HMS Nestor (1915)
_IWM_SP_809.jpg) The sister ship Marmion, also built by Swan Hunter
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The HMS Nestor was a destroyer of the Admiralty M class of the Royal Navy . She was the seventh ship of this class built by the Swan Hunter shipyard and belonged to the 13th destroyer flotilla of the Battle Cruiser Fleet in the Battle of the Skagerrak . She led the attack of the destroyers against the German battle cruisers. In the process, the destroyers discovered the German deep-sea fleet catching up with the battlecruisers . The destroyer sank in the fire of the German liners on the evening of May 31, 1916.
Story of Nestor
The Nestor was started at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd in Wallsend on May 15, 1915 as a new building with building number 955. The Nestor was launched on December 22, 1915. For the shipyard it was the seventh order for an M-class destroyer, after the Nestor two more destroyers with the BauNr. Completed 1001 and 1003 as Partridge and Pasley in summer 1916.
The shipyard in Wallsend had received its first order (HMS Matchless ) before the outbreak of war. From December 28, 1914, the shipyard delivered Matchless (construction no. 949), Marmion (construction no. 977), Martial (construction no. 979) with Parsons turbines, Mary Rose (construction no. 981) and Menace (construction no. 983) with Brown -Curtis turbines and Nessus (construction no. 993) again with Parsons turbines. The Nestor was again equipped with Brown Curtis turbines. On April 29, 1916, the destroyer began its service with the newly established 13th Destroyer Flotilla . The new flotilla became the new cruiser champion of the Calliope class and shared the destroyer tender Woolwich with the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in Rosyth .
With twelve M-class destroyers, including Nestor , the flotilla took part in the Battle of the Skagerrak as a backup of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron .
Use in the Battle of the Skagerrak
The Nestor under Commander Edward Bingham was the command boat of the second division of the 13th DF, which also included Nomad and Nicator . After the first battle of the battle cruisers under Vice Admiral Hipper and Vice Admiral Beatty , Beatty ordered his destroyers to attack the German battle cruisers to prevent them from escaping. Twelve destroyers ran in three groups, led by Nestor , Obdurate and Narborough , towards the German unit and shot down twenty torpedoes at a distance of eight to nine km, only one of which the Petard hit the Seydlitz . The German federation shot at the destroyers with its medium artillery and only hit the Nomad , who broke down with the engine. Hipper also had some of its torpedo boats, the IX. Flotilla sent against the enemy with eleven boats, which with eighteen torpedoes hit none of the great British ships. The two destroyer groups fired at each other, with the British having clear advantages and putting V 27 and V 29 out of action.
An order from Beatty's to his destroyers to retreat was not recognized on the Nestor , the foremost destroyer, which was approaching the approaching ocean-going fleet with Nicator and Moorsom . When they were within torpedo range, Nestor was badly hit and lay where he was. The Nicator was just able to dodge without firing her torpedoes. Bingham ordered the two destroyers to run back to the guide cruiser. Nestor and Nomad were now both immobilized between the deep-sea fleet and the British units. The two destroyers fired their remaining torpedoes and were shot together by the passing ships of the line. First the Nomad sank and a little later Nestor too .
The commander had expected the downfall and had prepared to leave the destroyer. 75 Nestor men were rescued from German torpedo boats.
Edward Bingham (1881-1939) was awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership and remained in German captivity until the armistice in 1918 . In 1932 he was dismissed as Rear Admiral.
The wreck
The remains of the Nestor are now a protected naval war grave under the British Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
literature
- Geoffrey Bennett: The Skagerrakschlacht , Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-453-00618-6 .
- NJ Campbell: Jutland: An analysis of the fighting , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md . 1987, ISBN 0-85177-379-6 .
- Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981 , Ian Allan 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7 .
- James J. Colledge, Ben Warlow: Ships of the Royal Navy , Chatham, 4th ed. London 2010, ISBN 9-7819-3514907-1.
- Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats, vol. 1. 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 .
- Robert K. Massie : Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea , Random House (2003), ISBN 0-345-40878-0 .
- Innes McCartney : Scuttled in the Morning: the discoveries and surveys of HMS Warrior and HMS Sparrowhawk, the Battle of Jutland's last missing shipwrecks. in The International Journal of Nautical Archeology
- Antony Preston: Destroyers , Hamlyn 1977, ISBN 0-600-32955-0
- Nigel Steel, Peter Hart: Jutland 1916: Death in the Gray Wastes , Cassell, London 2004, ISBN 0-304-36648-X .
Web links
- Nestor 1916 Swan Hunter
- History of the GREAT WAR, NAVAL OPERATIONS, Vol. II by Sir Julian S. Corbett