HMS Fame (H78)

HMS Fame

The fame as a submarine destroyer

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Dominican Republic   other ship names 1949: Generalisimo 1962: Sánchez Ship type destroyer class F class Shipyard Vickers-Armstrongs Newcastle, High Walker Build number without Order March 15, 1933 Keel laying July 5, 1933 Launch July 26, 1934 Commissioning April 26, 1935 Whereabouts Wrecked in 1968

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 1901 ts maximum   crew 145-196 men

Machine system machine 3 Admiralty three drum boilers 2 Parsons - geared turbines Machine performance 36,000 PS (26,478 kW) Top speed 36 kn (67 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 4 ship guns MK IX, 120 mm 2 × 4 Vickers 0.5 - anti-aircraft guns 2 × 4 torpedo tubes (ø 533 mm) 20 depth charges , 2 launchers 1945 3 ship guns MK IX, 120 mm 2 × 2 Oerlikon 20 mm automatic cannons 2 × 4 Vickers 0.5 anti-aircraft machine guns 1 × 4 torpedo tubes (ø 533 mm) 70 depth charges, 4 launchers 2 × 12f.- Hedgehog throwers 1949 4 ship guns MK IX, 120 mm 2 × 2 and 2 Orlikon 20 mm automatic cannons 70 depth charges, 4 launchers Sensors last radar, sonar

The HMS Fame (H78) was an F-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy . During the Second World War , the ship was awarded the Battle Honors “Norway 1940”, “Atlantic 1942—44” and “Normandy 1944”.

The destroyer was sold to the Dominican Republic in 1949 , which had previously bought the similar Hotspur . In 1969 the destroyer, which was initially called Generalisimo and from 1962 Sánchez , was canceled.

History of the destroyer

The contract to build the ship went to the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company on March 17, 1933 . The turbine manufacturer had also previously been a contractor for units for the Royal Navy, most of which received innovations in turbine development. The hulls were made at other shipyards. The hulls of the Fame and its sister ship Firedrake , which was also ordered from Parsons, were built by Vickers-Armstrongs at the shipyard in High Walker. After the takeover of Armstrong-Whitworth by Vickers, this shipyard was not originally intended to produce any newbuildings. In fact, with the construction of the two destroyers and the subsequent British rearmament program, the shipyard began to build new buildings. The keel laying of the two new buildings took place simultaneously on July 5, 1933, and they were both launched on June 28, 1934. The Fame was the 13th ship in the Navy to receive this name, introduced in 1655. Recently he had with a 1896 to 1921 Thornycroft incurred 30 knotter of the D-class out. The new Fame was put into service on April 26, 1935 as the 6th F-Class ship. Together with her sister ships, the destroyer first formed the 6th, later the 8th destroyer flotilla, which were assigned to the Home Fleet .

Mission history

In the Athenia incident , Fame and other ships rescued the survivors of the torpedoed passenger steamer. On the evening of November 23, 1939, she accompanied six other units of the British 8th destroyer flotilla (Leader Faulknor and Forester , Fortune , Firedrake , Foresight and Fury ) the flagship Nelson of the Home Fleet with Admiral Forbes , the battleship Rodney and the heavy cruiser Devonshire from the Clyde to the sea area north of the Shetlands to provide a German ship reported by the auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi of the Northern Patrol. It was the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau that had already broken through the British surveillance line between Scotland and Norway unnoticed and now wanted to advance into the Atlantic. The German ships sank the auxiliary cruiser, but broke off the attempt to break through. The Germans were able to return to their bases without contact with the alerted British units. Due to considerable damage to the sea, however, Fame and Foresight had to be released early.

In the following years the ship escorted escorts to Norway several times . In 1940 the destroyer was used by the Norwegian company ( company Weser Exercise ) to cover ships in the Home Fleet. Among other things, she secured the convoy FP-2 (troop transporter Président Doumer Flandre and Djenné ) from April 24 to 28, 1940, of the 27th  Chasseurs alpins half-brigade of Scapa with the Codrington and the French destroyers Tartu , Chevalier-Paul and Milan Flow to Salangen and Bogen near Narvik . In May, the destroyer and others supported the amphibious advance of the French against German positions around Narvik. From May 30th, operations to evacuate Allied troops from Norway began, in which the destroyer was involved until completion.

On October 17, 1940, he ran aground near Whitburn on the Tyne during a high-speed trip into the Tynes Estuary due to a navigation error and poor visibility . Eight destroyers led by the Fame were supposed to pick up the new battleship King George V from the Tyne shipyard and escort it to Rosyth for its final completion . The Fame was rammed and burned out by the HMS Ashanti that followed, which also ran aground. Since it could only be recovered after several days, the hull was also badly damaged. Four other destroyers managed to avoid being stranded. Maori was slightly damaged in the process; only Sikh , Electra and Brilliant remained fully operational.

The repairs, which were carried out in the Chatham shipyard , dragged on until September 1942. The anti -submarine and anti-aircraft armament was reinforced at the expense of the main guns and a torpedo tube set.

In the following years, Fame was used to secure convoy trains with the British 6th British Escort Group in the North Atlantic , which initially consisted of the old British destroyer Viscount and the Norwegian corvettes Eglantine , Acanthus , Rose , Montbretia and Potentilla of the Flower class and in the In the middle of the ocean. During this time, the Fame sank U 353 on October 16, 1942 . A boarding party could not discover any valuable information on the sinking German submarine . On February 17, 1943, the destroyer and the Viscount were involved in the sinking of U 69 and sank U 201 .

From the spring of 1944 until the end of the war, the focus of operations was then in the English Channel and in the Bay of Biscay , where the destroyer hunted German submarines. Shortly after the start of Operation Overlord , he succeeded, together with the destroyers HMS Havelock and HMS Inconstant, in sinking the submarine U 767, equipped with a snorkel mast , southwest of Guernsey .

Selling the Fame

After the end of the war, HMS Fame was assigned to the anti-submarine school flotilla, where it was used until 1947. The ship was sold to the Dominican Republic after an overhaul in February 1949 . In the local navy it was initially called Generalisimo , later it was renamed Sánchez . During the civil war in 1965, the ship, together with other units of the Dominican Navy, shelled the capital. It was then assigned to the reserve and sold for scrapping three years later .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. April 24-28, 1940 Norway
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Service History HMS Fame.
3. ^ Service History King George V October 17th, 1940.

Remarks

1. ↑ The repair of the Ashanti dragged on until August 1941. It was also significantly rebuilt.

literature

• 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

• Chronicle of naval warfare 1939–1945
• Service History HMS Fame (H78) - F-class Destroyer
• HMS Fame (H78)
• Use in the Dominican Navy (span.)