HMS Javelin (F61)
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HMS Javelin (F61) was a British J-class destroyer . The destroyer was ordered on March 25, 1937 from John Brown & Company in Clydebank alongside a J-class destroyer as a K-class unit, but was assigned to the J-class before it was launched. The destroyer entered service with the Royal Navy on June 10, 1939. During World War II he was awarded the Battle Honors Norway 1940 , Dunkirk 1940 , Atlantic 1940 , Diego Suarez 1942 , Arctic 1942 , Mediterranean 1941 , Normandy 1944 and English Channel 1944 . At the end of November 1940, the Javelin lost the bow and stern in the English Channel due to a torpedo hit by German destroyers and was only ready for action again after more than 15 months.
The Javelin and the Jervis were the only J-class ships that survived the war, while the other six units were lost between 1941 and 1944.
history
In the spring of 1937, the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank , like seven other British shipyards, received the order to build one J- and K-class destroyers, which were largely identical. The new buildings were built under construction numbers 556 and 557 and were to be named Jackal and Kashmir . The ship planned as Kashmir was laid down on October 11, 1937, but was launched on December 21, 1938 as a Javelin and the eighth J-class ship. Since the two newbuildings ordered from John I. Thornycraft would not be completed as early as the orders placed with John Brown, both orders from the shipyard in Clydebank were to be completed as J-class ships, while the orders to Thornycroft both belong to the K- Class. The second new building in Clydebank was named after the J-destroyer originally planned by Thornycroft, which was not launched as Kashmir until April 4, 1939. The Javelin entered service on June 10, 1939 as the fourth J-class unit. After commissioning, she was, like her sister ships, assigned to the 7th Destroyer Flotilla in the Home Fleet .
Calls
The career of the Javelin was not a lucky star at the beginning. After she had started naval service in the North Sea in September 1939, she was involved in a collision with the sister ship Jersey on September 22, 1939 during one of her first operations in the Skagerrak . The damage was so severe that the mission had to be canceled and the javelin had to be towed. After completing repairs at Hawthorn Leslie on the Tyne, she collided with the merchant ship SS Mordant during test drives on October 22nd . Two crew members died in the collision, a third seaman went overboard but was able to save himself. Javelin had to be towed from the sister ship Jupiter and spent the rest of the year repairing in a shipyard in Middlesbrough .
When the British realized at the beginning of April 1940 that the Germans were attacking Norway ( Operation Weser Exercise ), the Javelin with Janus , Grenade and Eclipse was at sea to secure a convoy going to Norway. The convoy was called back and the destroyers commanded to the Home Fleet . On April 20, 1940, Javelin and Jackal accompanied the British merchant ships Cedarbank , St. Magnus and St. Sunniva from Leith to Åndalsnes during the transport of military supplies for the Allied landing forces in Norway. On April 21, the Cedarbank was torpedoed and sunk by U 26 off the Norwegian coast . Fifteen crew members were killed, the 30 survivors were picked up by the javelin and brought ashore in Ålesund . On May 13th, Javelin and Janus evacuated allied troops from Sandnessjøen to Bodø , which had been bypassed by German troops advancing north to relieve Narvik .
At the end of November 1940 the "5th Destroyer Flotilla" under Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten from Plymouth with the destroyers Jupiter , Javelin , Jackal , Jersey and Kashmir was used against the German destroyers and torpedo boats that were operating in the channel from the newly won bases in France. On November 29, the flotilla attacked the German destroyers Hans Lody , Richard Beitzen and Karl Galster (on board the FdZ , Captain Erich Bey ), who for their part had attacked British coastal traffic and sank two tugs and a barge as well as a coastal steamer on fire had shot at. Javelin received two torpedo hits (presumably from the Lody ) that tore off her bow and stern, plus artillery hits . Only a 155 feet ( 47 m) torso of the originally 353 ft (108 m) long javelin - with the engine intact and the bilge pumps working - remained buoyant and was brought in under the protection of the Kashmir . 46 crew members died in the torpedoing. The destroyer was repaired in Devonport Dockyard and could not be put back into service until January 1942.
Further missions after the reconstruction of the ship
From the end of March 1942, the destroyer then moved via Freetown and South Africa to Kenya . Mostly in association with the aircraft carrier Illustrious , which also came back into service after bomb damage, as well as the new destroyers Pakenham and Inconstant , the troop transport WS 17 was also given security. On May 4th, the attack force against the French naval base Diego Suarez on Madagascar started from Mombasa , which was captured by May 8th ( Operation Ironclad ) against fierce resistance from the defenders loyal to Vichy . The destroyer was then released to the Mediterranean Fleet in Alexandria .
The Javelin took part in Operation Vigorous from June 13 , during which it was not possible to bring transporters with supplies from Alexandria to the besieged Malta . A large number of air raids, the expired Italian fleet and a considerable shortage of ammunition in many units prevented this and, from the 15th, led to a retreat that was still costly. The Javelin had the severely damaged Australian Nestor in tow, but she had to be abandoned and sunk on the 16th after the crew had been taken over.
