HMS Curlew

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HMS Curlew
HMS Curlew as a flak cruiser
HMS Curlew as a flak cruiser
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom
Ship type Light cruiser
1937: anti-aircraft cruiser
class Ceres class
Shipyard Vickers , Barrow
Build number 497
Order June 1916
Keel laying August 21, 1916
Launch July 3, 1917
Commissioning December 14, 1917
Whereabouts Sunk by the Luftwaffe in Ofotfjord on May 26, 1940
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: 5,355 ts after conversion
 
crew 432 men
Machine system
machine 6 Yarrow boilers
2 Parsons - geared turbines
2 shafts
Machine
performance 		40,000 PS (29,420 kW)
Top
speed 		29 kn (54 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

from 1937 (as anti-aircraft cruiser):

Armor

Side armor: 57–76 mm
deck, shields, bulkheads: 25 mm Navigational bridge
: 76 mm

Sensors

from 1939 radar prototype

The HMS Curlew (D42) was a C- class light cruiser of the British Navy , which entered service towards the end of the First World War and was still used in the North Sea. The cruiser belonged to the Ceres class, the fifth subgroup of the C cruisers. The cruiser used off China, the American east coast and since September 1929 in the Mediterranean Sea was converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser as a second prototype from November 1936 .

In the spring of 1940 the Curlew was used to repel the German attack on Norway and sunk on May 26, 1940 by the German Air Force in the Ofotfjord.

History of the Curlew

The cruiser Curlew , approved in April 1916, was the ninth ship in the history of the British Navy to be named after the curlews . The name, first given in 1795, was last used by Torpedo Sloop from 1885 to 1906. Was built in the Curlew of Ceres subclass at Vickers in Barrow-in-Furness , where the previously begun Cassandra of Caledon subclass and the following Calcutta of Carlisle subclass were built three ships of the class. Curlew was built under hull number 497, was laid down on August 21, 1916 and launched on July 3, 1917. It was finally put into service on December 14, 1917.

Technical details and modifications

The Curlew 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 and two Parsons geared turbines enabled the cruiser to reach a top speed of over 29  knots (almost 55 km / h) with an engine output of 40,000  WPS . During the test drives in 1917, 40,240 hp were measured and thus 28.07 kn. The fuel supply was originally a maximum of 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. Even during World War II anti-aircraft defense was Curacoa with two 40-mm L / 39- (2pdr) - "pompom" - Flak strengthened.

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 . In addition, an eight-fold 40 mm L / 39 (2pdr) "pompom" was installed on the Curlew during the conversion. The ship now had a crew of 460 men.

Calls

HMS Curlew in its first state

After tests and complete equipment at the Grand Fleet , the Curlew moved to Harwich for the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron in early 1918 . From May the cruiser took part in reconnaissance missions under Rear Admiral Reginald Tyrwhitt , the commander of the Harwich Force , until the end of the war. In January 1919 the cruiser moved through the Kiel Canal into the Baltic Sea to the cruiser association deployed there to support the Baltic States .

In April 1919 the Curlew was transferred to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the newly formed Atlantic Fleet , but was assigned to the reserve fleet in Devonport in June . The cruiser came to Rosyth via Chatham , where it was prepared for a mission in China with the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron in April 1920 . The cruiser, which was put into service on April 27, reached its new operational area in July 1920 via the Mediterranean, Aden , Colombo and Singapore . In addition to visits to Chinese and Japanese ports and exercises with other units at the China station, mostly in front of the British base in Wei-Hai -Wei the cruiser was also on the Yangtze and was almost a month before Hankow, now a district of Wuhan . On the march back to their homeland the hit Curlew in Colombo with which they detaching Despatch together and then ran across the Seychelles , Aden, the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean to return home by October 1,922th

On November 24, 1922, the Curlew was put into service in Devonport for the North American Station in Bermuda to replace the Constance in the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron . In May 1923, the cruiser began a journey through the Panama Canal to the Pacific . The cruiser ran on the American west coast to Prince Rupert , the northernmost Canadian port on the border with Alaska . During the journey through Canadian waters he was temporarily accompanied by the Canadian destroyer Patrician , with whom some exercises were also carried out. The cruiser, visited the Canadian Naval Base Esquimalt and as of July 23 Vancouver , where 26 of the first visit by a reigning American president took place in Canada. President Harding felt faint while he was there and died on August 2nd during his next visit to San Francisco . The Curlew provided an honor guard for the President during the shore visit . After the US President left Canada on ships of the US Navy , the cruiser also ended its stay in Canada and went to Hawaii . After a week's stay in Honolulu , the cruiser visited the liner islands of Washington Island (today Teraina), Fanning Island and Christmas Island (Kiritimati). There the return journey began via Hawaii, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and San Diego to the Panama Canal. On October 11th, the Curlew returned to Bermuda after 4½ months.
The following year passed with standard tasks. The cruiser visited ports around the Caribbean in the first half and in the second half of the association of the cruiser squadron Canada.

