HMS Intrepid (D10)
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HMS Intrepid (D10) was a destroyer of the I-Class of the British Royal Navy . In the Second World War , the destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors "Atlantic 1939-1941", "Dunkirk 1940", "Norway 1941-1942", "Bismarck Action 1941", "Arctic 1941-1943", " Malta Convoys 1942 ", " Sicily 1943 ”,“ Salerno 1943 ”and“ Aegean 1943 ”.
In September 1943, the Intrepid suffered severe damage from German air raids in the port of Leros . The destroyer sank and repairs were out of the question due to the extent of the damage.
History of the ship
The Intrepid was one of eight I-class destroyers ordered on October 30, 1935, which were largely identical to the previously ordered G- and H-class destroyers. She was commissioned with the sister ship Impulsive from J. Samuel White in Cowes , Isle of Wight . The keel was laid on January 6, 1936 and launched on December 13 of the same year. The Intrepid entered service on July 29, 1937 as the seventh ship of the class. The Intrepid was one of the four ships of the class that were prepared for use as a mine- layer. In the case of the conversion, however, two 120 mm guns and the two torpedo tube sets had to be given off board as a counterbalance for the mine load.
The new destroyer was the seventh ship in the Royal Navy to be named Intrepid . Most recently, the Apollo-class cruiser Intrepid had served in the Navy until 1918 and was sunk as a block ship during the attack on Zeebrugge .
Mission history
The destroyer was initially used together with its sister ships of the I-class in the Mediterranean . They formed the "3rd Destroyer Flotilla" of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Fleet . After the war began, the flotilla was ordered back to the waters around the British Isles . The destroyers were supposed to secure shipping traffic in the area of the south-western access routes and hunt down German submarines . The aircraft carrier Courageous , which was at sea with four ships from the flotilla on September 17, 1939, was also used for this task . When a radio message came in from a British freighter reporting an attack by a German submarine, four Swordfish launched from the carrier to support the freighter. For this purpose, the flotilla commander Inglefield and the Intrepid were dispatched to combat the submarine, as the ASDIC devices of the destroyers did not detect any signs of a vehicle in the vicinity. In the evening, U 29 managed to score two torpedo hits on the carrier, which sank very quickly. While the Impulsive tried to save the castaways, the Ivanhoe attacked the now recognized submarine unsuccessfully. When the Intrepid returned to the association, the porter had long since sunk with 518 men. Three civilian ships participated in the rescue of the castaways, including the Dutch passenger ship Veendam , which used fourteen lifeboats. A total of 741 men were saved. Intrepid took part in the hunt for U 29 , in which the destroyers Kempenfelt and Echo , which had meanwhile arrived, also took part. During the night, the submarine escaped under Lieutenant Schuhart . Intrepid then escorted the British freighter Dido to Liverpool , which had saved 218 men.
During another escort mission ( KJF 3 ) on October 14, 1939, Intrepid with Inglefield and Ivanhoe succeeded in sinking the German submarine U 45 southwest of Ireland .
Use after conversion to minelayer
The destroyer was then assigned to the 20th (minelayer) destroyer flotilla and converted into a miner at Chatham Dockyard from mid-November to mid-December . On December 17, 1939, the first mission, together with the Ivanhoe , Esk and Express , led into the mouth of the Ems , where the destroyer-mine-layers lay a mine barrier with 240 mines. The operation was secured by the destroyers Grenville , Greyhound , Griffin and the Polish Blyskawica . Until mid-January, the Intrepid was involved in two more offensive mine operations in the German Bight and four defensive mine operations off the British east coast. In February 1940, the German destroyers Leberecht Maaß and Max Schultz were lost on one of the offensive mine barriers in the outflow path of the German Siegfried Line .
The destroyer Intrepid then took over security duties for the Home Fleet again . In mid-February, Intrepid and Ivanhoe, together with the light cruiser Aurora and the tribal destroyers of the "4th Destroyer Flotilla" , searched for the German supply ship Altmark , which was trying to reach home with the prisoners of the ships captured by Admiral Graf Spee through Norwegian territorial waters . On February 15 presented Intrepid and Ivanhoe , by the old Norwegian torpedo boats Skarv and Kjell accompanied Altmark at the height of Egersund . The supply ship ran into the Jøssingfjord to avoid being captured by the British at sea. That night, Cossack , commanded by Philip Vian , ran into the fjord and freed the 302 prisoners.
