HMS Carlisle (D67)
 HMS Carlisle as an anti-aircraft cruiser
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HMS Carlisle (D67) was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy and the second ship of this class to be built at Fairfields in Govan . The ship belonged to the five-ship Carlisle sub-class . The ship ordered in 1916 - like all of this sub-group - was only ready for operation after the war had ended. From 1919 to 1928 the cruiser belonged to the 5th Cruiser Squadron at China Station and from 1929 to 1937 to the 6th Cruiser Squadron at the South African Station .
When, after two test conversions, the Royal Navy decided in 1937 to convert all ships of the class to anti-aircraft cruisers , the Carlisle was converted as the third ship from 1939 and came back into service in January 1940 after the outbreak of the World War as the fifth flak cruiser of the class. After operations off Norway , the cruiser was relocated to the Mediterranean fleet at the end of May 1940 . In December 1940, the Carlisle suffered damage to a propeller shaft during her operations in the Red Sea to secure convoys to Egypt, which hampered her operational capability with the fleet. The necessary repairs were postponed due to an urgent need for the cruiser's air defense capabilities. From May 22, 1941, the Carlisle was used in the defense of Crete and received several hits. After repairs in Alexandria , the cruiser remained in service in the eastern Mediterranean until March 1942. From May to July, the cruiser then moved around Africa back home, where it was overhauled and modernized by March 1943.
In May 1943 the cruiser returned to Alexandria with the first convoy through the Mediterranean. After being used in Sicily during Operation Husky , the cruiser supported the British Dodecanese campaign from September 1943 . From October 7, the cruiser formed a task force with the destroyers Panther and Petard as well as changing Hunt destroyers , which was supposed to prevent German reinforcements and counterattacks in the Dodecanese north of Rhodes.
On October 9, 1943 the Carlisle was with Panther , Petard , Rockwood and the Greek Miaoulis in the Strait of Scarpanto between Karpathos and Rhodes on the march back to Alexandria to refuel when the association of 26 Ju 87 -Stukas of I./St .G. 3 was attacked. Carlisle was hit directly four times and caught fire. The hits and numerous close hits caused severe damage. 20 crew members died in the attack, 17 others were seriously wounded. The Rockwood towed the unpowered cruiser and brought it to Alexandria.
Because of the extensive damage, the cruiser was classified as constructive total loss and repairs were waived. Until the end of the war, the ship was used as a base for escort ships and was sold for demolition in Alexandria in 1948.
History of Carlisle
The cruiser, approved in April 1916, was the third ship with the name of the northern English city in the history of the British Navy, whose predecessor (1693/1698) had received its name in honor of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle . Carlisle was built under hull number 580 at Fairfields in Govan, was laid down on October 2, 1917 and launched on July 9, 1918. It was originally planned to be named Cawnpore . The commissioning finally took place on November 11, 1918, the day of the armistice, as the first ship of the last sub-class of the C-class named after her .
Technical details and modifications
The Carlisle was 137.56 m long and 13.33 m wide, the mean draft was 4.27 m. Six oil-fired Yarrow boilers of the 3-drum type as well as two Brown Curtis geared turbines enabled the cruiser with an engine output of 40,000 WPS , a top speed of over 29 kn (almost 55 km / h). The fuel supply was originally a maximum of 950 tons of oil; the sea endurance of the Carlisle was up to 5,900 nautical miles at 10 kn cruising speed.
Was armed the light cruisers with five 152-mm-L / 45-Mk.XII guns , two 76 mm-L / 45-Mk.I -Mehrzweckgeschützen, four 3 pdr (47 mm) - Hotchkiss -Geschützen and two 40- mm-L / 39- (2pdr) - pompom -flak for defense against enemy aircraft. There were also four 533 mm twin torpedo tube sets, which were set up offset on the sides of the ship. Equipped in this way, the cruiser's displacement was 4190 tons and its crew consisted of 387 men. As the only cruiser of the sub-class , the Carlisle had an aircraft hangar under the bridge when it was completed , but this was never used and was removed as early as 1920.
