HMS Devonshire (39)
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The Royal Navy's seventh HMS Devonshire (39) was a second group heavy cruiser of the county class . The cruisers of this second group were also known as the London class.
The Devonshire brought the Norwegian King Håkon VII out of the country in June 1940 and accompanied him back to Oslo five years later. On November 22, 1941, the cruiser sank the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis in the South Atlantic .
From 1947 to 1953 the cruiser served as a cadet training ship before it was scrapped.
Building history
The County-class heavy cruisers were a result of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 and their limits for cruisers (maximum 10,000 ts , maximum with 203 mm guns). The first seven ships - HMSs Berwick , Cornwall , Cumberland , Kent and Suffolk, and HMAS Australia and Canberra for the Royal Australian Navy - were ordered in 1924, formed the Kent- class, and entered service in 1928.
The Devonshire belonged to the second group of these cruisers in the Royal Navy with HMS London , Shropshire and Sussex . They lacked the torpedo bulbs of the first group, as their value was doubtful in view of the narrow width of the ships. The four cruisers in this group were therefore a little narrower, but also a little longer than the first series and therefore about ¾ knots faster. To replace the missing torpedo bulges, an additional layer of armor plates was attached. The bridge was moved back a little to reduce the impact of the fire in the second front tower. The three chimneys were made higher, as they were improved in the first series only after commissioning.
In 1932 the four cruisers were retrofitted with a catapult and aircraft.
Mission history
The Devonshire first came to the "1st Cruiser Squadron" in the Mediterranean . During a sniper shooting off the island of Skiathos in the Aegean Sea on July 26, 1929, there was a serious accident. The left gun of the “X” turret misfired; Unaware of this, the operator opened the breech and the propellant exploded. The subsequent cargo in the tower also exploded and 17 men died in the tower. The Devonshire had to return to Great Britain for repairs. Because of the accident, the gun locks were changed. It was then no longer possible for the personnel operating the guns to open the breeches without firing a shot.
The Devonshire then went to the China station , but soon returned to the Mediterranean station, where she stayed until 1939. It was in continuous use during the Spanish Civil War . In 1938 the surrender of Menorca to the Falangists was signed on it; the Devonshire subsequently evacuated prominent Republicans.
Use in World War II
Serving as the flagship of the British 1st Cruiser Squadron, Devonshire was in Alexandria when the war began . When the squadron under the later First Sea Lord , John HD Cunningham , was ordered to go home in early November, the cruiser left Alexandria with Suffolk on the 3rd and then with Norfolk on the 8th Gibraltar to reach Plymouth on the 11th. After minor repairs, the Devonshire began service with the Home Fleet on the 21st.
Her first mission took place on the evening of November 23, 1939, when she with the flagship Nelson with Admiral Forbes and the Rodney and seven destroyers of the British 8th destroyer flotilla (Leader Faulknor and Forester , Fortune , Firedrake , Fame , Foresight and Fury ) from the Clyde left for the sea area north of the Shetlands . The move was made on the basis of a report of the auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi Northern Patrol, which is about 145 nautical miles northwest of the Faroe only a German battle cruisers, then a pocket battleship of Germany class had reported. In fact, it was the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , which had already breached the British surveillance line between Scotland and Norway unnoticed and now wanted to advance into the Atlantic. The German ships sank the Rawalpindi , but broke off their now discovered attempt to break through. The British side believed they were looking for the ironclad Germany on its way home, which had passed the British control zones unnoticed more than a week earlier. On the way north, the Home Fleet was joined by the tribal destroyers Somali , Ashanti , Punjabi and Mashona . Because of considerable damage to the sea, the Fame and Foresight had to be dismissed early; the Fortune was sent as a guard boat to Scapa Flow to replace a fully operational destroyer that was still entrusted with guard services. On the 25th, the Devonshire was released from the battleships further north to form a new surveillance line with other cruisers. With the prevailing poor visibility, the German battleships on their march back again passed undetected the British security lines, which were formed by three battleships, more than ten cruisers and more than 20 destroyers, and ran back into Wilhelmshaven at noon on November 27, 1939. On the 29th, the Devonshire began to march back to the Clyde with the Nelson , and two days later the search for the Germans was abandoned.
