HMS Obedient (G48)
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HMS Obedient (G48) was a British destroyer in World War II and belonged to the first group of standardized British war destroyers.
The Obedient was awarded the Battle Honors Artic 1942-44 , Barents Sea 1942 , Atlantic 1943 and Normandy 1944 in World War II . The destroyer was one of the four ships of the class that can also be used as mine layers. Like her sisters, she survived the Second World War, briefly served in various functions after the war and was scrapped in October 1962.
History of the destroyer
The Obedient was commissioned with the sister ship Obdurate on September 3, 1939 at the shipyard of William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton on the Clyde as part of the "1st Emergency Destroyer Flotilla" ( "O" class ). The ships with hull numbers 1352 and 1353 belonged to the second group of the O-class, which could also be used as mine layers. Details of the formation of three basic types of the O- and P-Class can be found in the sister ship Pakenham .
The obedient's keel was laid on April 10, 1941, and she was launched on April 30, 1942 as the second obedient in the service of the Royal Navy. The first Obedient in 1916 was an Admiralty M-class destroyer that was scrapped in 1921.
The delivered the last destroyers of class Obedient was identical with its three sister ships Obdurate and at Thornycroft incurred Opportune and Orwell . The armament consisted of four 10.2 cm L / 45 Mk.V ship guns with a maximum elevation of 80 ° (usable in combat up to 60 °) and a weather protection fairing specially developed for the class. Two each were set up one above the other at the bow and stern. For short-range defense, a 4.0 cm L / 39-pompom-Fla-Vierling were raised behind the chimney and four 2.0-cm L / 70 Oerlikon automatic cannons on the searchlight bridge between the torpedo tube sets and at the bridge ends . For this purpose, the ship, like the sister ships, had two quadruple 21-inch torpedo tube sets (53.3 cm) and carried up to 30 depth charges , which were used with two launchers and two drainage channels.
During the service period, the Oerlikons at the bridge ends were replaced by twin versions, two additional depth charges were installed and the stock increased to 60 depth charges.
Mission history
On October 30, 1942, the Royal Navy took over their second obedient , who was assigned to the 17th Destroyer Flotilla in the Home Fleet . Final tests, complete equipment and final training were done in Scapa Flow . From November 15, the destroyer accompanied the cruisers London and Suffolk on a supply trip to the garrison on Svalbard with the sister ships Obdurate and Orwell .
On December 25, the Obedient met with the destroyers Onslow , Obdurate , Oribi , Orwell and Achates to the convoy JW 51B of 14 freighters and the mine sweeper Bramble , the Flower corvettes Hyderabad , Rhododendron and the trawlers Northern Gem and Vizalma on the way to Murmansk . When the convoy was attacked by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in very difficult weather conditions on December 31, 1942 , the Onslow's commander , Captain Robert Sherbrooke , decided to counterattack with Obedient , Obdurate and Orwell , from which the battle in the Barents Sea developed . After the British cruisers Jamaica and Sheffield had reached the combat area and sunk the destroyer Friedrich Eckoldt , the German units began their march back because of the unclear battle and command situation. They had lost a destroyer and about 330 men, and the Admiral Hipper was damaged. About 250 men died on the British side; the Achates and Bramble had sunk, there were deaths on Onslow and Obdurate , and a van was sunk.
From January 11 to 15, 1943 Obedient and Obdurate , including seriously injured people on board the Onslow , ran back to Scapa Flow. Until the summer break of the convoys in the North Sea, the obedient was still used in the remote security of convoy RA 52 and the Fighting Escort Group of convoy JW 53 . After German successes in the Battle of the Atlantic, the Obedient formed the 3rd Support Group with Offa , Oribi , Orwell and Onslaught, which were to support convoys with four similar groups in case of danger and lead them through submarine formations that could not be bypassed.
From July 1943 the destroyer was used again in the Home Fleet in the 17th Destroyer Flotilla and secured missions against the Norwegian coast or in the Atlantic. From August 13, the destroyer belonged to the security of the carrier Unicorn when it was moved to Gibraltar and then with Obdurate and Opportune to secure the damaged Indomitable on the way from Gibraltar via Bermuda to Norfolk (Virginia) . After returning in September, the destroyer secured the relocation of the battleship Valiant for use in Operation Avalance to Gibraltar in October . A submarine hunt during the voyage together with the destroyer Teazer was unsuccessful. Subsequently, the Obedient was relocated to Iceland to be used again on the Arctic Ocean to secure northern convoys . From November 18, the convoy JW 54A was secured together with Impulsive , Onslow , Orwell , Onslaught and three Canadian tribal destroyers. On November 19, the destroyer had to interrupt its service because the steering engine failed. The destroyer only had to return to Iceland while navigating with the machines. The repair was then carried out on the Tyne.