After the Royal Navy decided in 1937, after two test conversions , to convert all of the C- class light cruisers , which are now considered obsolete, to anti-aircraft cruisers , the Carlisle was part of the second conversion lot. The new main armament consisted of four modern 102 mm double carriages Mk.XVI at positions 1, 3, 4, 5. This came as a light anti-aircraft weapons or a 40-mm L / 39- (2pdr) - "pompom" -Vierling on the elevated position on the forecastle in front of the bridge and two heavy 12.7 mm anti-aircraft Vickers machine-gun quadruplets . The scheduled renovation program began with the sister ship Cairo in Portsmouth . Although the decision to convert the Carlisle was made in 1937, it did not begin until January 1939 and was completed in January 1940. Since the radar development for the Royal Navy was still in the testing phase at the end of the conversion, the Carlisle received the modification of a device developed for the army for monitoring the airspace.
After the bomb damage suffered off Crete, the Carlisle received a new radar system and two additional, individual 2pdr-pompoms from April 1941. At the beginning of 1942, seven additional individual 20 mm L / 70 Oerlikon automatic cannons were set up for further missions in the eastern Mediterranean . During their last major overhaul in Great Britain in November 1942, the seven individual Oerlikon cannons were replaced by Oerlikon twin cannons. In addition, the Carlisle received three additional radars for controlling its anti-aircraft guns and for monitoring the sea surface at close range.
Calls
On November 18, 1918, HMS Carlisle came into service for the first time for trials of the shipyard with the Navy. On March 1, 1919, the cruiser was put into service for the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron . The Harwich Force squadron was moved to China Station in 1919 .
In April 1919, the cruiser began to leave for its new Hong Kong station . The 5th Light Cruiser Squadron finally included the larger Hawkins as flagship as well as the C-class cruisers Cairo , Colombo and Curlew . These three cruisers were replaced by the Durban , Despatch and Diomede of the larger D-class as early as 1921/1922 . In 1927/28, with Curlew , Constance and Castor , further C-class cruisers were used alongside the Carlisle in the Far East. Major changes of the crew were also planned during the foreign missions. In order to carry out this, some of the units ran back home. The Carlisle first returned home from China at the end of 1920 and was put back into service with a newly formed crew on January 1, 1921 and returned to China in February / March 1921. The next exchange took place at the beginning of 1923 when the ship returned home in January, was put back into service on February 3 and then sailed back to China in March / April. The next two crew changes then took place at the station. From January 1928, the 5th Cruiser Squadron at China Station was converted to heavy cruisers of the County class , beginning with the Cumberland . The Carlisle left Hong Kong on July 16, 1928 and arrived in Chatham on August 31 . She was temporarily decommissioned and on September 12th the overhaul of the cruiser began at the local naval shipyard .
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On September 3, 1929, the cruiser with staff from Devonport was put back into service for the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron at the South African Station . After initial tests in the Thames estuary, the cruiser moved to Devonport, which the Carlisle then left on September 20 for Simonstown to replace the old cruiser Lowestoft . The cruiser remained assigned to the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron (later 6th Cruiser Squadron ) and South African Station until the spring of 1937. The Carlisle also returned home from this station in the spring of 1932 and in the fall of 1934 to swap parts of the crew. The flagship of the station was from September 1928 to February 1931, the sister ship Calcutta . In May 1931 the similar Cardiff reached South Africa as a replacement and new flagship, which was replaced in May 1933 by the heavy cruiser Dorsetshire , which remained on the South African station until August 1935 . It was not until October 1936 that the station again had a second cruiser with the new light cruiser Amphion . After being replaced by Neptune , the Carlisle left Cape Town on March 16, 1937 for the base in Devonport, where the cruiser was assigned to the reserve and laid up.
Despite the decision to convert the ship into an anti-aircraft cruiser, it was still used as a stationary boys training ship in Devonport in 1938 . It was not until January 1939 that the conversion to an anti-aircraft cruiser based on the model of the sister ships Cairo and Calcutta began on the Chatham Dockyard , which was only completed after the outbreak of war on January 12, 1940.
Second World War
The converted Carlisle moved to Malta on February 1, 1940 , in order to be tested there and to gain experience with the radar type installed on this ship for the first time. After successfully completing the tests, the cruiser returned to Scapa Flow in March and formed the 1st AA Squadron with the other flak cruisers and was assigned to the Humber Force of the Home Fleet in the North Sea.
