HMS Nelson (28)
 HMS Nelson at the fleet parade off Spithead in 1937
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The HMS Nelson was a Nelson- class battleship of the British Royal Navy . The fifth ship in the Navy, named after Admiral Nelson , was the flagship of the Home Fleet from 1927 to 1946 ( Atlantic Fleet until 1932 ) and was used in various theaters of war during World War II . It was scrapped in 1949.
history
Launched until World War II
The keel laying of Nelson was in December 1922 on the shipyard of Armstrong Whitworth in upon Tyne Newcastle . The ship was christened and launched in September 1925. She cost 7.504 million pounds sterling , using material that was intended for the undebuilt battlecruisers HMS Anson and HMS Howe of the Admiral class . The Nelson entered service in August 1927 as the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet, ahead of her sister ship Rodney . In 1931 her crew took part in the Invergordon Mutiny . On January 12, 1934, she ran aground off Portsmouth when she was about to sail with the Home Fleet to the West Indies.
In the 1930s, the Nelson was slightly rebuilt and was with the Home Fleet when World War II broke out.
Second World War
On September 25 and 26, 1939, she performed escort duties in the recovery of the submarine HMS Spearfish . The Nelson was sent for the first time against a flotilla of German cruisers and destroyers in the North Sea, which they could easily bypass. On October 30, 1939, she was unsuccessfully attacked by the German submarine U 56 near the Orkney Islands . Three torpedoes hit but did not explode. Also in the later unsuccessful hunt for German battleships, she was noticeable due to the lack of speed. On December 4, 1939, she ran into a mine laid by U 31 and was in the dock for repairs until August 1940.
After she was back on duty, she was sent to the English Channel . In late March 1941 she was in Freetown and was ordered to Gibraltar to await a mission in the hunt for the Bismarck . From April to June 1941 she escorted convoys in the Atlantic.
In June 1941, the now stationed in Gibraltar was Nelson of Force H allocated and acted as escort. On September 27, 1941, it was torpedoed in an attack by the Regia Aeronautica , badly damaged and repaired in Great Britain until May 1942. She returned in August 1942 as the flagship of the Force H and escorted convoys to Malta . She supported Operation Torch in Algeria in November 1942, the invasion of Sicily in June 1943 and the landing near Salerno in September 1943 by shelling. An expanded version of Italy's surrender was signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower and Marshal Pietro Badoglio on September 29 on board the Nelson .
The Nelson returned to the UK for overhaul in November 1943, which included major air defense reinforcements. Then she supported the invasion of Normandy and ran into two mines on June 18, 1944. It was sent to Philadelphia for repairs . In January 1945 she was sent to the Indian Ocean and reached Colombo in July. It was used in the Malaysian archipelago; the formal surrender of the Japanese armed forces took place on it.
Another fate
In November 1945 she returned to her homeland and remained the flagship of the Home Fleet until it was used as a training ship from July 1946. She was decommissioned in February 1948 and used as a target for exercises in bombing raids, before being used from March 15, 1949 in Inverkeithing was scrapped.
literature
- Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970.
- Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press, London 1980.
Web links
- HMS Nelson - Nelson-class 16in gun battleship. Mission history at naval-history.net (English)