HMS Mendip
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HMS Mendip (L60) was an escort destroyer of the 86-unit Hunt-class . The Royal Navy used the ship in World War II around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean. It was awarded the Battle Honors “North Sea 1941–45”, “English Channel 1942–43”, “Sicily 1943”, “Salerno 1943”, “Mediterranean 1943” and “Normandy 1944”.
The destroyer escort was made available to the Chinese national government as Lin Fu in 1948 , but was taken over by the Royal Navy again in 1949 and used briefly in the Far East. On the march back to Great Britain the ship was sold to Egypt . In an attack on Haifa during the Suez Crisis , the ship now called Ibrahim el Awal was captured by the Israeli Navy on October 31, 1956 . The captured ship was taken into service as a training ship Haifa (K-38) and later sunk as a target ship.
History of the ship
The Mendip belonged to the first group of Hunt escort destroyers, the first 20 of which were included in the last peace building program in 1939. She was ordered on April 17, 1939 from the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend , which received four construction contracts for destroyers of this class before the war. Overall, this shipyard produced the largest number of this class with 16 ships. The keel of the Mendip was laid as a new building with hull number 1577 on August 10, 1939 together with the sister ship Meynell . The other two new buildings were started in June 1940. The ship was launched on April 9, 1940 and was delivered to the Royal Navy on October 16, 1940, which had previously received ten ships of the class.
Mission history
The Mendip had an unfortunate start to her period of service with the Home Fleet , as her own depth charge exploded too early during the first exercises . Five men were killed and the destroyer was badly damaged at the stern. The necessary repair work at Smith's Dock in Middlesbrough lasted over three months, so that basic training in Scapa Flow could only be continued from February 18, 1941 . On March 30, the destroyer escort was assigned to the "21st Destroyer Flotilla" in Sheerness , where she was used for three years in convoy security and for surveillance trips in the North Sea and the English Channel . Initially, the flotilla consisted of the senior flotilla leader Campbell , six Hunt destroyers and three old V- and W-class destroyers . There were occasional German air raids, but mainly attacks by German speedboats , which could mostly be repulsed, as on the night of January 25, 1943 when Mendip and Windsor succeeded in shooting 16 attacking S-boats of the 2nd, 4th and 6th S-Flotilla to push away in an attack attempt against the convoy they are protecting. Support for mine operations or offensive undertakings, such as a bombardment of Dieppe in July 1941 together with the sister ships Cattistock and Quorn, were rare. From September 1942 to mid-October 1943, the Mendip was the flotilla commander's ship.
Operations in the Mediterranean
With the troop convoy WS31 and KMF17 the Mendip moved in June 1943 together with the light cruiser Uganda , the destroyers Arrow , Viceroy , Wallace , Witherington and Woolston as well as the destroyer escorts Blankney , Blencathra , Brecon , Brissenden , Hambledon and Ledbury to the Mediterranean Sea Support of the Allied landing in Sicily ( Operation Husky ). In the Support Force East , the destroyer Mendip was used for air defense and to repel U- and S-boat attacks. After ten days of deployment before the landing section, the ship was withdrawn to Algiers and then used to secure convoy in the western Mediterranean between North Africa and Gibraltar.
During the subsequent landing on the Italian mainland near Salerno ( Operation Avalanche ), the destroyer escort with the 21st Flotilla with twelve other Hunt destroyers, including the Greek Pindos , was used. As part of the “Northern Attack Force” (Task Force 85), she led a convoy of tank landing ships from Bizerta to Salerno with the destroyers escort Brecon and Blankney . During a German air raid on October 11th, the ship suffered engine damage from a close hit that damaged the starboard shaft. Only partially operational with limited use of machines, the Mendip supported the landed troops with its main artillery for another day before moving to Malta for an initial repair. The destroyer escort then moved to Gibraltar for final repairs at still limited speed. During the repair, the destroyer lost its role as flotilla commander due to a change in command.
At the end of the month, the destroyer escort was fully operational again and with Brecon , Blankney and Haydon secured the tow of the battleship Warspite , which was badly damaged off Salerno, through the Mediterranean on its way to Great Britain.
The Mendip remained in service in the Mediterranean until the beginning of May 1944 and served primarily in securing convoys in various sections of securing supplies for the Allied troops advancing in Italy. Occasionally she was also requested for artillery support on the Italian west coast.
Again based in Great Britain
After the return of the ship to Great Britain, after an overhaul, the ship was assigned to the security forces for the landing in Normandy. The Mendip formed with two sloops and two frigates of the Captain class a backup set. With this 111th escort group, the destroyer escorted the "Joined Assault Convoy EBP1" during the invasion of Normandy with American troops from the Bristol Channel across the Solent to the Omaha Beach landing section . The ship was able to save more than 400 men from a transporter sinking after being hit by a mine. Until the end of June, the ship from Plymouth remained in use to secure the supplies in the landing area. After a necessary overhaul, it was not ready for use again with the 21st destroyer flotilla in Sheerness until the end of November 1944 and then secured transports in the southern North Sea and from the Thames estuary to Antwerp until the end of the war.