On January 17, 1944, the destroyer left the shipyard and returned to Scapa Flow to the Home Fleet. From 6 to 9 February increased the destroyer with Verulam and Swift the convoy RA 56 , then on the convoy JW 56A and convoy JW 56B , the Hardy lost and the Obdurate had been badly damaged. This was followed by operations on the convoy JW 57 , in which the destroyer Mahratta was sunk by U 990 (16 survivors), the return convoy RA 57 and the following convoy trains JW 58 and RA 58 .
In April 1944 the convoy season ended; Obedient , Offa , Onslaught , Onslow and Oribi began the first exercises for their planned use as part of the invasion of Normandy . On May 14th and 15th the Obedient belonged to a combat group around the escort carriers Emperor and Striker with the cruisers Sheffield and Royalist and the destroyers Onslow , Ursa , Wakeful , as well as the Polish Piorun and Blyskawica , which advanced twice on Rörvik and Stadlandet and with the carrier aircraft scored numerous close hits on German ships at anchor, but did not achieve any success in sinking.
When the Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord) took place on June 6, 1944 ( Decision Day ), Opportune was one of the destroyers deployed in the landing area, while Onslow , Onslaught , Offa , Oribi , Obedient and Orwell in the southern North Sea should prevent a possible German counterattack through the canal. Only the sister ship Obdurate was not operational until spring 1945 after a torpedo hit by U 350 on January 25, 1944 when securing the JW 56A convoy . On the night of July 27, the Obedient pursued a group of four German speedboats from Boulogne with Savage and Opportune and four British MTBs , which had torpedoed two freighters off the British coast.
In September 1944 the Obedient returned to her traditional work area; she accompanied the cruiser Jamaica with her sister ship Orwell on a supply trip to the Allied base on Svalbard. In addition, the destroyers of the 17th Flotilla also practiced missions against Norway, which was still occupied by the Germans. The destroyer's first deployment to a supply convoy to Northern Russia began on October 22nd on convoy JW 61 together with cruiser Dido , escort carriers Nairana , Tracker and Vindex , destroyers of the 17th Flotilla and the frigates of two escort groups . The convoy reached Kola Bay on October 28th without any loss . On November 9th, the march back to secure convoy RA 61 took place . Before the turn of the year, the convoy JW 62 and RA 62 were still handled. At the turn of the year Obedient and Orwell carried out a separate submarine search west of the Orkneys with Zephyr and Zealous .
Last missions and the end of the war
In 1945 the destroyer was still involved with the other units of the flotilla in the activities of the Home Fleet against the Norwegian coast and the shipping traffic of the German occupiers on this coast. So she pushed with Onslow and Orwell as well as the cruisers Norfolk and Bellona on January 10th to 12th against the shipping traffic in the Egersund area. In the spring, the destroyer stayed with the Home Fleet and planning began for a special minefield against submarines off Kola. The conversion for a mine operation began in March. For this purpose, the depth charges and their operational weapons and also the rear / lower 4-inch gun were removed from the ship. The conversion of the Obedient in Immingham was completed on April 6th.
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Since the Soviet authorities had not yet given their final approval for the laying of the mine, Obedient relocated an additional field in the Northwest Approaches to the British Isles (Operation CH - Part of Field S3) with the sister ships Opportune and Orwell and the miner Apollo . On the 17th, in very bad weather, the four mine-layers moved with the cruiser Dido to secure against aircraft (called Force 5 ) in the Kola Bay in order to deploy the planned minefield against German submarines. The delayed refueling of the British units and Russian demands for a search of the deployed units delayed the planned operation. Finally, the ships took Soviet observers on board and moved the field of 276 mines from April 22, 1945. As security against submarines, the 19th Escort Group with the frigates Loch Insh and Loch Shin of the Loch class , Anguilla, was the Colony -Class and Cotton and Goodall of the Captain-Class withdrew from convoy JW 66 shortly before the destination. On the way back to Murmansk from Operation Trammel for refueling, the British mine-layers overran the field to prove that they were not obstructing normal navigation.
According to the sources, it remains unclear whether the mine destroyers actually left northern Norway. Obedient seems to have stayed with the tanker Blue Ranger along with other destroyers and the 19th escort group , who last secured the minesweepers against submarines , was used to secure the last raid on the RA 66 . Loch Insh sank U 307 (14 survivors) on April 29 , U 286 torpedoed the frigate Goodall , which later had to be abandoned.