After the German invasion of Norway , the cruiser was one of the British units from April 9, 1940, which were used against the German Wehrmacht off Norway . On the 17th left the Carlisle with the cruisers Galatea , Arethusa and Curaçoa and two destroyers Rosyth with troops of the British 148th Infantry Brigade under General Paget , which were landed on April 18 in Åndalsnes (Operation Sickle ). The day before, the British sloops Auckland , Bittern , Black Swan and Flamingo had already deployed 700 men in advance. This was intended to attack Trondheim , which was occupied by the Germans, not only from the north ( Namsos ), but also from the south. On the 18th, the Carlisle replaced the Black Swan in monitoring the airspace on the Romsdalsfjord . In the following years she provided this service alternately with the Curaçoa and the Sloops Black Swan and Bittern . They also secured the incoming supplies and reinforcements (15th Infantry Brigade) off Andalsnes and Molde, reinforced by Flamingo and Fleetwood .
On April 22nd, 1940 she moved Carlisle north to Namsos, where she was used to repel air raids until the 28th. Then she went further north for supply to Skelfjord in Lofoten for supply, where the Royal Navy had set up a makeshift supply and repair base. Refueled, the cruiser ran immediately back to Namsos, where it took over the air defense duties at the place of embarkation from the severely damaged Bittern and had to sink the sloop, which was no longer usable. The evacuation of the Mauriceforce began on the night of May 1, 1940 by the heavy cruisers Devonshire and York . The Carlisle left the port with the two cruisers in order not to be the target of further attacks by the Air Force during the day; thick fog prevented it from entering again the following night. It was not until the night of May 3 that she was able to return to Namsos with destroyers and take the remaining troops (5,400 men, 1,850 of them French) on board, in order to then march back to Scapa Flow with the waiting Devonshire and destroyers. The unit, attacked several times by 1./StG.1 (Captain Hozzel ) of the Air Force, lost the French bison and the Afridi .
On May 11, the Carlisle returned to the Norwegian coast with the destroyer Zulu in a futile search for a German troop transport.
From May 18, 1940 began the transfer of the Carlisle with the destroyers Jaguar and Javelin to the Mediterranean Fleet because of the expected entry into the war Italy. From Devonport via Malta (24th) the cruiser moved to Alexandria . When Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940, the cruiser with the unconverted sister ships Calypso and Caledon belonged to the Mediterranean fleet stationed in Alexandria. The Carlisle was the flagship of the Navy units deployed in the Red Sea in Aden when the first air raid on the British base took place on the 11th, during which nine Italian machines were shot down by the stationary flak and the Carlisle .
The main task of the Carlisle was to secure the British escorts through the Red Sea to Egypt against expected air strikes from Italian East Africa . After the Italian attack on British Somaliland , the cruiser was evacuating 5690 soldiers, 1266 civilians and 184 wounded from Berbera to Aden from August 14th to 19th, 1940 with three auxiliary cruisers, a transporter and a hospital ship as well as the cruisers Hobart der RAN , Caledon , Ceres , the destroyers Kandahar , Kimberley and the sloops Shoreham , Auckland and the Australian Parramatta .
The convoys secured by the Carlisle during the passage through the Red Sea in the following months included the troop transport convoy AP.3 with 10 transports from October 20 to 22, together with the destroyers Kandahar , Kingston and the Sloop Flamingo , troop transport convoy WS.3 with 17,000 soldiers for a planned offensive, which they secured with Dorsetshire , Caledon , Kimberley and 2 sloops., the Australian troop convoys US.7 and the convoys WS.4A and WS.4B with units and all vehicles of the British 2nd Panzer Division .
During these missions, the Carlisle suffered damage to a propeller shaft that was to be repaired in Bombay in January 1941. Due to enemy air attacks on the Suez Canal, the cruiser remained on the canal for the time being to reinforce the air defense.
When four British divisions were relocated from Alexandria to Greece in March 1941, the air security of the convoys was carried out by the anti-aircraft cruisers Calcutta , Coventry and Carlisle . After the breakthrough by German troops through the British blocked position near Thermopylae , the evacuation of Greece by the British army and its evacuation by the British fleet, in which the partially operational Carlisle continued to be used, began at the end of April . The British troops were mostly embarked from open Greek beaches and returned to Egypt via the Cretan Suda Bay .
