HMS Firedrake (H79)
.jpg) The Firedrake
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The HMS Firedrake (H79) was one of eight F-class destroyers of the British Royal Navy in World War II . The Firedrake was sunk by U 211 on December 16, 1942 in the North Atlantic while securing convoy ON 153 .
History of the ship
Orders for the construction of two F-class destroyers went to the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend-on-Tyne on March 15, 1933 . The turbine manufacturer had already received several orders for destroyers, first in 1898 for the first turbine destroyer HMS Viper , with the hulls usually being built by shipyards in the vicinity on the Tyne. The order for the hulls of the F-Class ships that did not deviate from the series production went to the High Walker Yard of Vickers-Armstrong . Vickers had taken over the Armstrong-Whitworth company in 1928 , but wanted to concentrate shipbuilding on the Vickers parent shipyard in Barrow . The shipbuilding site that was built in High Walker in 1913 as the Armstrong shipyard was only to be built in exceptional cases. Priority was given to full utilization of the Barrow shipyard. The Armstrong-Whitworth High Walker Yard began work in 1913 with the keel-laying of the battleship HMS Malaya . In High Walker, 73 ships were built by 1929. Vickers used the High Walker Yard from 1931 to build the luxury liner Monarch of Bermuda for the Furness Bermuda Line , followed by the construction of the hulls of the destroyers HMS Fame and Firedrake in 1933/34 . As a special feature, both ships were keeled next to each other on July 5, 1933 and both ships were launched on the same day, July 26, 1934. The shipyard continued this simultaneous construction of two destroyers with further orders until the start of the war in 1939. The Firedrake was named the seventh ship in the Royal Navy since 1648. Most recently, from 1912 to 1921, a Yarrow special destroyer of the Acheron class was in command. The Firedrake was completed on May 30, 1935 shortly after its sister ship Fame , which was delivered on April 26 . All eight ships of the class came into service with the Navy between December 1934 and June 1935, plus the flotilla leader Faulknor , who was delivered in May 1935 .
Mission history
Together with her sister ships, HMS Firedrake first formed the 6th, later the 8th destroyer flotilla and served mostly in the Mediterranean, where they were also used to secure British shipping during the Spanish Civil War until 1939 and temporarily participated in international surveillance.
War missions
At the beginning of the war, the ship with the 8th Destroyer Flotilla was part of the Home Fleet and repeatedly secured its large units against submarines . During one of these searches, the Firedrake succeeded together with Faulknor and Foxhound on September 14, 1939, northwest of Ireland , in sinking U 39 as the first German submarine in World War II after a failed attack on the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal . The sinking was also the first successful use of the British ASDIC sonar.
In 1940, the destroyer was then used in the attempted defense against the German landing in Norway ( Enterprise Weser Exercise ) to cover ships of the Home Fleet. On 27./28. On May 28th, the Firedrake supported the Foreign Legion attack on Narvik , which was evacuated by the Germans on May 28th, with the flak cruisers Cairo and Coventry , the sister ship Fame and the destroyers Whirlwind , Havelock , Walker and the Sloop Stork . On June 7th, the Firedrake was part of the escort of a fast convoy with seven troop carriers (including Oronsay 20,043 GRT, Duchess of York 20,021 GRT) during the evacuation of the Allied troops from Harstad with the sister ship Fame and three other destroyers as well as the cruisers Southampton and Coventry . .
Two months later, the Admiralty assigned Firedrake to the newly formed Force H , based in Gibraltar . At the end of August 1940, the 8th destroyer flotilla with Faulknor , Foresight , Forester , Fury , Fortune and Greyhound moved together with the cruiser Sheffield to the Force H, whose flagship the battle cruiser Renown with the carrier Ark Royal was already stationed there. During the transfer, they secured units that were on their way to the Mediterranean Fleet with the battleship Valiant , the new carrier Illustrious and the flak cruisers Calcutta and Coventry .
