HMS Escapade (H17)
 The Escapade 1945; the censorship has removed the squid thrower in position A and the identifier
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HMS Escapade (H17) was the first of the eight E-class destroyers of the British Royal Navy to be completed . During the Second World War , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Atlantic 1939-1945", "Norway 1940", "Artic 1941-42", " Malta Convoys 1942 " and "North Africa 1942".
The Escapade was the only ship of the E-Class in the service of the Royal Navy and was used in the war in June 1945 in the "1st Training Flotilla". It was decommissioned in 1946 and sold for demolition in May 1947.
history
The eight destroyers of the 1931 (E-class) and 1932 (F-class) programs largely corresponded to the four previous classes. The destroyers of the E- and F-class, however, had improved and enlarged superstructures and for the first time carried equipment for anti-submarine defense and a mine detection facility. In order to avoid a feared loss of speed, they had an improved hull shape, which was selected after extensive research. On December 1, 1932, the Admiralty ordered the eight E-class destroyers, two of them from Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. in Greenock , where two A-class destroyers, Anthony and Ardent, had already been built. The keel laying of the newbuildings with construction numbers 556/557 took place on March 30, 1932 and on January 30, 1934, the Escapade was the first of the eight destroyers of the class to be launched. On August 30, 1934, the ship was the first of the class in the service of the Royal Navy; for the first time a Navy ship was named Escapade . The sister ship Escort , which was also built by Scotts, was completed two months later.
Mission history
Together with her sister ships, the Escapade replaced older V and W class destroyers in the “5. Destroyer Flotilla ”at the Home Fleet, which took part in the fleet's West India voyage from January to March 1935. On June 18, the Escapade collided with her sister ship Encounter off Portland and suffered only minor damage. Because of the Abyssinia crisis , the flotilla was seconded to the Mediterranean Fleet from September 1935 to March 1936 . During the Spanish Civil War , the units of the 5th Flotilla were used in the so-called neutrality patrols to enforce the decisions of the Committee for Non-Interference in the Affairs of Spain . Escapade had five such missions between January 1937 and March 1939. There was another collision with a sister ship when her engine failed during a maneuvering exercise and the Eclipse could no longer avoid her. The damage was repaired in Gibraltar . In 1939, the ships of the E-class were replaced by the newly arriving K-class destroyers in the flotilla, which was renumbered "7th destroyer flotilla". The Escapade came to the reserve fleet in Devonport on June 16, 1939 , but was put back into service on August 2 with a crew consisting largely of reservists in order to take part in the inspection of the reserve fleet by the king . The E-class destroyers already assigned to the reserve then formed the 12th destroyer flotilla in Portland for security tasks in the canal , without the miners Esk and Express and the Echo still deployed in the 7th flotilla .
War missions
In 1939 the destroyer performed security tasks with the units of the 12th Flotilla in the south-western access routes to the British Isles. At the end of the year, the flotilla then moved to Rosyth to protect trade between the United Kingdom and Scandinavia against possible German attacks. When the Germans attacked Denmark and Norway at the beginning of April 1940 ( Operation Weser Exercise ), on April 7 the Escapade belonged to the first association of the Royal Navy, which left with the cruisers Arethusa and Galatea and the other destroyers Codrington , Griffin and Electra , around the Germans Investigate ship movements off the Norwegian coast. In the following period, the destroyer was used several times to secure ships of the Home Fleet during attempts to repel the German occupation of Norway.
Use in the Mediterranean and off West Africa
From 17th to 23rd June 1940 moved the battle cruiser Hood and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal with the destroyers Escapade , Faulknor , Fearless and Foxhound ("8th Destroyer Flotilla") from Scapa Flow to Gibraltar. After the arrival of the battleships Resolution and Valiant , the cruisers Enterprise and Arethusa and the destroyers Escort , Foresight and Forester , the association was called Force H with the arrival of Commander Sommerville and was with the "13th Destroyer Flotilla" (eight older destroyers ) for the following war years one of the most important naval units of the Royal Navy. The Escapade was involved in various operations of this association and then in September 1940 also in the failed attempt to occupy Dakar ( Operation Menace ), and then in October in the occupation of French Cameroon by Free French and British troops. For these missions to create a French territory controlled by the Free French, the Home Fleet and Force H formed a special association under Admiral John Cunningham . In November 1940, the Escapade returned to the Home Fleet in the home waters.
