HMS Maori (F24)
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The HMS Maori (F24) was the (second) Tribal-class destroyer belonging destroyer of the British Royal Navy . The Maori was the fourth completed destroyer of this class, in which the individual units were named after different tribes in the colonial areas.
At the beginning of the Second World War , the Maori was transferred from the Mediterranean to the Home Fleet and was used off Norway and then in the North Atlantic. From mid-1941 the Maori was used again in the Mediterranean and sunk on February 12, 1942 in a German air raid in the port of Valletta on Malta . Today the wreck is a popular diving destination .
history
Construction and commissioning
After the Maori , the indigenous people of New Zealand named HMS Maori was born on July 6, 1936 at the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Govan (Scotland) laid down on and ran on 2 September 1936 from the stack . She was the second HMS Maori after a first Tribal-class destroyer built by William Denny and served in the Royal Navy from November 1909 to May 7, 1915. The first HMS Maori ran into a mine off Wirlingen near Zeebrugge and sank.
The new Maori were brought into service with the Royal Navy on January 2, 1939.
The first missions
After its commissioning, it was initially stationed in Alexandria as part of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, which was under the command of Captain Philip Vian on the HMS Cossack . After the beginning of the Second World War, the HMS Maori and her sister ships were initially used in the Mediterranean as an escort for convoys and for controls of ship traffic on contraband until it was relocated back to Great Britain in October. In the beginning, she mainly went on patrols in the North Sea . The Maori, together with HMS Inglefield, was able to provide assistance with the recovery of the wrecked submarine HMS Triad .
Operation off Norway
After an overhaul in March 1940, the destroyer was initially used by the Norway company as an escort for larger units of the Royal Navy and, together with the sister ship HMS Afridi, protected a convoy on April 19 and 20 that brought French troops to Namsos .
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On the night of the 23rd she escorted the French transporter Ville d'Alger (Mediterranean ferry, 9890 BRT, 1935) to Namsos with the sloop Auckland , from which only 750 instead of 1100 men could be landed due to a snow storm.
After the Germans had gained the upper hand in Norway , the two tribal destroyers were used again to evacuate the French from Namsos. While the Afridi and the French destroyer Bison fell victim to German air raids on this mission, the Maori managed to return to Great Britain. Only damaged by bomb fragments, five crew members had died on it. The destroyer went back to sea after provisional repairs.
Further missions
In June 1940, the Maori was part of an association that was sent to Iceland to destroy alleged German warships there. To make things easier for the crew, whose ship was used as bait during an advance into the Seidisfjord to lure the Germans out, no enemy ships or troops were to be found there.
On June 20, 1940, the Maori, along with the Tartar and Mashona, were sent to the Faroe Islands to confiscate four warships that had been handed over to Sweden by Italy - to prevent them from falling into German hands. After a military confrontation had been narrowly avoided and the British forced the Swedish crews to abandon their boats on June 20 and sent them to the escort ship Patricia (ex Patris II , 3994 GRT) and the tanker Castor (8714 GRT), with which they should return to their homeland. The confiscated four warships brought the British to Scapa Flow or Kirkwall by the 30th . The protesting Swedes followed their ships and were able to take them over again on July 2, as it turned out on the overpass that they were hardly seaworthy due to their poor condition. On July 5, the four Swedish destroyers Psilander (ex Giovanni Nicotera ) and Puke (ex Bettino Ricasoli ) of the Sella class (970 ts, 2 × 2 120 mm, 1926/27) as well as Romulus (ex Spica ) and Remus (ex Astore ) of the Spica class (800 ts, 3 × 100 mm, 1935) from Kirkwall continued their journey. On the march to Sweden on July 7th they were attacked by British planes, but were not hit. They reached Gothenburg on July 10, 1940 via Kristiansand , which was occupied by the Germans .
On the night of October 14, the Maori attacked a German convoy destined for Trondheim near Egersund with the sister ships Cossack , Ashanti and Sikh under Captain Vian . The Cossack sank the Genoa net layer (1949 GRT) with a torpedo, Ashanti and Maori set fire to the air force transporter Netze (1025 GRT) and the securing minesweeper M 1102 (ex HAW Müller ). The auxiliary warships Triton , Rau VII , M 1105 and M 1106 remained undamaged . The attempt to stop the running destroyers with fighter planes at daybreak was unsuccessful.
In December 1940, during a routine overhaul in Hebburn , the HMS Maori received a 105 mm L / 45 Mk XVI twin gun installed, which replaced the 4.7-inch double bayonet in the X position.
Hunt for the Bismarck
From January 1941, the destroyer, which was then led by Commander HT Armstrong, DSO , served with its sister ships Cossack , Sikh and Zulu as well as the Polish Piorun as a convoy escort in the so-called " Western Approaches " (the sea area west of the British Isles ). While accompanying the troop transport WS-8B , the ships received the order on May 25, 1941 to leave it and take part in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck . The claim that the decisive radar contact with the German battleship was made by the HMS Maori is not true. The destroyer and his unit carried out a series of unsuccessful torpedo attacks on the German battleship on the night of May 26th .
After the enemy went down, the Maori and the heavy cruiser Dorsetshire found survivors and rescued 25 German sailors. However, the recovery had to be canceled due to an incorrect submarine report. After the hunt for the Bismarck , the Maori were also used in the English Channel to protect coastal convoys. To defend against German torpedo boats , she received two two- pounder rapid-fire guns and, during a stay in Londonderry ( Northern Ireland ), a type 286M radar device.
Use in the Mediterranean
The supply convoy GM.1 was from Great Britain (as WS.9C) with a troop transport and six freighters via Gibraltar to Malta as Operation "Substance" in the Mediterranean in addition to the Force H under Vice Admiral Somerville also by units of the Home Fleet as "Force X" secured, which also included the Maori and their sisters Cossack and Sikh . Five transporters reached Malta, the troop transport was abandoned early.
