HMS Pakenham (G06)

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HMS Pakenham
The sister ship Pathfinder
The sister ship Pathfinder
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom
other ship names

under construction as Onslow

Ship type destroyer
class O and P class
Shipyard Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. ,
Hebburn , Newcastle
Build number 625
Order September 3, 1939
Keel laying February 6, 1940
Launch January 28, 1941 as Onslow
Commissioning February 4, 1942
Whereabouts Sunk April 16, 1943
Ship dimensions and crew
length
105.1 m ( Lüa )
100.2 m ( Lpp )
width 10.67 m
Draft Max. 4.11 m
displacement 1690 ts , maximum: 2250 ts,
 
crew 176–212 men
Machine system
machine 2 Admiralty boilers
2 Parsons geared turbines
Machine
performance 		40,000
Top
speed 		37 kn (69 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
Sensors

Radar type 272, 282, 285, 291
sonar type 123A, 127

HMS Pakenham (G06) was a British destroyer during World War II and belonged to the first group of standardized British war destroyers. The destroyer was given additional rooms to accommodate a flotilla staff in order to serve as a flotilla leader.

The Pakenham , mostly used in the Mediterranean , was badly damaged in a battle with Italian torpedo boats on April 16, 1943 and after taking over the crew from the accompanying paladin at 37 ° 26 ′ 0 ″  N , 12 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  E, coordinates: 37 ° 26 '0 "  N , 12 ° 30' 0"  O sunk.

History of the destroyer

The later Pakenham was commissioned with a sister ship on September 3, 1939 at the shipyard of Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. in Hebburn on the Tyne as part of the "1st Emergency Destroyer Flotilla" ( "O" class ). This shipyard had supplied the Royal Navy with a light cruiser and ten destroyers between 1930 and 1939 . It commanded to also have other jobs, including three anti-aircraft cruiser the Dido-class and two navy destroyers of the L-class . The order situation of the British shipbuilding industry delayed the completion of the new orders considerably.

The main armament of the first four destroyer flotillas of the war building program was to consist of four 4.7-inch Mk.IX (120-mm) guns , as in the pre-war destroyers of the "H" and "I" classes . Experience in the first year of the war showed that this gun, with a possible elevation of 40 °, could be used for aircraft defense against torpedo aircraft at greater distances. Since the threat to the fleet from the air in Norway and Dunkirk was more threatening than fighting an enemy on the water, eight orders of the first two destroyer orders in the war building program were changed in 1940. Eight destroyers were to repel airborne attacks as a priority. The standard weapon for this task was now a 102 mm twin gun . However, its production did not adequately meet the demand. The installation of these double mounts would also have required considerable redesign of the hull. So it was decided to install four 4-inch (102-mm) MK.V single guns in place of the previously planned 120-mm guns. These guns were available in sufficient quantities, especially due to the conversion of heavier units of the Royal Navy to twin mounts.

The two orders for destroyers of the O-class at Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. and six more of the P-class were converted. The newbuildings launched at Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. had been named Onslow and Onslaught . In the summer of 1941, shortly before the completion of the first ships in the war building program, it was decided to create three basic variants of the O and P class war destroyers. While there were to be two variants of the O-class, all eight P-class destroyers should now receive a main armament with the 102-mm guns. So the Onslow and the Onslaught exchanged names with two P-class destroyers that are about to be completed. The Onslow launched on January 28, 1941 as the second destroyer of the program , which was to be completed as "Leader", has now changed its name to the Pakenham under construction as "Leader" of the P-Class at John Brown & Co. . As with all destroyers of the letter-named classes since the Duncan prepared for a flotilla staff , the name was honored as a distinguished naval officer. The Admiral Sir Thomas Pakenham (1757-1836) had distinguished himself as a ship commander and politician.

