HMS Foylebank
| career |
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|---|---|
| Shipyard: | Harland & Wolff , Belfast |
| Commissioning: | November 14, 1930 |
| Commissioning as an anti-aircraft ship | June 6, 1940 |
| Downfall: | 4th July 1940 |
| Whereabouts of the wreck | wrecked from 1952 to 1954 at the place of the sinking |
| Data | |
| Measurement: | 5,582 GRT |
| Length: | 130.30 m |
| Width: | 17.05 m |
| Draft: | 7.90 m (with maximum load) |
| Drive power: | 7,000 hp |
| Top speed: | 11 kn |
| Crew: | 320 men |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The HMS Foylebank was a British cargo ship that was converted into an auxiliary anti-aircraft ship of the Royal Navy at the beginning of the Second World War. It was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast and entered service on November 14, 1930 as a merchant ship named Andrew Weir . For almost nine years the ship served under this name with the Irish Bank Line .
Conversion to a flak ship and use in the English Channel
In September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of war, the 5,582 GRT Andrew Weir was requisitioned by the Royal Navy - when it was recognized that air defense capacities would be extremely important in the war that had just broken out - renamed Foylebank and from late 1939 at Harland & Wolff converted into an anti-aircraft ship in Belfast. The former freighter received a raised attachment on the front deck, which accommodated one of a total of four 102 mm double towers and which reached just below the navigating bridge, a fire control system for the heavy flak as well as eight 40 mm cannons and eight heavy 12, 7 mm machine guns in two quadruple mounts. In addition, the team quarters were rebuilt and expanded. The war-like crew now consisted of around 320 men. As HMS Foylebank , the new auxiliary flak ship was put into service on June 6, 1940.
Shortly after its commissioning, the HMS Foylebank moved to the English Channel in order to protect the British coastal convoys there, which were badly harassed by German air raids. From June 9, 1940, the ship was operational in Portland and secured three convoys along the British south coast in the following four weeks.
Downfall
On July 4, 1940, HMS Foylebank , under the command of Captain HP Wilson, temporarily escorted the 22-ship coastal convoy OA-178, which ran from the Thames estuary via Portland to Portsmouth and which, on July 3, Southend-on- Sea had left. Shortly before the port of Portland, the flak ship left the convoy and anchored in the roadstead.
However, south of Portland, the convoy was attacked in the early morning hours of July 4th by German speedboats and 33 Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers of Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 (Major Oskar Dinort ). At around 8:25 a.m., half of the Foylebank crew had just retired for breakfast, the lookout reported that a large number of planes were approaching Portland. While a small part of the German aircraft attacked the other ships in the convoy, 26 Junkers Ju 87s bombed the port and Foylebank . The ship's anti-aircraft gun was able to shoot down three German aircraft, but between 8:40 a.m. and 8:48 a.m., at least 22 bombs, mostly smaller 50-kilogram bombs, hit the ship and set it on fire. The anti-aircraft crews also suffered heavy losses from gunfire. The two 102 mm twin carriages A and B on the forecastle were put out of action by direct hits in the first minutes of the attack.
The attack, which lasted only eight minutes, caused considerable damage, destroyed almost all of the Foylebank's guns , caused several powerful fires and killed a total of 176 crew members of the ship. Although harbor vehicles were quickly on the spot and fought the fire on board, the flak ship could no longer be saved. It slowly ran full of water and sank on a level keel in the noon hours of July 4, 1940. 122 men of the crew survived the attack, some of them badly wounded. A wounded man in the air raid died on July 8, 1940 in the hospital.
Jack F. Mantle
For his service on board the HMS Foylebank , the 23-year-old Leading Seaman Jack F. Mantle was later posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross : Mantle had his 40 mm gun to the last, even though his left leg had been torn off by a bomb served and remained at his command post. He bled to death and died shortly after the attack ended. This was the first and only Victoria Cross awarded to a seaman in British home waters during World War II.
Whereabouts of the wreck
The wreck of the ship, whose masts protruded from the water, lay about 16 meters below ground in front of the port of Portland and initially remained at the sinking site until 1952, before it was gradually dismantled and almost completely scrapped by 1954.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Portland Foyleband War Memorial. www.roll-of-honour.com. Accessed November 13, 2009
- ↑ Sea War June 1940. www.wlb-stuttgart.de. Retrieved November 13, 2009.
- ^ A b Gordon Smith: Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, World War 2, 1st - 31st July 1940. www.naval-history.net. Accessed November 13, 2009