On May 5, 1941, British Operation Tiger , a simultaneous operation by Force H from Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Fleet from Alexandria, began operating five fast transporters and reinforcements for the Mediterranean Fleet (battleship Queen Elizabeth , cruiser Fiji and Naiad ) from Gibraltar through the The Mediterranean should be transferred to Alexandria and Malta should be supplied from Alexandria. Carlisle secured supplies intended for Malta on four transporters and two tankers with the anti-aircraft cruisers Dido , Phoebe , Coventry and Calcutta , three destroyers and two corvettes. On May 8, the first attacks on the cover-giving naval units in the west and east took place. On the following two days, poor visibility largely prevented air attacks by the Axis powers. The British associations achieved their goals largely undisturbed by May 12th. Of the freighters that left Gibraltar, the New Zealand Star , Clan Campbell , Clan Chattan and Clan Lamont reached Alexandria with 238 (out of a total of 295) Matilda II and Crusader tanks and 43 (out of 53) hurricane fighters on board aforementioned flak cruiser. Only the new Empire Song (9228 BRT, 1941) was lost shortly before Malta after a mine hit.
On May 20, 1941, the German air landing on Crete ( Operation Merkur ) began. The British Mediterranean fleet was at sea with the bulk of its units to prevent a German advance, but was surprised by the air landing. Since the 22nd, Carlisle belonged to Force C under Rear Admiral King with the cruisers Naiad , Perth and Calcutta as well as the destroyers Kandahar , Nubian and Kingston , which tried to destroy the second German motorglider squadron. Because of the skilful defense of the Italian torpedo boat Sagittario and rolling air attacks by Ju 88 of I./LG.l and III./KG.30 as well as Do 17 of KG.2 , the German convoy lost only two vehicles. Naiad and Carlisle were damaged by bomb hits and Force C turned to join the heavy cover group, which in the course of the afternoon were also the target of heavy air attacks by Ju 87 Stukas of the StG.2 , Ju 88 of the I./LG l and II./LG l and as well as from Me 109 fighter bombers . The battleship Warspite received several close hits, the destroyer Greyhound and the cruiser Gloucester were sunk, the badly damaged Fiji had to be abandoned, but Kingston and Kandahar were still able to save 523 survivors. Naiad and Carlisle were hit again and the Valiant was more easily damaged. Faced with the damage and lack of anti-aircraft ammunition, the association went back to Alexandria, where Carlisle was repaired. Before the work on the Carlisle was completed, the flak cruiser left the dock on the 21st to take part in the defense of Crete. The cruiser's speed was still severely restricted because a wave was unusable. He was supposed to intercept the approaching German forces again with Naiad and Perth and some destroyers. The British were attacked several times from the air by the Germans. The Carlisle supported the air defense of the Naiad , whose anti-aircraft ammunition was running low. The Carlisle was also hit, suffered a lot of damage and a number of victims, including the commander. On the 23rd, the Carlisle reached Alexandria with very little ammunition.
On May 25, repairs began on the cruiser in Port Said. One of their twin main guns had to be exchanged and the main shaft, which was delivered from Malta by submarine, could be replaced. In July the cruiser then moved to Haifa as an air defense guard ship and accompanied the fleet units on Operation Exporter against Vichy-French Syria.
Shortly before the end of the year, the re-operational cruiser was involved in escort operation MF.1 to supply Malta, with which Force B under Rear Admiral Vian with the other cruisers Naiad and Euryalus as well as seven fleet destroyers combined the transporter Breconshire (9776 GRT) from Alexandria Meeting point with the Malta-based Force K under Captain Agnew , who escorted the transport with the cruisers Aurora , Penelope , the destroyers Lance and Lively and the destroyer division with Sikh , Legion , Maori and the Dutch Isaac Sweers on to Malta. In addition to the handling of the convoys, there was a brief battle between the two fleets, the so-called First Sea Battle in the Gulf of Syrte . The attack on Alexandria carried out by combat swimmers on the night of December 18 to 19, 1941 , which put the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant out of action for a long time, changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean for a long time in favor of the Axis powers.
The British supply company MF.3 for Malta from 16 January 1942 consisted of the convoys MW.8A with the transporters Ajax and Norwegian Thermopylae (6655 BRT, built in 1930 Burmeister & Wain's ), secured by the anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle and four destroyers , as well as from convoy MW.8B with the transporters City of Calcutta and Clan Ferguson with four destroyers from Alexandria, which later united at sea. In addition, the Force B was under Rear Admiral Vian with three light cruisers and five other destroyers as a cover formation at sea. The unit was attacked on the 17th by U 133 west of Sollum , which was able to sink the Gurkha (see there) . On the 18th, the Thermopylae had to be released to Benghazi with Carlisle , Arrow and Havock due to machine problems and damage to the stuffing boxes . They then decided to march back and were continuously attacked from the air. Thermopylae was eventually sunk by aerial bombs; three crew members and 30 soldiers died, 35 crew members and 306 soldiers were rescued. The other three trucks arrived on 19 Malta under cover of Force K .