The Pakenham , delivered on February 4, 1942 as the sixth destroyer of the war construction program, displaced 1550, a maximum of 2270 t, was 105.2 m above all and 100.2 m between the perpendiculars, 10.7 m wide and 4.11 m draft. With two Admiralty boilers, the Parson geared turbines generated 40,000 hp, which enabled a top speed of 37 knots with two screws . With a fuel supply of 472 t of oil, a range of 3850 nm was possible at a cruising speed of 20 kn.
The armament consisted of five 102 mm L / 45 Mk.V naval guns with a maximum elevation of 80 ° (usable up to 60 ° in combat). Two each were set up one above the other at the bow and stern. After a plan change in 1940, all P-class destroyers received the fifth gun in place of the originally planned rear torpedo tube set in front of the rear deckhouse. A new fairing had been developed for the guns, which was primarily intended to offer the operator protection from the weather. The two bow guns and the raised stern gun were so disguised. The two guns set up on the main deck at the rear did not receive this protective covering. For short-range defense, a 40-mm-L / 39-pompom-Fla-Vierling stood raised behind the chimney and two 20-mm-L / 70-Oerlikon automatic cannons on the headlight bridge between the torpedo tube sets . For this purpose, the ship, like the sister ships, had a quadruple 21-inch torpedo tube set and carried up to 70 depth charges , which were used with four launchers and two drainage channels. Before the Pakenham , the Oribi , Offa and Onslow (ex- Pakenham ) with 120 mm cannons as well as the largely identical Panther and Paladin at the shipyards of Fairfield and John Brown & Co. were completed in considerably shorter construction times.

Mission history

The new destroyer relocated to Scapa Flow to the Home Fleet for final tests and for crew entry and was assigned to the 12th destroyer flotilla. Under the command of Captain Eric Barry Kenyon Stevens, the Pakenham moved from March 23, 1942 to the Indian Ocean to take part in Operation Ironclad . Together with the destroyers Inconstant (also just put into service) and Javelin , the Pakenham joined the WS 17 troop transport from the Clyde to South Africa . On March 28, the destroyer ran with other escort vehicles at Ponta Delgada in the Portuguese Azores to replenish supplies and fuel. On the 30th the destroyer was escorted again and then joined the aircraft carrier Illustrious with the two aforementioned destroyers , which ran ahead with the destroyers to Freetown and was looking for feared German auxiliary cruisers. The carrier and the three destroyers stayed six days before Freetown before they rejoined the WS17 troop escort on April 9 to march on to South Africa . With the convoy, the battleship Malaya , the cruiser Hermione and two A-class and three L-class destroyers on the way to the Indian Ocean, which were parked by Force H in Gibraltar for the planned landing operation , now also ran . The unit reached Cape Town on April 18 and Durban on April 22 , where the Pakenham left the corps in preparation for the landing operations planned against Madagascar.
In May the destroyer moved to Mombasa , where on the 4th the attack force, secured by ten destroyers (including Pakenham and her sister ships Panther and Paladin from the Eastern Fleet ), eight corvettes and four minesweepers set sail for Diego Suarez (now Antsiranana ). The attack took place on May 5, 1942; After heavy fighting, the defenders capitulated on May 7th. However, considerable Vichy forces withdrew to the south. The occupation of Diego Suarez marked the beginning of the conquest of the island controlled by Vichy France . The Governor General Armand Léon Annet only surrendered on November 8th in the south of Madagascar.

The Pakenham was released immediately after the successful occupation of Diego Suarez on May 9th together with the sister ship Paladin and the Inconstant to the Mediterranean Fleet in Alexandria . The Pakenham took part from June 13 in Operation Vigorous , which failed to bring supplies from Alexandria to the besieged Malta . A large number of air strikes and the expired Italian fleet prevented this.
In August, the destroyer took part in a simulated convoy from Haifa and Alexandria, which was supposed to divert Axis forces from the " Operation Pedestal " from Gibraltar, which started at the same time and with which some transporters reached Malta with heavy losses. As the flotilla leader of the 12th Destroyer Flotilla , the destroyer was involved in a large number of escorts in the eastern Mediterranean. On October 30, Pakenham and other escort vehicles attacked U 559 , which had been discovered by a Vickers Wellesley , and forced the submarine to the surface. The German crew left their boat. A specially trained team from Petard boarded the sinking boat and recovered parts of the key machine and key documents that were of great importance for the decryption of the German command radio. During the search, the explosive charges detonated by the Germans exploded to submerge the boat and two Petard men drowned in U 559 at 32 ° 30´ N, 33 ° 00´ northeast of Port Said. The two dead received the Georgskreuz posthumously . In November and December the flotilla leader was involved in the successful Malta convoys " Operation Stone Age " and " Operation Portcullis ".

Pakenham had several successes in January 1943: together with the Hunt destroyer Hursley and a Beaufort of the RAF, she sank the Italian submarine Narvalo of the Squalo class on the 14th at 34 ° 08 N, 16 ° 04 E , on which eight British officers prisoner of war died, then together with Javelin on the 16th the auxiliary ship Agosto Bertani (8328 GRT) and on the 18th the transporter Stromboli together with the Nubian and the Greek Vasilissa Olga .
The return of the 30,000 men of the Australian 9th Division from Suez to Sydney and Melbourne led from February 4 to 8, 1943 to a mission of the Pakenham in the Red Sea , where they were convoy with Petard , Vasilissa Olga , Isis , Hero and Derwent Pamphlet with the transport ships Queen Mary , Aquitania , Ile de France , Niew Amsterdam and the auxiliary cruiser Queen of Bermuda to Aden.

The end of the Pakenham

On April 16, 1943, under Commander Basil Jones, Pakenham and Paladin intercepted an escort with the transporter Belluno southwest of Marsala , which escaped while the Italian torpedo boats Cigno and Cassiopea of the Spica- class were fighting with the British destroyers. Cigno was immobilized after artillery hits by the Pakenham and was sunk with a torpedo by the Paladin . The badly hit Cassiopea was able to retreat when the torpedo boats Tifone and Climene intervened, from which the Climene was able to haul in the Cassiopea . The Pakenham had also received six hits, as a result of which the ship's propulsion failed and it was unable to maneuver. During the night, Paladin tried to tow the heavily damaged sister ship to Malta. In the morning the commander who gave Paladin this experiment, given the air threat in the day, took the crew of the Flottillenführers and sank the ship between Pantelleria and the coast of Sicily with a torpedo at 37 ° 26 '  N , 12 ° 30'  O .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Raven, Roberts: War built Destroyers. P. 7.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Service history HMS Pakenham.
  3. ^ Raven, Roberts: War built Destroyers. P. 3.
  4. ↑ a b c HMS Pakenham (G06) , accessed May 2, 2016.
  5. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. October 30, 1942, Mediterranean / radio reconnaissance
  6. ↑ Naval History Division: United States Submarine Losses World War II, reissued with an Appendix of Axis Submarine Losses, 1963
  7. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 4th - 27th February 1943, Indian Ocean
  8. ^ Arthur Evans: Destroyer Down: An Account of HM Destroyer Losses 1939-1945. P. 157.

Remarks

  1. ↑ 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. 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 .
  2. ↑ Four of the Oribi- type with four 120mm cannons and four of the Opportune -type with 102mm cannons.
  3. ↑ The second new building at Hawthorn, Leslie & Co., Onslaught , exchanged names with the Pathfinder under construction at Fairfield .
  4. ↑ Of the first six completed O / P destroyers, the Onslow (ex Pakenham ) by J. Brown had the shortest construction time with 15 months, her name swap partner Pakenham (ex O. ) with 23 months 29 days the longest.
  5. ↑ Illustrious and Javelin were just back in service after a long repair period, Pakenham and Inconstant were new builds that were put into service.

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 .
  • Stephen Harper: Battle for Enigma. Ullstein Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-548-25778-X .
  • HT 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

Commons : O and P class destroyers  - collection of images, videos and audio files