HMS Hardy (H87)
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HMS Hardy (H87) was the flotilla commander built for the H-class destroyers of the British Royal Navy during World War II . The Hardy and the H-class destroyers replaced the “C” -class destroyers in the British “2nd Destroyer Flotilla”, which was used in the western Mediterranean on so-called neutrality patrols off the Spanish coast.
At the beginning of the war , the destroyers were relocated to the Atlantic in order to take part in the search for the German armored ships and to prevent German merchant ships from returning home. In April 1940, the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla was one of the British forces available to take countermeasures against the German occupation of Norway. On April 10, the Hardy ran with four destroyers of the flotilla into the port of Narvik , which the Germans had occupied the day before, and was able to sink two German destroyers and damage two more. The retreating flotilla was surprised by the five destroyers lying in the side fjords. The Hardy received heavy hits in the forecastle and in the structure, lost almost all officers and was put on the beach sinking. The tide lifted the abandoned wreck, which then capsized drifting in shallow water.
The history of the ship
The construction of the flotilla leader appointed in December 1934 began on May 30, 1935. The ship was launched on April 7, 1936 at Cammell, Laird & Company . The shipyard in Birkenhead on the River Mersey was involved in the Royal Navy's new build program for destroyers with two newbuildings of the "F" class . The flotilla leader Hardy was commissioned on December 11, 1936.
The ship was named after the Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769–1839), in the battle of Trafalgar flag captain Nelson 's on the Victory . The flotilla leader was the seventh ship in the Navy to be named after Hardy. The last name was an Acasta-class destroyer built by Thornycroft from 1912 to 1921 .
The flotilla leaders of the British fleet destroyers of the "A" to "I" classes were not a uniform class , but had similarities to each other and to the destroyer class built at the same time ( see The flotilla leaders of the A to I class ). The Hardy was a good four meters longer and a foot wider than the "normal" destroyers of the H-class. It had a fifth 120 mm gun between the funnels and was similar in its other performance to the destroyers of the H-class.
Mission history
The Hardy and the new "H" -class destroyers in the 2nd destroyer flotilla in the British Mediterranean fleet replaced the "C" -class and older destroyers from 1937 . The flotilla had since the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War used to the so-called neutrality patrols off the coast of Spain in the western Mediterranean to prevent arms shipments to the Spanish warring parties in cooperation with French ships. When the destroyer Hunter probably suffered a mine hit off Almería on May 13, 1937 , the pilot boat of the flotilla initially supported the damaged vessel until it was clear enough that he could be towed and further help had arrived. The Hardy was then in Palma de Mallorca on May 23, 1937 , when the port was attacked by Spanish national planes, but suffered no damage. When the Spanish Civil War came to an end in 1939, the overhauls of the H destroyers began at home. The Hardy was thoroughly repaired in Devonport in June and July 1939 and was back in Malta when the Second World War broke out .
War missions
The Hardy was with the destroyers Hostile , Hasty , Hero and Hereward at the beginning of the war in the Mediterranean and was used for security and surveillance tasks and then moved to Gibraltar in September . The other four destroyers in the class completed their overhauls at home or were only able to carry out the repairs that were absolutely necessary and were then relocated to Freetown rather than back to the Mediterranean . At the end of September 1939, the Hardy from Gibraltar and the four H destroyers still remaining in the Mediterranean were commanded to form a new Force K. Hardy left Gibraltar for Freetown with the four flotilla boats on October 5, 1939. At sea they joined the main battle ships of the Force K ( carrier Ark Royal and battle cruiser Renown ) coming from Great Britain and then formed the safety shield of the two capital ships. The newly formed combat group was supposed to take part in the search for the German armored ships . The Hardy participated with other destroyers in two Ark Royal search voyages in October in the area around St. Paul's Rock and then in the direction of Ascension . When the carrier went with the Renown to South Africa in mid-November , the destroyers stayed behind in Freetown and Hardy monitored the sea area between Freetown and Pernambuco with part of the flotilla . On December 17, Renown , Ark Royal and the light cruiser Neptune as well as the Hardy with the destroyers Hostile , Hereward and Hasty gathered in front of Rio de Janeiro , possibly together to run south to the Río de la Plata , around the Admiral Graf Spee during the attempt to face an escape from Montevideo . On hearing of the self-sinking of the ironclad, the association moved back to the West African coast.
In early 1940 the flotilla was ordered back to the waters around the British Isles . Hardy left Freetown on January 13th and was overtaken from January 25th to February 12th 1940 in Devonport and then used from Greenock to secure the north-west access routes of the British Isles. From the beginning of March she was again the master ship of the "2nd Destroyer Flotilla", now with the Home Fleet in Scapa Flow .
