HMS Hyperion (H97)
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HMS Hyperion (H97) was a destroyer of the H-Class of the British Royal Navy . The second Hyperion of the Royal Navy formed the “2nd Destroyer Flotilla” used by the “ Mediterranean Fleet ” with its sister ships from 1937 .
The destroyer, stationed in Bermuda since November 1939, was intended to prevent German merchant ships from returning to the German Reich from Central American ports. In December 1939, according to American position reports , the Hyperion placed the German passenger ship Columbus east of Cape Hatteras , which sank itself when the destroyer approached to avoid being seized.
From the end of May 1940 used again in the British Mediterranean Fleet, the destroyer took part in the naval battle at Punta Stilo and the naval battle at Cape Spada in July as part of the security forces for heavier units.
While securing the transfer of the battleship Malaya from Alexandria to Gibraltar , the destroyer ran on December 22, 1940 off Pantelleria on a mine that had been laid by Italian destroyers. Since recovery was not possible due to the proximity to Italian air bases, the severely damaged ship had to be removed from the destroyer Janus to 37 ° 4 ′ N , 11 ° 31 ′ E sunk.
The history of the ship
The ship was launched on April 6, 1936 as the second H-class destroyer built by Swan Hunter in Wallsend . The Hyperion entered service on December 3, 1936 as the fifth destroyer of the class.
She was largely a standard destroyer of the class, displacing 1350 tl (max. 1883 tl), was 98.5 m long, 10.1 m wide and had a draft of 3.8 m. The ship was armed with four 4.7-inch (120-mm) L / 45-Mk.IX cannons. Two quadruple 0.5-inch Vickers Mk.III machine guns were available to ward off air attacks . Like all destroyers of the class, it had two quadruple 21-inch torpedo tube sets . To repel submarines, the destroyer had a drop rail and two depth charges and had 20 depth charges on board, which were increased to 35 shortly after the start of the war.
During the war, the destroyer's air defense was also reinforced. The rear torpedo tube assembly was replaced by a 12 pounder (76 mm) anti-aircraft gun in 1940 . In 1940 she probably also received two 20 mm Oerlikon cannons .
Unlike the standard destroyers, the Hyperion only had two Admiralty boilers and, for comparison purposes, a Johnson high-pressure boiler.
The destroyer was initially used together with the other ships of the class in the 2nd destroyer flotilla in the Mediterranean with Malta as a base. The flotilla took during the Spanish Civil War to the so-called neutrality patrols in part off the Spanish coast in the western Mediterranean. In August 1939 the ship arrived in Portsmouth for a routine overhaul from the Mediterranean. The tense political situation led to a restriction of the shipyard stay to the necessary repairs in mid-August. On August 27, 1939, the destroyer moved with the sister ship Hunter , which was overtaken in Devonport, and the Havock, which was also only overtaken to a limited extent in Sheerness, via Gibraltar to Freetown , where the destroyer arrived on September 4, 1939.
War missions
At the beginning of the war, Freetown was also the base of the station cruiser Neptune of the "South Africa Station". A few days later, the destroyer Hotspur also arrived there after an overhaul in Great Britain. In mid-October 1939 Freetown became the base of " Force K " of the Royal Navy, to which the Flotilla Commander Hardy and the four remaining H-class destroyers came from the home of the battle cruiser Renown and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and from the Mediterranean . The reinforcement of the forces in the Central and South Atlantic was directed against the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee , which was used in the trade war . In October, however, some of the destroyers were distributed to other bases and the Hyperion came to Bermuda with the Hunter in November to perform security and surveillance tasks in the eastern Atlantic.
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There, began Hyperion on December 19, 1939 320 nm east of Cape Hatteras, the 32,581 GRT large Columbus from the North German Lloyd. Before the start of the war, the German cruise ship had landed its passengers in Havana and then called at the neutral Vera Cruz . On December 14, 1939, the Columbus left the neutral port to break through to Germany. American destroyers had accompanied the German ship in the Gulf of Mexico and reported the position of the Columbus in open radio messages . The heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa , which last followed the German ship, continued this practice. With the approach of the British destroyer, the crew of the Columbus initiated the prepared self-sinking of their ship in order to avoid being seized.
In January 1940, the Hyperion was ordered back into the waters around the British Isles and overtaken from January 25th at the naval shipyard in Portsmouth . On March 6, the destroyer returned to the fleet in Scapa Flow, ready for action. He was assigned to the British units, which should carry out measures to cut off the German iron ore supply via Narvik before Norway . On April 5, as part of Operation Wilfred , the Hyperion joined the cover group with battle cruiser Renown and destroyers Hero , Greyhound and Glowworm off Norway. The Glowworm lost contact in a heavy storm while attempting to rescue a sailor who had fallen overboard, encountered the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and on the 8th became the Royal Navy's first destroyer loss when attempting to repel the German occupation of Norway .
