HMS Eskimo (F75)

This article covers the destroyer; for other Royal Navy ships with the same name, see HMS Eskimo .

Eskimo

Eskimo in May 1940 after losing the fore ship to torpedo hits

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type destroyer class Tribal class Shipyard Vickers-Armstrong's Newcastle Build number 8th Keel laying August 5, 1936 Launch September 3, 1937 Commissioning December 30, 1938 Whereabouts Sold for demolition in 1949

Ship dimensions and crew length 114.9 m ( Lüa ) 108.4 m ( Lpp ) width 11.12 m Draft Max. 2.75 m displacement Standard : 1,854 ts maximum: 2,519 ts   crew 190-217 men

Machine system machine 3 Admiralty three drum boilers 2 Parsons - geared turbines Machine performance 44,000 PS (32,362 kW) Top speed 36 kn (67 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 4 × 2 120 mm L / 45 Mk XII guns 1 × 4 40 mm 2pdr-L / 39 - Flak 2 × 4 heavy 12.7 mm AA guns 1 × 4 533 mm torpedo tubes 30 depth charges , 2 launchers last 3 × 2 120 mm L / 45 Mk XII guns 1 × 2 102 mm L / 45 Mk XIX flak 1 × 4 40mm 2pdr L / 39 flak 4 × 2 and 2 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannons 1 × 4 torpedo tubes 533 mm Ø 46 depth charges , 2 launchers Sensors Sonar type 127 7.1941: Radar , mf. mod. 5.1942: Huff-Duff

HMS Eskimo ( ship identification : F75, G75, L75) was one of the 16 (second) Tribal class destroyers of the British Royal Navy . During the Second World War, the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Norway 1940–41", "Narvik 1940", "Arctic 1942", " Malta Convoys 1942 ", "North Africa 1942–43", "Sicily 1943", "Normandy 1944" , “English Channel 1944”, “Burma 1944–45” and “East Indies 1945”.

The destroyer was one of four in the class still in service with the Navy at the end of the war. In 1949 it was sold for demolition.

history

The ship was laid down on August 5, 1936 at the Vickers-Armstrongs shipyard in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, together with the sister ship Mashona , both of which were launched on September 3, 1937. The two destroyers were the second pair of the class to be built at the shipyard. While the other shipyards involved in the construction of the Tribal class each built two ships, four units were built at the High Walker Yard and then another four destroyers of the class for the Royal Canadian Navy during the war . In contrast to the shipyard's first two ships, the machinery was not manufactured at the shipyard, but in the vicinity at Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Co Ltd in Wallsend . On December 30, 1938, the Eskimo was the second ship with this name to be put into service by the Royal Navy. Before that, an auxiliary cruiser had already carried this name during the First World War in the winter of 1914/15. It was a small two-chimney of 3326 GRT built in 1910 for the Wilson Line . The 17 kn fast ship was used in the Northern Patrol between the British Isles and Norway.

Mission history

The new destroyer came as the third ship to the "2nd Tribal Flotilla" currently being erected, which, in contrast to the first Tribal Flotilla in the Mediterranean Fleet, has now been assigned to the Home Fleet . When the independent numbering of the flotillas of the new large destroyers was given up, the flotilla became the new "6th Destroyer Flotilla" in May 1939. This flotilla had previously been formed by the units of the F-class , which was due for a general overhaul.

When the Second World War broke out, the Eskimo was in Scapa Flow with the Somali- led 6th Flotilla and its sister ships Ashanti , Bedouin , Mashona , Matabele , Punjabi and Tartar to secure the Home Fleet. She accompanied the heavy units of the fleet on their missions. Then in November 1939 the destroyer went to Smith's Dock Co in North Shields for a routine overhaul . Significant damage to the turbine blades was found there. Their removal was to take place at Thornycroft in Woolston near Southampton . Due to a delayed relocation and the scope of the work required, the Eskimo was not ready for operation again until the beginning of April 1940. With her flotilla she was one of the first units of the Royal Navy to clarify the extent of the German attack on Norway ( Operation Weser Exercise ) from April 7th off the Norwegian coast .