In early April 1940, the Devonshire was one of the British units that had taken troops on board for the planned landing in Norway ( Operation "R 4" ). After the unloading of the embarked troops she went on April 8 from Rosyth again under Vice Admiral Cunningham with the cruisers Berwick , York , Glasgow and the six destroyers. Afridi , Gurkha , Sikh , Mohawk , Zulu and Cossack in See. On the 9th, the Devonshire belonged to the main part of the Home Fleet about 100 nm southwest of Bergen , which was to be occupied by a task force. Massive attacks by the air force lead to the termination of this company. The Devonshire was also damaged in the air raids.
However, she stayed with the Home Fleet Association and advanced on the 11th with the battleships Rodney , Valiant and Warspite , the carrier Furious , the heavy cruisers Berwick and York against Trondheim. The attack by torpedo planes of the Furious against the German destroyers who had stayed behind was unsuccessful - the Admiral Hipper had left unnoticed and escaped to the south. In an attack by ten Heinkel He 111 of III./KG.26 against the British unit, the Furious was missed and only the destroyer Eclipse was damaged by two hits. In the evening, the Devonshire with Berwick and York began the search for German forces on the Norwegian coast between Trondheim and the Vestfjord , which was later extended to Kirkenes . Submarine attacks against the association failed due to torpedo failures.
At the beginning of May 1940, the Devonshire , still as the flagship of Cunningham, formed the cover group for the evacuation of Allied troops from Namsos with the French Montcalm and the destroyers HMS Grenade , Griffin and Imperial .
On June 7, 1940, the Devonshire evacuated from Tromsø the Norwegian King Haakon VII with his family, government officials and Allied diplomats. The cruiser had a total of 461 passengers on board. About 50 nautical miles away, it passed the battle in which the carrier Glorious and his two destroyer companions were destroyed by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau . The commanders of the cruiser had strict orders to avoid any danger to the evacuees.
In August 1940, the Devonshire were among the British forces that were supposed to support the Free French attempt to win Dakar . In addition to the battleships Barham and Resolution and the cruiser Cumberland and the Australian Australia, she participated in the bombardment of the French naval base and the city on 24/25. September part. The troops and naval units loyal to Vichy defended themselves successfully and General de Gaulle ordered the operation to be aborted in order not to shed more French blood.
To protect French Cameroon, a British brigade of 1,564 soldiers were transported from Freetown to Duala on October 2, 1940, on board the Westernland transport, secured by the Devonshire , four British destroyers and three Free French sloops. The troops were withdrawn from the 7th and on October 9, 1940 General de Gaulle went ashore from the minesweeper Commandant Duboc in Duala and hoisted the free French flag on French territory for the first time.
When the Free French attacked Libreville (Gabon) with troops of the Foreign Legion in early November 1940 , the Devonshire secured this operation at sea with the cruiser Delhi . The Vichy-French submarine Poncelet was attacked by the Devonshire aircraft and eventually forced to surface by the Sloop Milford with depth charges and sank itself.
In addition to supporting the Free French forces, the Devonshire stationed in Freetown also had the task of securing merchant shipping in the central and south Atlantic. On November 23rd, she took over the security of the troop escort WS 4B in the mid-Atlantic with ten large transporters from the Norfolk , which transported 23,800 men from Great Britain to Egypt . Beyond Freetown and Durban , the Devonshire accompanied the convoy until December 16, when it was replaced by the Shropshire in the Indian Ocean . In addition to the Devonshire , the Cumberland and then the Hawkins were also with the convoy.
Returning to Durban, the Devonshire searched in January 1941 next to the Norfolk and the auxiliary cruiser Arawa in the South Atlantic for the German auxiliary cruiser Ship 41 / Kormoran and then ran back to Great Britain via Freetown for overhaul. The ship, which arrived in March, received new radar equipment and significantly increased anti-aircraft armament in Liverpool.