At the height of Egmond , laid on May 10th, the British mineship Princess Victoria, with the destroyers Esk , Express and the Intrepid , lays a lock with 236 mines, which was extended by Intrepid with 60 mines on May 15th . On the same day the destroyers Esk , Express and Ivanhoe lay a barrier with 164 mines in front of Hoek van Holland . A number of other mining operations followed off the Dutch coast and to protect the British east coast.
The Intrepid was the end of May 1940, together with many other ships in Operation Dynamo on duty to those around Dunkirk beleaguered Allied forces, particularly the British Expeditionary Force to evacuate to Britain. The destroyer was damaged by bombs from German Stukas on May 29, 1940 on the journey from Dover to Dunkirk . After the repair, the Intrepid continued to serve as a mine-layer and was involved in deploying further defensive mine barriers on the British east coast and in the English Channel as well as offensive barriers off the Dutch coast. In addition, the destroyer carried out inspection trips to ward off invasions and escort security. On November 2, 1940, the ship was hit by a mine and had to be towed to Hartlepool.After the repairs were carried out, the Intrepid minelayer remained and was used with the sister ships Impulsive and Icarus in the first few months of 1941 primarily against German bases on the French Channel coast and in used in Brittany . From the end of April 1941, the ship was then dismantled to become a fleet destroyer in Immingham .
Operations as escort destroyers
In the new assignment, the Intrepid was involved in the search for the Bismarck . She belonged with four other destroyers to the Association of Home Fleet with the battleship King George V and the aircraft carrier Victorious as well as the 2nd cruiser squadron. After the fuel supply had been used up, the destroyer had to be released to Iceland. Due to problems with the engine, the ship stayed longer in Iceland and only joined the Home Fleet again after the sinking of the German battleship. After the mission, another overhaul of the destroyer was necessary, which took place in Hull .
In July 1941, the destroyer was involved in a carrier attack with the aircraft carriers Furious and Victorious , the heavy cruisers Devonshire and Suffolk and the destroyers Echo , Eclipse and Escapade against the German bases in Northern Norway and Finland.
From November 1941, the Intrepid was used as an escort for Northern Sea convoys , which supplied the Soviet Union with war material. She advanced with the cruiser Kenya and the destroyer Bedouin and the Soviet destroyers Gremyashchi and Gromki on November 14th against the Norwegian polar coast and shot at Vardø . Then the association took over the security of the seven merchant ships of the convoy PQ 3 , which passed from Hvalfjord to Arkhangelsk without touching the enemy . Before the march back, the Kenya repeated the advance against the Norwegian polar coast and Vardø with the destroyers, in order to then secure the return QP 3 , which was not accompanied to Iceland. At the same time, with PQ 5 , another northern sea convoy was on the way to Arkhangelsk.
Operations 1942/43
On January 7, 1942, the British destroyers Inglefield and Intrepid attacked a German convoy off Florø and were able to damage the steamer Hedwigshütte (2221 GRT). The escort boat V 5104 / Orkan , which was also damaged, had to be put on the beach. At the same time, Whitley bombers of the Royal Air Force (RAF) attacked the German airfield Stavanger-Sola (Operation Kitbag). At the beginning of February, the Intrepid with the Faulknor and partly the cruiser Nigeria led the combined convoys PQ 9 and 10 with ten ships from Reykjavík to Murmansk . Two British and two Norwegian anti-submarine trawlers ran in the convoy as local security. Shortly before the target, the minesweepers Britomart and Sharpshooter of the Halcyon class stationed in Murmansk reinforced the convoy security. The destroyers, which arrived in Murmansk on February 10, took over on the 13th the securing of the return QP 7 of eight merchant ships, which had left the day before protected by four minesweepers stationed in Murmansk ( Hazard , Speedwell , Britomart , Sharpshooter ). The Nigeria was still in the Arctic Ocean as cover . The convoy was disbanded on the 15th as a threat from the Germans was not discovered. While the cruiser and destroyers were sailing to their British bases and the minesweepers were returning to Murmansk, the merchant ships reached Seidisfjord, Iceland on February 22nd.
