HMS Effingham (D98)
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The HMS Effingham was a Hawkins- class cruiser of the Royal Navy . The ship was named after the 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham ( Charles Howard ) who defeated the Spanish Armada as Commander-in-Chief of the English fleet in 1588 . According to the provisions of the Washington Naval Agreement , the ship was initially classified as a heavy cruiser , after being embraced in 1938 as a light cruiser .
The Effingham was after World War I finished and went on May 17, 1940 during the Norway campaign by stranding lost.
She was the only ship in the Royal Navy that bore the name Effingham . However, the name was given in 1943 to a training facility for special forces in the British Navy.
Construction and remodeling
She was in on 6 April 1917 Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth set to Kiel . In November 1917 it was decided to install two oil-fired narrow-tube boilers instead of the four coal-fired boilers provided, so that the ship received ten oil-fired boilers. After this measure, the power was given as 65,000 wave horsepower . The Effingham was launched on June 8, 1921 and was completed on June 2, 1925.
By 1932, the 7.6 cm guns had been replaced by three 10.2 cm anti-aircraft guns in single mounts.
From September 1936 to June 1938, the Effingham was rebuilt in the Devonport naval yard . The two rearmost boilers were removed and the vents of the eight remaining boilers were combined in a chimney, creating space for a catapult on deck. After that, the propulsion system produced 56,000 shaft horsepower for 29 knots. The former boiler room was used for additional fuel bunkers, increasing the fuel supply to 2,150 tn. l. increased.
All seven 19.1 cm guns were removed and replaced by nine 15.2 cm guns, also in single mounts with shields. Three guns each were raised in front and rear instead of the original two raised mounts, the other three 15.2 tubes replaced the previous guns in the positions amidships on the sides of the ship and at the very back on the aft deck. Presumably the guns came from the ships Coventry and Curlew , which had been converted into anti-aircraft cruisers . The two underwater torpedo tubes were expanded.
In addition, it was to receive a modernized air defense system consisting of eight 10.2 cm guns in four double mounts, two 2-pounder octopus mounts , two 12.7 mm machine-gun quadruples and two HACS Mk III * anti-aircraft fire control devices. At the end of the shipyard layover, however, only the MG quadrupeds were installed, as well as four 10.2 cm single mounts as an interim solution. Obviously the ship had only a low priority. The intended catapult was also missing.
The 10.2 cm double mounts, guide devices and a catapult were installed in Weymouth shortly before the reserve fleet inspection in August 1939. The 2-pounder came on board in a further layover period from January to March 1940 in Portsmouth, and the boiler was also re-tubed.
history
Interwar period
The ship served as the flagship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the East Indian station between 1925 and 1932 . Then she served as the flagship of the reserve fleet.
Second World War
At the beginning of the Second World War, the cruiser was patrolling the North Atlantic as part of the “ Northern Patrol ”. From October until the end of 1939, the ship was used to secure convoy and to hunt German merchant troublemakers and merchant ships. Effingham also transported gold reserves valued at two million pounds sterling to Halifax on Nova Scotia , Canada .
After her last stay in the shipyard, the ship was used in the waters there during the German occupation of Norway. On April 19, 1940, she was unsuccessfully attacked by the German submarine U 38 southwest of Lofoten . Effingham shelled German positions in the Narvik area until mid-May .
Last bet and loss
On her last voyage, the Effingham was part of an association under Rear Admiral G. Vivian, which also consisted of the two flak cruisers Coventry (flagship) and Cairo and the two destroyers Echo and Matabele . The Effingham had over a thousand soldiers, ten Universal Carriers and around 130 tons of supplies on board. The association left Harstad on May 17, 1940 with the destination Bodø . In order not to expose itself to air attacks in the narrow waters of Tjeldsund and Vestfjord , the association chose a route across the open sea northwest of Lofoten , in order to approach Bodø from the west. Since there was a risk of submarine attacks in the main fairway to Bodø, a control further north between the island of Bliksvær and the island group of Terra was chosen at the suggestion of the Effingham commander . The Effingham sat at the head of the cruiser at 19:15, as she had a large-scale nautical chart. The destroyers ran ahead as backup, the Matabele in the keel line and the Echo on starboard .
At around 7.45 p.m., when the formation was changing course to starboard, the Matabele first touched a reef in the Faksen shoal and lost a propeller in the process. Shortly afterwards, the Effingham hit the Faksen reef hard at 22 kn . The Coventry that followed her also had a slight grounding on her stern.
On the Effingham , all boiler rooms and engine rooms were quickly flooded, causing it to lose electrical energy. The water seeped into other compartments and the ship began to sink on a level keel. The Echo came alongside and took over 1,300 troops and crew. Without propulsion, the Effingham drifted in an arc to the southeast and finally ran aground about 4.5 km from the stranding place in the shallow water north of the island of Skjoldsholmen, seven nautical miles from Bodø. There were no loss of life to complain about in the accident.
By the morning of the following May 18, 1940, the Echo, together with Norwegian coastal vessels, recovered part of the cargo. Then the Echo torpedoed the wreck, which then toppled to starboard. According to some sources, the wreck was destroyed by gunfire by the British Navy on May 21, 1940. Against it speaks that the combat report mentions nothing of this and that the British commander in the Narvik area, Fleet Admiral William Henry Dudley Boyle, had the condition of the wreck determined on May 25 with a view to possible salvage.
After the war, the wreck of the Effingham was demolished by a Norwegian company.
Investigation and cause of loss
Immediately after the sinking, the British Admiralty announced that the Effingham had run aground on an unmapped rock. However, even a large-scale map published in 1991 by the Royal Navy hydrograph shows no such rock in the area in question (between the Faksen Reef and the island of Bliksvær).
It was not until July 27, 1940 that the hearing on the loss of the ship was held. There is no complete report on this. After the commander of the Echo remembered , the committee of inquiry came to the conclusion that the symbol for the Faksen reef recorded on the Norwegian nautical charts used was not understood and so the course was set across the reef. Another version can be found in the literature that when the course was drawn in, the pencil line was drawn over the reef so that it was no longer recognizable. According to the memoirs of the Effingham's commander , he was reprimanded as a result of the investigation for not maintaining sufficient distance from a known shoal and for not critically questioning the navigational instructions of his flag officer.
Richard NJ Wright held the stranding explanation wrong because it did not match the facts. On the section of the route in question, the Effingham was supposed to steer a course of 080 degrees, which was aimed at the northern (left in the direction of travel) end of the small island of Svartskj. The course changes on course 097 degrees (during which the Matabele hit the ground) should be carried out as soon as the island of Sjursholmen was bearing at 97 degrees (17 degrees starboard) from the Effingham . Such a course would have led the association about 360 m (2 cable lengths ) south of the reef; a corresponding pencil line on the map could not have covered the reef at all. In order to touch (or draw over) the Faksen Reef using the left edge of Svartskj as a landmark , the offset course should have been 085 degrees.
Wright therefore argues that the ship's command of the Effingham, instead of the island of Svartksj, was aiming for the neighboring island of Store Terranuken. During the last course correction at 19:42, the two islands could already have overlapped. Such a course would have taken the association towards the southern edge of the Faksen Reef. The planned course change would still have taken place around 360 m (2 cable lengths) in front of the reef. However, a bearing error of 0.5 degrees with respect to the island of Sjursholmen is large enough that the course change by this distance would be carried out too late and therefore on the south edge of the reef. The loss of the Effingham would thus be due to the combination of two navigation errors when trying to follow the planned course.
literature
- Norman Friedman: British Cruisers. Two World Wars and after. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2012, ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01842-X .
- Richard NJ Wright: The Stranding, Grounding and Destruction of HMS Effingham , 1940. In: John Jordan, Stephan Dent (eds.): Warship 2011 . Conway, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-84486-133-0 , pp. 168-174.
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d e f Official design data from Friedman: British Cruisers , p. 390.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Whitley: Kreuzer im Second World War , pp. 88–91.
- ^ Friedman: British Cruisers , p. 69, footnote 36 and p. 73.
- ^ Friedman: British Cruisers , p. 69.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Wright: The Stranding… of HMS Effingham , 1940. In: Warship 2011.
- ^ According to Friedman: British Cruisers , p. 73: 61,000 hp.
- ^ Friedman: British Cruisers , p. 73.
- ^ Friedman: British Cruisers , p. 73.
- ↑ From which probably part of the main armament of the Effingham came.
- ↑ Wright apparently uses the Imperial cable length of 800 feet in his article .