HMS Grafton (H89)

HMS Grafton

The Grafton 1936

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type destroyer class G class Shipyard Thornycroft , Woolston Build number 1126 Order March 5, 1934 Keel laying August 30, 1934 Launch September 18, 1935 Commissioning March 20, 1936 Whereabouts Sunk May 29, 1940

Ship dimensions and crew length 98.5 m ( Lüa ) 95.1 m ( Lpp ) width 10.1 m Draft Max. 3.78 m displacement Standard : 1,350 ts Maximum: 1,854 ts   crew 137-146 men

Machine system machine 3 Admirality 3-drum steam boiler 2 Parsons turbines with single gear Machine performance 34,000 PS (25,007 kW) Top speed 36 kn (67 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 4 120 mm L / 45 Mk.IX guns 2 × 4 Vickers machine guns 0.5 in. (12.7 mm) 2 × 4 torpedo tubes 533 mm 20–35 depth charges 2 launchers, 1 drop rail Mine detection equipment Sensors Type 121 sonar

HMS Grafton (H89) was a destroyer of the G-Class of the British Royal Navy . During the Second World War , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Atlantic 1939" and "Dunkirk 1940".

The destroyer was lost on May 29, 1940 during the evacuation of British troops off Dunkirk.

history

HMS Grafton was the second of the two G-class destroyers built at Thornycroft in Woolston near Southampton . After the order was placed on March 5, 1934, the keel of the new building 1126 was laid on August 30, 1934, 15 days after the sister ship Glowworm . The Royal Navy's seventh Grafton was launched on September 18, 1935 and entered service on March 20, 1936.
Finally, the cruiser had Grafton the Edgar class out the name that was most recently used from 1895 to 1920 in the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.

Operations of the destroyer

The yacht Nahlin 2009

From August 10 to September 9, 1936, the destroyer accompanied the yacht Nahlin , with which King Edward VIII traveled the eastern Mediterranean.

With her sister ships, the Grafton came to the "1st Destroyer Flotilla" at the Mediterranean Fleet in 1936 , where they replaced old V and W class destroyers. From autumn 1936 the destroyer was used in Spanish waters to observe the Spanish civil war and to carry out neutrality patrols, a task which until the beginning of 1939 repeatedly required the use of parts of the flotilla. When war broke out, the destroyer was routinely in dock in Malta .

From 19 to 22 October 1939 the Grafton moved with the first group of the flotilla ( Gallant , Glowworm , Greyhound ) to Plymouth to the Western Approaches Command to secure the south-western access routes to the British Isles. In November 1939 Grafton moved like Glowworm to the "22nd Destroyer Flotilla" in Harwich to take over security and monitoring tasks in the North Sea.

On January 10, 1940, Grafton moved to the newly established "1st Destroyer Flotilla". This flotilla, which was also set up in Harwich, controlled ships that operated between the German Reich and the Netherlands after contraband . Between March 26 and April 14, the ship was overhauled at Brigham & Cowan in Hull and was initially out of action against the Weser Exercise company . After the shipyard stay, the ship was assigned to the Home Fleet and secured transports to Norway until May 11th. It was then used again in the southern North Sea because of the German offensive to the west . On May 24, 1940, the destroyer supported the defenders of Calais from sea together with the cruisers Arethusa and Galatea as well as the destroyers Wessex , Vimiera , Wolfhound , Verity , Greyhound and the Polish Burza .

Use at Dunkirk

At the end of May / beginning of June 1940 Grafton was used together with many other ships (including the sister ships Gallant , Grenade , Greyhound ) in the evacuation of the allied troops encircled around Dunkirk ( Operation Dynamo ). On May 29, 1940, the ship ran fully loaded with army soldiers from Dunkirk to Dover , but then wanted to help the destroyer Wakeful , which had been torpedoed by a German speedboat shortly before Nieuwpoort . After the ship went alongside, the German submarine U 62 shot a torpedo that hit the Grafton at the stern . Smaller auxiliary ships began to hide the soldiers and crew. When it was not possible to take the destroyer in tow, Grafton was sunk by means of a torpedo due to the considerable danger posed by German air and naval forces by the destroyer Ivanhoe . The grenade was lost on the same day ; Gallant and Greyhound were badly damaged.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German : Amazon to Ivanhoe , p. 97f.
2. ↑ Haarr: The Battle for Norway , p 254
3. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 24/05/1940 channel
4. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 28/05/1940 channel
5. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 16.5.- 8.6.1940 channel
6. ↑ ^{a b} Rohwer: Sea War , May 16 - June 8, 1940 Canal

literature

• John English: Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. World Ship Society, Kendal 1993, ISBN 0-905617-64-9 .
• Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2009, ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8 .
• Geirr H. Haarr: The Battle for Norway: April – June 1940 , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2010, ISBN 978-1-59114-051-1 .
• Míchael J. Whitley: The Destroyers in World War II. Technology, classes, types. ("Destroyers of World War Two.") Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .

Web links

• Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 Ed. By Jürgen Rohwer u.