At the beginning of March, the Intrepid was still involved in the operations around the convoys PQ 12 and QP 8 . PQ 12 was discovered on March 5 by a Fw 200 Condor about 70 nm south of Jan Mayen . On March 6th, the battleship Tirpitz under Vice Admiral Otto Ciliax went to sea with the destroyers Friedrich Ihn , Hermann Schoemann and Z 25 from Trondheim to attack the convoy. The German ships did not find the convoy and could only sink a straggler from QP 8 . They stopped the operation. The British radio reconnaissance was able to decipher reports about the departure of the German ships, so that the main part of the Home Fleet under Admiral Tovey with the battleship King George V , the carrier Victorious , the cruiser Berwick and the destroyers Onslow , Ashanti , Bedouin , Lookout , Icarus and Intrepid went to sea and tried to catch the Tirpitz . On March 9, twelve attacked Albacore -Torpedoflugzeuge the Victorious , the Tirpitz unsuccessfully before the West Fjord, which then Narvik ran. The British commander awaited the relocation of the battleship to Trondheim and sent the destroyers Bedouin , Eskimo , Tartar , Punjabi , Faulknor , Fury , Icarus and the Intrepid to the coast off Bodø , around the Tirpitz , on the night of March 11th to 12th intercept. This did not begin the march back until the following night.
After a five-week overhaul in Grimsby , the Intrepid accompanied the carrier USS Wasp from the Clyde to Gibraltar and then into the western Mediterranean with the Echo and two USN destroyers . Spitfires then started from the US carrier on May 8th to Malta to strengthen the air defense there. Returned to the Home Fleet as the destroyer escort of the Renown , another mission followed for the destroyer in the North Sea. From May 23, 1942, he belonged to the British / American long-range coverage group for convoys PQ 16 and QP 12 . After a unsuccessful submarine hunt in the Denmark Strait , the Intrepid relocated to Murmansk alone at the beginning of June to help protect the return line QP 13 . After the devastating course of the convoy PQ 17 , the Intrepid marched with the Inglefield again to Murmansk at the beginning of July with ammunition and spare parts for the units of the Royal Navy stationed there. On the march back she had survivors of sunken ships (including the cruiser Edinburgh ) as passengers on board.
In August 1942, the Intrepid was one of the many units of the Home Fleet that strengthened the British units in the western Mediterranean in order to finally bring supply ships to Malta again ( Operation Pedestal ). The Intrepid was assigned to the security screen of the aircraft carriers used for anti-submarine defense. When the old carrier Eagle was sunk by U 73 , the destroyer was able to save 22 of the Eagle's men . 160 crew members of the Eagle were killed, a total of 927 were rescued by the security destroyers. On the 12th, the destroyer was assigned to the immediate security of the remaining transporters. When most of the security associations remained in the Strait of Sicily, the Intrepid ran as a mine sweeper in front of the remaining association to Malta, which was attacked several times by German and Italian aircraft and speedboats. Defenders of the convoy were next to the Intrepid still the damaged cruiser Kenya , the anti-aircraft cruiser Charybdis and the destroyers Ashanti , Fury , Icarus , Penn and Pathfinder and the escort destroyer Ledbury and Bramham . The passage of five transporters (including the damaged tanker Ohio ) secured Malta as a powerful base for the Allies for a long time. The security forces immediately marched back so as not to provoke any further attacks on the port of Malta. German-Italian attacks on the retreating escort ships remained unsuccessful. They met with the other units at Algiers and then marched back to Gibraltar.
In September 1942, the Intrepid was used as local security for the Arctic convoys PQ 18 and QP 14 . When the destroyer Somali was torpedoed on convoy QP 15 on September 20 and the Ashanti wanted to tow the severely damaged destroyer to Iceland, the Intrepid was assigned to the destroyers Eskimo and Opportune to secure the tug. After a significant deterioration in the weather, the Somali broke up on September 24 while towing the sister ship and sank with 77 men. 35 castaways were rescued by the Ashanti and the rescue ship Lord Middleton . With the cruiser Argonaut and the destroyer Obdurate , the Intrepid ran to Murmansk from October 13 to transfer the hospital material and medical personnel required there. The ships then directed QP 15 to the west, as a further transport of supplies to the Soviet Union was not possible for the time being, as the Allied landing in North Africa ( Operation Torch ) meant that insufficient security forces were available. As passengers, the ships had returning RAF personnel and survivors from PQ 18 on board.
After an overhaul at the turn of the year, the destroyer was involved in securing the northern sea escorts JW 53 and RA 53 in February and early March 1943 .
From mid-1943, the Intrepid was back in service in the Mediterranean. Both in Operation Husky , the Allied landing in Sicily , and in Operation Avalanche (landing near Salerno ), it served as a security destroyer for heavier units.