From April 6, 1940, the Hardy secured with Havock , Hunter and Hotspur the four destroyers of the "20th Destroyer Flotilla" ( Express , Esk , Icarus , Impulsive ), which were used as mine layers and a mine lock as part of Operation Wilfred near Bodø on the 8th in the Vestfjord to disrupt the transport of Swedish iron ore via Narvik to Germany. Then the Hardy joined with the fuse destroyers to the British cover association around the Renown .
The end of the Hardy
After German troops had been landed by German destroyers in Narvik as part of the Weser Exercise operation , Hardy ran under her flotilla chief and commander, Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee, together with part of her flotilla to block the Ofotfjord . On April 10, 1940, Warburton-Lee commanded the first British attack on Narvik . In the early morning he took the Hardy with Hunter , Hotspur , Havock and Hostile to the port of Narvik, where they surprised the Germans. A torpedo of Hardy met the German leader destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp and put him out of action. The German commander, Commodore Friedrich Bonte , fell on him . A blizzard made targeted shooting almost impossible for both sides. After the Wilhelm Heidkamp , the British attackers also sank the destroyer Anton Schmitt and damaged the destroyers Diether von Roeder and Hans Lüdemann . In addition, the German merchant ships Neuenfels (8096 BRT), Aachen (6388 BRT), Altona (5892 BRT), Hein Hoyer (5836 BRT) and Martha H. Fisser (4879 BRT) were lost through torpedo or artillery hits by the British destroyers , as well as other ships were damaged.
Starting from only six German destroyers in Narvik, Captain Warburton-Lee started the march back. The retreating flotilla was surprised by the five German destroyers lying in side fjords. The Georg Thiele and the Bernd von Arnim concentrated on bombarding the Hardy , which received heavy hits in the forecastle and in the superstructure. The Hardy lost almost all of its officers. Captain Warburton-Lee was fatally wounded by a hit on the bridge: he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross as the first British soldier in World War II . The crew managed, HMS Hardy on the south shore of the fjord at 68 ° 24 ' N , 17 ° 12' O accrue to leave, whereby the losses among the crew members, could be kept within limits. The crew fired their last torpedoes (unsuccessfully) from the run-up ship and tried to intervene in the battle with the rear cannon until the ammunition was used up. 139 men were able to save themselves on land, 26 of whom were seriously wounded. The tide later lifted the abandoned wreck, which then capsized drifting in shallow water.
The wreck was not cleared until 1963. 32 of the Hardy dead are buried in the cemetery in the small town of Håkvik near Narvik.
Renewed use of the name
The name of the destroyer as well as that of the Hunter , who also sank near Narvik, were given to a new building again during the war. A destroyer of the "8th Emergency Flotilla" under construction at John Brown was named Hardy . The destroyer with the registration R08 , prepared as a flotilla commander for the V-Class , entered service with the Royal Navy in mid-August 1943. The destroyer, which was specially prepared for use in arctic waters, was hit by U 278 on January 30, 1944 on convoy JW 56B with a Wren torpedo . After taking over the crew, the sister ship Venus sank the heavily damaged Hardy .
From 1955, the Royal Navy again had a ship with the traditional name, HMS Hardy (F54) . The Blackwood-class frigate was sunk as a target ship in 1984.
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms and Armor Press, London 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .
Web links
- HMS HARDY (i) (H 87) - H-class Flotilla Leader In: naval-history.net, accessed on April 10, 2016 (English).
- Chronik Seekrieg 1939–1945 In: wlb-stuttgart.de, accessed on April 10, 2016.
- Crew member's report
Individual evidence
- ↑ DESTROYER FLOTILLAS 1921–1939
- ↑ a b c Service history HMS Hardy
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. October 28 - November 6, 1939, Central Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer, 17. – 26. November 1939, South Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer, 13. – 19. December 1939, South Atlantic
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 5th-8th April 1940, Norway
- ↑ Rohwer, 7–8. April 1940, Norway
- ↑ a b Rohwer, 10. – 11. April 1940, Norway
Hardy † (Flotilla Leader)
Hasty † |
Havock † |
Hereward † |
Hero / Chaudiere .svg){kind=small}
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Hostile † |
Hotspur / Trujillo, Duarte 
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Hunter † |
Hyperion †
formerly Brazilian H-Class (1939–1940)
Harvester † |
Havant † |
Havelock |
Hesperus |
Highlander |
Hurricane †
Similar to Greece, 1939
Vasilefs Georgios / ZG 3 Hermes .svg){kind=small}
† |
Vasilissa Olga †