After the end of the war, the Mendip was used from July 1945 in Scotland to guard and destroy the German submarine fleet ( Operation Deadlight ). In January 1946, the ship returned to Sheerness to be decommissioned. On January 25, the crew changed to the Bleasdale , which was put back into service for the "Nore Local Flotilla".
The Mendip was launched in Harwich and reactivated two years later on January 21, 1948 for delivery to China.
Operations of the ship for other countries
The Mendip was one of 31 Hunt-class ships that were also used for other than the British Navy. As the only ship of the class, she was used by three other countries.
As the Chinese destroyer Lin Fu
In 1948, the Chinese National Navy took over the refurbished Mendip on loan for five years. The destroyer escort was supposed to move to China together with the light cruiser Aurora . The crews were made up of Chinese marines who were in Great Britain as part of British training aid. Large parts had been recruited from among the Chinese in Britain. The destroyer was named Lin Fu in honor of General Zhang Lingfu of the Chinese National Armed Forces, who died in the Chinese Civil War in 1947 . On May 26, 1948, the cruiser, renamed Chung King , and the Ling Fu left Portsmouth for march to China via Malta, the Suez Canal and Singapore . On the way, the two Chinese ships also called at other ports to advertise the national Chinese side. On July 28, 1948, the two ships arrived in Hong Kong , where there were disciplinary problems. Not all crew members were willing to take part in the civil war on the Chinese national side.
After the crew of the Chung King defected to the Communists with their cruiser from Shanghai on February 25, 1949 , the British insisted on transferring the Ling Fu, which had only been loaned, to Hong Kong and took the ship back into service with the Royal on May 29, 1949 Navy. The destroyer escort, now referred to as a frigate, was manned mainly with parts of the crew of the destroyer Consort , which was involved in the Yangtze incident and which urgently needed to be overhauled.
Under the Egyptian flag
Again as Mendip , the frigate was on its march back to Great Britain when it was sold to Egypt on November 9, 1949 in Alexandria. There the ship was renamed Mohammed Ali el Kebir on November 15th . It was named after Muhammad Ali Pascha , ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848 and the founder of the dynasty that ruled Egypt (until 1953).
In July 1950, the Royal Navy delivered another Hunt destroyer to the Egyptian Navy with the Cottesmore built at Yarrows , which was named Ibrahim El Awal there . It was named after Ibrahim Pascha , ruler of Egypt in 1848 and most important Egyptian military leader of modern times. In 1951 the two Egyptian ships exchanged names.
During the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Ibrahim el Awal (ex Mendip ) headed for Haifa on October 30, 1956 and began to bombard the Israeli port city. The modern French destroyer Kersaint, lying in the harbor as a security ship for the local oil depot, returned fire from the Ibrahim el Awal , but scored no hits. Nevertheless, the Egyptian ship withdrew north towards Syria. The pursuit of the ship was taken by the Israeli destroyers Yaffo and Eilat , approaching from the south at high speed , both of which had just been taken over by the Royal Navy, but which did not score any hits from a great distance. Two attacking Ouragans of the Israeli air force finally stopped the fleeing ship, which after the total failure of the electrical system could no longer defend itself and was no longer controllable. The commander surrendered and the destroyers' boarding orders occupied the ship that was being brought into Haifa. The prepared self-immersion had failed.
Under the Israeli flag as INS Haifa
The frigate captured off Haifa was taken over by the Israeli Navy as Haifa after repairs in January 1957 . From 1960 she also served as a training ship and made various trips abroad. In 1961 she visited Malta, Ajaccio , Naples and Messina .
During the Six Day War in 1967 she served as a anti-submarine frigate off Haifa and chased the Egyptian submarine guarding the port until it was withdrawn. It may have been damaged by the attacks by the Israeli frigate. In 1968 the Haifa (ex Mendip) was removed from active service. As a target ship, it is said to have been sunk with a Gabriel missile by the new missile speedboat Haifa .
The Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum in Haifa exhibits one of the Haifa's 4-inch twin towers and a depth charge launcher.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g HMS MENDIP (L 60) - Type I, Hunt-class Escort Destroyer , accessed on July 17, 2016.
- ↑ Casualty Search Mendip
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 24.-30. January 1943, North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. July 10, 1943, Mediterranean Sea, Operation "Husky"
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 9-16 September 1943, Tyrrhenian Sea, Operation Avalanche
- ^ Service History Bleasdale ; The Hunt III type ship was involved in the demilitarization of Heligoland from 1947 onwards.
- ↑ HMS Mendip on uboat.net, viewed July 20, 2016
Remarks
- ^ Reasons for exchanging names for the Egyptian ships could not be found.
- ↑ The sinking of Haifa with a Gabriel rocket also names the Israeli Wikipedia as a final fate; the service history of the Mendip on naval history net, mentions an end use as a residential ship until its demolition in 1972
literature
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981. Ian Allen, 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7 .
- Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War , Seaforth Publishing (Barnsley 2009), ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
- HT Lenton: Warships of the British and Commonwealth Navies. Ian Allan, 1969.
- Antony Preston: Destroyers. Hamlyn, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2nd Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1988, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 .