In an anti-submarine company east of Gibraltar succeeded Fire Drake on October 18, 1940 along with wrestlers and two Saro London - flying boats of the squadron 202 , the Italian submarine Durbo to sink. The 46-man crew was taken prisoner. Due to the captured secret material, another Italian submarine was sunk by other destroyers two days later. On November 1, 1940, the Firedrake belonged to the units of the Force H with the battle cruiser Renown , the battleship Barham and the destroyers Forester , Fortune , Gallant , Greyhound and Griffin , which advanced along the Moroccan west coast against suspected Vichy-French ship movements.
In "Operation Coat", the Force H ran on November 7th with the carrier Ark Royal , the cruiser Sheffield and six destroyers including Firedrake, Forester, Fortune and Fury from Gibraltar to a "Force F" (reinforcement for the Mediterranean fleet) to accompany the battleship Barham , two cruisers and four destroyers. The Force H turned off the Strait of Sicily , while the Force F passed Italian destroyers deployed against it without touching the enemy, disembarked 2,150 soldiers reinforcements in Malta and then marched with the Mediterranean fleet to Alexandria .
In the "Operation White" that followed from November 15 to 17, 1940, the Firedrake again belonged to the safety screen of Force H, which launched twelve hurricane fighters and two Skua bombers from an area southwest of Sardinia from the carrier Argus for the flight to Malta which only four hurricanes and one skua reached the goal due to strong headwinds. A planned attack by the Ark Royal aircraft against Alghero (Sardinia) on the 17th had to be abandoned due to the weather.
With the "Operation Collar" the Mediterranean Fleet and Force H tried to supply Malta from the east and west at the end of November. The Italian I. Squadron under fleet chief Campioni with the battleships Vittorio Veneto and Giulio Cesare and seven destroyers and the II. Squadron under Iachino with six heavy cruisers and another seven destroyers wanted to intercept the units coming from the west. The British commander, Vice Admiral Somerville , sailed with the Renown , the cruisers Manchester , Sheffield , the destroyers Faulknor , Firedrake , Forester , Fury , Encounter and the battleship Ramillies , which was moved west by the Mediterranean fleet , the cruisers Newcastle , Berwick and other destroyers of the Italians Against the fleet. Attacks by the torpedo planes of the Ark Royal, which remained behind with the destroyers Kelvin and Jaguar, against the Vittorio Veneto and the heavy cruiser Pola were unsuccessful. The sea battle at Cape Teulada (Sardinia) broke out between the surface units . In a battle of about an hour between the cruisers and battleships, the Italians scored a hit on the cruiser Berwick , the Italian destroyer Lanciere was towed with a heavy hit. Then Admiral Campioni broke off the engagement, as he assumed due to insufficient aerial reconnaissance, to face superior enemy forces.
On January 1, 1941, the British light cruiser Bonaventure with the destroyers Jaguar , Duncan, Foxhound , Hero and Firedrake stopped a French convoy off Oran with the passenger steamer Chantilly (9986 GRT), the tanker Octane (2034 GRT), the freighters Suroit (2318 BRT) and Sally Maersk (3252 BRT) and an armed trawler as escort and brought up the ships that had previously passed the Strait of Gibraltar unmolested.
From January 6th to 13th, the Firedrake belonged to Force H, which secured "Operation Excess", which brought the motor ship Essex (11,063 GRT) with 4000 tons of ammunition, 3000 tons of seed potatoes and twelve hurricane hunters to the island of Malta as reinforcements.
From January 31 to February 4, 1941, the Firedrake was involved in an unsuccessful carrier attack by the British Gibraltar squadron against Sardinia. An attack on Genoa followed from February 6 to 11, with Firedrake carrying out a submarine search with Duncan , Isis and Jupiter in front of the unit. After returning to Gibraltar, when the Admiral Hipper was reported to have attacked convoy SLS.64, the Firedrake set sail for Force H with Renown , Ark Royal , Sheffield and the destroyers Wishart , Jersey , Foxhound and Fury in the Atlantic to secure the convoys at sea against expected further attacks by German surface ships. In response to the failure of the Admiral Hipper to leave Brest again, the unit ran in the direction of Biscay until clarification, but then turned off and arrived back in Gibraltar on February 25. After a groundbreaking near Gibraltar in March 1941, the damaged Firedrake in Chatham had to be repaired.
