HMS Lightning (G55)
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HMS Lightning (G55) was a British destroyer of the eight L-class of the Royal Navy ordered on March 31, 1938 . The destroyer was delivered in May 1941 by the Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. shipyard . It was completed as the fourth ship of the new L-box and was the first ship of the class with the newly developed double mounts for the new 120 mm guns . Difficulties with the delivery of the gun turret had not only delayed the completion of the Lightning , but also led to the rearmament of four ships of the class, three of which came into service before the Lightning .
The Lightning was awarded the Battle Honors Diego Suarez 1942 and Malta Convoys 1942 during World War II . On March 12, 1943, the destroyer was in the Mediterranean Sea by the German Schnellboot S 55 north of Bizerta at 37 ° 53 ′ 0 ″ N , 9 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ E, sunk.
History of the destroyer
The Lightning was commissioned with the sister ship Legion on March 31, 1938 at Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. in Hebburn on the Tyne. The keel laying of the second ship ( Lightning ) took place 14 days after the first ship on November 15, 1938. The sister ship Legion was launched on December 26, 1939 as the first ship of the new class and the Lightning followed as the second ship of the class on December 22 , 1939 April 1940.
The new building became the tenth ship of the Royal Navy with the name Lightning , which a torpedo boat destroyer had previously operated from 1896 to 1915. This “27-knotter” supplied by Palmers had been part of the A-Class since 1912 and sank in the First World War after a mine hit. The Lightning , which was previously in service with the Navy, was delivered by Thornycroft in 1876 and was the Navy’s first torpedo boat.
The main armament of the new ships was to be three twin mounts with 120 mm cannons. The guns were a new development with a longer gun barrel and a heavier projectile. The newly developed double mounts were similar to a gun turret. They offered weather protection and allowed a greater elevation of 50 °. The production of the new weapons could not keep up with the production of the destroyer hulls.
As early as February 1940, the Royal Navy decided to equip four of the new destroyers ( Legion , Gurkha (ex Larne ) , Lance and Lively ) with proven 102 mm Mark.XVI twin guns as main armament, as there was an urgent need for fast escort vehicles strong air defense capability. However, the redesigned ships were not finished much faster; only three of them were delivered slightly earlier than the Lightning , which came into service with the Royal Navy on May 28, 1941 as the fourth L-class ship and the first ship with the newly developed guns due to the delayed delivery of the main armament. A large part of their crew came from the tribal destroyer Ashanti , which was temporarily decommissioned after a collision in the fall of 1940.
When it was completed, the Lightning carried not only the three double mounts with the 120 mm L / 50 cannons but also a 102 mm L / 45 Mk.V gun in place of the originally intended rear torpedo tube set. This installation also took place on the following eleven destroyers of the L- and M-Class with the new 120 mm twin guns, as the Admiralty continued to doubt that the destroyers were adequately equipped to repel air attacks on naval units. For short-range air defense, the Lightning had a quadruple 2-pdr-40-mm pompom behind the funnel , two individual 20-mm Oerlikon automatic cannons and two heavy quadruple and two 12.7-mm Vickers twin machine guns . There was also a four-way 21-inch torpedo tube set (instead of the originally planned two five-way sets) and 45 depth charges . The machine guns were replaced by four more Oelikon cannons while the ship was in service.
Mission history
The new destroyer relocated to Scapa Flow to the Home Fleet for final tests and for crew entry and was assigned to the 19th destroyer flotilla. In July, the destroyer was scheduled for a supply operation to the British base in Malta and was therefore assigned as security to the convoy WS 9C , which left the Clyde on July 12, 1941 . In Gibraltar , part of the convoy became the supply convoy GM 1 with the troop transport Leinster , which already broke down due to a bottoming out, as well as the freighters Melbourne Star , Sydney Star , City of Pretoria , Port Chalmers , Durham and Deucalion for Malta. The security of this Operation Substance was taken over by the Force H under Vice Admiral Somerville with the battle cruiser Renown , the carrier Ark Royal , the cruiser Hermione and eight destroyers. The Home Fleet had sent the battleship Nelson , three light cruisers, the Manxman and, in addition to the Lightning , the destroyers Cossack , Maori , Sikh and the Australian Nestor as well as three destroyers escort to support them. Since the Italians did not recognize the composition of the convoy in time, they did not use heavy naval units against the British advance. The attack by an Italian submarine was unsuccessful. Italian S 79 torpedo planes scored a hit on the cruiser Manchester on the 23rd , which then could only run 9 knots and returned to Gibraltar with 750 embarked soldiers on board under the protection of the Avon Vale . The destroyer Firedrake , which accompanied the Eridge , was also hit by air strikes , as well as the Fearless , which was badly damaged and abandoned in flames and sunk by the sister ship Forester . On the 24th, two speedboats attacked the convoy near Pantelleria and torpedoed the Sydney Star (12,696 GRT). The Australian Nestor took over 487 embarked soldiers, the transport continued on its own and reached Malta. From there, seven empty transporters ran to Force H, which was waiting outside Algeria. Only one empty tanker was damaged by the further air strikes.