In 1925, the Curlew was one of the cruisers of the 8th CS, which sailed from Bermuda to visit Canadian ports. Together, Curlew , Calcutta, and Constance arrived in Halifax on June 9th. After a few days, the Curlew left the association to run to South America and take part in the visit of the British heir to the throne in Argentina. The cruiser ran through Bermuda and Pernambuco to Montevideo until June 27 . At the beginning of August the cruiser took over the Prince of Wales from the Repulse off Montevideo to serve him for visits to Uruguay and Argentina . The prince also visited Chile by land .

On October 1, 1925, the prince began his return journey on the Repulse , which was accompanied by the Curlew . On the return march, São Vicente (Cape Verde) and Funchal were called before they reached Devonport on October 15th. The crew was largely exchanged to return to the station. In January 1927, the Curlew finally left the North American and West Indies station .

Returned to service at the end of April 1927, the cruiser was temporarily assigned to the China Station, where it also took exchange teams. In September 1928 the cruiser was back in Chatham and forerunner was decommissioned and an overhaul began.

The cruiser came back into service in August 1929 and moved to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron at Mediterranean Fleet in September . The Curlew remained in service with the squadron until August 1933. In October 1933 the cruiser went back to the Mediterranean and served with the 1st Cruiser Squadron until 1936. In October the Curlew was decommissioned in Chatham .

At Chatham Dockyard , the conversion to an anti-aircraft cruiser based on the model of the Coventry that had begun earlier began .

Second World War

Since July 1939, the Curlew has been in the shipyard for the radar test facility , which will be used for the first time. On September 23, the installations were completed and the cruiser began testing the new system in the canal . The ship was assigned to the Home Fleet and moved to Scapa Flow on October 1, 1939. It was used in the North Sea from Rosyth , Grimsby and Chatham to secure the fleet and convoy and was in December for a minor repair to Invergordon .
From mid-January 1940, the cruiser was used with the Humber Force .

The end before Norway

On April 8, the Curlew belonged to the association that was used against the German attack on Norway and was in action off Norway from the 9th. From the 16th to the 21st they secured the landing of French troops in Namsos ( Mauriceforce ). After replenishing supplies, the Curlew returned to the Norwegian coast on April 23 with the carriers Glorious and Ark Royal , the heavy cruiser Berwick and six destroyers to support the Allied attempts to expel the German attackers from Narvik. In the following days, the cruiser repelled several air strikes and suffered minor damage. On the 28th, the cruiser was detached from the Sheffield and then went to Scapa to replenish supplies and then return to the coast of northern Norway. The cruiser was used as a guard ship in the Ofotfjord .

The cruiser was scheduled for the decisive attack on Narvik as the flagship of Commander Lord Cork . On May 26, 1940 the cruiser was attacked off Skutenes in Lavangfjord , a branch of the Ofotfjord near Narvik, by Heinkel He 111 of Kampfgruppe 100 and hit several times. The cruiser dropped to 68 ° 33 '32 "  N , 16 ° 33' 29"  O .

Footnotes

  1. ^ Friedman: British Cruisers. P. 387.
  2. ^ A b Gardiner, Gray (ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships. 1906-1921. P. 61
  3. ↑ HMS CURLEW - April 1920 to November 1923, China Station (5th Light Cruiser Squadron), North America and West Indies Station (including Pacific)
  4. ^ Warren G. Harding & Stanley Park
  5. ↑ a b HMS CURLEW, AMERICA & WEST INDIES STATION, 1922-25
  6. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 26, 1940, Norway
  7. ^ Mike J. Whitley: Cruisers of World War Two. An International Encyclopedia. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1995, ISBN 1-55750-141-6 , pp. 68 ff.

literature

  • Geoffrey Bennett: Freeing the Baltic. Birlinn, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 1-84341-001-X .
  • 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 .
  • 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