HMS Durban (D99)
.jpg) Durban during World War II
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The HMS Durban (D99) was a British light cruiser of Danae class , in the May 29, 1919 Greenock , Scotland , was launched .
The ship was sunk off Normandy in June 1944 to create an artificial harbor .
The story of the ship
The cruiser was started in January 1918 at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Greenock as the second newbuilding of this class at the shipyard. After the launch, the new building was handed over to the Devonport Dockyard for completion. In September 1921 the cruiser was delivered as the sixth ship of the class.
Mission history
The Durban was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron at China Station , where she was followed by the sister ships Diomede and Despatch, which were completed after her, in 1922. After the Kanto earthquake in Japan , the cruiser was one of the units that provided aid there. In October 1926, the cruiser briefly returned home for a crew exchange. The renewed march into the Far East took place the following month via South Africa with a visit to the eponymous city in Natal on December 15, 1926. The unrest in China led to a concentration of foreign warships off Shanghai and on the Yangtze . These were not only river cannon boats , but also destroyers and cruisers that were unsuitable for use. So the Durban lay with ten other British ships for some time before Nanking before she was replaced there by the flotilla leader Keppel . In 1928 the cruiser at China Station was replaced by the heavy cruiser Berwick .
The Durban was a new station in Bermuda stationed 8th Cruiser Squadron assigned. The cruiser left the China station for Honolulu and the Canadian naval base Esquimalt . He was already in the area of the North America and West Indies station . He visited Alaska , San Diego and then ran through the Panama Canal and via Jamaica to Bermuda until October 8, 1928, where she replaced the Cairo that had left the squadron . While on duty there, in 1929 she supported the island of Grand Turk, which was devastated by a hurricane . In August 1930 the cruiser was withdrawn from the station. After an overhaul, returned to the squadron in August 1931 and was assigned to the South Atlantic Division . In December 1933, the Durban was replaced there by the heavy cruiser York and returned home.
Her last active peacetime service began in March 1934, which the cruiser spent with the Mediterranean Fleet until September 1936. Durban then returned to Britain and was assigned to the reserve.
Second World War
Reactivated at the beginning of the war, the old cruiser was assigned to the 9th Cruiser Squadron and tasked with monitoring shipping traffic in the South Atlantic between Freetown and Cape Town . The cruiser reached South Africa at the end of September. In the second half of October, he moved via Mauritius and Colombo to Singapore to the China Station, where an overhaul took place in Hong Kong in November. In the following months, the cruiser secured British trade in the South China Sea and between Malaya and India. At the end of March 1940, the Royal Navy formed a Malaya Force to monitor German merchant ships that had sought refuge in the ports of the Dutch East Indies . In addition to the Durban, this unit included her sister ships Danae and Dauntless , the destroyers Stronghold and Tenedos , the Sloop Falmouth and the submarines Perseus and Rainbow . Durban , which lies in front of Padang , monitored the Wuppertal , Bitterfeld , Rhineland from Hapag , the Franks from the NDL and the Soneck from DDG Hansa .
At the beginning of the Pacific War in December 1941, the Durban with the sister ships Danae and Dragon , the destroyers Encounter , Stronghold and Tenedos and four Australian minesweepers belonged to the Allied ships that were left behind in Singapore when parts of the Royal Navy tried in vain to take the Japanese landing fleet to attack. The units left behind were used for escort duties between Singapore and Sunda Straits . There were also six more destroyers in December. At the end of January 1942, the Royal Navy formed a China Force for escort duties between Singapore, the Sunda Strait and Java with the cruisers Danae , Dragon and Durban , the destroyers Jupiter , Encounter , Express , Electra , Stronghold and the Australian vampires and the Indian sloop Jumna and the Australian Yarra . At the beginning of February 1942 the cruisers Canberra , Cornwall , Danae , Dragon , Durban , the destroyer Electra and the sloops Sutlej and Yarra operate in escort service between Ceylon and the Sunda Straits to secure supplies and reinforcements to the Dutch East Indies. In mid-February, the Durban was involved in the evacuation of Singapore and was attacked and damaged while crossing with refugees to Sumatra on February 12th by planes of the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō , which secured the Japanese landing on Sumatra. A bomb hit on the forecastle resulted in the loss of a 152 mm cannon. Since the cruiser had to be repaired, it was forwarded to Colombo by merchant ships from Batavia .
In March, the unrepaired cruiser secured trade in the Indian Ocean. On May 13th, the Durban discovered the German aid ship Doggerbank (ex Speybank ) near Cape Town , which had laid mines off Cape Town . The German auxiliary ship identified itself with correct signals as the sister ship Leverbank and was able to continue. The damaged cruiser crossed the Azores to the United States in March and was repaired in New York, including preparation for the installation of radar and improved anti-submarine sensors. In July he moved to the UK, where new sensors were installed and eight 20mm Oerlikon cannons were placed. The new crew familiarized themselves with the ship at Home Fleet.
From October 4, 1942, Durban accompanied the WS 23 troop escort to South Africa. The auxiliary cruisers Queen of Bermuda and Carthage , the sister ship Despatch and the Greek hunt destroyer Kanaris were at times involved in securing this convoy . After arriving in Durban in early November 1942, the cruiser was again used for security tasks in the Indian Ocean. In late 1942, major repairs to the Durban began in Bombay , which was completed in March 1943.
After the cruiser had escorted troops from Durban to Aden from April 5 to 9, 1943 , it was sent to the Persian Gulf to secure Allied shipping there and to enforce British interests, with Bahrain serving as a base. In June, the cruiser moved to Kilindini Harbor in order to secure Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean from there. On October 23, the ship began to march back from the Seychelles to the United Kingdom , where the no longer needed cruiser arrived Portsmouth in November 1943 and was decommissioned in December.
The end of Durban
In June 1944, the British sank the Durban , her sister ship HMS Dragon and other units off the coast of Normandy as breakwaters to protect the Mulberry harbor there. On June 9, 1944 Durban in the His-bay before Ouistreham as part of the breakwater Gooseberry 5 to 49 ° 21 ' N , 0 ° 16' W sunk .
The ship's bell of Durban is in today chapel of the old British fort in Durban kept.
Footnotes
- ↑ a b HMS DURBAN, CHINA STATION, 1926-28
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. March 23, 1940, Indian Ocean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 12, 1941, Southeast Asia / Malaya
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 20-21 January 1942, Dutch East Indies
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 5th-7th February 1942, Dutch East Indies
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 9-17 February 1942, Dutch East Indies
- ↑ Ships called Durban at: http://www.fad.co.za/Resources/scd/scd.htm
literature
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1921. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1984, ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
- Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
- Norman Friedman: British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, South Yorkshire 2011, ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7 .
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
Web links
- HMS DURBAN - World War 1 D-type Light Cruiser on naval-history.net
- HMS DURBAN, CHINA STATION, 1926–28 on naval-history.net (Photos)
- HMS Durban (D 99) on uboat.net with list of commanders (WWII)
- HMS Durban (1919) on dreadnoughtproject.org
- Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Library for Contemporary History, Württemberg State Library, Stuttgart 2007