The failure of the Leinster and the return of the Manchester led to a follow-up deployment of the Lightning , which with the cruisers Arethusa and Hermione , the fast mine- layer Manxman and the destroyer Sikh transported 1,750 men for Malta along with 130 t of supplies from Gibraltar to Malta. The ships, which were operating at the same time as a carrier attack by Force H on Alghero (Operation Style), reached Malta on August 2, were unloaded and returned immediately. The Ligtning joined with Sikh and Hermione to secure the Ark Royal .
On August 8, 1941, the Lightning left Gibraltar with the destroyers Cossack , Maori and Sikh to secure the Renown , which ran to England for overhaul work, and the passenger steamer Pasteur .
From August 19, the destroyer was back in service with the Home Fleet and secured, among other things, together with the cruiser Kenya, a mine-laying operation of the Manxman off the Norwegian coast.
On September 17, the Lightning was reassigned to a supply operation for Malta (Operation Halberd). For this operation, the Home Fleet relocated two battleships, four cruisers and five other destroyers to Gibraltar to secure the troop escort WS 11X . On the 24th, the GM.2 supply convoy started from Gibraltar to Malta with nine transporters. Lightning was in cover group I (Force H) with Somerville's flagship Nelson , the Ark Royal , the cruiser Hermione and five other destroyers, including the Laforey , the L-class flotilla leader and the "19th Destroyer Flotilla". The four class destroyers with the modified armament ( Gurkha , Legion , Lance , Lively ) were in service with Cover Group II during Operation Halberd.
For the Lightning , securing the convoy was the most intense combat experience, as the Germans attacked the convoy again from the air, using all forms of attack. On September 27, 1941, at 1:40 p.m., the Lightning was nearly hit when an air torpedo missed the ship by only about 20 yards .
After the operation, the destroyer returned to the Home Fleet from October 2, 1941 in the security association of the Prince of Wales , to be transferred to Force H in Gibraltar at the end of the month. The destroyer was used both to secure convoy from Gibraltar to the Biscay and back as well as to secure units of Force H in the Mediterranean, especially when carriers flew fighter planes to Malta. From November 10, 1941, she accompanied the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Argus , the battleship Malaya , the Hermione and the six destroyers Laforey , Gurkha , Legion , Sikh , Zulu and the Dutch Isaac Sweers to the western Mediterranean, where 37 hurricanes from the carriers -Hunters to Malta launched. On the march back from the planned operation, submarines attacked the formation on November 13th and U 81 ( Kapitänleutnant Guggenberger ) torpedoed the Ark Royal , which sank 25 nm in tow the next day after the crew had been rescued from Gibraltar. On the 13th, Lightning had already taken over the crew members who were no longer needed on the carrier.
On December 11, 1941, Lightning left Gibraltar with Harvester and Highlander to meet the Duke of York in the Atlantic and to escort it to the USA. Winston Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff traveled on the battleship to the Arcadia conference in Washington . In very bad weather, the destroyers found the battleship on the evening of the 17th and were released three days later, if the weather remained very bad, to Ponta Delgada for refueling, while the battleship continued its journey to the USA on its own. The destroyers ran through Bermuda until December 31, according to Newport News .
1942
The return trip of the association took place from January 12, 1942 with the battleship Duke of York and the three destroyers via St. John's (Newfoundland) to January 25, 1942 to Greenock ; Churchill flew back to Great Britain on a Boeing flying boat .
On February 4, 1942, the Lightning resumed its service with the Force H in Gibraltar. At the end of February, she was involved in an attempt by Force H to transfer fighter planes from the aircraft carriers Argus and Eagle to Malta, which was canceled south of the Balearic Islands due to problems with the aircraft's additional fuel tanks for the transfer flight.
When this project was repeated at the beginning of March, fifteen Spitfire fighters took off south of the Balearic Islands from the carriers for Malta and reached the island. The security of the two carriers consisted of the battleship Malaya , the cruiser Hermione and the destroyers Laforey , Active , Anthony , Whitehall and Wishart in addition to the Lightning as well as three Hunt escort destroyers .
On March 14, the Lightning suffered severe damage to her rudder when her own depth charge exploded prematurely while participating in a submarine search in the Strait of Gibraltar . The destroyer failed due to the repair until the end of the month. He was then assigned to the planned Operation Ironclad against Madagascar and left Gibraltar on April 1, together with Malaya , Hermione , Laforey , Lookout and Duncan for Freetown . The march to South Africa took place to secure the troop escort WS 17 , but also in warship groups. For refueling and supplies, the destroyer also ran to Freetown at St. Helena , Cape Town and Durban , which was then left on April 28 to attack the island ruled by Vichy France .
The landing of the British troops took place on May 4th near the French naval base Diego Suarez . The invasion fleet consisted of the dropships and transports from the heavy cruiser Devonshire , eleven destroyers - including Lightning and her sisters Laforey and Lookout , eight Corvettes of the Flower class and four minesweepers. The Lightning was characterized by precise artillery support for the landing forces. Even after the surrender of Diego Suarez, she remained in the sea area around Madagascar, looking for enemy submarines and supporting the continued occupation of the island. At the end of May she then moved with the Laforey to the Eastern Fleet via the Seychelles to Colombo . In June she was involved as a security destroyer in some advances by the Eastern Fleet, among others with the carriers Illustrious and Indomitable . At the end of July the destroyer returned to the East African coast in order to secure the carrier Indomitable from Mombasa with the aforementioned sister ships , which was also needed for a new supply operation for the heavily pressed Malta. The unit marched via Durban, Cape Town and Pointe-Noire (Belgian Congo) until July 28 to Freetown, where the flak cruiser Phoebe strengthened the unit. Back at sea on August 1, the destroyer discovered the three lifeboats of the Norwegian tanker Tankexpress in the evening and took over the 39 castaways and a small dog. The crew of the Tank Express had covered over 500 nautical miles since the sinking of their ship seven days and six hours earlier. In order to improve the living conditions of the rescued, 19 men were handed over to the Phoebe . On the 4th, the Lightning at sea was refueled by the carrier, as the association took part in an exercise west of Gibraltar the following day to practice tactics and maneuvers to defend the planned Malta convoy. In addition to some merchant ships, four carriers, three cruisers and a total of ten destroyers took part in the exercise (Exercise Berserk ).
In Gibraltar, the Lightning landed the Norwegian castaways and went to sea on August 10 with the Lookout as part of the securing of the carrier Furious , which was supposed to transfer 38 Spitfires to Malta (Operation Bellows), at the same time as the supply convoy Pedestal ( WS 21 ) with thirteen vans and a tanker. When the Spitfires of the Furious took off on their almost 1100 km long flight to Malta south of the Balearic Islands on the 11th, the carrier Eagle was torpedoed by U 73 in the vicinity and sank quickly. Lightning , Lookout and Laforey were sent to support and were able to save 927 survivors together with a tugboat. The castaways were then handed over to units such as the Keppel that were marching back on schedule with the Furious . The three L-class destroyers remained with the cover formation, which had been the target of air raids since the evening of the 11th. On the 12th, the Lightning with Foresight and Fury pushed away the Italian submarine Brin . When the carrier Indomitable was badly hit and caught fire in the afternoon , Somali , Lightning , Lookout and the flak cruiser Charybdis were seconded to support the carrier until the fire could be extinguished and the carrier could start the return march at higher speed. On the 13th, Lightning formed with Laforey , Lookout and the Quentin as well as the cruiser Phoebe the securing of the last remaining carrier, Victorious, west of the Strait of Sicily , which as Force Z on the march back of the units remaining with the convoy to Malta. the march back to Gibraltar was started. see also Operation Pedestal
Refueled and supplied, Lightning , Laforey and Lookout took together with the flak cruiser Charybdis and the other destroyers Antelope , Wishart , Malcolm , Keppel , Eskimo . Somali , Venomous and the Hunt destroyers Derwent and Bicester took part in another aircraft transfer of the Furious to Malta (Operation Baritone) from the 16th to the 21st , during which 29 of the 32 Spitfires launched to Malta reached the island. From the 24th, the Lightning marched together with the Ithuriel , which was damaged at the bow, and the escort destroyers Bramham and Ledbury to secure the damaged Indomitable from Gibraltar to Liverpool and then alone via Scapa Flow and Sheerness for overhaul to Chatham Dockyard , where on September 1, 1942 the Work began.