On May 4th, the Obedient was involved with Orwell in securing a battle group of the fleet with escorts Searcher , Queen and Trumpeter , whose aircraft sank U 711 , the depot ship Black Watch and the supply ship Senja (858 GRT) at the base in Kilbotn near Harstadt . On May 6, an association under Vice Admiral Rhoderick McGrigor ran through the Skagerrak to Copenhagen . The Obedient got into a minefield and had to stay behind until it was clarified. After the situation had been clarified, the destroyer ran back to Scapa Flow.
On May 15, the Obedient accompanied the heavy cruiser Norfolk with the Commander Vice Admiral McGrigor to Bergen . From May 26th, the Obedient served as a guard ship in Kiel and initially supervised the work on the reopening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal . In June tasks followed in the assembly of submarines for the transfer to Great Britain and control tasks in various German ports (including Travemünde) together with Oribi , Offa and Obdurate . At the end of the month she accompanied the US cruiser Philadelphia in the English Channel , which had accompanied US President Harry S. Truman on his trip to the Potsdam Conference and which returned across the Atlantic with the American delegation at the beginning of August. In August, the Obedient then visited Tromsö , where a German yacht was confiscated.
Post-war period and end of the destroyer
After a routine overhaul, the destroyer took part in the sinking of the German submarine fleet ( Operation Deadlight ) and then served in the flotilla of the Torpedo School in Portsmouth. From October 1947 the destroyer was in reserve, was overhauled again in 1949 and put back into service on October 17, 1952 in Portsmouth. After participating in the Coronation Review , the destroyer served as a rescue ship during aircraft carrier exercises in the canal. In December 1953 the destroyer came to the reserve fleet in Chatham and remained there except for a brief interruption in February 1956. A planned conversion of Obedient and the sister ship Obdurate to considerably converted anti-submarine frigates did not take place. In 1961 the ship was separated and canceled in Blyth on October 19, 1962.
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 .
- Henry T. Lenton: Warships of the British and Commonwealth Navies. Ian Allan 1969.
- Antony Preston: Destroyers. Hamlyn, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
- Alan Raven, John Roberts: War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes. Bivouac Books, London 1978, ISBN 0-85680-010-4 .
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2nd Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1988, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 .
Web links
- O and P groups destroyers on navypedia.org; accessed on April 28, 2020
- PATHFINDER launched as ONSLAUGHT on tynebuiltships.co; accessed on April 28, 2020
- Service History HMS PATHFINDER (G 10) - P-class Destroyer on naval-history.net; accessed on April 28, 2020
- HMS Pathfinder (G 10) -Destroyer of the P class on uboat.net; accessed on April 28, 2020
- Britain 4 "/ 40 (10.2 cm) QF Mark IV on navweaps.com; accessed on May 1, 2016
Footnotes
- ↑ Between 1939 and 1947, eight destroyers of the so-called “War Emergency Destroyers” were created in fourteen “Emergency Flotilla's”, which, as has been customary since the First World War, have names with the same initial (from O to W, Z, as well as Ca, Ch , Co and Cr) and which were slightly improved over the construction period. Because of the largely identical hull shapes, O and P , Q and R and the rest formed separate classes. Of the 112 completed destroyers, not all came into service with the Royal Navy. Some came into the service of friendly navies as soon as they were completed, for example Stord and Svenner .
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 15.- 12.25.1942 Norwegian Sea convoy JW.51A and 30.- 31.12.1942 company Rainbow
- ↑ Rohwer, March 14-20, 1943 North Atlantic
- ↑ a b c d e HMS OBEDIENT (G 48) - O-class Destroyer
- ↑ Rohwer, 12.5.- 06.01.1944 Norway
- ↑ Rohwer, 06/06/1944 channel Allied invasion
- ↑ HMS OBDURATE (G 39) - O-class Destroyer
- ↑ Rohwer, July 14–31, 1944 Kanal
- ↑ Rohwer, April 16-25, 1945 North Sea
- ↑ Rohwer, April 29–2, 1945, North Sea
- ↑ Rohwer, 05/04/1945 North Sea
- ^ Souvenir Program, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953 , HMSO, Gale and Polden
- ^ Mike Critchley: British Warships Since 1945 , Part 3: Destroyers, Maritime Books, Liskeard (1982), ISBN 0-9506323-9-2 , p. 18
HMS Obdurate | Obedient | Offa | Onslaught | Onslow | Opportune | Oribi | Orwell
HMS Pakenham | Paladin | Panther | Partridge | Pathfinder | Penn | Petard | Porcupine
Pakistan :
Tariq |
Tippu Sultan |
Tughril