HMS Naiad (93)

HMS Naiad

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type Anti-aircraft cruiser class Dido class Shipyard Hawthorn Leslie , Hebburn , Build number 613 Order March 21, 1937 Keel laying August 26, 1937 Launch February 3, 1939 Commissioning July 24, 1940 Whereabouts March 11, 1942 from U 565 sunk

Ship dimensions and crew length 156.05 m ( Lüa ) 147.82 m ( Lpp ) width 15.4 m Draft Max. up to 5.46 m displacement 5,600 ts, 6,850 ts maximum   crew 480-530 men

Machine system machine 4 Admiralty boilers , 4 Parsons turbines Machine performance 62,000 PSw Top speed 32 kn (59 km / h) propeller 4th

Armament 5 × 2 - 133 mm (5.25 in) DP guns 2 × 4 - 40 mm / L39 (2pdr) -Flak Mk. VIII 2 × 4 - 12.7 mm (0.5 inch) Vickers Fla-MG 2 × 3 -533 mm Ø torpedo tubes from September 1941: 5 - 20 mm / L70 anti-aircraft guns with delivery of the Vikers machine gun Armor Belt: 75 mm, magazines: 50 mm, deck and bulkheads: 25 mm Sensors Type 279 radar

The HMS Naiad was a British light cruiser of Dido class during the Second World War . The ship, built by Hawthorn, Leslie & Company , was the first of the class to be launched in February 1939 and was the second in service with the Royal Navy in July 1940 .

On March 11, 1942, the Naiad was torpedoed by the German submarine U 565 in the Mediterranean and was lost second in the class. 82 crew members lost their lives in the sinking.

construction

The Naiad was built at the Hawthorn, Leslie & Company shipyard in Hebburn-on-Tyne in County Tyne and Wear . Completion was delayed because the ship was damaged by an air raid on April 10, 1940 at the equipment quay.

Calls

Second World War

After commissioning at the end of July 1940, the Naiad was placed under the Home Fleet and used to protect merchant shipping. As part of the 15th cruiser squadron, she took part in the operations against German traffickers that followed the sinking of HMS Jervis Bay in November 1940. She escorted WS convoys to Freetown in December and January , but returned to northern waters in late January 1941. There she spotted the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on their breakthrough into the Atlantic for a moment south of Iceland .

Mediterranean Sea

Naiad's front turrets fire at enemy aircraft

In May 1941, as the flagship of the 15th Cruiser Squadron , the Naiad reinforced the operations of Force H to protect the convoys to Malta . She took part in various missions off Crete and was active against armed forces of the Vichy government in Syria , where she, together with the Leander , attacked the French destroyer Guépard . She spent the remainder of her service in the Mediterranean , mainly in the ongoing attempts to supply Malta.

Downfall

In March 1942, deviating from this routine, she ran from Alexandria to track down an Italian cruiser that had been reported as damaged. The report turned out to be false and on the way back the Naiad was torpedoed by U 565 and sank on March 11 north of Marsa Matruh at the position 32 ° 1 ′  N , 26 ° 20 ′  E , killing 82 crew members. 582 sailors survived the sinking.

Survivors of HMS Naiad on HMS Jervis

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. New revised edition. Chatham, London 2006, ISBN 1-86176-281-X .

Web links

• Kreuzer in WWII (english)
• HMS Naiad on Uboat.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mike J. Whitley: Cruisers in World War II. Classes, types, construction dates. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01842-X , p. 132.