In June 1941 the Devonshire was operational again and took service with the Home Fleet. At the end of July she was part of the "Force P" which attacked Kirkenes and Petsamo with the aircraft carriers Furious and Victorious in support of the new ally, the Soviet Union. At the end of August, the cruiser was part of the remote security of the first Dervish test convoy with seven merchant ships from Hvalfjörður (Iceland) to Arkhangelsk . To fuel supplement the cruiser on 30 August and 7 September ran Spitsbergen on.
In October 1941 the Devonshire relocated to the South Atlantic to secure the troop escort WS 12 with over 30,000 soldiers. She was replaced in South Africa and provided with the cruiser Colombo and the auxiliary cruisers Carthage and Carnarvon Castle a convoy of the Vichy French of five ships coming via Madagascar from Indochina - Compiègne (9986 GRT), Bangkok (8056 GRT), Cap Touraine (8009 GRT ), Cap Padaran (8009 GRT) and Commandant Dorise (5529 GRT) - which were brought to South Africa and confiscated while the only security vehicle in the convoy, the Sloop D'Iberville , was able to pass unhindered. The French ships were discovered by Martin Maryland of the South African Air Force who were looking for them and brought the cruisers to them . A protest by the Vichy government against the seizure for the transport of food was ignored.
On November 13, 1941, the Devonshire went back to sea to look for a German submarine supplier. The British radio evaluation had not been able to decipher the radio traffic of the German submarines in the South Atlantic, but narrowed down the sea area in which they were supplied. The Dorsetshire , Dunedin and Carnavon Castle were looking for possible submarine suppliers in the South Atlantic. The Devonshire should also use their march back to Freetown for a search. North of Ascension , the cruiser's Supermarine Walrus aircraft discovered the German auxiliary cruiser Schiff 16 / Atlantis on November 22, 1941 while supplying U 126 . The Devonshire opened fire at a distance of 15 km, scored hits and stayed at the distance that the auxiliary cruiser did not allow any resistance. When the damaged Atlantis sank itself, the Devonshire expired because of the submarine danger without taking care of the castaways who had left their ship in an orderly manner. The submerged waiting for the approach of the cruiser U 126 took the wounded below deck after the Devonshire had passed and the auxiliary cruiser crew with their boats in tow, almost all of which finally reached home.
The Devonshire was overtaken in Norfolk, Virginia from January to March 1942 and then returned to the South Atlantic. She accompanied two US troop transports destined for West Africa and Ascension with the cruisers USS Cincinnati and Memphis and eight destroyers. From April onwards, it secured the deployment of forces for the British landing near Diego Suarez in Madagascar.
The cruiser spent the rest of the year protecting the trade routes in the Indian Ocean and occasionally searching for submarine suppliers.
In February 1943 the Devonshire secured the convoy Pamphlet with the cruiser Gambia , which was carried by the passenger ships Queen Mary (80,774 GRT), Aquitania (45,647 GRT), Ile de France (42,050 GRT), Nieuw Amsterdam (36,287 GRT) and Queen of Bermuda ( 22,575 GRT) brought 30,000 Australian soldiers home from the Middle East. On February 18, the cruiser left the Fremantle convoy upon reaching Australia and returned to the British Eastern Fleet . In March the Devonshire started her return journey via South Africa and Freetown to Great Britain for a major overhaul. This began in Newcastle upon Tyne in May 1943 and lasted until March 1944.
After training for a possible operation in support of the invasion of Normandy, the Devonshire was used to secure porters of the Home Fleet. On 17 July 1944, a carrier unsuccessful raid took place against the Altafjord lying Tirpitz instead. On August 10, she was involved in an attack by the Indefatigable and two escort carriers against the German airfield Gossen near Kristiansand and the shipping traffic off the Norwegian coast. At the end of August, she secured the porters of the Home Fleet again in an attack on the Tirpitz , with the convoy JW 59 also secured.