On November 19, the Lightning returned to Scapa Flow to bring in the new crew. On December 7th she moved with the Laforey to Greenock in order to move with the convoy KMF 5 to Gibraltar and the Mediterranean. On the 15th to the 20th in very stormy weather, the destroyer stayed with the convoy from the North Western Approaches to Gibraltar and then on to Algiers . She took part in the rescue operations from the 21st when the Strathallan (23,772 GRT), the ship of the Commodore of the convoy, was torpedoed off the Algerian coast. The burning transport had 4,408 British and American soldiers and 248 nurses on board. The evacuation of the ship began immediately after the torpedo hit. The destroyer Verity towed the lifeboats of the transport with 1,300 castaways to Oran. Laforey tried to tow the Strathallan , which also caught fire due to oil penetrating into the engine room, and was assisted by the tug Restive . The soldiers still on board took over other destroyers, including Panther and Pathfinder . Lightning brought those she had rescued ashore in Oran on the 22nd. On the 23rd, the transporter capsized after the rest of the crew remaining on board had also been recovered and the fires were no longer controllable. Of the total of 5122 people on board, only 16. The transporter was the second largest ship sunk by a German submarine in World War II.
The Lightning then took part in a fleet exercise. The planned stay of the ship on Christmas Day in Algiers was postponed due to the murder of Admiral Darlan . The destroyer did not call at Algiers until December 26th and left the port on the 30th to be used in the future with the Force Q in Bône (now Annaba ).
1943
When the Lightning arrived in Bône on January 1, 1943, she became part of the Force Q stationed there, which included her sister ships Laforey , Loyal and Lookout as well as the cruisers Ajax , Aurora , Penelope , Dido and Sirius . The next day the Axis powers carried out a heavy air raid on Bône and the Lightning had to deploy fire-fighting teams for the many ships hit. One of the victims was the cruiser Ajax , which was towed to Algiers from January 7th to 10th; Lightning and Loyal secured the tow and returned on the 12./13. January back to Bône. The attempts of the British Force Q von Bône with the cruisers Aurora , Penelope , Dido and Sirius were mostly unsuccessful. The destroyers Lightning and Loyal sank the German freighter Favor (ex-French Ste Roseline , 1323 GRT) south of Sardinia on January 18 and fended off German-Italian air attacks on the march back. The destroyer Lightning then moved to Algiers to secure the miner Abdiel when laying a mine barrier off the Tunisian coast. The operation was canceled when the ships were attacked by speedboats on January 31. Lightning returned to the Force Q. In February she stayed there, with a brief interruption due to a docking time in Algiers. In another air raid on Bône on March 1, 1943, two crew members died on the Lightning and eight others were seriously injured.
From March 3, the destroyer together with the Loyal secured the Abdiel while laying mines near the Skerki Bank in the Strait of Sicily. She secured the mine-layer on the approach from Algiers, secured the mine-laying to the north and marched with him to Algiers to reload new mines. During the second part of the deployment of the mine barrier, the destroyers Pakenham and Paladin also secured the operation. After securing the return march of the Abdiel to Algiers on the 8th, the Lightning ran out again on the 9th with the Royal Ulsterman built as a ferry , which transported troops to Bône. On the march they were unsuccessfully attacked by enemy torpedo planes. Further transports followed, and Loyal was also involved in securing them and the Royal Scotsman transporter was also used.
