HMS Curacoa (D41)

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HMS Curacoa
HMS Curacoa after conversion to an anti-aircraft cruiser
HMS Curacoa after conversion to an anti-aircraft cruiser
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom
Ship type Light cruiser
1940: anti-aircraft cruiser
class Ceres class
Shipyard Pembroke Dockyard
Build number 257
Order June 1916
Keel laying July 13, 1916
Launch May 5, 1917
Commissioning February 18, 1918
reactivation January 26, 1940
Whereabouts after hitting on October 2, 1942 Queen Mary dropped
Ship dimensions and crew
length
137.16 m ( Lüa )
129.54 m ( Lpp )
width 13.2 m
Draft Max. 4.5 m
displacement Construction: 4,290 ts
Maximum: 5,276 ts
 
crew 432 men
Machine system
machine 6 Yarrow boilers
2 Brown Curtis geared turbines
2 shafts
Machine
performance 		40,000 PS (29,420 kW)
Top
speed 		29 kn (54 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

from 1918:

from 1940 (as an anti-aircraft cruiser):

Armor

Side armor: 57–76 mm
deck, shields, bulkheads: 25 mm,
command post: 76 mm

Sensors

from 1940 radar

The HMS Curacoa (D41) was a C- class light cruiser of the British Navy , which was put into service towards the end of the First World War and was still used in the North Sea . The ship belonged to the Ceres class, the fifth subgroup of C-cruisers. During the Russian Civil War , the Curacoa was used in the Baltic Sea to support the White troops fighting against the Bolsheviks until it was hit by a mine in May 1919. In autumn 1922, the ship, which is now part of the Atlantic Fleet, was deployed in the Mediterranean during the Chanak crisis .

The cruiser, used as a training ship since 1933, was converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser from July 1939 . Ready for action again from January 1940, the Curacoa was used to repel the German attack on Norway and was badly damaged in Åndalsnes . After its repair, the cruiser was used around the British Isles to secure convoy trains against air attacks.

At the beginning of October 1942, the Curacoa secured the ocean liner Queen Mary , which was traveling to Scotland with US troops, with some destroyers . The association ran because of the threat from German submarines in front of the North Canal "zigzag". The escort ships could hardly follow the high speed of the Queen Mary . A lack of agreements led to the collision in which the Queen Mary cut the cruiser amidships. It sank immediately to 55 ° 50 '  N , 8 ° 38'  W coordinates: 55 ° 50 '0 "  N , 8 ° 38' 0"  W . Over 300 crew members of the Curacoa were killed.

History of the Curacoa

The cruiser Curacoa , approved in April 1916, was the fourth ship in the history of the British Navy to bear this name . The name, first given in 1809, was intended to commemorate the conquest of the Dutch island of Curacao in 1807. Before the light cruiser of the Ceres subgroup of the C-class, it was named after a screw corvette, also made in Pembroke Dock , from 1878 to 1904. The state shipyard in Wales had already built seven Scout Cruisers and received orders for three earlier C-Class units ( Cordelia , Carysfort and Centurion ) as early as 1913 . The Curacoa was laid down in July 1916 and was launched on May 5, 1917 as the 21st ship of the class. The commissioning finally took place on February 21, 1918 together with the sister ship Coventry as the last units of the five cruiser Ceres subgroup.

The cruiser was named Cura coa , although it was named after Cura cao , it repeated the spelling of the name predecessor. The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 in the version of 2008 named under "(i) the vessel known as HMS Curacao , which sank on or about 2nd October 1942 ".

Technical details and modifications

The Curacoa was 137.16 m long and 13.25 m wide, the mean draft was 4.34 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 950 tons of oil; the sea ​​endurance of the Curacoa 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 - cannons , two 76-mm-L / 45-Mk.I -Mehrzweckgeschützen and four 3-PDR (47-mm) - Hotchkiss -Geschützen to repel enemy aircraft. There were also four 533 mm twin torpedo tube sets, which were set up offset on the sides of the ship. During the Second World War, the Curacoa air defense was reinforced by two 40-mm-L / 39- (2-pdr) - pompom - flak .

At the beginning of the 1930s, which began Royal Navy plans to the effect to work out some of the now obsolete prestigious light cruiser of the C class to anti-aircraft cruisers convert, making the generally growing threat should be supported by Air Force statement. The first conversions were the Coventry and the Curlew , which received ten individual 102 mm L / 45 Mk.V multi-purpose guns for the 152 mm cannons . Carried out from 1938 standardized tags that with four 102-mm Mk.XVI -Zwillingslafetten and 40 mm L / 39- (2pdr) - "pompom" -Marinegeschützen and heavy 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun quadruplets armed were. At the start of the war in 1939, only four of the thirteen cruisers had been converted into anti-aircraft cruisers. In addition to the two prototypes with individual guns, only the Cairo and Calcutta were converted to the 102 mm twin guns, and the Carlisle was being converted. The Curacoa , which has served as the “Gunnery and Torpedo School Cruiser” since 1932 , was moved to the Chatham Dockyard , where it was to be converted by January 1940.