Further missions took place in mid-September in the Stadlandet area , at the end of October in the Ålesund area and again on December 14 against shipping traffic off Stadlandet, where 30 Ju-88 torpedo aircraft of the II / KG.26 were used against the association , which the British ships do not found.
Tasks after the end of the war
On May 13, 1945, the Devonshire ran with the miners Ariadne and Apollo - who had the Norwegian Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government in exile on board - and four destroyers in Oslo . On the same day, the cruiser moved with the destroyers Iroquois and Savage to Copenhagen, where they replaced the Birmingham and two destroyers as guard ships. From May 24th to 26th, Devonshire , Iroquois and Savage will accompany the German cruisers Prinz Eugen and Nürnberg from Copenhagen to Wilhelmshaven together with the cruiser Dido .
On June 5-7, the Devonshire accompanied the destroyers Onslow , Obdurate , Orwell and the Norwegian Stord to King Håkon VII , returning home on the HMS Norfolk , who was enthusiastically received in Oslo. The British units attended the Oslo celebrations for five days.
Then the Devonshire was prepared as a troop transport. On June 29, 1945 she ran for the first time in this task from Plymouth to Australia. Until January 1946, the Devonshire transported troops, freed prisoners of war and officials to overseas stations or back home. After that, the heavy cruiser was converted into the new cadet training ship of the Royal Navy. Only a front tower remained of the heavy artillery. In addition, two 102-mm twin guns and one twin / single Oerlikon automatic cannon remained on board. A quadruple 2 pdr pom pom gun and a single 40 mm Bofors gun were installed. Four old 47 mm Hotchkiss cannons were also set up as salute guns. In the new task the crew consisted of 48 officers and 560 men; in addition there were 227 cadets . The machine was only operated with half of the boilers (4), the maximum possible speed was now limited to 21 knots. The ship remained in the new task until 1953 and took part in the Great Fleet Parade on the occasion of the coronation of Elizabeth II in June 1953 . Life on board is described in John Winton's We Joined the Navy . On June 16, 1954, the Devonshire was sold for demolition, which took place from mid-December 1954 in Newport , Wales at the company John Cashmore Ltd.
literature
- JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy. Chatham London (Rev.ed. 2006), ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Koehler's publishing company, Herford,
- Leo Marriott: Catapult Aircraft: Seaplanes That Flew From Ships Without Flight Decks. Pen & Sword Books, 2006, ISBN 1-84415-419-X
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
Web links
- The service history of Devonshire (Engl.)
- HMS Devonshire (39)
- LONDON heavy cruisers (1929) (engl.)
- Mishap 26th July 1929
- CB Koester: The Liberation of Oslo and Copenhagen: a midshipman's memoir (engl.)
- Cadet Training Cruiser 1949
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rohwer, 21. – 27. November 1939, North Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer, 7–8. April 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer, April 9, 1940, Norway
- ↑ Rohwer, November 11-13 April 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer, 1. – 3. May 1940, Norway
- ↑ Rohwer, 2. – 9. October 1940, Central Atlantic / Cameroon
- ↑ Rohwer, 7-11.08.1940 Central Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer, November 1st – 28th December 1940, Atlantic / Indian Ocean
- ↑ Rohwer, 6. – 29. January 1941, South Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer, 1. – 7. November 1941, Indian Ocean
- ^ Rohwer, April 25 - May 4, 1942, Indian Ocean
- ↑ Rohwer, April 4th – 27th February 1943, Indian Ocean
- ^ Rohwer, July 17, 1944, Norway
- ↑ Rohwer, 9. – 11. August 1944, Norway
- ^ Rohwer, August 15 - September 6, 1944, Nordmeer
- ↑ Rohwer, December 12-14 September 1944, Norway
- ^ Rohwer, October 24 - November 4, 1944, Norway
- ↑ Rohwer, 7-14 May December 1944, Norway
- ↑ Sources speak of tower A, some of tower B.
- ^ Souvenir Program: Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953. HMSO, Gale and Polden