The end of the Lightning
When the Lightning arrived back in Bône on March 12, 1943 to secure the troop transports, she left again in the late afternoon to take part in a force Q advance. Together with the Loyal and the cruisers Aurora and Sirius , the group wanted to intercept an expected German convoy from Sicily. A good hour after sailing, the destroyer was attacked by a German torpedo bomber squadron. Lightning was able to shoot down one of the attackers and was not hit herself. In her position on the wing of the search strip she was then hit by the torpedo of a German speedboat in the forecastle after 10 p.m., which was partially torn off. The Lightning , which had almost come to a standstill, received a second hit when a torpedo from S 55 hit her amidships, which broke the keel of the destroyer and finally destroyed her. Now they sank quickly to the position 37.53N 09.50E north of Bizerte . The Germans captured one of the castaways and retreated. The Loyal , who arrived too late to provide support , was able to save 181 survivors, some of whom were seriously injured. Of the 227 men on board, 45 lost their lives.
The loss of the Lightning was announced on April 7, 1943. The subsequent investigation showed that the crew was only partially operational due to the rapid successive missions. The ship's sensors were also largely inoperative when the torpedoed. The rescued part of the crew was distributed to different units. In the Force Q, the Lightning was replaced by the Polish destroyer Blyskawica , whose name had the same meaning -> "Blitz".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Service History HMS Lightning
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. July 21-27, 1941, Mediterranean Sea, Operation Substance
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. July 31 - August 4, 1941, Mediterranean, Operation Style
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 8.8.1941, Eastern Atlantic
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. September 24–30, 1941, Mediterranean Sea, Operation Halberd: Supply convoy GM.2 from Gibraltar to Malta.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 10-14, 1941, Mediterranean Sea, Operation Perpetual.
- ^ Churchill returns to Britain by air.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. February 27-28, 1942, Mediterranean Sea, Operation Spotter.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 5-9 March 1942, Mediterranean Sea, Operation Spotter II.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 4-8.5.1942, Indian Ocean, British landing on Madagascar (Operation Ironclad).
- ↑ M / T Tankexpress ex Petrofina , 10,095 GRT, 15,310 dwt, 37 Götaverken
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. August 10-15, 1942, Mediterranean Sea, Operation Pedestal .
- ^ Strathallan British Troop transport on uboat.net
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. January 8-23, 1943, Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 1. – 30.3.1943, Mediterranean, 7 troop transport companies for the German-Italian. Tank armies
literature
- James J. Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy. The complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th century to the present. Chatham, London 2006, ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 , OCLC 67375475 (EA London 1969).
- John English: Afridi to Nizam: British Fleet Destroyers 1937-43. World Ship Society |, Gravesend 2001, ISBN 0-905617-64-9 .
- Norman Friedman: British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2006, ISBN 1-86176-137-6 .
- Henry Trevor Lenton: British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1998, ISBN 1-55750-048-7 .
- Peter C. Smith: Fighting Flotilla: RN Laforey Class Destroyers in WW2. Pen & Sword Maritime 2nd, Ed., Barnsley 2010, ISBN 978-1-84884-273-1 .
- M J. Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2nd Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1988, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 .
Web links
- Service history HMS Lightning (G55) on naval-history.net; accessed May 10, 2016
- Lightning on tynebuiltships.co; accessed May 10, 2016
- HMS Lightning (G55) on uboat.net; accessed May 10, 2016
- Eric Gilroy: The story of HMS Lightning - a WW2 destroyer ; accessed May 10, 2016
- L + M class
- "L" and "M" destroyers (1940-1943) ; accessed May 10, 2016
Laforey † | (Larne) / Gurkha † | Lance † | Legion † | Lightning † | Lively † | Lookout | Loyal †
(Marksman) / Mahratta † | Marne | Martin † | Matchless | Meteor | Milne | Musketeer
Poland :
(Myrmidon) / ORP Hurricane †
Turkey :
Alp Arslan |
Kilicali Pasha |
Maresal Fevzi Cakmak |
Piyale Pasha