HMS Mahratta (G23)
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HMS Mahratta (G23) was one of eight M-class destroyers of the Royal Navy ordered on July 7, 1939 . The destroyer planned as Marksman was not delivered by Scotts until April 1943, after the destroyer under construction was badly damaged while still on the slipway in two heavy German air raids on Greenock on May 6 and 7, 1941. As a result of the air raids on August 18, 1941, the keel of the ship was again laid elsewhere in the shipyard. Therefore, the ship now named Mahratta was not launched until the end of July 1942 and was not completed until April 1943 as the last ship of the new M-class. It was the latest delivery of a destroyer ordered before the war began.
The Mahratta was awarded the Battle Honor "Arctic 1943-44" in World War II .
On the evening of February 25, 1944, the destroyer was in the Barents Sea by the German submarine U 990 at 71 ° 17 ′ 0 ″ N , 13 ° 30 ′ 0 ″ E sunk. The submarine hit the destroyer running at the end of the northern sea convoy JW 57 with a wren torpedo . The destroyer exploded and sank within minutes. The destroyers Impulsive and Wanderer , who hurried to help, were only able to save 16 of the 236 men on board from the icy water.
History of the ship
On July 7, 1939, the Royal Navy issued construction contracts for eight destroyers of a new M-class. The class was a replica of the L-Class ordered in 1938 , of which no ship had yet been launched. The new orders went in pairs to the selected shipyards, of which only Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Greenock also built ships for the first order. The shipyard was supposed to build the type ship of the new M group and the associated flotilla leader . The keel laying of the newbuildings with hull numbers 583 and 584 took place at the end of January 1940 three months after the keel laying of the two ships to be delivered by Vickers-Armstrong and almost two months after the two Fairfields newbuildings. New building 583 was to be named Milne and was completed as the M-class flotilla leader. The new building 584 was to be given the name Marksman and completed by the shipyard as a type ship of the new M group. The name was last used from 1915 to 1921 by a flotilla leader and type ship of a class of seven flotilla leaders, which was sometimes referred to as the Lightfoot class. The unfinished ship was hit on the slipway during the Luftwaffe attacks on Greenock on May 6 and 7, 1941, and was severely damaged. Further construction was no longer possible. The remains of the Marksman were therefore removed and the material reused as far as possible on another building site on the shipyard site, where on August 18, 1941 the new building was keeled again, which was then named Mahratta when it was launched in July 1942 . The name change to the Maratha empire was made in honor of India's contribution to the war. The name had previously been used for ships or boats on the East Indian station or the Indian Navy. In April 1943 the ship could be delivered to the Royal Navy. The Mahratta was the last destroyer ordered before the war began.
The damage and personal loss in Greenock from the air force attacks delayed the contracts awarded to Scotts considerably. The shipyard was also only able to process orders in other destroyer classes with a considerable delay.
Calls
After all tests had been carried out and all equipment and supplies had been taken over, the new destroyer moved to the Home Fleet for the “work-up” . Even during these test and training trips, the new destroyer accompanied the Queen Mary , who was setting out for New York in May 1943 , on which the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and advisers drove to the Trident Conference with the Americans.
In the summer of 1943, the destroyer was mostly used as a safety device when the heavy units of the Home Fleet were moving, some of which served as a diversionary maneuver for the Allied offensive in the Mediterranean area and were intended to bind German forces in the North Sea. In addition, there were a number of special tasks, such as supply trips for the Allied bases on Spitzbergen or transports of personnel and material of the Royal Air Force to Northern Russia in order to improve the surveillance of the units of the German Navy in Northern Norway from there .
In September, the destroyer was deployed in the Bay of Biscay when it was supposed to secure the return march of some heavy units of the Royal Navy from the Mediterranean via Gibraltar to home with other destroyers of the Home Fleet. The Mahratta has to temporarily tow the sister ship Matchless , whose engines had failed. On October 8, 1943, she discovered a lifeboat with six crew members from a Halifax of the RAF , which had sunk the departing U 221 on September 27, but was shot down by its flak. On the 10th she arrived in Plymouth with the last escorted battleship Valiant , which was returning from Operation Avalanche .
On October 20, the mission began as part of the beginning season of the northern sea convoys . To return urgently needed merchant ships from Murmansk, an escort group with destroyers Milne (F), Mahratta , Matchless and Musketeer of the “3rd Destroyer Flotilla”, Saumarez , Savage , Scorpion and Scourge of the “23th Destroyer Flotilla” met in the Kolafjord on the 28th the Westcott converted into a long range escort , the Norwegian corvette Eglantine and the minesweepers Harrier and Seagull of the Halcyon class . Under the protection of this association, Soviet crews transferred five small mine sweepers and six submarine hunters to the Soviet Northern Fleet as part of a "lend lease" agreement . The transfer, which was not recognized by the Germans, was secured by the cruiser London and the American Augusta with the destroyer escort Middleton . Three British submarines had been set up in front of the entrance to the Altafjord .
