HMS Martin (G44)
 1942
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HMS Martin (G44) was one of eight M-class destroyers of the Royal Navy ordered on July 7, 1939 . The destroyer was delivered by Vickers-Armstrong in April 1942. It was completed as the third ship in the new M-class.
The Martin was awarded the Battle Honors "Arctic 1942" and "North Africa 1942" in World War II .
On November 10, 1942, after only seven months of service in the Mediterranean, the destroyer was destroyed by the German submarine U 431 northeast of Algiers at 37 ° 53 ′ 0 ″ N , 3 ° 57 ′ 0 ″ E Sunk
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 in Greenock also built ships for the first order. The order for the Martin went to Vickers Armstrong's High Walker Yard in Newcastle upon Tyne , where both ships were keeled on October 23, 1939. The sister ship Marne (hull No. 18) was completed as the first ship of the M-class. With the hull number 19, the Martin was launched on December 12, 1940 about five weeks after the Marne as the second M-class ship, when only five ships of the previous L-class had been launched. When the destroyer entered service on April 4, 1942, the Marne had been in service for four months and the Matchless , built by Stephens , had been in service, but the eighth L-class ship, the Loyal , was still not completed.
The new destroyer was the Royal Navy's twelfth ship to be named Martin , which has been used for British warships since 1651. Most recently, an Acorn-class destroyer built by Thornycroft from 1909 to 1912 had carried the name, which had been scrapped in Malta from 1920.
Calls
After all tests and the takeover of all equipment and supplies, the new destroyer relocated to the Home Fleet for the "work-up" and was deployed from April 28, 1942 in the remote safety group for the Northern Sea Corridor PQ 15 and the counter-escort QP 11 . From May 7th he was deployed in the Northwestern Approaches .
The first major operation of the Martin took place on May 24th in the escort group of the Northern Sea Escort PQ 16 , which left Reykjavík for Murmansk on the 21st . The convoy, consisting of 35 transporters and the flak ship Alynbank , was secured alongside the Martin by the destroyers Ashanti , Achates , Volunteer and the Polish Garland and four corvettes as "Ocean Escorts". In the convoy the freighter Empire Lawrence carried a hurricane on a catapult . In addition, a close coverage group with four cruisers and three destroyers (including the Marne ) were temporarily close to the convoy. From May 29, three Soviet destroyers and British from the 30th six-reinforced minesweepers - Sloops defending the convoys in the Kola Fjord were stationed. The convoy, which was attacked by the Germans with submarines and from the air, lost seven ships (43,205 GRT) with 32,400 tons of cargo, including 147 tanks, 77 aircraft and 770 motor vehicles.
On May 30, the convoy told before the Kola Bay and Martin escorted six freighters with Alynbank and sloops Bramble , Gossamer , Leda and Seagull the Halcyon class by the White Sea to Arkhangelsk . Another German air raid was successfully repulsed and the escort reached Arkhangelsk on June 1, 1942. Since the Martin had suffered some damage from close hits during the air raids, she ran back to Great Britain on her own after completing her duties in order to have the necessary repairs carried out.
Because of the following missions from July 1, 1942 in the remote security of the PQ.17 convoys , the special trip to Murmansk at the end of July, the support of the US cruiser Tuscaloosa in mid-August and the sinking of the German mine ship Ulm southeast of Bear Island on August 25 as well securing the convoys PQ.18
The loss of the HMS Martin
HMS Martin was assigned to the security units for Allied landings in French North Africa ( Operation Torch ). On October 30, 1942, she left Scapa Flow with other units. After refueling in Gibraltar , she served in the backup umbrella of the Royal Navy heavy units in the western Mediterranean. During the landing phase on 7./8. November she served in the security screen of the units deployed in the "Eastern Task Force" off Algiers and was supposed to prevent attacks by Vichy French warships and, if necessary, provide artillery support to the landing forces.
On November 10, she was part of the security of one of the first supply and reinforcement convoys when she was torpedoed northeast of Algiers by U 431 in the morning and sank at position 37 ° 53 ' N , 3 ° 57' E. The destroyer Quentin was able to fish 63 castaways out of the water. 161 crew members lost their lives in the sinking of the Martin .
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 Martin (G44)
- The Martin at uboat.net (engl.)
- Allied Warships: The M-Class Destroyers (Retrieved January 9, 2006)
- L + M class
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d HMS MARTIN (G 44) - M-class Destroyer.
- ↑ a b HMS Martin (G44)
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. April 26 – May 12, 1942, Northern Sea, operations against convoys PQ.15 and QP.11.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. May 25 – June 1, 1942, Northern Sea, operation against Allied convoys QP.12 and PQ.16.
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