HMS Defender (H07)

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HMS Defender
The Defender in the 1930s
The Defender in the 1930s
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom
Ship type destroyer
class D class
Shipyard Vickers-Armstrong , Barrow ,
Build number 674
Order February 2, 1931
Keel laying June 22, 1931
Launch April 7, 1932
Commissioning October 31, 1932
Whereabouts Sunk by the Luftwaffe on July 11, 1941
Ship dimensions and crew
length
100.3 m ( Lüa )
96.9 m ( Lpp )
width 10.1 m
Draft Max. 3.78 m
displacement 1,375 ts standard
1,890 ts maximum
 
crew 145
Machine system
machine 3 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
2 Parsons - geared turbines
Machine
performance 		36,000 PS (26,478 kW)
Top
speed 		36 kn (67 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
Sensors

Type 121 sonar

HMS Defender (H07) was a D-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy . During the Second World War , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Calabria 1940", "Spartivento 1940", " Malta Convoys 1941 ", "Matapan 1941", "Greece 1941", "Crete 1941" and "Libya 1941".

The destroyer was badly damaged by German bombers on July 11, 1941 on a voyage to supply Tobruk. The attempt to tow the ship failed after five hours and the Vendetta sank the Defender off Sidi Barrani .

The story of the destroyer

When the D-Class was ordered in February 1931, an order for the construction of two destroyers went to the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness ( Cumbria ). This shipyard had built a few destroyers for the Royal Navy between 1895 and 1911. Since 1928 the Arrow , the Keith , as well as Cygnet and Crescent had already received orders for four newbuildings at this shipyard. The keel of the new building with the construction number 674 took place on June 22, 1931, the launch on April 7, 1932 as the sixth Defender for the Royal Navy. This name, first given by the Navy in 1797, was last used by the Acheron- class destroyer Defender built by Denny from 1911 to 1921. The new Defender and at Thornycroft resulting Daring ran on the same day as the first ships of the class from the stack. The Defender came into service with the Navy on October 28, 1932 as the first D-class ship.

Mission history

HMS Defender (H07) and her sister ships in the 1st destroyer flotilla replaced the V and W class destroyers previously used in the Mediterranean fleet . In October and November 1933, the converted flotilla made a trip to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea . In autumn 1934 the nine units of the flotilla were overhauled at naval yards in Great Britain for future use in the Far East. Defender was from September 3 to October 23, 1934 in Devonport Dockyard . She reached Hong Kong with the first sister ships on January 3, 1935 , which again replaced V and W class destroyers in the “8th (1939 then 21st) Destroyer Flotilla” there. The Abyssinia crisis between the United Kingdom and Italy led in the autumn of 1935 to an extensive relocation of the flotilla to the Red Sea and to a renewed subordination to the Mediterranean Fleet. Defender was in the Red Sea from September 1935 to June 1936 and then visited British ports in East Africa. From the beginning of November 1938 to mid-March 1939, the destroyer's boiler system at the naval shipyards in Singapore and Hong Kong was comprehensively renewed. In August 1939 the destroyer belonged to the division of the flotilla, which left the China station for the Mediterranean before the outbreak of war because of the impending war.

War missions

HMS Defender (H07) arrived with the sister ships Decoy , Delight and Duchess on September 19, 1939 in Alexandria and was then used by the Mediterranean Fleet for surveillance measures and the search for contraband on neutral ships. In January 1940 the destroyer moved to Gibraltar . The ship monitored the Portuguese coast until it was moved to Freetown in mid-February to secure convoys from there. In April, the Defender returned from West Africa together with the cruiser Neptune to Gibraltar, where it arrived on April 23, 1940. In May she was assigned to the “10th Destroyer Flotilla” of the Mediterranean Fleet. She accompanied a secured by Ramillies , Kent and the French Suffren convoy with Australian and New Zealand troops from May 12th to 17th together with the Decoy from Aden through the Red Sea to Suez . In the Red Sea, the cruiser Liverpool and the sloop Shoreham temporarily reinforced escorts.

