HMS Falmouth (1910)

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HMS Falmouth
HMS Falmouth
Overview
Type Light cruiser
Shipyard

Wm Beardmore & Co. , Dalmuir , BauNr. 498

Keel laying February 21, 1910
Launch September 20, 1910
Namesake City of Falmouth
Commissioning . September 1911
Whereabouts Sunk on August 20, 1916 after being hit by torpedoes
Technical specifications
displacement

5,250  ts ; Max. 5,800 ts

length

overall: 138.2 m (453 ft)
pp: 131.1 m (430 ft)

width

14.8 m (48.5 ft)

Draft

4.6-5.4 m (15-17.5 ft)

crew

433 men

drive
speed

25 kn , 27.01 kn upon acceptance

Range

5600 nm at 10 kn

Armament

from 1915:

  • 1 × 76mm anti-aircraft gun
Fuel supply

750 (max 1290) ts coal
260 ts oil

Armored deck

19–52 mm (0.75–2 in)

Sister ships

HMS Weymouth
HMS Dartmouth
HMS Yarmouth

The HMS Falmouth was a Town- class light cruiser of the Royal Navy . The ship launched at William Beardmore and Company in 1910 belonged to the second subgroup of these cruisers, the Weymouth class consisting of four ships . At the beginning of the war in the Atlantic, it belonged to the 5th cruiser squadron to hunt German merchant ships and then to the Grand Fleet in the North Sea . The Falmouth was sunk by the German submarine U 63 on August 20, 1916 after it had been torpedoed by U 66 the day before .

Building history

After the first five Town- class cruisers ( Bristol subgroup), the Royal Navy ordered four more cruisers of the type now with uniform 6-inch (152 mm) armament. Due to the heavier armament and a slightly higher standard coal supply, the displacement of this subgroup increased slightly. The Falmouth , built after HMS Gloucester of the first group from 1910 at Beardmore in Dalmuir , came into service in 1911 as the third ship of the 2nd group and as the eighth Town- class cruiser , which by the start of the war had fifteen cruisers in the Royal Navy and two in the Royal Australian Navy grew. Both marines later received two more ships each. With the HMS Dublin , the Beardmore shipyard built another cruiser of the "Town" class and was thus the main supplier of these cruisers in addition to the Armstrong shipyard in Elswick with three units.

Mission history

The Falmouth at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. Part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron in the Atlantic and sank four German merchant ships to reach the attempted home. At the end of the month it was the first light cruiser squadron of the Grand Fleet under Commodore William Goodenough allocated and came up with HMS Southampton , HMS Birmingham , HMS Liverpool , HMS Lowestoft and HMS Nottingham in securing the Harwich Force in their foray into the German Bight to Operation that led to the naval battle near Helgoland on August 28, 1914 . On December 16, 1914, she tried to intercept the German battle cruisers on their march back from the bombardment of British coastal towns in Yorkshire ( Scarborough , Whitby , Hartlepool ), which had been discovered by the squadron flagship HMS Southampton . However, due to a partly misunderstood order by Beatty , contact was lost early. During the Doggerbank battle on January 24, 1915, she was at sea with the Grand Fleet, but not involved in the battle.

The Falmouth was involved on May 31 and June 1, 1916 in the Skagerrak Battle as the flagship of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron under Rear Admiral Napier with the light cruisers HMS Yarmouth , HMS Birkenhead and HMS Gloucester , which belonged to the battlecruiser fleet and carried out reconnaissance. The Falmouth first sighted a ship of the actual Grand Fleet with the HMS Black Prince at 5:30 p.m. , which allowed the fleet to work together. The messages sent on this were incomplete, passed on even more incompletely, and left the British Commander-in-Chief largely in the dark as to where and how the battle with the Germans developed and what maneuvers they carried out.

At around 7:30 p.m., Falmouth and Yarmouth torpedoes fired at the leading German battle cruiser and reported a hit. As darkness fell, there were battles with German small cruisers. At 9:38 p.m. the Falmouth last reported the German battlecruisers heading west. The Falmouth had been hit once during the battle.

Loss of the Falmouth

The operational history of the HMS Falmouth ended on August 19, 1916 , when it was torpedoed by the German submarine U 66 under Lieutenant von Bothmer at 16:52.
As a member of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron, the Falmouth was part of the securing of the battlecruisers at sea and, under Captain Edwards, had tried to push away two zeppelins shading the fleet , and ran after the fleet. Despite the two torpedo hits on starboard, the cruiser was able to turn towards the coast on its own. At first, the light cruiser HMS Chester was with her for backup, which then caught up with the fleet again. It was not until the morning of August 20 that she was reached and towed by two smugglers summoned from Immingham . The damaged, towed cruiser was finally attacked again in the course of the day U 63 under the later Pour le Mérite carrier and General Admiral Otto Schultze off Flamborough Head , received two more torpedo hits and sank in the evening. Eleven sailors were killed in the loss of the Falmouth . The two tugs and the security destroyers were able to take over the crew.
The HMS Falmouth now lies 15 meters depth in position 53 ° 59 '  N , 0 ° 5'  W coordinates: 53 ° 58 '56 "  N , 0 ° 4' 30"  W .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 6 "/ 50 (15.2 cm) BL Marks XI and XI *
  2. ^ Bennett, p. 50.
  3. ^ Bennett, p. 113
  4. ↑ Bennett, pp. 113,130f.
  5. ↑ It is unclear whether the cruisers actually hit, SMS Lützow is said to have suffered a torpedo hit, but at that time it was possibly no longer at the top
  6. ↑ U 66, in service since July 23, 1915, type D / UD, for the Austrian Navy at the Germania shipyard as U 8 with four sister boats under construction, confiscated at the outbreak of war and as U 66 to U 70 for the German Navy
  7. ^ War development of the Germania shipyard U 63 to U 65 around diesel engines built for Russia, in service since March 11, 1916
  8. ↑ Halpern, p. 331, also Herzog, p. 120, and Hildebrandt, vol. 2, p. 115, name U 66 and U 63 as involved submarines, also other information in the network

literature

  • Geoffrey Bennett: The Skagerrakschlacht , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich (1976), ISBN 3-453-00618-6
  • JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy , Chatham, London (1969/2006), ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8
  • Randal Gray (Ed.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921 , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1985, ISBN 0870219073
  • Paul G. Halpern: A naval history of World War I. Routledge, London 1995, ISBN 1-85728-498-4
  • Bodo Herzog: 60 Years of German U-Boats 1906–1966 , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich (1968)
  • 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,

Web links