HMS Exeter (68)
 The Exeter off Sumatra, 1942
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The HMS Exeter (68) was a York- class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy . The ship put into service in 1931 was the last British new build of a heavy cruiser under the provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty . The Exeter took part in the battle in front of the Río de la Plata against the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee in December 1939 and was sunk in the Java Sea in 1942 after escaping the battle in the Java Sea still damaged.
history
The Exeter was built at Devonport Dockyard , keel was laid on August 1, 1928, launched on July 18, 1929, and commissioned on July 27, 1931. Like her sister ship York , she was a slightly smaller heavy cruiser with only six main artillery guns in three twin towers. Your main task should be escort. From the sister ship York the Exeter differed in the vertical masts and funnels. It was also a little wider and slightly more armored. The Exeter had a catapult with two runways, which was to be placed behind the chimneys from the start and therefore allowed the bridge house to be flatter than on the York , which was originally supposed to have its catapult on the front towering tower, which early on proved to be unstable proved. In addition, on the Exeter there was a bulwark that reached further back to the front funnel, which made the ship drier at high speed and in rough seas. As with the York , the first chimney brought the exhaust gases from the two front exhaust pipes of the boiler rooms together in order to improve the conditions on the bridge and the design of the bridge house.
First missions
In May 1931 the last shipyard and acceptance tests were carried out and the cruiser was put into service on July 27th in Devonport for the "2nd Cruiser Squadron" of the Atlantic Fleet . In January to March 1932, the Exeter took part in the Home Fleet's spring voyage to the West Indies, on which the new cruiser u. a. Trinidad and Barbados . After visiting some British ports, the cruiser squadron ( Dorsetshire , Norfolk and the sister ship York ) visited Copenhagen in August during a British exhibition. From October to December the cruiser was involved in exercises with the squadron and between January and March 1933 in visits to Spanish ports, then between April and July in visits to Norway and Sweden. The Exeter took part in the Midsommar celebrations at the Swedish naval base in Karlskrona and returned home via the Kiel Canal . From August to October 10, the cruiser was overhauled at the Naval Shipyard in Devonport.
The Exeter then came back into service for the "8th Cruiser Squadron" for the "America and West Indies Station". On November 13, 1933, the Exeter ran from Plymouth to Gibraltar to replace the Durban and then moved to Bermuda until December 6, 1933 . She was assigned within the squadron of the "South American Division" and visited ports in Brazil, Argentina and other countries as well as the Falkland Islands until the summer of 1935. In August 1935, the cruiser in Valparaíso was seconded to the Mediterranean because of the tensions with Italy ( Abyssinia crisis ). He was the reinforcement unit with the farthest approach to the Mediterranean Fleet . On September 5, 1935, Exeter left Port Stanley to reinforce the "1st Cruiser Squadron". She ran non-stop to Alexandria , where on the 30th she met Berwick , London , Shropshire , Sussex and Ajax , who was also from America station . After a good nine months of service in the Mediterranean Fleet, the Exeter left Alexandria on July 14, 1936 and reached Devonport on the 27th to be overtaken and to partially replace the crew.
The new commander was Henry Harwood , who also became the commander of the "South American Division". On December 29, 1936, the cruiser was put back into service for the "West Indies Station", to which it sailed on the 31st and reached Montevideo via St. Vincent (7th) on January 10, 1937 to do its job in the " South American Division ”. In May the cruiser ran to the main station base in Bermuda. In June the cruiser went to Trinidad , where riots had broken out. The Exeter and the earlier Ajax landed Marines to secure the oil industry facilities. In 1938 joint maneuvers with the Canadian Navy (RCN) took place and the Exeter visited some US ports and then toured the west coast of South America in the second half of the year. In January 1939, Exeter and Ajax provided support in Talcahuano after an earthquake. The cruiser stayed off Chile for support in February and returned to Bermuda in March. On August 17th, the Exeter arrived in Plymouth for a vacation break and minor repairs. Because of the tense political situation, the cruiser called back its crew on the 23rd and left for Cape Verde on the 25th with the troop transporter Dunera . The cruiser went to meetings with the British Commander-in-Chief for the South Atlantic under a new commander, but with Commodore Harwood on board, alone on to Freetown and from there from September 1, 1939 to the other side of the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro .
Second World War
From September 8, the cruiser, together with the light cruiser Ajax , searched for German ships in the sea area around Rio de Janeiro. The division's third cruiser, the Achilles commanded across the Pacific from New Zealand , was still on the west coast of South America. The heavy cruiser Cumberland and destroyers were approaching from Great Britain to reinforce the heavy cruisers . The “South American Division” of the “8th Cruiser Squadron” became Force G , which was supposed to prevent German merchant ships from sailing home on the South American east coast and to provide German trade disruptors. The British anticipated the conversion of German merchant ships into auxiliary cruisers. In addition, they had been certain since September 11th that the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee was operating in the South Atlantic, when one of the Cumberland's aircraft had discovered the ship and its supplier Altmark . However, the Force G cruisers could not find the ironclad. The cruisers secured the sea area between Rio and the Río de la Plata . They occasionally secured convoys from British merchant ships or they formed search strips with three cruisers. To keep them ready for action, they were supplied by RFA auxiliary ships . They occasionally called at the Falkland Islands for maintenance work to be carried out mainly with on-board resources. The next naval base with repair options was Simonstown in South Africa. The destroyers Havock and Hotspur were still available to support the cruisers, and they also regularly called at South American ports to observe German merchant ships lying there. The Exeter was to go to Simonstown for overhaul at the end of November 1939. However, this plan was abandoned. Instead, she was sent around the turn of the month, after an overhaul with on-board resources in Port Stanley, to relieve the Cumberland in front of the Río de la Plata, which should go to the Falkland Islands for a boiler cleaning.
Battle on the Río de la Plata
While the Cumberland , the strongest ship of the "Force G", carried out an overhaul with on-board resources at the base on the Falkland Islands, the Exeter cruised together with the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles off the Río de la Plata. On December 13, 1939, there was a battle with the Admiral Graf Spee , who got involved in the battle because she only realized too late that she was facing three cruisers. The Exeter was hit by eleven 28 cm shells; 61 dead and 23 injured were to be mourned, most of them in the front 203 mm turrets, each of which received a direct hit (28 cm), and the bridge, which was devastated when hit on tower "B". The relatively minor damage was due to the fact that, according to the 1st Artillery Officer , the Graf Spee fired HE shells with bottom fuses, which, according to his observation, detonated on impact with the light armor without penetrating it. Since the entire front heavy artillery and the entire fire control station failed and the speed dropped to 18 knots, the ship withdrew from the battle and was not pursued by the German ironclad, which turned to the light cruisers. This prompted the Exeter with the stern tower that was left to intervene again in order to force the Germans to change targets again. When only one heavy artillery could be used, the Exeter turned for good after a few minutes. However, the German ironclad was also damaged and suffered 36 dead and 60 wounded. The German commander Hans Langsdorff broke off the battle and ran into Montevideo to do repairs and take over provisions, in order to then start the journey home to Germany. Of the Exeter's 190 rounds , only three hit the target. One of these hits destroyed the fresh water system, the repair of which was necessary for a further mission, according to the commander. For the dispute over the allowable time for repairs see main article Admiral Graf Spee
When the Admiral Graf Spee left the port of Montevideo on the evening of December 17, 1939 to sink herself, the considerably more heavily damaged Exeter had already arrived at the British base at Port Stanley, and the Cumberland had replaced her off Montevideo.
repair
After emergency repairs in the Falkland Islands, the Exeter , secured by other units of the Royal Navy, started its journey home at the end of January 1940 and reached Plymouth on February 14, 1940, where it was received by Winston Churchill . By March 1941, the cruiser was repaired and modernized in Devonport. In particular, the anti-aircraft armament was reinforced. Their heavy guns could now fire at a greater elevation, which increased their range. The four individual 102 mm anti-aircraft guns were replaced by twin guns. In addition, the cruiser received two eight-tube 40 mm pom pom in addition to the heavy anti-aircraft machine gun quadruples that had been in existence since 1935 ; the aircraft system was removed to make room for the two eight-tube pom-poms. The masts were shortened and strengthened into tripod masts, on which a type 279 fire control radar was installed.
