HMS Godetia (K72)
_IWM_FL_22394.jpg) Sister ship HMS Jonquil (K68)
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The HMS Godetia (K72) was the first British corvette of the Flower-class with the same name and was built 1940th After only a few missions, she sank in September 1940 after colliding with a freighter.
Construction and technical data
The ship was commissioned on July 25, 1939 and laid down at Smiths Dock Company on South Bank in Middlesbrough on January 4, 1940. When launched on 8 May 1940, she was named Godetia following the same Sloop Godetia the Flower-class from the First World War. The delivery to the Royal Navy took place on July 15, 1940.
Her length was 62.5 meters, she was 10.1 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 4.15 meters. The displacement was 925 tons standard and 1170 tons maximum. The drive consisted of a triple expansion machine with two boilers, which achieved 2750 hp and acted on one screw. With that she reached a top speed of 16.5 knots. The range was 3500 nautical miles at 12 knots.
It was armed with a 4-inch Mk.IX gun (equivalent to 102 mm), two 20-mm Oerlikon cannons and a Hedgehog launcher, four Mk.II depth charges and two drop rails for 40 depth charges. The crew strength was 85 to 109 officers and men.
history
The service time of the first Flower-class Godetia in the Royal Navy included only the short service time from July 15, 1940 until its sinking on September 6, 1940. Already on August 4, she joined the convoy that left Freetown on July 16 SL / MKS 40 and accompanied him until his arrival in Liverpool on August 8th.
On August 18, she took part in the escort for Convoy OA 201 from Methil in Scotland, which was disbanded on August 22, and took part in securing Convoy HX 65 from August 20 before it was disbanded . This started on August 12th in Halifax and reached Liverpool on August 27th. During this escort, the Godetia rescued the sole survivor of the freighter Empire Merlin and the six survivors of the tanker Athelcrest , both of whom had been torpedoed from convoy HX 65A by U 48 north of the Flannan Isles in the Outer Hebrides in northwest Scotland.
The Godetia never returned from the fourth escort . On August 31st, she took over the security of convoy OA 207 from Methil. This convoy was attacked on September 4th by U 47 , which sank the steamer Titan . Together with the Canadian destroyer St. Laurent , the Godetia saved the survivors. Two days later, on September 6, the corvette collided with the freighter Marsa and sank three miles off Altacarry Head off Northern Ireland.
See also
literature
- Robert Gardiner / Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1922-1946 , Conway Maritime Press, London 1980, ISBN 0-8317-0303-2 .
- Harald Fock: Fleet Chronicle. The active warships involved in both world wars and their whereabouts , Koehler's publishing company, revised and expanded version Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0788-2 .
- Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell / Naval-history.net: World War II Sea War - Volume 2: France falls, Britain stand alone , Bertke Publications, Dayton / Ohio 2011, ISBN 978-1-937470-005 .
Web links
- http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/chronik.htm , accessed on July 23, 2017
- http://www.naval-history.net/xDKEscorts20Cor-Flower05.htm#Godetia , accessed on July 23, 2017
- http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html , accessed July 23, 2017
- http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4764.html , accessed July 23, 2017
- http://www.navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_o_esc_flower.htm , accessed on July 23, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gardiner, p. 62, http://www.navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_o_esc_flower.htm , http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4764.html
- ↑ Bertke, p. 359, http://www.naval-history.net/xDKEscorts20Cor-Flower05.htm#Godetia , http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4764.html
- ↑ Bertke, p. 405, http://www.naval-history.net/xDKEscorts20Cor-Flower05.htm#Godetia , http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4764.html
- ↑ Bertke, p. 407, p. 445, Fock, p. 224, http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-09.htm , http://www.naval-history.net/xDKEscorts20Cor -Flower05.htm # Godetia , http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4764.html