HMS Havock (H43)

**Havock**
	The sister ship Hasty
Ship data
flag	United Kingdom
Ship type	destroyer
class	H class
Shipyard	Denny , Dumbarton
Build number	1278
Order	December 13, 1934
Keel laying	May 15, 1935
Launch	July 7, 1936
Commissioning	January 26, 1937
Whereabouts	Accumulated on April 6, 1942
Ship dimensions and crew
length	98.45 m ( Lüa ) 95.1 m ( Lpp )
width	10.05 m
Draft	Max. 3.78 m
displacement	Standard : 1,340 ts; Maximum: 1,859 ts
crew	145 men
Machine system
machine	3 Yarrow boilers (Admiralty three-drum boilers) ; 2 Parsons turbines with single gear
Machine ; performance	34,000
Top ; speed	36 kn (67 km / h)
propeller	2
Armament
	4 - 120 mm L / 45 Mk.IX guns ; 2 × 4 - 12.7-mm - Fla - MG ; 2 × 4 - torpedo tubes Ø 533 mm; 20 depth charges , ; 2 launchers, 1 drop frame;
Sensors
	Type 124 sonar

HMS Havock (H43) was an H-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy during World War II .

The ship was launched on July 7, 1936 as part of a class of eight destroyers at Denny in Dumbarton on the Clyde . It entered service on January 8, 1937.

The destroyer was initially used together with the majority of its sister ships in the 2nd destroyer flotilla in the Mediterranean . In early 1940 the flotilla was ordered back to the waters around the British Isles .

After German troops had been landed by German destroyers in Narvik as part of the Weser Exercise operation , HMS Havock ran out together with her sister ships to block the Ofotfjord . On April 10, 1940, the destroyer took part in the First Naval Battle near Narvik . On the march back, the German utility Rauenfels , which was on the way to Narvik, was sunk. Further missions off the Norwegian coast followed.

In May 1940, all operational ships of the flotilla were moved to the Mediterranean, where they were stationed in Alexandria . HMS Havock was used to escort convoys and took part in the sea battle at Cape Spada in July , in which the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni could be sunk by a British association led by the light cruiser HMAS Sydney .

During a submarine mission, the destroyer succeeded in sinking the Italian submarine Berillo together with its sister ship HMS Hasty on October 2, 1940 north of Sidi Barrani .

In November, the destroyer was called to a Malta escort . After the end of the escort task, the covering fleet including HMS Havock attacked the southern Italian naval base Taranto with torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal .

After another escort to Malta, the destroyer was involved in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 . 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.

In the following years the ship was also used in the eastern and central Mediterranean. The ship was involved in both the first and the second naval battle in the Gulf of Syrte . In the last-mentioned battle, the destroyer was damaged by a hit from the heavy guns of the Italian battleship RN Littorio , but was able to reach Malta, where it had been stationed for several months in the meantime.

After another Malta convoy, HMS Havock ran from Malta to Gibraltar . As a result of outdated nautical charts , the ship ran on April 6, 1942 at Kelibia on the Cap Bon peninsula on a sandbank. The stranded ship was then torpedoed by the Italian submarine Aradam and completely destroyed. The surviving crew members were taken prisoner by the French . On April 8, the Italian Navy recovered secret documents from the wreck in a commando operation.

literature

MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms and Armor Press, London 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .

HMS Havock (H43)

literature

Web links