HMS Mashona (F59)

Mashona

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type destroyer class Tribal class Shipyard Vickers-Armstrong's Newcastle Build number 9 Keel laying August 5, 1936 Launch September 3, 1937 Commissioning March 30, 1939 Whereabouts Sunk on May 28, 1941 after being hit by a bomb

Ship dimensions and crew length 114.9 m ( Lüa ) 108.4 m ( Lpp ) width 11.12 m Draft Max. 2.75 m displacement Standard : 1,854 ts maximum: 2,519 ts   crew 190-217 men

Machine system machine 3 Admiralty three drum boilers 2 Parsons - geared turbines Machine performance 44,000 PS (32,362 kW) Top speed 36 kn (67 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 4 × 2 120 mm L / 45 Mk XII guns 1 × 4 40 mm 2pdr-L / 39 - Flak 2 × 4 heavy 12.7 mm AA guns 1 × 4 533 mm torpedo tubes 30 depth charges , 2 launchers last 1 × 2 105mm L / 45 Mk XVI gun for 120 mm twin gun in the X position additional 2 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannons

HMS Mashona (F59 / L59 / G59) was a (second) Tribal class destroyer of the British Royal Navy . She was the first ship in the Royal Navy to be named after the Shona people of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe .
The Mashona sank on May 28, 1941 after being hit by bombs in the North Atlantic while marching back from the pursuit of the Bismarck west of Ireland.

History of the ship

The ship was laid down on August 5, 1936 at the Vickers-Armstrongs shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne on the River Tyne and launched on September 3, 1937, both together with the sister ship Eskimo , as the High Walker Yard since construction the destroyer HMS Fame and Firedrake had built them side by side as a couple on the slipway for the fourth time. As with the two F-class destroyers , the Parsons Marine Turbine Co. in Wallsend will also be the main contractor for Mashona and Eskimo and Vickers Armstrong, unlike the Afridi and Cossack and two H-class destroyers built immediately before, only the supplier the hulls of the ship. Due to difficulties with the on-time delivery of the main artillery, the Mashona could only be put into service on March 30, 1939 three months after its direct sister ship the Eskimo .

Calls

Her career began as an escort for King George VI's voyage . and Queen Elizabeth on the RMS Empress of Australia steamer . Thereafter, the Mashona was assigned to the 6th destroyer flotilla in Scapa Flow .

War missions

Her first war mission in September 1939 served, together with the sister ships Matabele and Somali , the successful salvage of the submarine HMS Spearfish , which had been badly damaged during an operation in the German Bight .
In early April 1940, the Mashona was one of the Home Fleet units that tried to prevent the German attack on Norway from succeeding. It belonged to the association that was supposed to carry out a counterattack on mountains , which was broken off after massive attacks by 47 Junkers Ju 88s of KG 30 and 41  Heinkel He 111s of KG 26 on the fleet associations. The tribal destroyer Gurkha , which had left the squadron association, was sunk. The later returning Mashona was able to recover five shipwrecked people while searching the sinking site, the cruiser HMS Aurora , which arrived earlier , had previously been able to almost completely hide the crew of the sunken destroyer. The Mashona stayed off Norway and supported the Allied landings to stop a German advance. On April 16, she brought the British troops with the tribal destroyers Afridi , Nubian , Matabele and Sikh to Namsos for the northern pincers of the planned attack ("Mauriceforce") on Trondheim . After replenishing her fuel and ammunition stocks in Scapa Flow, she ran on April 29 with Somali , Sikh , Wanderer , Walker and Westcott and on May 2, 1940 with Inglefield , Delight , Diana and again Somali to Åndalsnes , around the southern part of these Attack ("Sickleforce") to evacuate again. During these missions, British cruisers were always off the coast to secure and support the destroyers. The destroyer withstood air attacks several times without significant damage. As part of the "Operation Alphabet" decided because of the German attack in the west, the Mashona and the tribal destroyers Tartar , Bedouin and Ashanti participated in the evacuation of Allied troops from Narvik and Norway at the beginning of June .

The Swedish destroyer Puke

At the end of June 1940, the Mashona belonged to the Faroe Islands with the Tartar and Maori to the units of the Royal Navy, 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) and Romulus (ex Spica ) and Remus (ex Astore ) of the Spica class (800 ts, 3 × 100 mm, 1935) that Sweden had bought in Italy. On June 20, they forced the Swedish crews to leave their boats and sent them to the escort ship Patricia (ex Patris II , 3994 GRT) and the tanker Castor (8714 GRT), with which they were to return home. The confiscated four warships brought the British to Scapa Flow by the 30th. The protesting Swedes followed their ships and were able to take them back on July 2nd and continue their voyage from Kirkwall on July 5th . 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 . While escorting the Swedish ships to Scapa Flow, the Mashona suffered severe sea damage, which was repaired on site. From October to mid-December 1940 then a thorough repair was carried out of the vessel in Liverpool, wherein in the rear inflated position ( "X" position) by a more suitable for the anti-aircraft the 120-mm twin gun 102-mm twin gun was replaced .

The end of the Mashona

In May 1941, the battleship Rodney escorted the troop transporter Britannic (26,943 GRT) to Canada with four Tribal destroyers . on the news of the sinking of the Hood, the Rodney participated with Mashona , Tartar and Somali in the search for the Bismarck and only left the Eskimo with the transporter, which was continuing to Canada. On May 26th, the destroyers were dismissed after encountering the naval flagship King George V , as they could hardly follow the battleships at high speed due to the weather conditions and also had threateningly little fuel. Somali had started the march back a little earlier; Mashona and Tartar tried together to reach British ports at an economically favorable speed. On May 28, 1941, the Mashona was hit in heavy attacks by Junkers Ju 88 of I./KG 77 of the Luftwaffe and sank off the coast of Galway at the position 52 ° 58 ′ 0 ″  N , 11 ° 36 ′ 0 ″  W coordinates : 52 ° 58 '0 "  N , 11 ° 36' 0"  W . 36 sailors lost their lives. 184 survivors of the sinking were recovered from the Tartar and the town-class destroyers (1940) HMS Sherwood and HMCS St. Clair arriving at the sinking site and brought to Greenock on the Tartar .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Times (London) , Saturday, September 4, 1937, p.12
2. ↑ see pictures of HMS Mashona on tynebuiltships.co.uk
3. ^ Rohwer: Chronicle of the naval war. P. 39
4. ^ Rohwer, p. 42
5. ↑ NAVAL EVENTS, JUNE 1940 (Part 3 of 4) Saturday 15th - Friday 21st
6. ^ Rohwer, p. 126
7. ↑ formerly USN-Vier-Schornsteiner: HMS Sherwood ex USS Rodgers (DD-254) ; HMCS St. Clair ex USS Williams (DD-108)

literature

• JJ Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy. (rev. ed.). London / Chatham 1969/2006, ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8 , OCLC 67375475.
• David Lyon: HMS Cossack Tribal Class Destroyer. Profile Publication Ltd., Windsor 1970.
• David Lyon: The British Tribals, 1935 in Superdestroyers. Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich 1978, ISBN 0-85177-131-9 .
• Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
• MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .

Web links

• Geoffrey B Mason: Service history HMS Mashona (F59) - Tribal-class Destroyer
• HMS Mashona (F59)
• Image of the sinking Mashona
• "TRIBAL" destroyers (1938–1948)