Already on January 24th, MF.4 followed with the transporter Breconshire from Alexandria secured by Force B under Vian with the cruisers Naiad , Euryalus , Dido and Carlisle and eight destroyers. The Force K came against it with the cruiser Penelope , five destroyers and two empty transports. The units swapped the transporters and the destroyers Kingston and Lance and reached Malta on the 27th and Alexandria on the 28th, respectively.
The next MF.5 supply operation for Malta followed on February 12th . With the convoy MW.9A (Transporter Clan Campbell and Clan Chattan ), the Carlisle left Alexandria with the destroyers Lance and the destroyers escort Heythrop , Avon Vale and Eridge , to which convoy MW.9B (Transporter Rowallan Castle ) was secured a little later followed by four other Hunt destroyers. The Force B under Vian with three light cruisers and eight destroyers followed last as a cover group . On the 13th, convoy ME.10 left Malta with four transporters, secured by Force K with the cruiser Penelope and six destroyers. On the 13th, the German-Italian air reconnaissance captured the westbound unit, after the first air raid the Campbell clan (7255 GRT) had to call at Tobruk after being hit by a bomb. Shortly before the meeting with ME.10 , the westbound convoy MW.9 was attacked again by German bombers, whereby the Clan Chattan (7262 BRT) was hit so badly that it had to be sunk by the British themselves. After the two convoys met, the Rowallan Castle (7798 BRT) was sunk by bombs. The only thing left for the security forces was the planned replacement of the destroyer Lance from Alexandria with the Decoy and Fortune from Malta . Divisional Admiral Bergamini left Taranto with the Italian fleet to attack the British units. The search was unsuccessful on the 15th, when the Force K with Penelope , Lance and Legion had already reached Malta. Zulu , Sikh, and Lively marched with Force B to Alexandria, where all units arrived on the 16th.
The following supply convoy MW.10 with the transporters Breconshire (9776 BRT), Clan Campbell (7255 BRT), Pampas (5415 BRT) and Talabot (6798 BRT) secured the Carlisle and the 22nd DF . with Sikh , Zulu , Lively , Hero , Havock and Hasty leaving Alexandria on March 20th. The cover group: under Vian with the cruisers Cleopatra , Dido , Euryalus and four destroyers was also at sea. To this end, six submarines had taken up post positions in the Gulf of Taranto and in front of Messina to report movements of Italian units. When on the 21st Italian submarines reported that the British convoy had departed, the Supermarina (Italian term for the then high command of the Navy) from Messina let three cruisers and four destroyers and from Taranto the battleship Littorio (under Admiral Iachino ) leave with four destroyers, which were later followed by two more. In addition, three Italian and three German submarines as well as bombers and torpedo planes of the German II Flieger-Korps and the Italian 4th Air Fleet were used against the British Association . A British submarine also reported the Littorio group leaving . The cruiser Penelope ran from Malta with the destroyer Legion to secure the MW.10 and joined her on the 22nd. On the 22nd, the Italian Messina Association sighted the British cover group at 2:24 p.m. and tried in vain to pull them onto the Littorio . With a strong freshening wind and worsening visibility, she approached at 4.18 p.m. and tried to lay down between the convoy and Malta. Heavy seas as well as skillful operation of Vians with heavy smoke and fog use hindered the Italian fire control considerably, so that only Havock and Kingston were badly damaged, as they did not receive a heavy hit from the battleship. Cleopatra received a 15 cm direct hit from the gang Nere , while Euryalus and Lively only suffered minor splinter damage from 38 cm close hits by the Littorio . Mutual torpedo attacks by the destroyers were unsuccessful. At 6:58 p.m., as darkness fell, Iachino broke off the engagement. MW.10 set course for Malta again. On the march back, the Italian unit lost the destroyers Scirocco and Lanciere by storm. The cruiser Trento had to cancel its support due to severe sea damage. Almost all the other ships of both parties suffered more or less severe storm damage on the march back. The evasive movements of the convoy during the battle delayed the march of the British convoy, which now reached Malta in broad daylight on the 23rd and was attacked by bombers of the II Air Corps. Clan Campbell was sunk by planes 20 nm off Malta. The already badly damaged Kingston received another bomb hit, but reached Malta the next day. The Breconshire sat badly damaged on the beach and capsized on the 27th during rescue attempts after further hits in the bay of Marsaxlokk. On the 24th, the Pampas and Talabot also sank after being hit by bombs, so that of 25,900 tons of cargo only 5000 tons came ashore. On the 23rd of the British naval units, the destroyer escort Southwold went on a mine barrier, on 24/26. the destroyer Legion (who first sat on the beach) and the submarine P.39 lost; the cruiser Penelope was badly damaged. The cover group returned to Alexandria on March 24th. The Carlisle left Malta that day together with the destroyer escorts Hurworth , Dulverton , Eridge , Beaufort and reached Alexandria with them on March 27.