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From July 21st to 27th, the Firedrake belonged again to the task force of Force H, which secured a supply convoy with a troop transport and six freighters ("Operation Substance"). The Italian Air Force attacked both the convoy and the security association several times and sank the destroyer Fearless . When the Force H marched back to Gibraltar on the evening of the 23rd, the Firedrake and two other destroyers as well as the cruiser Hermione were sent to the convoy to reinforce the local security. The Firedrake was severely damaged by a close hit during an attack by Italian SM.79 bombers north of Bône on July 23, 1941 , and had to be towed by the destroyer escort Eridge after the machine had failed. Accompanied by the hunt destroyer Avon Vale and the tribal destroyer Sikh , the march back began. Only makeshift repairs could be made in Gibraltar. She was sent to the USA in Boston for repairs on the cruiser Manchester, which was also badly damaged during Operation Substance .
During the extensive repair of the Firedrake in the USA, which lasted until January 1942, the anti -submarine armament was reinforced at the expense of the main armament. The nose gun was replaced by a Hedgehog launcher . After an accident at the beginning of 1942 and its repair, the destroyer was used to secure convoy trains in the North Atlantic from May as a command destroyer of the newly formed British "Escort Group B7" (EG.B7). The group stationed in Lisahally initially had four Flower class corvettes : HMS Alisma , HMS Loosestrife , Pink and Sunflower , which were joined by other ships, including the former US destroyers Chesterfield and Ripley of the Town class .
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In the months that followed, the Firedrake was used on a dozen convoys. So on May 20, 1942 U 406 could be pushed as a contact holder from the convoy ONS.94 from the EG.B7 , where the Firedrake worked together with the former US destroyer Churchill and the corvettes Dianella , Kingcup , Loosestrife and French Roselys .
On 19 November 1942 strengthened the Fire Drake with the USS Badger of Wickes-class securing the convoy ONS 144 and they could the attacking German submarines pushed aside.
The end of the Firedrake
On December 12th, HMS Firedrake took over the security of the 43-ship convoy ON.153 from Great Britain to New York as the lead destroyer of EG B7 . For this mission, the group consisted of the Chesterfield town destroyer of the Clemson class and the Flower corvettes Alisma , Pink , Snowflake and Sunflower . By the evening of the 16th a boat in contact had brought five German submarines up to the convoy, which then attacked. They sank the Norwegian tanker Bello (6125 GRT) and the Belgian Emile Francqui (5859 GRT). The British tanker Regent Lion (9551 GRT) was damaged. During the night U 211 torpedoed the Führer destroyer Firedrake , which broke in two as a result of the torpedo hit. The front section sank immediately, while the tail section swam for a while. The corvette Sunflower tried to go alongside, which failed because of the heavy storm. She stayed with the rest of the destroyed ship, which sank and could before the weather calmed at the position 50 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ N , 25 ° 15 ′ 0 ″ W Fished 27 Firedrake men out of the water, one of whom died after all, so that 170 men lost their lives due to the sinking of the HMS Firedrake .
literature
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945 . Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two . Arms and Armor Press, London 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .
Web links
- Service history HMS Firedrake
- Sinking the Firedrake (H79)
- Chronicle of naval warfare 1939–1945
- Homepage of the veterans' association of the destroyer with experience reports (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Construction list for the Armstrong-Whitworth High Walker Yard
- ^ Rohwer: Chronik des Maritime Warfare , p. 46
- ↑ Rohwer, p. 49
- ^ Rohwer, p. 79
- ^ Rohwer, p. 87
- ^ Rohwer, p. 101
- ^ Rohwer, p. 148
- ^ Rohwer, p. 238
- ^ Rohwer, p. 303
- ^ Rohwer, p. 312
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 †