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Hero and Hyperion faked the laying of a mine lock near Bud , while the mine-layer destroyers Express , Esk , Icarus and Impulsive , secured by the 2nd destroyer flotilla with Hardy , Havock , Hunter and Hotspur , laid a real mine lock near Bodø . They handed over the warning of the alleged mine lock in Romsdalsfjord to the Norwegian destroyer Sleipner and then went to Sullom Voe to refuel . Hero and Hyperion did not take part in the first attack on the German destroyers in Narvik on April 10 by five destroyers of the British 2nd Flotilla, in which two were lost and two were badly damaged . The Hyperion remained in service off Norway until May 4, 1940 and was most recently involved in the evacuation of Allied troops from Åndalsnes and Molde .
A planned operation off the Dutch coast was not carried out and from mid-May 1940 all operational ships of the flotilla were relocated to the Mediterranean, where they were stationed in Alexandria . The Hyperion was used to escort convoys and took part in the naval battle at Punta Stilo in "Force C" on July 9, 1940 for the battleships Malaya and Royal Sovereign and the aircraft carrier Eagle with nine other destroyers, including the sister ships Hostile and Hasty , part.
Only a few days later, the sea battle at Cape Spada followed on July 19, in which the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni was sunk by a British association led by the light cruiser Sydney . The Italian cruiser, which was set on fire by the Sydney , sank after torpedo hits from Ilex and Hyperion . The British destroyers ( Havock , Hyperion , Hasty , Hero and Ilex ) saved 525 men from the sunken Colleoni . The sister ship Giovanni dalle Bande Nere accompanying the Colleoni was able to escape to Benghazi . On September 25, 1940, the Hyperion with the destroyers Hereward , Janus and Mohawk shelled military targets at Sidi Barrani .
In November the destroyer was called to another Malta escort . After the escort task ended, the aircraft carrier Illustrious attacked the Italian battle fleet in the southern Italian naval base of Taranto with its Swordfish torpedo bombers . The Illustrious advanced from the cover fleet with the cruisers Berwick , Glasgow , Glouchester and York and the destroyers Hasty , Havock , Hyperion and Ilex to the suitable starting position for the air strike on the night of November 12, 1940.
Against the support of the British Army through the bombardment of Italian positions and supply routes from sea by the Royal Navy, the Italian Navy deployed three submarines in December 1940, of which Neghelli was able to torpedo the cruiser Coventry , which was secured by three destroyers on the 13th . During the following mission to support the British 8th Army off the North African coast on December 14, 1940, Hyperion and Hereward succeeded in sinking the Italian submarine Naiade off Bardia .
The end of the Hyperion
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Immediately after this success, the Hyperion was involved in the transfer of the battleship Malaya from Alexandria to Gibraltar and the securing of convoy MW 5 of eight freighters to Malta from December 16 . After the battleship and two transporters returning from Malta were handed over across the Strait of Sicily to the destroyers Duncan , Jaguar , Encounter and Isis of Force H for further escort to Gibraltar, Hyperion , Jervis and Ilex attempted to march back through the on December 22, 1940 Strait of Sicily. The Hyperion ran into a mine in a minefield laid by Italian destroyers between Cape Bon and Pantelleria . Two attempts by the Ilex to tow the badly damaged Hyperion failed. Since a recovery given the proximity to the Italian air bases was not possible, which took Ilex the crew of the Hyperion (only two missing) and the destroyer Janus sank the badly damaged ship at 37 ° 4 ' N , 11 ° 31' O .
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
- Chronicle of naval warfare 1939–1945
- HMS HYPERION (H 97) - H-class Destroyer
- Hyperion 1936
- HMS HYPERION (H 97)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL 1920 to 1970. p. 26.
- ^ Rohwer: Chronicle of the naval war. P. 35.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. July 6-11, 1940 Mediterranean Sea, Battle of Punta Stilo (Calabria)
- ↑ Rohwer, p. 62
- ↑ Rohwer, July 19, 1940 Mediterranean Sea battle at Cap Spada (Crete)
- ↑ Rohwer, 22.- 09.25.1940 Mediterranean
- ↑ a b Rohwer, November 4-14, 1940 Mediterranean, Brit. Fleet operation with carrier attack on Taranto.
- ↑ Rohwer, 13.- 25.12.1940 Mediterranean.
- ↑ Rohwer, 7.- 10/10/1940 Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 13-25, 1940 Mediterranean Sea.
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 †