In April it was decided to send the Carlisle home to be overtaken. On the way home via Durban, Cape Town, Simonstowm and Freetown, the cruiser was assigned to military convoys. The overhaul began at the Devonport Royal Shipyard in July and was completed in December. The major change to the flak cruiser was the modernization of the radar system and its addition to a fire control system, and the seven single Oerlikons were replaced by five twin cannons. From December 7th, the training of the overhauled cruiser began in Scapa Flow with a new crew.
In January 1943 the cruiser came back to Devonport to repair new / overlooked damage. Crew training was resumed in February and the cruiser moved to Gibraltar in March, where it arrived on April 2nd. The further use of the cruiser should take place with the Force Q in the central Mediterranean. The Allied landing in North Africa ( Operation Torch ) had improved the situation significantly in favor of the Allies. The Force Q was a forward British naval unit with cruisers and escort vehicles in the Algerian Bône (today Annaba ), which were supposed to secure transports to the attacking heads of the Allied land forces and to support the supply of Malta.
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The UGS.7 convoy of 24 ships, secured by the anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle and four corvettes, was attacked on April 20 about 60 miles west of Oran by U 565 at 7.52 a.m. The boat sank the American freighter Michigan (5609 BRT, built in 1919) and the French Sidi-Bel-Abbès (4392 BRT, built in 1929). The Michigan was hit between holds 1 and 2 and immediately began to sink. The crew, the soldiers operating the anti-aircraft guns and the only passenger cleared the sinking ship on two lifeboats and three life rafts. After two hours, the castaways were picked up by the trawlers HMS Stella Carina (FY 352) and HMS Foxtrot (T 109), who handed them over to the Felixstowe , which then took them to Oran. However, some crew members stayed on the water with the two boats in order to participate in the rescue of the castaways of the second ship that was hit. Sidi-Bel-Abbès , hit around the same time, transported French soldiers from Senegal to the front. 1131 (611 dead and 520 survivors). Of the 1,131 men on board, 611 died.
In May 1943 the cruiser returned to Alexandria with the first convoy through the Mediterranean. When the Allied landing on the south and south-east coast of Sicily ( Operation Husky ) began on July 10, the Carlisle with the anti-aircraft cruisers Colombo and Delhi was part of the Support Force East for the British landing section
The end of Carlisle
After being used in Sicily during Operation Husky , the cruiser supported the British Dodecanese campaign from September 1943 . From October 7, the cruiser formed a task force with the destroyers Panther and Petard as well as changing Hunt destroyers , which should prevent the German reinforcements and counter-attacks in the Dodecanese north of Rhodes that had been taking place since October 3.
On October 9, 1943 the Carlisle was with Panther , Petard , Rockwood and the Greek Miaoulis in the Strait of Scarpanto between Karpathos and Rhodes on the march back to Alexandria to refuel when the association of 26 Ju 87 -Stukas of I./St .G. 3 was attacked. The Panther was sunk, Carlisle was hit four times directly and caught fire. The hits and numerous close hits caused severe damage. The starboard shaft and propeller were completely lost and the port shaft was unusable. 20 crew members died in the attack, 17 others were seriously wounded. A subsequent attack by II./StG.3 from Argos a short time later failed due to the arrival of a hunting protection with P 38 long-range fighters of the USAAF, which shot down seven Ju 87 Stukas and one Ju 88 .
