HMS Griffin (H31)

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HMS Griffin
The Griffin
The Griffin
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom of Canada
CanadaCanada (naval war flag) 
other ship names

from 1943: HMCS Ottawa

Ship type destroyer
class G class
Shipyard Vickers Armstrong ,
Barrow-in-Furness
Build number 700
Order March 5, 1934
Keel laying September 30, 1934
Launch August 15, 1935
Commissioning March 6, 1936
March 20, 1943 RCN
Whereabouts Sold for demolition in August 1946
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 145 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

last:

Sensors

Sonar type 121
from 1942: Radar

HMS Griffin (H31) was one of the eight destroyers of the G-Class of the British Royal Navy . In the Second World War , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Norway 1940", "Mediterranean 1940-41", "Matapan 1941", "Greece 1941", "Crete 1941", " Malta Convoys 1941-42 " and "Libya 1942" .

In 1943 the destroyer was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy , which put it into service as HMCS Ottawa on March 20, 1943 and used anti -submarine destroyers until the end of the war. In addition to the sister ship Garland used by the Polish Navy since 1940 , the Ottawa was one of the two D-class destroyers that survived the World War, while the seven other units in the class were lost.

History of the ship

The ship was launched on August 15, 1935 as part of a class of eight destroyers at Vickers-Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness , Cumbria . It entered service on June 6, 1936.

The destroyer was initially used together with the majority of its sister ships in the 1st destroyer flotilla in the waters around the British Isles. His tasks after the start of the war included, in particular, securing convoys and warships in the waters around the British Isles .

In April 1940, the destroyer was then used in the attempted defense against the German landing in Norway ( Operation Weser Exercise ) to cover ships of the Home Fleet . It succeeded on April 26th, together with the destroyers HMS Acheron and HMS Arrow , to capture the German outpost boat "Schiff 26" , which sailed under the Dutch flag as "Polares" camouflaged. Extremely valuable secret code books and key slips were stolen. This allowed the British code breakers from Hut 8 (Barrack 8) in Bletchley Park, England, to break into the German naval radio key .

From July 1940, the destroyer was assigned as part of the 8th destroyer flotilla of Force H in Gibraltar . He escorted aircraft carriers several times that flew planes to Malta . During an extensive submarine hunt made possible by captured Italian secret documents, HMS Griffin was able to sink the Italian submarine Lafolè east of Gibraltar on October 20, 1940 together with HMS Gallant and HMS Hotspur .

In the course of November, the destroyer was then transferred to the Mediterranean fleet with the main base in Alexandria . There he was assigned to the 14th destroyer flotilla. During the sea ​​battle at Cape Teulada , HMS Griffin covered cruisers and battleships of the Royal Navy. In early 1941, the destroyer took an escort of one of Malta - convoys in part, the end of March 1941 then at the Battle of Cape Matapan .

During the evacuation of mainland Greece in April 1941 ( Operation Demon ) and in the following weeks, the ship was in continuous use. Another escort to Malta was followed by uninterrupted operations at the end of May / beginning of June as part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempts to defend the island of Crete against German landing operations ( Operation Merkur ), and the subsequent evacuation of the Allied troops.

After further Malta convoys, HMS Griffin was assigned to the British Eastern Fleet in Trincomalee , Ceylon , in February 1942 . During the Japanese attack in the Indian Ocean , the ship was used as cover for Group 2, which consisted of the slower units in the fleet.

In June it was back in the Mediterranean, where it was again used in a large escort to Malta ( Operation Vigorous ).

In mid-May 1943, the destroyer was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy , which renamed it HMCS Ottawa (H31) . It was now used to secure North Atlantic convoys. In the course of ongoing repairs, the destroyer's anti -submarine and anti-aircraft armament was therefore reinforced at the expense of the main guns and a torpedo tube set .

In the summer of 1944, the focus of operations was then in the English Channel and the Biscay , where the destroyer hunted German submarines and outpost boats . On July 7, 1944, the destroyer HMCS Kootenay and the corvette HMS Statice succeeded in sinking the German submarine U 678 southwest of Brighton . Two more sinks followed on August 18 and 20, when, in cooperation with the destroyers HMCS Kootenay and HMCS Chaudiere, the submarines U 621 and U 984 were sunk northwest of La Rochelle and west of Brest, respectively.

From the end of the year until the end of the war, HMCS Ottawa II was deployed in Canadian waters. The ship was then decommissioned in December 1945 and scrapped a month later.

literature

  • Michael J. Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. An international encyclopedia. Arms and Armor Press, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .

Web links