HMS Express (H61)
 The Express after the mine hit in September 1940
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HMS Express (H61) was an E-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that was put into service at the end of October 1934 and could be used as a mine- layer . In the Second World War , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honor "Dunkirk 1940".
On the night of September 1, 1940, the destroyer with the 20th (minelayer) destroyer flotilla ran into an undetected German minefield northwest of Texel and was hit badly by a mine. The sister ship Esk , hurrying to help , sank after a mine hit. Ivanhoe , who also came to the rescue, was badly damaged by a mine hit and ultimately had to be sunk herself. The badly damaged express could be brought in. It was not until October 1941 that the Express was operational again as a normal destroyer. The ship then used in the fight against the Japanese attackers was able to escape the almost complete destruction of the British units in the Far East.
In June 1943 the destroyer was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy , which used it as HMCS Gatineau to secure convoy on the North Atlantic until the end of the war in Europe. The ship was honored with the Canadian Battle Honors "Atlantic 1943-44" and "Normandy 1944".
History of the destroyer
HMS Express was ordered on November 1, 1932 with the other eight E-Class units. The keel was laid on March 24, 1934 as BauNr. 1481 at Swan Hunter in Wallsend , Tyne and Wear together with the sister ship Esk (BauNr. 1479). The shipyard had already been involved in the new destroyer program with the Flotilla Commander Codrington for the A-class, completed in 1930, and the destroyers Brilliant and Bulldog of the B-class . The two E-class destroyers were the first newbuildings to be equipped as mine layers. However, they had to give up two guns and the torpedo tubes from board as a counterbalance for the mine load.
HMS Express was launched on May 29, 1934 as the last ship of the class and entered service on September 26, 1934.
The Express was the eighth Royal Navy ship to bear that name since 1695. The Navy last used the Destroyer Express from 1902 to 1919 . This destroyer was a "33-Knotter" that was built at Laird, Son & Co. in Birkenhead according to plans by the shipyard. Failing to reach its increased contract speed, the destroyer was enlisted in the B-Class in 1912 and used to protect British coastal waters during World War I.
Mission history
Together with the other E-Class ships, the Express formed the 5th destroyer flotilla in the Home Fleet . From autumn 1934, the new class replaced the V and W class destroyers in this flotilla previously run by the Wallace . In September 1935 the “5th Destroyer Flotilla” moved to the eastern Mediterranean due to the Abyssinia crisis and returned home in April 1936. The Spanish Civil War required the use of British destroyers in Spanish waters from 1936, so that several ships were used there until 1939. The Express , which had already returned home for an overhaul in March 1936, observed developments in Spain from Gibraltar in May and June 1936 before the actual outbreak of war. From January to March 1937 and again in 1938 and at the beginning of 1939 she was used again with Gibraltar as a base in the context of the so-called neutrality patrols off the southern Spanish coast.
In 1939, new K-class destroyers were to replace the E-class ships in the 5th DF and then be used by the Mediterranean Fleet . With regard to the Express, it was planned in 1939 to convert the destroyer into a cabin boy training ship and anti-aircraft training ship. Because of the political tensions and the lack of staff, there was no renovation. She came to the reserve in Portsmouth with her sister ship Esk, which can also be used as a miner . Even before the outbreak of war, the conversion of the two destroyers into mine layers began in August.
War missions
The destroyer was then assigned to the 20th (minelayer) destroyer flotilla in Immingham . At the beginning of the Second World War, this flotilla laid defensive minefields off the British coast and offensive minefields in the German Bight . On the night of September 10, 1939, Esk and Express laid their first offensive mine block on the suspected German discharge routes in the German mine warning area. On the night of December 18, 1939, the two destroyers, Ivanhoe and Intrepid, laid a barrier of 240 mines in front of the Ems estuary. The mine-laying destroyers were secured by the destroyers Grenville , Greyhound , Griffin and the Polish Blyskawica . The mine-layer destroyers were in regular use until mid-May 1940 and were the last to lay barriers off the Dutch coast to disrupt the German advance .;
At the end of May / beginning of June 1940 the destroyer evacuated the Allied troops encircled around Dunkirk ( Operation Dynamo ) together with many other ships, including the Esk , Intrepid and Ivanhoe . On the fourth day of “Dynamo” (May 31), the Express received a bomb hit, but could still be used. On June 3, the Express and Shikari were the last Allied ships to leave the port of Dunkirk with around 1,000 soldiers and the British navy who had organized the loading of the transporters.
On June 28, the Express was used again together with Intrepid , Icarus and the miner Teviot Bank to complete the defensive British North Sea mine lock. The mine-layers were secured by the destroyers Javelin and Jupiter .
The Texel disaster
On August 31, 1940, the 20th flotilla ran out with Express , Esk , Intrepid , Icarus and Ivanhoe for an offensive mining operation near Texel. This action was supposed to be secured by the destroyers Jupiter , Kelvin and Vortigern, which were parked by the 5th Flotilla . While the ships of the 20th Flotilla were casting their mines, there was a message from the British air reconnaissance that a German unit was running from Terschelling westwards towards the British coast. In fear of a German invasion attempt, the flotilla should attack this unit.