Further missions
On March 10, 1941, the Exeter came back into service and was used in the Home Fleet in the "1st Cruiser Squadron" and served for some time in the surveillance of the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland. At the time of the breakthrough of the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen in the Atlantic, the cruiser intended for service in the East Indies Squadron led the convoy WS 8B with eight troop transporters and the old carrier Argus used as an aircraft transporter in the Atlantic towards Freetown, the one for the German ships was a worthwhile goal. On May 26, 1941, however, the five destroyers accompanying the convoy ( Cossack , Maori , Sikh , Zulu and the Polish Piorun ) were withdrawn in order to carry out torpedo attacks on the Bismarck, which was presumably going to Brest, during the night . These attacks were unsuccessful, but forced the crew of the German battleship to remain in full combat readiness through the night and reduced the ammunition stocks of the battleship. Exeter stayed with the convoy with three destroyers, as the anti-aircraft cruiser Cairo also marched back on schedule. The Exeter finally led the convoy intended for the Middle East to Aden (August 27) and then carried out various tasks in the Indian Ocean. In December 1941, the heavy cruiser was with a troop escort from Ceylon on the way to Singapore, where he was to become part of the " Force Z " ( Prince of Wales and Repulse ), but before the arrival of the Exeter to combat a Japanese landing force on the east coast Malaya leaked and fell victim to Japanese air raids .
In early January 1942, the Exeter was placed under the ABDA fleet . This allied association was to defend the Dutch East Indies and the British possessions against the Japanese advance .
Battle of the Java Sea
Since February 25, 1942, the Exeter was with the "Eastern Striking Force" of the ABDA (including HMAS Perth and the destroyers HMS Jupiter , HMS Electra and HMS Encounter ) in search of Japanese landing units at sea. Attacked from the air on the 26th, on February 27th, 1942, the association came across the Japanese landing fleet with the entire ABDA fleet. The battle developed in the Java Sea . The Exeter was hit very early in the engine room by the Japanese cruiser Nachi . Since she could no longer follow the association because of the hit, she left the formation to go to a port, which led to further confusion in the multinational association due to a lack of communication. She was finally after Soerabaja with the Dutch destroyer Hr. Ms. Witte de With and the three British destroyers released and escaped destruction. Electra and Jupiter were already lost on this retreat.
Sinking
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Repaired as much as possible with on-board resources, the damaged Exeter tried to leave the combat area through the Sunda Strait. However, it was captured on March 1, 1942 by the Japanese heavy cruisers Nachi and Haguro as well as four destroyers and north of Bawean in a three-hour battle, in which the heavy cruisers Ashigara and Myōkō also intervened, at the coordinates 5 ° 0 ′ S , 111 ° 0 ′ E sunk. Finally, the sinking ship was hit by a torpedo from a destroyer. The accompanying destroyers Encounter and USS Pope of Clemson-class destroyer were also sunk. Of the 705 crew members of the Exeter , 54 were killed, 651 men were rescued by the Japanese, although 29 of them later died in captivity.
The wreck today
The Exeter wreck was discovered in February 2007 at a depth of 60 meters about 90 kilometers north of Bawean. The position is about 60 nautical miles from the position indicated by the ship's commander as the place of the sinking. In November 2016, the wreck could no longer be found - apparently it was dismantled by scrap metal looters and sold as scrap.
literature
- JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy. Chatham London (Rev.ed. 2006), ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford.
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
- Randall AR Tonks: HMS Exeter / Heavy Cruiser 1929-1941. Warship Profile 13, Profile Publications Ltd, Windsor, 1971.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hugh and David Lyon; Siegfried Greiner: warships from 1900 to the present day technology and use . Buch und zeit Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 1979, p. 50-51 .
- ↑ a b Tronks, HMS Exeter, p. 6.
- ↑ a b Tronks, HMS Exeter, p. 2.
- ↑ a b c Tronks, HMS Exeter, p. 8.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h HMS Exeter, British heavy cruiser, WW2. In: naval-history.net , accessed on March 29, 2016 (English).
- ↑ a b c Tronks, HMS Exeter, p. 9.
- ^ Rohwer: Naval Warfare, 10.-14. February 1940, North Atlantic. In: wlb-stuttgart.de , accessed on March 29, 2016.
- ↑ a b Tronks, HMS Exeter, p. 17.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 126.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War, 18. – 27. May 1941, North Atlantic. In: wlb-stuttgart.de , accessed on March 29, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d Tronks, HMS Exeter, p. 22.
- ↑ Jasper Copping: Wartime naval legend HMS Exeter found off Java . In: The Telegraph , May 17, 2008. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- ↑ Oliver Holms, Luke Harding: [1] . In: The Guardian , November 16, 2016. (English)