The end of the Intrepid
On September 16, 1943, the Intrepid with five destroyers of the 8th British destroyer flotilla ( Faulknor , Echo , Eclipse , Raider and the Greek Vasilissa Olga ) was moved from the central Mediterranean to Alexandria. They were supposed to support the smaller British combat groups and commandos on Castellorizzo , Kos , Leros , Kalymnos , Samos , Symi and Astypalea (it. Stampalia) against the Germans who tried to bring the Italian Dodecanese under their control after the Italian surrender . On its largest island, Rhodes , the Germans stationed there had already forced the Italians to surrender. The destroyer attacked a German escort with the Echo on the 17th off Stampalia and sank the U-boat fighter UJ 2104 . On the 18th, the destroyer then took over British troops in Haifa to transport them to Leros. After taking over further supplies in Alexandria, the Intrepid ran at Leros on the 19th and returned to Alexandria on the 21st together with the Echo . On the 25th, the destroyer went back to sea to attack German shipping in the Aegean Sea. The destroyer was then ordered to call at Leros, where it was attacked by German Ju 88 bombers from LG 1 in the port of Lakki on September 26, 1943 . The Intrepid was hit amidships and had severe damage to the boiler rooms and was no longer operational. The destroyer was moved to a new position for repair, but hit again in another air raid. The bow was badly damaged and the Intrepid began to sink. 15 men of the crew died in the air raids. The crew left the ship, which capsized and sank on September 27, 1943 at the position 37 ° 7 ′ N , 26 ° 51 ′ E
Also on the 26th, the German attackers hit Vasilissa Olga on the bridge and near the front torpedo tube set with two bombs. She broke after a subsequent torpedo explosion and sank quickly. 72 men died on the Greek destroyer.
The Intrepid was the second ship to sank under the command of Commander Charles de Winton Kitcat. In 1941, the sister ship Imperial under his command was lost during the evacuation from Crete.
To commemorate those killed in the sinking of the Vasilissa Olga and the Intrepid , two memorial stones were erected in the small harbor community of Lakki.
literature
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981. Ian Allen, 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
- 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. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2009, ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
- HT Lenton: Warships of the British and Commonwealth Navies. Ian Allan, 1969,
- Antony Preston: Destroyers. Hamlyn, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2nd Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1988, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , October 10-19, 1939 North Atlantic First attempt at a guided submarine group operation
- ^ Rohwer, December 17-18, 1939 North Sea
- ↑ Rohwer, 9. – 14. January 1940 North Sea
- ↑ Rohwer, 14. – 16. February 1940 Norway
- ↑ Rohwer, 6. – 23. May 1940 North Sea
- ^ Rohwer, May 28, 1940 Kanal, start of Operation "Dynamo"
- ^ Rohwer, May 29, 1940 Kanal Second day of Operation "Dynamo"
- ↑ Rohwer, 18. – 27. May 1941 North Atlantic, Operation "Rhine Exercise".
- ↑ Rohwer, July 22nd – 4th August 1941 Northern Sea, British porters advance against Kirkenes and Petsamo.
- ↑ Rohwer, 9. – 28. November 1941 Northern Sea.
- ^ Rohwer, November 24, 1941 North Sea.
- ↑ Rohwer, November 27–12. December 1941 Northern Sea.
- ^ Rohwer, January 7, 1942 Norway.
- ↑ Rohwer, 1. – 10. February 1942 Northern Sea.
- ↑ Rohwer, 12. – 22. February 1942 Northern Sea.
- ↑ Rohwer, 1. – 13. March 1942 Northern Sea, operations against the Allied convoys PQ.12 and QP.8.
- ↑ Rohwer, 8. – 15. May 1942 Mediterranean Allied supply company for Malta (Operation "Bowery").
- ^ Rohwer, May 25. - June 1, 1942 Arctic Ocean, operation against the Allied convoys QP.12 and PQ.16.
- ↑ Rohwer, 26. – 30. June 1942 Arctic Ocean Escort Operation QP.13 / PQ.17 in the Arctic Ocean.
- ↑ Rohwer, 10. – 15. August 1942 Mediterranean Operation "Pedestal".
- ↑ Rohwer, 9. – 26. September 1943 Aegean Sea.
HMS Inglefield † (Flotilla Leader)
HMS Icarus |
HMS Ilex |
HMS Imogen † |
HMS Imperial † |
HMS Impulsive |
HMS Intrepid † |
HMS Isis † |
HMS Ivanhoe †
built for Turkey: HMS Inconstant | HMS Ithuriel †
Demirhisar Class : Demirhisar | Sultanhisar | Muavenet ex Inconstant