HMS Duke of York (17)
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The HMS Duke of York , ( 17 ), was a British battleship of the King George V class . She was the third ship of this class, entered service on November 4, 1941, and was involved in several operations during World War II . It was decommissioned in 1949 and scrapped in 1957.
history
On her test drive in December 1941, she brought Prime Minister Winston Churchill to a conference with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt . She reached Annapolis on December 22, 1941. From May 6, 1942 to July 8, 1942 and from July 1946 to April 1949 and then again from July 1949 to September 1951, she was the flagship of the Home Fleet.
In March 1942 she accompanied the Northern Sea Convoy PQ-12 towards the Soviet Union. Her job was to intercept the German battleship Tirpitz , which was lying in northern Norway , in the event that it attacked the convoy. The Tirpitz left her berth on March 6, 1942 and went to sea. However, there was no confrontation, since all German capital ships were instructed to avoid engagements with opponents of equal standing.
In late December 1943, the Duke of York was part of the Home Fleet , securing convoys between Britain and the Soviet Union. Strong British forces were tied up as fleet-in-being by the German surface units , which posed a constant threat. One of these units was the Scharnhorst . During the passage of the JW-55B convoy , the Scharnhorst left its base to attack. In the following naval battle off the North Cape on December 26, 1943, the Duke of York scored a hit in the Scharnhorst boiler room , which made it impossible for her to escape and ultimately led to the sinking of the Scharnhorst 100 km north of the North Cape . After the sinking of the Scharnhorst and the withdrawal of most of the heavy navy units from Norway, it was no longer necessary to station heavy units of the Royal Navy in British waters.
After a modernization in Liverpool during 1944, which also included improvements to the flak, the Duke of York was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet, with which it took part in the Battle of Okinawa . The ship was used for its own aircraft carrier as anti- aircraft protection against Japanese attacks and fired at Japanese positions on various missions. When Japan surrendered, it was the flagship of the Pacific fleet.
After the war, the Duke of York was in service until 1949 before it was scrapped in Faslane in 1957 .
literature
- William H. Garzke Jr., Robert O. Dulin Jr .: British, Soviet, French, and Dutch Battleships of World War II . Jane's Publishing Company Ltd., London 1980, ISBN 0-7106-0078-X , pp. 167-255 (English).
- Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 . Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 , pp. 15 (English).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hugh and David Lyon / Siegfried Greiner: Warships from 1900 to today, technology and use . Buch und Zeit Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 1979, p. 42-43 .