On April 11, the Eskimo was on her way to Bodø with the light cruiser Penelope and the destroyer Kimberley to clarify whether this port was already occupied by the Germans. When entering the Saltenfjorden leading there , the cruiser ran aground and the boiler rooms were flooded through a large hole. Eskimo then towed the cruiser to Skelsfjord on Flakstadøy Island , where the British had set up a supply point. On April 13, 1940, the Eskimo belonged to the British association that penetrated the Ofotfjord as far as Narvik under the leadership of the battleship Warspite and sank the remaining eight German destroyers or forced them to self- submerge in the second naval battle from Narvik . In the course of the battle, the Eskimo hit the self-submerging destroyer Herman Künne with a torpedo and scored several artillery hits on the Hans Lüdemann ; she herself lost her foredeck in the Rombaksfjord northeast of Narvik by a torpedo hit by the German destroyer Georg Thiele , but could still be towed to the Skelsfjord by the Maori . An emergency repair was carried out there with the support of the workshop ship Vindictive . On May 27, the sealed rest of the Eskimo was towed to Harstad and then secured by the destroyers Amazon and Volunteer and the Sloop Fleetwood to Great Britain. The ship was repaired there until the beginning of September 1940.

The Eskimo in 1941

After the repair has been Eskimo used as hedging ship of the Home Fleet and took in March 1941 the sister ships Bedouin and tartar on the Operation Claymore , a commando raid against the German-occupied Lofoten , in part.
From March to September 1942 the Eskimo was used to secure the northern sea convoys PQ 12, PQ 13 , QP 9, PQ 14 , QP 10 as well as PQ 18 and QP 14 . In November 1942 she supported the Allied landing in North Africa ( Operation Torch ). In July 1943, the Eskimo was badly damaged by an aerial bomb during Operation Husky , the landing in Sicily , and had to be towed away by its sister ship Tartar . A longer stay in the shipyard in England was necessary, during which the equipment with anti-aircraft guns was reinforced. Upon her return to active service, the Eskimo was assigned to the 10th Destroyer Flotilla and deployed in the English Channel, where she was involved in the preparations for Operation Overlord and in the naval warfare during Operation Overlord .

On June 24, 1944, she sank the German submarine U 971 in the English Channel north of Brest together with the Canadian destroyer Haida and a Liberator bomber from the Czech Air Force . Three days after this action, the destroyer was hit in the engine room and had to go to a shipyard for repairs again.

From January 11 to February 7, 1945 transfer to the Eastern Fleet in Ceylon as part of the securing of the escort carriers Khedive , Empress , Slinger and Speaker of the Bogue class . The association moved through the Mediterranean, where intensive exercises took place, as well as the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the East Indies. There the destroyer was used to support landing operations and against Japanese shipping. When the World War ended in East Asia too, the Eskimo was in Durban , South Africa for an overhaul .

The end of the Eskimo

After the completion of the work, the destroyer began the voyage home on November 4, 1945 and reached Sheerness on December 8, 1945. The ship was decommissioned in Chatham and assigned to the reserve. After the war, the Eskimo was converted into a residential ship and headquarters for the deminers, wreck hunters and salvage ships that cleared the Thames and Medway of the aftermath of the war in 1946 . She then served as a target ship and was finally sold for scrapping on June 27, 1949. The demolition of the last remaining British tribal destroyer took place in Troon from the end of June 1949 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Service History HMS Eskimo
2. ↑ 2nd Tribal Flotilla, Home Fleet 12.38-6th DF 5.39
3. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SHIPS, September 1939
4. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 7th-8th April 1940, Norway
5. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 10-11 April 1940, Norway
6. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 13-14 April 1940, Norway

literature

• JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy. (Rev. ed.). London / Chatham 2006/1969, ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 , OCLC 67375475.
• David Lyon: HMS Cossack Tribal Class Destroyer. Profile Publication Ltd., Windsor 1970.
• David Lyon: The British Tribals, 1935 in Superdestroyers. Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich 1978, ISBN 0-85177-131-9 .
• Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
• MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .

Web links

• Eskimo 1938 with a lot of interesting pictures
• Geoffrey B Mason: Service history HMS Eskimo (F75) - Tribal-class Destroyer
• HMS Eskimo (F75)
• "TRIBAL" destroyers (1938–1948)