Calls

The Curacoa , completed on February 18, 1918, was under its first in command, Captain Barry Domvile , flagship of the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron in the Harwich Force until the end of the war. On February 26th, the ship and crew were inspected by King George V in Harwich . From June, the cruiser took part in reconnaissance missions under Rear Admiral Reginald Tyrwhitt , commander of the Harwich Force. During this time, the armament was reinforced by two 2-pounder 40 mm Mk.II "pom-pom" naval guns for anti-aircraft defense.

In April 1919, the Curacoa was transferred to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the newly formed Atlantic Fleet . The cruiser moved to the Baltic Sea in May to take part in the British intervention in the Russian Civil War in support of the White Army . On May 7, she became the flagship of the Intervention Association when Rear Admiral Walter Cowan switched from the Caledon to the newly arrived cruiser. This mission ended just ten days later when the cruiser ran into a mine 110 km east of Reval on a journey from Helsinki to Libau . The mine explosion in the stern area killed one crew member and wounded three others. Cowan was taking a bath and only appeared on the bridge in his coat. Curacoa could still run 9 knots and after some repairs at sea reached the Estonian capital in the evening. After further makeshift repairs there, the cruiser had to return home to be professionally repaired in Sheerness . When the cruiser Skagen passed, the rudder failed and the ship had to steer the remaining 800 km to the shipyard with its engines. Reconditioned, the Curacoa was added to the reserve fleet in August 1919.

The Curacoa

Interwar period

In November 1920 the cruiser came back to the Atlantic Fleet, where it remained until 1928, at times also as the flagship of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron . However, the cruiser was seconded to the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1922 during the Chanak crisis and arrived in Smyrna on September 23 . Their occupation helped take in refugees after the destruction of the city's Greek and Armenian quarters . The Curacoa remained in the Mediterranean until February 1923.

On September 4, 1929, the cruiser of the Mediterranean Fleet was assigned as the flagship of the 3rd Cruiser Squadron , whose commander was now her first in command, Barry Domvile. The Curacoa remained in the Mediterranean until 1932. Stationed in Portsmouth, she was then used as an artillery training ship from December 18, 1933 to 1939. In 1935 the Curacoa played a fictional German battle cruiser in the film adaptation of the Forester novel Brown on Resolution .

Second World War

The conversion of the Curacoa to an anti-aircraft cruiser, which began in Chatham in July 1939 , was completed by January 24, 1940. The ship was assigned to the Home Fleet and from April 17, 1940 secured the transport of British troops to Norway to repel German attacks and had landing forces on board itself. The port of Åndalsnes , intended for the landing of the troops to be used in Operation Sickle , turned out to be unsuitable for several larger ships. Therefore, the Curacoa and the light cruiser Arethusa landed their embarked troops in Molde to leave the coastal waters again before daylight. The Curacoa returned to Scapa Flow was immediately sent back to Åndalsnes to secure the beachhead there against German air raids. The cruiser, which returned on April 22nd, was attacked several times from the air and on the evening of the 24th was hit by a bomb in the forecastle in front of the bridge. 45 men on board the Curacoa lost their lives in the air raids. The considerable damage forced the cruiser to march back to Great Britain, especially since it had previously reported the extensive use of its 102 mm ammunition. The sloop Flamingo secured the return march of the badly damaged cruiser .

After the damage in Chatham Dockyard had been repaired by August 1940, the Curacoa was first stationed in the Nore and then in Rosyth and secured coastal convoys. In December, a UP rocket launcher was installed on the cruiser, designed to throw a barrier of air mines in the path of attacking aircraft. In August 1941, the cruiser with the destroyers Lively and Lightning secured the return of the free French submarine Rubis, which had been damaged off Norway, to Dundee . In September 1941, the largely useless rocket launcher was removed and two more individual “pompoms” were installed, and the radar system was modernized and supplemented. The Curacoa was also used in the waters around the British Isles. On June 29, 1942, the Curacoa, with the cruiser Sirius, which had just come into service, and five ex-American destroyers of the Town class formed the securing of a diversion convoy made up of the auxiliary miners Agamemmon , Menestheus and Southern Prince , which was to serve as bait to keep the Germans off Northern Sea Convoy PQ 17 to divert. However, the association was not discovered. Supported by their radio reconnaissance, the Germans waited for the real convoy and largely destroyed it.