From August 1st to 4th, 1941, the British led the troop transporter Leinster with cruisers Manchester , Arethusa and Hermione , the fast mine- layer Manxman and the destroyers Lightning and Sikh (Force X) a total of 1750 men and 130 tons of supplies from Gibraltar to Malta. To cover the operation, the "Force H" operated with the battleship Nelson , battle cruiser Renown , carrier Ark Royal and nine destroyers including Cossack and Maori against Sicily. On the night of August 1 shot Cossack and Maori the Seeflugzeugstützpunkt of Alghero (Sardinia) and Swordfish of the Ark Royal bombed the Convention therein airfield. The Maori and Sikh remained in the Mediterranean with the 14th destroyer flotilla of the "Force H".
On December 13, 1941, the 4th Division of the Italian Navy ran with the light cruisers RN Alberico da Barbiano and RN Alberto da Giussano and the T-boat RN Cigno as escort as a petrol transporter from Palermo, but it was shortly after passing Cape Bon captured by British aerial reconnaissance and then returned.
On the march back, both cruisers were marched by the Sikh , Maori , Legion and the Dutch Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers sunk by torpedoes. Over 900 crew members were killed on both cruisers, the Cigno was able to escape. In this case, “Ultra” had given the British all the details about the convoys.
At the end of 1941 the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla was formed from Maori , Sikh and Zulu . On January 16, 1942, the supply company MF.3 for Malta began, with the four transporters should be directed to Malta, two security groups and a cover formation with three cruisers, an anti-aircraft cruiser and 13 destroyers defended the initially three-part association. Maori formed one of the three destroyer groups with Gurkha of the L-class, Isaac Sweers and Legion . On the 17th the German submarine U 133 torpedoed the Gurkha . Thereupon Isaac Sweers dragged the sinking ship out of the burning oil slick and rescues the crew. On the 18th, the convoy with Force K, which had departed from Malta, met Penelope and Sikh , Zulu , Lance , Lively and Jaguar . The latter was exchanged for Legion and Maori .
On January 25th, the "Force K" left for the supply company MF.4 from Malta with Penelope , Zulu , Lance , Legion , Lively and Maori . She accompanied two empty vans. The two convoys met on the 26th. The convoys exchanged the destroyers Kingston and Lance and "Force K" took over the transporter Breconshire and ran back into Malta on the 27th. Attempted air strikes by the Axis powers were unsuccessful.
Scuttling in Malta
Early in the morning of February 12, 1942, around 2 a.m., the Maori , anchored in the Grand Harbor of Valletta , received a direct hit from the aerial bomb of a Junkers Ju 88, which penetrated the deck, and detonated in the area of the engine room during a German air raid started a fire and an explosion that also damaged the nearby destroyer Decoy . The ship sank at its anchorage. Since most of the crew slept in a bunker on land, only one crew member died. Since the seabed was very shallow at the point of sinking, the hull still partially protruded from the water. Although the wreck was a significant obstacle in the harbor basin, it was initially left in place. The two front guns "A" and "B" could be dismantled and used for other purposes. In the course of the German-Italian air offensive against Malta, the Maori received more bomb hits, so that repairs were finally out of the question.
Whereabouts
At the end of 1942 the wreck was towed from its original position to St. Elmo Bay , and in July 1945 attempts were made to remove it for good and to sink it in deep water outside the port. However, it broke apart, so that this project could only be partially implemented. The remainder of the destroyer that has remained in the harbor to this day, the approximately 35 meter long front part, is located in Marsamxett Harbor in Valletta at a depth of eight to 16 meters.
Despite the poor visibility of around ten meters by Maltese standards , the Maori has developed into one of the most popular wreck diving spots in Malta - it is easily accessible, flat, has beautiful vegetation and is of considerable historical interest. The submersible part of the destroyer includes the front part, from which the bridge and the mounts of the two front guns can be seen. Because of the large openings, it is easy to get inside the wreck and dive through it. The grenades and torpedoes in and around the ship pose a certain danger .
Individual evidence
- ^ Rohwer: Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945. P. 41.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 42
- ↑ NAVAL EVENTS, JUNE 1940 (Part 3 of 4) Saturday 15th - Friday 21st
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 13./14. October 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer, p. 126
- ↑ 21.-27. July 1941, Mediterranean
- ^ WLB Stuttgart, 1. – 4. August 1941, Mediterranean
- ^ Rohwer, p. 195
- ↑ WLB Stuttgart, 16. – 19. January 1942, Mediterranean
- ↑ WLB Stuttgart, 24.-28. January 1942, Mediterranean
literature
- David Lyon: HMS Cossack / Tribal Class destroyer. Profile Publication, N ° 2, Windsor 1970.
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
- Lawson Wood, Lesley Wood: Malta, Gozo and Comino. (Diving & Travel), Delius Klasing, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-7688-1208-1 , here pp. 38–39.
Web links
- uboat.net: HMS Maori
- Service history HMS Maori
- "TRIBAL" destroyers (1938–1948)
- HMCS Haida: HMS Maori
- Malta dive site directory: HMS Maori
Royal Navy (HMS): Afridi | Ashanti | Bedouin | Cossack | Eskimo | Gurkha | Maori | Mashona | Matabele | Mohawk | Nubian | Punjabi | Sikh | Somali | Tartare | Zulu
Australian Navy (HMAS): Arunta | Bataan | Warramunga
Canadian Navy (HMCS): Athabaskan (I) | Athabaskan (II) | Cayuga | Haida | Huron | Iroquois | Micmac | Nootka
Coordinates: 35 ° 54 ′ 17 ″ N , 14 ° 31 ′ 8 ″ E