The Rockwood took the unpowered cruiser in tow and brought it to Alexandria, where repairs began on the 16th. In November the decision was made that repairs no longer made sense, the old cruiser should only be made into a stationary base for escort ships. The proposal to use them in Aden was rejected and the use as a base in Alexandria began in April 1944. With the end of the war in the Pacific, this use was also given up and in 1949 the old cruiser was sold locally for demolition.
literature
- Norman Friedman: British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After , Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2010, ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8 .
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1921 , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1984, 978-1-84486-2365.
- Geirr H. Haarr: The Battle for Norway: April – June 1940 , Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2010, ISBN 978-1-84832-057-4 .
- Alan Raven; John Roberts: British Cruisers of World War Two , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1980, ISBN 0-87021-922-7 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II. Classes, types, construction dates . Motorbuch Verlag. Stuttgart 1997, pp. 76-79.
Web links
- Service History HMS Carlisle - World War 1 C-type Light Cruiser on naval-history.net (English)
- HMS CARLISLE - December 1919 to December 1920, December 1922 to November 1923, China Station (5th Light Cruiser Squadron) on naval-history.net (English)
- HMS Carlisle (D67) at uboat.net (English)
- HMS Carlisle Cairo Class Light Cruiser on world-war.co.uk (English)
- HMS Carlisle (1918) on dreadnoughtproject.org (English)
- Stuka-Attack on HMS Carlisle and HMS Panther on 9 October 1943 on wlb-stuttgart.de (English !!)
Footnotes
- ^ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921 , p. 61
- ^ Friedman: British Cruisers , p. 387
- ^ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921 , pp. 60f.
- ↑ a b c d e f g HMS CARLISLE - World War 1 C-type Light Cruiser
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , April 16-18, 1940 Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , April 21-25, 1940 Norway
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 29.- 30.04.1940 Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , 1.– 3.5.1940 Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , August 4-19, 1940, Red Sea / Gulf of Aden
- ↑ Rohwer: Sea War , 10.9.– 22.10.1940 Atlantic / Indian Ocean / Gulf of Aden
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 3.10.- 16.11.1940 Atlantic / Indian Ocean, Red Sea / Gulf of Aden
- ↑ Rohwer: Sea War , Atlantic / Indian Ocean / Gulf of Aden 1.11.– 28.12.1940 Atlantic / Indian Ocean / Gulf of Aden / Red Sea
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 5.3.- 2.4.Mittelmeer
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , April 24-30, Mediterranean Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , May 5–12, 1941 Mediterranean
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 20.5.- 6.1.1941 Mediterranean companies "Mercury": airborne landing on Crete.
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 15.- 19.12.1941 Mediterranean British convoy operation MF.1 to Malta.
- ^ M / S Thermopylæ
- ↑ MV Thermopylae (+1942)
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , January 16–20, 1942 Mediterranean British escort operation MF.3.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , January 24-28, 1942 Mediterranean British escort operation MF.4
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , February 12-16, 1942 Mediterranean British escort operation MF.5
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , March 20-26, 1942 Mediterranean Sea, Second Battle of the Sirte .:
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , April 10-27, 1943 Mediterranean
- ↑ Michigan American Steam Merchant
- ↑ TYNE BUILT SHIPS - SIDI BEL ABBES, Passenger Refrigerated Cargo Ship
- ↑ JP Penalba: Il i ya soixante-dix ans, le Sidi-Bel-Abbès était coulè
- ^ Sidi-Bel-Abbès French Troop transport
- ↑ Rohwer: Sea War , May 14th - June 8th, 1943 Central Atlantic / Mediterranean
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 10/07/1943 Mediterranean, Operation Husky
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 3.- 12/10/1943 Aegean Sea, business polar bear
- ↑ Stuka-Attack on HMS Carlisle and HMS Panther on October 9, 1943
Caroline group: HMS Caroline | HMS Carysfort | HMS Cleopatra | HMS Comus | HMS Conquest | HMS Cordelia
Calliope Group: HMS Calliope | HMS Champion
Cambrian Group: HMS Cambrian | HMS Canterbury | HMS Castor | HMS Constance
Centaur Group: HMS Centaur | HMS Concord
Caledon Group: HMS Caledon | HMS Calypso | HMS Cassandra | HMS Caradoc
Ceres Group: HMS Cardiff | HMS Ceres | HMS Coventry | HMS Curacoa | HMS Curlew
Carlisle Group: HMS Cairo | HMS Calcutta | HMS Capetown | HMS Carlisle | HMS Colombo