HMS Escort (H66)

HMS escort

The Escort 1937

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type destroyer class E class Shipyard Scotts Shipbuilding , Greenock Build number 557 Order November 1, 1932 Keel laying March 30, 1933 Launch March 29, 1934 Commissioning October 30, 1934 Whereabouts Torpedoed and sunk July 11, 1940

Ship dimensions and crew length 100.28 m ( Lüa ) 97.0 m ( Lpp ) width 10.13 m Draft Max. 3.81 m displacement 1405 ts standard 1940 ts maximum   crew 145 men

Machine system machine 3 Admiralty three drum boilers 2 Parsons - geared turbines Machine performance 36,000 Top speed 36 kn (67 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 4 120 mm Mk.IX naval guns 2 × 4- Vickers 0.5 - antiaircraft -MGs 2 × 4 torpedo tubes (ø 533 mm); 20–35 depth charges with 2 launchers, 1 drainage rail Mine detection equipment Sensors Type 121 sonar

HMS Escort (H66) was one of the eight destroyers of the E-Class of the British Royal Navy . In the Second World War , the destroyer received the Battle Honors "Atlantic 1939-40" and North Sea 1940 .

The escort was torpedoed by the Italian submarine Gugliemo Marconi on July 8, 1940 on the march back to Gibraltar after an aborted attack by Force H on Cagliari . In tow by the Forester , the severely damaged ship was no longer controllable on the 11th and sank after taking over the crew. Only two men of the crew were killed in the loss of the destroyer.

History of the destroyer

The ship was the second E-class destroyer ordered from Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. in Greenock on December 1, 1932. The keel laying of the two newbuildings with construction numbers 556/557 took place on March 30, 1932 and on March 29, 1934 the fifth Escort for the Royal Navy as the sixth destroyer of the class was launched. It was put into service on August 30, 1934. The sister ship Escapade, which was also built by Scotts, was launched or completed two months earlier.

Mission history

Together with her sister ships, the Escort replaced older V and W class destroyers in the “5. Destroyer Flotilla ”at the Home Fleet . The flotilla took part in the West Indies voyage of the fleet from January to March 1935. 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 . The stakes of the Escort in the neutrality patrols found mostly near the northern Spanish coast in the Bay of Biscay instead. 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 Escort was assigned to the reserve fleet in May 1939, which used the destroyer as a training ship. After the inspection by the king, the destroyer formed the 12th destroyer flotilla in Portland with other ships of the E-class from the reserve and was ready for action with a crew consisting largely of reservists when the war broke out.

War missions

On September 3, 1939, the Escort rushed to the aid of the passenger steamer Athenia torpedoed by the German submarine U 30 with the sister ship Electra . In the so-called Athenia incident , the destroyers rescued around 300 survivors alongside the other aid ships.

At the beginning of 1940, the 12th Destroyer Flotilla was stationed in Rosyth and was used to secure convoys between Norway and Great Britain. On February 25, the destroyer was able to sink the German submarine U 63 together with Inglefield and Imogen .

During the Allied attempts to reverse the German occupation of Norway ( Operation Weser Exercise ), the ship was used several times to secure battleships and aircraft carriers of the Home Fleet. In one of the early missions on April 11, the Eclipse, northwest of Trondheim, was bombed. The sister ship, which was unable to maneuver, was finally towed slowly by the escort across the North Sea to the Shetlands .

Two months later, the Admiralty assigned Escort to the newly formed Force H , which was stationed in Gibraltar . She belonged to the remodeled "8th destroyer flotilla" along with Escapade , Faulknor , Fearless , Foxhound , Foresight and Forester . The first task of the new unit was the neutralization of the French navy in Mers-el-Kébir ( Operation Catapult ).

On July 8th later, the Force H advanced again into the Mediterranean to distract the Italians from a convoy approaching from the east. The escort was hit by the Italian submarine Gugliemo Marconi on July 11, 1940 with a torpedo in the boiler room on the march back after the aborted attack on Cagliari . While the unit continued the march back to Gibraltar at high speed, the destroyer Forester took the severely damaged ship in tow and tried to bring in the escort under the protection of the flotilla leader Faulknor . Soon the escort was no longer controllable and sank after taking over the crew. Of this, only two men were killed in the loss of the destroyer.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Service History HMS Escort (H66) -E-class Destroyer
2. ^ Modern Destroyers in reserve
3. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , September 3, 1939 North Atlantic
4. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 18- 25 February 1940 North Sea
5. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 17- 28 June 1940 the North Atlantic / Gibraltar
6. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , July 3, 1940 France / Mediterranean
7. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , July 6-11, 1940 Mediterranean

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

• Chronicle of naval warfare 1939–1945
• Naval history HMS Escort (H66)
• HMS Escort (H 66)
• HMS Escort (H 66)