War - Volume IV The Hinge of Fate . Penguin Books ,, ISBN 0-14-008614-5 , p. 106.
- ↑ The two rear chimneys were removed, the two remaining chimney caps were given according to German models.
- ^ HMS Campbeltown Commemorates the Raid on St Nazaire March 28, 1942 . In: UK Ministry of Defense . Archived from the original on January 9, 2007. Retrieved March 24, 2007.
- ^ St. Nazaire, Raid on, (Operation Chariot), Part Two (March 28, 1942) . In: Military History Encyclopedia on the Web . Retrieved March 24, 2007.
- ↑ Since 2011, the Campbeltown was out of service and launched
- ^ HMS Campbeltown . In: UK Ministry of Defense . Archived from the original on January 8, 2007. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ↑ World War II ship bell returns to Campbelltown