HMS Lookout (G32)

HMS lookout

1942 before Greenock

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type destroyer class L- and M-class Shipyard Scotts , Greenock Build number 578 Order March 31, 1938 Keel laying November 23, 1938 Launch November 4th 1940 Commissioning January 30, 1942 Whereabouts January 1948 sold for demolition

Ship dimensions and crew length 110.5 m ( Lüa ) 105.3 m ( Lpp ) width 11.2 m Draft Max. 4.39 m displacement Standard : 1,920 ts Maximum: 2,810 tn.l.   crew 190-226 men

Machine system machine 2 Admiralty boilers , 2 × sets of Parsons geared turbines Machine performance 48,000 PS (35,304 kW) Top speed 36 kn (67 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 3 × 2 120 mm L / 50 Mk.XI guns 1 × 102 mm L / 45 Mk.V anti-aircraft gun 1 × 4 40 mm L / 39 "pompom" bottle 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon cannon 2 × 4 12.7 mm Vickers AA MG 2 × 2 12.7 mm Vickers AA MG 1 × 4 533 mm torpedo tubes 45 depth charges , 2 launchers, 1 drop frame last: 3 × 2 120 mm L / 50 Mk.XX guns 1 × 4 40 mm L / 39 Mk.VII "pompom" flak 2 × 2 20 mm Oerlikon Mk.V cannons a. 2 × 20mm Oerlikon Mk.III cannon 2 × 4 torpedo tubes 533 mm 45 depth charges, 2 launchers, 1 drop frame Sensors Radar , sonar , huff-duff

HMS Lookout (G32) was a British destroyer of the eight Royal Navy L-class destroyers ordered on March 31, 1938 . The destroyer was delivered in January 1942 by the Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company . It was completed as the seventh ship of the new L-box and was completed with the double mounts for new 120 mm guns newly developed for the class .

The Lookout was awarded the Battle Honors Diego Suarez 1942 , Malta Convoys 1942 , Arctic 1942 , North Africa 1942–43 , Mediterranean 1943–45 , Sicily 1943 , Salerno 1943 and South France 1944 during World War II .

The destroyer was the only L-class ship that survived World War II operational. The ship last used in the Mediterranean returned home in October 1945, was decommissioned and assigned to the reserve. In 1948 the Lookout was sold for demolition.

history

The Lookout was laid on November 23, 1938 at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Greenock as a new building with the hull number 578 together with her sister ship Loyal . The shipyard was the only one to build four ships of this type, as on July 7, 1939 they also received the order for two replicas (M-Class). All four ships were also completed with the 120 mm L / 50 Mk.XI guns newly developed for this type in the new turret -like double mounts. The Lookout was launched on November 4, 1940 as the fifth ship of the class. The name Lookout had previously been given to a 1913 L-Class destroyer built by Thornycroft from 1912 to 1914 , which was scrapped in 1922. The commissioning of the second Lookout of the British Navy did not take place until January 30, 1942 as the seventh ship of the original order.

Calls

In March 1942, she served in the Home Fleet when the German battleship Tirpitz made unsuccessful attempts to intercept Allied northern convoys in the arctic waters as part of Operation Sportpalast . There was no contact between the two combat groups.

She then took part in the Allied occupation of the island of Madagascar , which was under Vichy-French control, under the name Operation Ironclad . She joined her sister ships Lightning and Laforey in Durban on April 22, 1942 and ran out together with them, the invasion troops and the escorts on April 28, 1942 with a course for Diégo Suarez (now Antsiranana). On May 7, the three L-class destroyers escorted the battleship Ramillies in search of an enemy battleship and its group of cruisers. The search was unsuccessful, but the Laforey managed to sink an enemy submarine.

When the Lookout accompanied the aircraft carrier Eagle in August 1942 , it was torpedoed and sunk by U 73 on August 11, 70 nautical miles south of Cap Salinas on Mallorca . The Lookout supported the rescue of the 927 survivors.

In September 1943 the Lookout was in the Mediterranean and supported the Allied landing operations near Salerno ( Operation Avalanche ) by shelling German gun emplacements.

On March 18, 1945, Lookout and Meteor surprised the three German (formerly Italian) torpedo boats TA 32 (ex Premuda / Dubrovnik ) as well as TA 24 and TA 29 (ex Arturo and Eridano of the Ariete class ) at a mine laying company northwest of Corsica . TA 24 and TA 29 were sunk in the following battle; the TA 32 , built in Great Britain for Yugoslavia , was damaged, but was able to escape due to its high speed and protection from heavy smoke.

The end of the lookout

At the end of the war in 1945, the Lookout was the only still active L-Class ship, alongside five M-Class replicas that still existed. The Lookout , who returned home from the Mediterranean on October 19, 1945 , was decommissioned, assigned to the reserve and laid up in Devonport. In October 1947 the destroyer was scrapped and then sold for demolition. At the end of February 1948 it arrived in tow in Newport , Monmouthshire, where the demolition took place.

literature

• JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy. (Rev. ed. [1969].). Chatham, London 2006, ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 .

Web links

• The Lookout at uboat.net (English)
• Allied Warships: The L-Class Destroyers , accessed January 9, 2006.
• The L and M classes on battleships cruisers

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} HMS LOOKOUT (G 32) - L-class Destroyer
2. ↑ Use of the Tirpitz against the convoy PQ-12 and QP-8, 6. – 13. March 1942
3. ↑ Operation Ironclad ( Memento from August 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Maritime Disasters of WWII 1942, 1943 ( Memento from June 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Landing in Italy ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )