HMS Forester (H74)
 The Forester
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HMS Forester (H74) was an F-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that entered service in 1935. During World War II , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Atlantic 1939-44", "Narvik 1940", "Norway 1940", "Spartivento 1940", " Malta Convoys 1941 ", "Arctic 1942-43", "Normandy 1944" and "English Channel 1944" award.
In January 1946 the Forester was sold for demolition.
Building history
The ship was ordered on March 17, 1933 from the 1932 budget. The keel of the F-class destroyer was laid on May 15, 1933 at J. Samuel White in Cowes , Isle of Wight, and the Forester was launched on June 28, 1934. The destroyer was put into service on April 19, 1935.
The Forester was the 10th ship with that name in the Royal Navy. The last name used from 1911 to 1921 was the Acheron- class destroyer Forester, also built by White .
Mission history
Together with her sister ships, HMS Forester initially formed the 6th destroyer flotilla in the Home Fleet . The 6th Flotilla moved to Gibraltar from September 1935 to April 1936 because of the Abyssinia crisis between Great Britain and Italy . The Spanish Civil War then led to the participation of the flotilla in the so-called neutrality patrols off the southern Spanish coast from January 1936 and from April with part of the flotilla in front of the Spanish ports on the Bay of Biscay . Part of the flotilla was used for these tasks until 1939. In May 1939, the flotilla was renamed the "8th Destroyer Flotilla" when the flotillas of the tribal destroyers , which had previously been numbered separately , were classified in the numbering system.
Operations in World War II
After the start of the war, the ship remained with the Home Fleet, but was repeatedly used for submarine hunts together with other destroyers . During one of these search trips on September 20, 1939, together with Flotilla Leader Faulknor and the sister ships Fearless and Fortune , he succeeded in sinking the German submarine U 27 near the Hebrides .
In 1940 the destroyer was then used in the attempted defense against the German landing in Norway ( company Weserübungen ) to secure ships of the Home Fleet. He took part together with the sister ship Foxhound in the second naval battle off Narvik on April 13th, in which all German destroyers still there were rendered harmless. The Forester survived the battle with minor damage. She accompanies the severely damaged Cossack to the Skjelfjord, where the British operated a base for initial emergency repairs in order to enable damaged units to march back to Great Britain. In the following years, the Forester was used as a backup destroyer of the heavy units of the Home Fleet.
At the end of June 1940, the Admiralty assigned the 8th destroyer flotilla, including the Forester, to the newly formed Force H , which was stationed in Gibraltar . The first task of the new unit was the neutralization of the French navy in Mers-el-Kébir ( Operation Catapult on July 3).
On July 8, 1940, the Force H ran with the battle cruiser Hood , the battleships Resolution and Valiant , the aircraft carrier Ark Royal , the cruisers Arethusa , Delhi and Enterprise as well as the flotilla commander Faulknor , the Forester , their sister ships Foxhound and Fearless and the destroyers Escort , Active , Douglas , Velox , Vortigern and Wrestler launched a diversionary attack with the carrier aircraft on airfields in Sardinia . It was hoped that Force H would distract the Italian forces from a simultaneous convoy to Malta and the eastern Mediterranean. In fact, from the 9th the Italian Air Force attacked the formation with 40 SM.79 bombers in three waves, which just missed the British carrier and the Hood with their bombs . The British broke off their advance because they saw their goal achieved. On the march back, the Italian submarine Guglielmo Marconi managed to torpedo the British destroyer Escort in the early morning of July 11th . The Forester spotted the attacking submarine and tried unsuccessfully to ram it. She then tried to drag the escort that was hit in the front boiler room over the stern. The Force H continued its march back at high speed, leaving only the Faulknor behind to secure the tow. The badly hit destroyer got a heavy list after a few hours and had to be abandoned. Except for two men who had already been killed in the torpedo hit, the crew of the escort was saved by the Forester . The destroyer took part in the advance of Force H in September against Dakar ( Operation Menace ) , reinforced by British and smaller Free French units marching in from Great Britain . The 17 destroyers used in this association were provided by the Royal Navy. In addition to the Forester , the Faulknor , Foresight , Fortune and Fury also belonged to this association.
Until the end of the year, the destroyer was repeatedly in service with the Force H in the Mediterranean . It served as an escort for aircraft carriers , from which fighter planes were flown to Malta , and for convoys , which mostly transported war material for the British troops in North Africa and supplies for Malta. The ship was also used as a fast mine sweeper.
On November 7th, the Forester with Faulknor , Duncan , Firedrake , Fortune and Fury belonged to the association of the Force H sailing from Gibraltar to the Mediterranean Sea with the carrier Ark Royal and the cruiser Sheffield under Vice Admiral James Somerville , the "Force F" with the battleship Barham to accompany the cruisers Berwick and Glasgow as well as the destroyers Encounter , Gallant , Greyhound and Griffin as reinforcement for the Mediterranean fleet to the south of Sardinia. While the destroyers Faulknor , Fortune and Fury led the Force F as minesweepers to Malta, where they unloaded troops and then united with the Mediterranean fleet, which had come from the east, Swordfish aircraft of the Ark Royal attacked Cagliari in Sardinia on November 9th . Italian bombers attacked Force H, but suffered only minor damage from close hits. At the end of November 1940, the Forester took part in the sea battle at Cape Teulada .
With the Force H, the ship was also involved in the search for the Bismarck . During a subsequent advance into the Atlantic Ocean in the course of the search for German suppliers , Forester succeeded in sinking the German submarine U 138 west of Cape Trafalgar together with the flotilla leader Faulknor and her sister ships Foxhound , Foresight and Fearless on June 18, 1941 . A week later, the Alstertor blockade breaker had to sink himself when the destroyer group approached.
In the following weeks, the destroyer ran back into the Mediterranean as part of the security for other Malta convoys. From the spring of 1942, however , the Forester served several times as an escort for cruisers and battleships for remote security of northern sea convoys , through which the Soviet Union was supplied with war material. It was damaged in a battle with the German destroyers Z 24 and Z 25 in April. After the repairs were completed, another mission followed in the North Sea .
After returning to home waters in mid-1943, Forester was used to secure Atlantic convoys. As part of a Canadian escort group , U 845 was sunk on March 10, 1944 together with the destroyer HMCS St. Laurent , the frigate HMCS Swansea and the corvette HMCS Owenssound .
From spring 1944 until the end of the war, the main focus of operations was in the English Channel and the Biscay , where the destroyer hunted German submarines and speedboats and escorted convoys. On August 20, 1944, together with the destroyers Vidette and Wensleydale, he sank the German U 413 in the English Channel.
HMS Forester was assigned to the reserve fleet in November 1945 and then scrapped in Rosyth the following year .
Individual evidence
- ^ Royal Navy Organization 1919-1939
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. April 13-14, 1940 Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 17.– 28.6.1940 North Atlantic / Gibraltar
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 3.7.1940 France / Mediterranean Operation Catapult
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. September 23-25, 1940 Mid-Atlantic, Operation Menace
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 4–14, 1940 Mediterranean Sea, Coat u. Crack
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms and Armor Press, London 1988, ISBN 0853689105 .
Web links
HMS Exmouth (Flotilla Leader ) †
Echo / Navarion 
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Encounter † |
Escapade |
Escort † |
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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 †