HMS Kite (U87)
The kite in its final state of arms
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HMS Kite (U87) was a modified Black Swan class sloop of the British Royal Navy . She was one of several ships of this class that took part in the famous " six-in-one trip " (English: "six on one trip") under the command of Frederic John Walker in January / February In 1944 six German submarines (all of the VIIC type ) could be sunk on patrol : U-592 on January 31, U-762 on February 8, U-734 and U-238 on February 9, U-424 on February 11th and U-264 on February 19th.
history
The ship was built at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead . It was launched on October 13, 1942 and put into service on March 1, 1943. The Kite was the eleventh ship of the Royal Navy to use the English name of the Milan . Last had a small gunboat of the Ant class out of 250 ts the name in Serves the Navy.
With the Cygnet delivered in December 1942, the shipyard had already built another ship from this fund.
Since April 6, 1943 the kite has belonged to the 2nd Support Group , which was led by Captain Frederic John Walker on the Starling .
Participation of the kite in the sinking of German submarines
The kite took part in the sinking of the following German submarines:
- June 24, 1943: sinking of U 449 northwest of Cape Ortegal by depth charges along with sister ships Wren , Woodpecker and Wild Goose (total loss)
- 30 July 1943: Sinking of U 462 in the Bay of Biscay by a Handley Page Halifax and depth charges from HMS Wren , HMS Woodpecker , HMS Wild Goose and HMS Woodcock (1 dead)
- July 30, 1943: Sinking of U 504 in the North Atlantic off Cape Ortegal by depth charges together with Woodpecker and Wild Goose (total loss)
- November 6, 1943: Sinking of U 226 in the North Atlantic, east of Newfoundland , by depth charges together with Starling and Woodcock . (51 dead)
- February 9, 1944: Sinking of U 238 southwest of Ireland by depth charges together with Magpie and Starling (50 dead)
On August 20, 1944, accompanied Kite , the escort carrier Vindex and Striker who serve the Nordmeergeleitzug 59 JW northern towards Russia escorted. The convoy was eventually sighted by German aircraft in the Barents Sea . The alerted German submarines attacked the convoy, with one submarine being sunk by a Fairey Swordfish ascended by the escort carriers and two by accompanying destroyers .
The loss of the kite
On August 21, at 6:40 pm, the throttled Kite their speed to six knots to their Foxer (Störgerate to acoustic torpedoes ), they aft Duke behind him to unravel. The decision to catch up with the Foxers rather than cut the cables and abandon them was made by their commander , a former submarine operator. At this low speed the kite was an easy target for the enemy submarines. The ship was hit on the starboard side by two torpedoes from U 344 and then tilted to this side. The rear stopped, sponge for a few seconds and decreased one minute before the rest of the ship also at the position 73 ° 1 ' N , 3 ° 57' O went down. At 7:30 am, the Keppel arrived at the scene of the accident and took in survivors, covered by the two sloops HMS Peacock and HMS Mermaid . Only fourteen of the original sixty survivors of the sinking were rescued alive from the ice-cold water, but five of them died on board from the effects of hypothermia . They were later buried at sea .
The next day U 344 was sunk northwest of Bear Island by depth charges from a single Fairey Swordfish aircraft, the Vindex . The pilot's name was Gordon Bennett .