On November 1, the running convoy RA 54A thirteen merchant ships from Arkhangelsk from which initially was backed by three Soviet destroyers and four minesweepers of the Halcyon class, of which Jason and Britomart the convoy remained, after a deployment time to the White Sea again To return home fleet. From the 5th, the aforementioned seven destroyers, the escort boat Westcott and the Eglantine took over the security of the convoy, while Harrier and Seagull stayed behind to replace Jason and Britomart . The fuse was now the cruisers Belfast , Kent and Norfolk and as long-range cover the battleship Anson , the carrier Formidable , the cruiser Jamaica and six destroyers at sea. The convoy arrived in Loch Ewe on the 14th without being detected by the German reconnaissance.
This was followed by missions of the Mahratta at the end of November / beginning of December 1943 with the convoy trains JW 54A and RA 54B , which were not attacked by the Germans, and in January / February 1944 with the convoy trains JW 56B with 16 ships and RA 56 . JW 56B was attacked by ten German submarines from January 29th, of which only U 278 hit the Hardy , which had to be sunk by Venus with a catch. No boat came close to the merchant ships. U 314 was sunk by the destroyers Whitehall and Meteor . The return ran from Murmansk on February 3rd, secured by 23 destroyers and corvettes, including Mahratta, and reached Iceland on the 6th with 37 merchant ships without losses. The erection of eight German submarines had been bypassed, which caused the German aerial reconnaissance to search for the submarines in the wrong direction by reporting a wrong course.
The loss of the HMS Mahratta
On February 22, 1942, the Mahratta joined a group of destroyers led by the Milne , which also included Matchless , Meteor , Offa , Obedient , Onslaught , Oribi , Savage , Serapis , Swift , Verulam and Vigilant for the "Ocean Escort Group" of the JW 57 convoy , which also includes the flak cruiser Black Prince , the escort carrier Chaser with the 816 squadron (nine Swordfish II bombers , six Martlett fighters ), the Wanderer and Watchman converted into long-range escorts , as well as the frigates Byron of the captain class and the Strule of the River class belonged. The close security of the convoy formed the destroyers Keppel , Beagle , Boadicea and Walker with four corvettes of the Flower class .
In addition, a cover group was at sea with the cruisers Jamaica , Kent , Norfolk , Berwick . Around the same time as the convoy operation, the aircraft carrier Furious made an advance against the Norwegian coast, in which the battleships Anson and the French Richelieu , two cruisers and seven destroyers also took part. Of the latter, Musketeer and the Polish Blyskawica damaged each other when they collided with each other.
The convoy JW 57 had been marching from Loch Ewe with 42 merchant ships since February 20th and was located by the Germans on the 23rd; a Fw 200 Condor was able to keep in touch with the convoy for over ten hours. Fourteen German submarines were already in a containment position in the North Sea or left for reinforcement. On the 24th, a Fw 200 Condor again held contact despite attacks by Martlets of the Chaser and brought four submarines, of which U 713 was sunk by the Keppel . Until the evening of the 25th, the German submarines were pushed aside by the destroyers or the machines of the chasers . A Catalina flying boat of RAF Squadron 210 from Sullom Voe sank the U 601, which had been pushed away and surfaced .
At about 8:55 p.m. U 990 hit the Mahratta, who was securing the rear end of the convoy, with a wren torpedo . There was a violent explosion and the destroyer sank on February 25, 1944 shortly after 9 p.m. about 280 miles from the North Cape at 71.17 N 1.30 E.
The destroyer Impulsive and Wanderer reached the sinking site after a short time. Impulsive was able to save 17 survivors, but one of them died on board. A total of 220 Mahratta men lost their lives.
The largest convoy to date on the North Sea route reached Soviet ports with all 42 merchant ships.
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).
- Mark Llewellyn Evans: Great World War II Battles in the Arctic. Greenwood Pub Group, 1999, ISBN 0-313-30892-6 .
- Peter C. Smith: Convoy to Russia. The history of the convoy PQ 18. Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-87943-705-X .
Web links
- Service history HMS Mahratta (G23)
- Mahratta at uboat.net (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d HMS MAHRATTA (G 23), ex-MARKSMAN - M-class Destroyer
- ↑ a b HMS Mahratta (G234)
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. September 27, 1943, Biscay
- ^ Rohwer: HMS Mahratta (G 23)
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 1 - December 9, 1943, Arctic Ocean, Murmansk convoys resumed.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. January 12 - February 1, 1944, North Sea.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 3rd-11th February 1944, Arctic Ocean, convoy operation RA.56.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 20.-28. February 1944, Arctic Ocean, convoy operation JW 57 .
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