In service from 1941
In the period that followed, the focus of the ship's mission was securing convoys to and from the British Isles. After the German attack on the Soviet Union , the convoys of the North Sea were added to the convoys across the Atlantic . The first use of the destroyer in support of the new allied took place in late July 1941, when he secured attacks of the aircraft carriers Furious and Victorious on Kirkenes and Petsamo with the heavy cruisers Devonshire and Suffolk and the destroyers Echo , Eclipse and Intrepid . To give the destroyers the necessary range, they were supplied by the tanker Black Ranger in the North Sea , secured by two other destroyers.
The end of August was followed by the long-distance coverage of Versuchsgeleitzugs Dervish and the end of September to secure the convoy PQ 1 with the Suffolk and the destroyer Impulsive , Anthony and Antelope and four minesweepers of the Halcyon class . The convoy reached Arkhangelsk on October 11th without touching the enemy. In December 1941, another mission followed with the cruiser Edinburgh and the destroyer Echo on the convoy PQ 6 , which reached Murmansk even without contact with the enemy . It is true that the 8th German destroyer flotilla with Z 23 , Z 24 , Z 25 and Z 27 advanced along the Kola coast in ignorance of the convoy and encountered Hazard and Speedy , who had left to take up convoy PQ 6 and who were mistakenly addressed as Russian destroyers were. The British minesweepers took on the hopeless battle to warn the expected convoy, Speedy received four hits, but was able to escape. The German destroyers, believing that they had sunk a destroyer, and in the right expectation that stronger forces from Murmansk would rush to help, broke off the battle.
In 1942 the Escapade was involved in the long-range cover group as a security destroyer in the convoys QP 4, PQ 13 , QP 9, PQ 14 , QP 10 , PQ 15 , QP 11 and QP 12 until the summer.
In June 1942 he was used with many other units of the Home Fleet in Operation Harpoon to secure the preservation of Malta as a British base. Malta. This was followed by another deployment in the North Sea in the long-range coverage group of convoy PQ 17 .
After an overhaul, the destroyer Escapade performed some special tasks and was then called in in November 1942 to support the Allied landings in North Africa ( Operation Torch ).
Submarine hunter
With increased anti -submarine and anti-aircraft armament, the destroyer was used from the beginning of 1943 to secure convoy trains in the North Atlantic . He was also involved in the sinking of a German submarine ( U 752 ) in May 1943 . He was used in the "3rd Escort Group (B3)", which also included the Polish destroyers Garland , Burza and the British Harvester, as well as a number of British and Free French corvettes .
From the beginning of June to the beginning of September 1943, the Escapade in Cardiff was overhauled and also received a split Hedgehog launcher on the side of the B gun. On September 20, 1943, it was badly damaged in a premature explosion by grenades from its Hedgehog launcher. The destroyer had to cancel its escort mission and was finally repaired at the naval shipyard in Portsmouth. The ship was re-armed and received two new Squid launchers instead of the bow gun. The rear gun and the 76 mm-12 pdr anti-aircraft gun installed in 1940 in place of the rear torpedo tube set were also expanded in favor of a larger depth of depth charge. After more than 15 months of repairs, the destroyer was preparing for new missions in January 1945. He remained in use in the British coastal area and transported Norwegian personnel home in May 1945. From June 1945 the destroyer was used in the "1st Training Flotilla" for training anti-submarine defense.
After the war ended, Escapade was removed from the Royal Navy list of active ships in 1946 and sold for scrapping, which began in Grangemouth in the summer of 1947 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Service History HMS Escapade (H17) - E-class Destroyer
- ↑ ROYAL NAVY SHIPS, September 1939
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , 7. – 8.4.1940 Norway
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 17.- 28.06.1940 North Atlantic / Gibraltar
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 22.7.- 8.4.1941 North Sea
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 28.9.-10.11.41 Arctic Ocean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , December 8-23, 1941, North Sea
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 .
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms and Armor Press, London 1988 ISBN 0-85368-910-5
Web links
HMS Exmouth (Flotilla Leader ) †
Echo / Navarion 
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Eclipse † |
Electra † |
Encounter † |
Escapade |
Escort † |
Esk |
Express / Gatineau .svg){kind=small}
HMS Faulknor (Flotilla Leader)
Fame / Generalissimo 
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Fearless † |
Firedrake † |
Foresight † |
Forester |
Fortune / Saskatchewan |
Foxhound / Qu'Appelle |
Fury †