Back in the Mediterranean, Defender participated with Dainty , Ilex and the Australian Voyager in a large-scale anti - submarine operation south of Crete. On June 27, 1940 Defender, Dainty and Ilex were able to sink the Italian submarine Console Generale Liuzzi . In July, the Defender took part in the naval battle at Punta Stilo ( Calabria ), where it formed the safety shield of the association of the Mediterranean Fleet around the carrier Eagle with nine other destroyers, including Dainty . The destroyer was then used in the Aegean Sea to secure convoy, a task that she did again in the Red Sea in October. At the end of October, the destroyer with the cruisers Coventry , Calcutta , the Australian destroyers Waterhen , Vampire and Voyager belonged to the 10th destroyer flotilla to secure the escort that brought Allied troops to Crete , which was occupied by British and Commonwealth troops. The Defender also took part in the other major operations of the year . During the attack on Taranto , it was used to secure the battleships that remained behind when the carrier Illustrious advanced. In the following sea ​​battle at Cape Teulada (Spartivento), it was part of the security of the convoys that crossed the Mediterranean to the west and east. As the skirmish between Force H and the Italian fleet developed, the convoy ME 4 coming from the west evaded with its remaining fuse of four corvettes and the destroyers Duncan and Wishart . Securing the opposing convoy from Alexandria with the cruiser Coventry and the destroyers Defender , Greyhound , Griffin , Gallant and Hereward increased his security and did not take part in the battle.

In early 1941, the destroyer in the 10th Destroyer Flotilla again took an escort at a Malta - Convoy part (Operation Excess). He was also one of the first ships to call at the port of the recently conquered city of Tobruk . The destroyer acquired the Battle Honor for participating in the Battle of Matapan at the end of March 1941, although he was not involved in the actual fighting, but with the cruisers HMS Calcutta and Carlisle and the destroyers Jaguar and the Australian vampires a convoy from Alexandria to Greece accompanied and, if necessary, would have been drawn into the fleet. During the evacuation of mainland Greece in April 1941 ( Operation Demon ) and - a month later - the airborne battle over Crete , the ship was in constant use. Unlike many other ships, the Defender did not suffer any major damage despite massive air strikes.
In June 1941, the destroyer belonged to the 10th Destroyer Flotilla to the support forces of the Navy during the conquest of Syria by Australian, Indian and Free French troops without being involved in combat or bombardment.
At the end of the month, the destroyer began to secure supplies for the beleaguered Tobruk. On June 29, she was sailing to Tobruk with the Australian destroyer Waterhen when she was attacked by Italian and German Ju 87 dive bombers. The Waterhen was seriously damaged by a close hit, was no longer controllable and had a major leak in the engine room. After the air raids ended, the Defender took over large parts of the crew and tried to tow the Waterhen , but it capsized the following day and sank off Bardia .

The end of the Defender

A short time later, on July 11, 1941, the destroyer suffered a similar fate. When he was supposed to bring supplies to the besieged Tobruk fortress , he was attacked by a German Junkers Ju 88 of Lehrgeschwader 1 under Gerhard Stamp . The Defender was not hit, but a bomb exploded under the destroyer and broke the keel. Incoming water put the machine out of action. The Australian destroyer Vendetta accompanying the Defender took over the passengers and most of the crew except for a very small remaining crew and tried to tow the Defender . After five hours, efforts in front of Sidi Barrani had to be abandoned, as the damaged destroyer threatened to break and the tow rope tore. After the residual crew was salvaged, recessed Vendetta the Defender to 31 ° 45 '  N , 25 ° 31'  O coordinates: 31 ° 45 '0 "  N , 25 ° 31' 0"  O .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare, 15.4.- 17.5.1940 Indian Ocean
  2. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare, 27.- 06.30.1940 Mediterranean
  3. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , July 6-11, 1940 Mediterranean
  4. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 11.- 10.26.1940 Indian Ocean / Red Sea
  5. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 29.10.- 02.11.1940 Mediterranean
  6. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , November 24-29, 1940 Mediterranean
  7. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , June 24-30, 1941 Mediterranean
  8. ↑ Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the Sea War 1939–1945, July 1941 , accessed on June 17, 2013

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 .
  • Michael J. Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. An international encyclopedia. Arms and Armor Press, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .

Web links