HMS Daring (H16)

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HMS Daring
The daring in China colors
The daring in China colors
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom
Ship type destroyer
class D class
Shipyard Thornycroft , Woolston near Southampton
Order February 2, 1931
Keel laying June 18, 1931
Launch April 7, 1932
Commissioning November 26, 1932
Whereabouts Sunk February 18, 1940
Ship dimensions and crew
length
100.3 m ( Lüa )
96.9 m ( Lpp )
width 10.1 m
Draft Max. 3.76 m
displacement 1,375 ts standard
1,890 ts maximum
 
crew 145
Machine system
machine 3 Admiralty three drum boilers
2 Parsons - geared turbines
Machine
performance 		36,000
Top
speed 		36 kn (67 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
Sensors

Type 121 sonar

HMS Daring (H16) was a destroyer of the D-class of the British Royal Navy . The destroyer, stationed in China at the beginning of World War II , moved to the Mediterranean in September 1939 and then to home in January 1940.
As early as February 18, 1940 he sank after a torpedo hit by the German U- 23 submarine under Lieutenant Otto Kretschmer .

History of the ship

The Daring was one of the two D-class destroyers ordered on February 2, 1931 from John I. Thornycroft & Company in Woolston near Southampton . The keel of the first ship of this order to the shipyard followed on June 18, 1931, one week before the second order Decoy (hull number 1108). The Daring was launched on April 7, 1932, when the lead ship of the class, Defender , floated up at Vickers in Barrow . The Navy's fifth Daring entered service on November 24, 1932 as the third D-class destroyer. Its name predecessor was the torpedo boat destroyer Daring , also built by Thornycroft , which was built in Chiswick , the former location of the shipyard in London and was in service with the Royal Navy from 1895 to 1912.

Mission history

The units of the D-Class replaced from the end of 1932 in the British Mediterranean fleet in the 1st destroyer ( "1st destroyer flotilla ') a previously from the Montrose guided flotilla of destroyers of the V- and W-class . In the autumn of 1933 the newly equipped flotilla made a trip through the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf . At the end of 1934, the flotilla exchanged names and stationing location with the “8th Destroyer Flotilla” of V and W destroyers at the China station, which is operated by the Keppel . All nine ships of the flotilla were overhauled at state shipyards in Great Britain before this transfer, for example the Daring at Sheerness Dockyard in September / October 1934. In January 1935, the Daring then arrived in Singapore , where her commander, Louis Mountbatten , later 1. Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who had commanded the destroyer since April 29, 1934, exchanged command with Commander Geoffrey Barnard of the Wishart . In the following years until the outbreak of war in 1939, the Daring stayed in the Far East. When in May 1939 the tribal destroyer flotillas were classified in the numbering system of the destroyer flotillas, the (8th) flotilla stationed in Hong Kong was given the designation "21st Destroyer Flotilla". When the Second World War broke out in 1939 , a division of the flotilla was already on its way to the Mediterranean as part of the incoming British mobilization , while the Daring was still in Singapore after a shipyard layover.

Operations in World War

On September 3, 1939, the destroyer left the main British base in the Far East to explore the sea area around Padang , as it was expected that German merchant ships would seek protection there. However, the operation had to be canceled on the first evening due to machine problems. On September 14, 1939, the destroyer left the station with the sister ships Duncan and Dainty, which had arrived from Hong Kong , to move via Colombo and Aden to the Mediterranean, where the destroyers joined the Mediterranean Fleet in Alexandria at the end of the month . At the beginning of October, the Daring moved with the battleship Malaya , the aircraft carrier Glorious and the destroyer Bulldog through the Red Sea back to Aden. When the Glorious formed a search group for the Indian Ocean, the Daring stayed in Aden to observe the ports of Italian East Africa and the Italian naval units there. In November the destroyer ran back into the Mediterranean and was overtaken in Malta. He then went to Gibraltar in order to guide the South Africa liner Dunnottar Castle together with the sloop Scarborough for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser to Belfast at the end of December .

From the end of January 1940, the Daring was used in the waters around the British Isles . The ship was assigned to the 3rd Flotilla, which was part of the Home Fleet . Like almost all destroyers of the Home Fleet, it was regularly used for submarine hunts and as an escort for convoys to Norway.

The end of daring

The liberation of the prisoners on the German utility Altmark on February 16, 1940 in Norwegian territorial waters triggered an increased presence of British naval forces between Norway and the British Isles, as the Admiralty expected a reaction from the German Navy . The Daring ran from Rosyth on the 15th to meet convoy HN.12 from Bergen . The convoy, consisting of more than 20 mostly neutral merchant ships, had set sail with four destroyers, a submarine and the anti-aircraft cruiser Calcutta secured . However, some of the destroyers were no longer available for security because of special tasks on the 17th when the Daring escorted. On February 18, 1940, the Daring was torpedoed east of Duncansby Head , Scotland , by U 23 (Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer ). The destroyer lost its stern as a result of the torpedo hit, capsized and sank quickly. The submarine Thistle accompanying the convoy had watched the sinking and was able to save five shipwrecked people. 157 of the crew but died in the sinking of the Daring to 58 ° 39 '  N , 1 ° 40'  W coordinates: 58 ° 39 '0 "  N , 1 ° 40' 0"  W .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German : Amazon to Ivanhoe. Pp. 51, 59.
  2. ^ Message from Earl Mountbatten
  3. ↑ German : Amazon to Ivanhoe , p. 54
  4. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SHIPS, SEPTEMBER 1939, China Station
  5. ↑ CONVOY HN 12 - Norway-UK
  6. ↑ German : Amazon to Ivanhoe , p. 52ff.
  7. ↑ NAVAL EVENTS, FEBRUARY 1940

literature

  • John English: Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. World Ship Society, Kendal 1993, ISBN 0-905617-64-9 .
  • Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2009, ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8 .
  • MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms and Armor Press, London 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .

Web links