The Javelin assigned to the "14th Destroyer Flotilla" was subsequently used by positions of the Axis Powers on the North African coast and in the Aegean Sea and took part in further convoy to Malta as a security. On November 18, she secured the torpedoed cruiser Arethusa , which was brought into Alexandria by the Petard . From December 1942, the Javelin belonged to the Force K stationed in Malta and was involved in several skirmishes with Italian units. On January 30, 1943, she and the Kelvin provided an Italian escort whose eleven ships (including four minesweepers) were sunk by the destroyers. As the last mission from Malta, the Javelin was still involved in the bombardment and occupation of the island fortress Pantelleria in June 1943 .
The ship then moved to Great Britain for overhaul in Portsmouth from July 1943 to January 1944 . Ready for use again, the javelin was assigned to the "10th Destroyer Flotilla", which was supposed to protect the sea area in front of the landing area in northern France from enemy surface units.
When the 8th Destroyer Flotilla with Z 32 , Z 24 , ZH 1 and T 24 wanted to advance from Brest to the invasion area on the night of June 9, 1944 , it was 20 nm northwest of the Île de Batz by the "10th Destroyer Flotilla" intercepted with Tartar , Ashanti , Eskimo and Javelin , the Canadian destroyers Haida and Huron and the Polish Blyskawica and Piorun . In the battle, the Germans ZH 1 (the former Dutch Gerald Callenburgh ) lost to torpedoes from the Ashanti and Z 32 after a battle with Haida and Huron . This destroyer was touched down and blown up at the Île de Batz. Z 24 and the fleet torpedo boat T 24 escaped to Brest damaged. On the British side, the Tartar was badly damaged. In early July 1944, the Javelin failed again for a long time after a collision with the Eskimo . She suffered severe damage to the stern and three crew members died in the collision. The destroyer was not ready for action again until January 1945.
Last missions
In February 1945 the Javelin moved to the Mediterranean Sea and after the end of the war supported the replacement of existing German troops from Trieste by Allied units. In the autumn of 1945 there was a refusal to give orders on the destroyer off Rhodes , which led to a court martial against more than 20 crew members. The destroyer remained in service in the Mediterranean until April 1946. In addition to the normal exercises, the javelin was also used to prevent illegal immigration to Palestine .
On May 17, 1946, the Javelin arrived back in Portsmouth and was decommissioned and transferred to the reserve. After a brief use as a target ship, the ship was sold for demolition and scrapped in Troon on June 11, 1949 . Only the Javelin and Jervis J-class survived the war.
Armament
The armament consisted of six 120 mm cannons in double mounts Mk XII for use against sea and air targets (two "towers" in front of the bridge, the rear in an elevated position; a mount on a platform at the stern). As an anti-aircraft armament for close range, the destroyer had a 2-pounder quadruple gun Mk.VIII on a platform behind the funnel and initially two quadruple and two twin 0.5-inch (12.7-mm) Vickers Fla- MGs . The Vickers machine guns were replaced by 20 mm Oerlikon cannons in 1941/42 , of which two twin guns and two single guns were on board from 1943. Ten torpedo tubes in two sets of five tubes each completed the armament. From 1941 to 1943, the anti-aircraft armament was reinforced by a single 4-inch (102-mm) MK.V gun in place of the rear torpedo tube set. This gun was dismissed in 1943 in favor of the second torpedo tube set.
The anti-submarine armament of 20 depth charges was increased to 45 depth charges during the war. For this purpose, mine detection equipment that was initially available was given off board.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Service History HMS JAVELIN (F 61) - J-class Destroyer
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 7th-8th April 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 21-25 April 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 10-15 May 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 27.-29. November 1940, canal
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 6-13 June 1944, Canal / North Sea Attack attempts by German surface ships against the invasion fleet.
- ↑ HMS Javelin memorial page, Mutiny !! ( Memento from January 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ "J", "K" and "N" destroyers (1939–1942)
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 (Original: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms & Armours Press, London), pp. 114-118 (N-Class), 219, 215.
Web links
- HMS JAVELIN (F 61) - J-class Destroyer
- "J", "K" and "N" destroyers (1939-1942)
- HMS Javelin Memorial Page (English).
- HMS Javelin (F61) on uboat.net (engl.)
J-class Jackal | Jaguar | Janus | Javelin | Jersey | Jervis | Juno | Jupiter
K-class Kandahar | Kashmir | Kelly | Kelvin | Khartoum | Kimberley | Kingston | Kipling
N class Napier | Nepal | Nerissa | Nestor | Nizam | Noble (G84) | Noble (G65) | Nonpareil | Norman
Australia :
Napier |
Nepal |
Nestor |
Nizam |
Norman