First, the Express ran into a previously unrecognized German mine barrier north-west of Texel and lost its bow . The destroyers Esk and Ivanhoe wanted to come to the aid of the damaged sister ship and both ran into mines as well. The Esk sank within a short time, the severely damaged Ivanhoe was sunk by the Kelvin so as not to let her fall into the hands of the Germans. The Express was towed first by the Kelvin , then by the Jupiter , until tugs reached the retreating formation and brought the wrecked destroyer to Hull . The 600 mines strong German barrier was on 7./8. August was relocated by the German mine ships Roland , Cobra and Brummer .
The light cruisers Aurora and Galatea arrived later to protect the formation, from which the Galatea also received a mine hit on the march back and was slightly damaged. The so-called “Texel Disaster” was initially kept secret. Since around 300 men lost their lives in the action and a further 100 were taken prisoner as castaways or were seriously wounded, speculation arose after the events about what actually happened. The repair of the badly damaged Express lasted until September 1941, as the forecastle had to be completely rebuilt.
Use in the Far East
In view of the threat of war in the Far East , the Express was moved to Singapore in October, along with other ships, including the battleship HMS Prince of Wales , where the ships arrived in early December. They formed Force Z there .
From Singapore, the Force Z ran out on December 8 with the Prince of Wales , the battle cruiser Repulse and the destroyers Electra , the old Tenedos , the Australian vampires and the Express from Singapore to attack the Japanese invasion fleet. In the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941. Malaya the destroyer was not damaged and was about 1,000 castaways of Repulse save and return to Singapore. In the period that followed, he was initially called in for convoy escort service between Singapore, the Sunda Strait and Java, for which the so-called China Force was formed in mid-January 1942. This association included the cruisers Danae , Dragon and Durban as well as the destroyers Jupiter , Encounter , Stronghold , Electra and Express of the Royal Navy. The destroyer Vampire and the Sloop Yarra of the Australian Navy and the Indian Sloop Jumna were also subject to the association . At the beginning of March, the Express and other units secured a final evacuation convoy from Java to Australia with over 10,000 soldiers on board.
The Express then moved to Simonstown in South Africa, where it was overhauled. At the end of June the destroyer was operational again and was used to secure convoy in the Indian Ocean . During the final landing operations of Allied troops on Madagascar , the ship served as escort for the aircraft carrier Illustrious and the seaplane depot ship Albatross together with the destroyers Hotspur , Fortune and Inconstant .
The destroyer was then used again as escort in the Indian Ocean. In February 1943, the return of the ship began, where in mid-March an overhaul of the ship in Liverpool began.
On June 3, 1943, the Royal Navy gave HMS Express to the Royal Canadian Navy , which renamed the ship HMCS Gatineau (H61) . With increased anti -submarine and anti-aircraft armament, it was subsequently used to secure convoys in the North Atlantic and assigned to the "2nd Canadian Escort Group". It was also involved in the sinking of the German submarine U 744 together with the destroyers Icarus and HMCS Chaudiere and other escorts on March 5, 1944. During the invasion of Normandy , three destroyer groups and seven frigate groups were set up against the German submarines in order to largely rule out this danger in overlapping missions. Two of the destroyer groups were formed by Canadian destroyers. The Gatineau was used in the 11th Escort Group with the destroyers Ottawa , Kootenay , Chaudière and St. Laurent . While securing the invasion area, three German S-boats , which came from Alderney , fought with the destroyers Gatineau and Chaudière on June 26th , the destroyers evaded the torpedoes of the S-boats and forced them to retreat to St. Malo .
From the end of June, the Gatineau was back in service in the North Atlantic. A major overhaul of the destroyer took place in Halifax from August 1944 to mid-February 1945 . The ship then moved to Great Britain for training and was still in use in March and April 1945 to protect British coastal waters from German submarines. After the German surrender, the Gatineau was relocated to Canada. In August 1945 the destroyer moved from Halifax to Esquimalt (British Columbia) on the west coast of Canada.
On January 10, 1946, the Gatineau was decommissioned and assigned to the reserve in Esquimault. In April 1947 the ship was sold for demolition. The hull is said to have been sunk as part of a breakwater.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 5th Destroyer Flotilla
- ↑ ROYAL NAVY SHIPS, August 1939
- ↑ ROYAL NAVY SHIPS, September 1939
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 9-16 September 1939 North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 17-18, 1939 North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 6-23, 1940 North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 28, 1940 Canal
- ↑ 3rd June 1940 - Towards the end
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. June 28, 1940 North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 31.8./1.9.1940 North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 31.8./1.9.1940 North Sea
- ↑ a b c d e Service History Express / Gatineau
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 7-12, 1941 Southeast Asia / Malaya
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. January 20-21, 1942 Dutch East Indies
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. March 1-9, 1942 Dutch East Indies
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. September 10 - November 5, 1942 Indian Ocean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. March 2–22, 1944 North Atlantic
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. June 6-30, 1944 Canal / Biskaya
literature
- John English: Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. World Ship Society, Kendal (1993), ISBN 0-905617-64-9 .
- James Hayward: The bodies on the beach: Sealion, Shingle Street and the burning sea myth of 1940. CD41 Dereham , Norfolk (2001), ISBN 0-9540549-0-3 .
- Peter Haining: Where the eagle landed: The mystery of the German invasion of Britain, 1940. Robson 2004, ISBN 1-86105-750-4
- Michael J. Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. An international encyclopedia. Arms and Armor Press, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .
Web links
- Express 1934
- Service history HMS Express (H61)
- HMS Express (H61)
- HMCS GATINEAU (1st) (H61)
- Chronicle of naval warfare 1939–1945
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 †