In September 1942 there was another overhaul of the Curacoa , in which it was equipped with five additional 20 mm Oerlikon cannons and an additional radar device. After this overhaul, the cruiser displaced 5403 ts and had a fixed ballast of 200 t.

The end of the Curacoa

On October 1, 1942, the Curacoa ran out with the destroyer Bulldog , with the Polish destroyer Blyskawica , the Skate and the escort destroyers Bramham and Cowdray to transport the express steamer Queen Mary, loaded with US troops, on the last leg of her Atlantic voyage through the north channel to the Clyde to secure. On the morning of October 2, the security association north of Ireland met the express steamer, which had about 10,000 soldiers from the American 29th Infantry Division on board. Because of the existing submarine danger, the express steamer ran a “zigzag course” at a speed of 28.5 kn, so that it made progress at around 26.5 kn.

The old cruiser tried to stay ahead of the fast steamer at the maximum speed of 25 knots possible. Both commanders probably had different ideas about the evasive rules at sea . Captain Boutwood of the Curacoa stayed on the main course of the express steamer in order to be able to give the express steamer protection against attacks from the air for as long as possible, Commodore Illingworth of the Queen Mary maintained his zigzag course and expected the cruiser to avoid him.

At around 1.30 p.m. it became clear on the bridge of the Queen Mary that the next change of course would bring you too close to the cruiser. The officer on watch wanted to change the upcoming turning point, which Illingworth should have prevented. When the express steamer initiated the next course change at around 2:00 p.m., it was just past the Curacoa . Boutwood saw the danger, but all maneuvers were too late now. The Queen Mary hit the Curacoa amidships at full speed and, despite its armor, cut the cruiser in two. The rear part sank almost immediately, but the front part only swam for a few minutes. The Queen Mary continued her voyage despite the damaged bow, as she had orders not to stop because of the existing submarine danger. She reported the collision by radio and informed the destroyers of the security group. Later, Bramham and Skate were sent back to look for survivors. They managed to save 101 survivors, including the commanding officer. When the Curacoa was lost , 337 crew members died.

Aftermath

Those involved and witnesses were sworn to secrecy after the disaster. The loss of the Curacoa and its circumstances were only made public after the end of the war. However, as early as September 1943, the Admiralty brought a lawsuit against the owners of the Queen Mary , the Cunard White Star Line , which was dismissed in January 1947 because the officers of the Curacoa were solely to blame for the accident . Appeals lodged led to the decision that two thirds of the guilt lay on the part of the Admiralty and one third on the part of the ship's command of the fast steamer. It is unknown whether Cunard's subsequent appeal was successful.

literature

  • Geoffrey Bennett: Freeing the Baltic. Birlinn, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 1-84341-001-X .
  • Stephen Dent: HMS Curacoa - What's in a Name? In: Warship. 2012, ISSN  0142-6222 , pp. 172-174.
  • Stephen Dent: Warship Note: The Loss of HMS Curacoa. In: Warship. 2014, ISSN  0142-6222 , pp. 181-183.
  • Norman Friedman: British Cruisers. Two World Wars and After. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 2010, ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8 .
  • Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships. 1906-1921. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1985, ISBN 0-87021-907-3 .
  • Geirr H. Haarr: The Battle for Norway. April – June 1940. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2010, ISBN 978-1-84832-057-4 .
  • Peter Kelly: The Tragic Loss of HMS Curacoa. In: Warship. 1997/1998, ISSN  0142-6222 , pp. 160-166.
  • Alan Raven, John Roberts: British Cruisers of World War Two. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1980, ISBN 0-87021-922-7 .
  • Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II. Classes, types, construction dates. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01842-X , pp. 76-79.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Military Remains Act
  2. ↑ a b Friedman 2010, p. 414
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Whitley 1999, p. 70
  4. ↑ Raven & Roberts 1980, p. 75
  5. ↑ a b Bennett 2002, p. 109
  6. ↑ a b Head 2009, p. 148
  7. ^ Dent 2012, p. 174
  8. ↑ Great War Society: St Mihiel Trip-Wire: July 2008 . WorldWar1.com. July 2008. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  9. ↑ Casualty Lists April 1940
  10. ↑ Haarr 2010, pp. 68 f., 72 f., 421
  11. ^ Rohwer: Sea War, April 1940
  12. ↑ Raven / Roberts, p. 428
  13. ↑ Kelly 1997, p. 160
  14. ↑ Plowman 2014, p. 368
  15. ↑ Kelly 1997, pp. 160 ff.
  16. ↑ Kelly 1997, p. 162
  17. ↑ Kelly 1997, p. 163
  18. ↑ Kelly 1997, p. 164
  19. ↑ , according to casualty list in 2013 by The National Archives released