HMS Repulse (1916)


HMS Repulse, 1919
HMS Repulse
career
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Ship type	Battle cruiser
Ship class	Renown class
Shipyard	John Brown & Company , Clydebank ( Scotland )
Construction contract	December 30, 1914
Keel laying	January 25, 1915
Launch	January 8, 1916
Commissioning	August 18, 1916
building-costs	£ 2,627,401
Motto	Qui Tangit Frangitur ( Latin : "Whoever touches (me) will be broken!")
Whereabouts	Sunk December 10, 1941 (Japanese air raid off Malaysia)
displacement
Standard displacement	26,500 ts
Displacement	31,592 t
Maximum displacement	36,800 t
Dimensions
Length over all	240.00 m (794 ft 2.5 in)
Waterline length (KWL)	239.00 m (750 ft)
Width over everything	30.00 m (89 ft 11.5 in)
Height above freeboard	?
Height above everything	?
Draft (standard)	8.94 m (29 ft 8 in)
Draft (maximum)	10.12 m (31sp; 3/4 ft)
Propulsion system
Drive type	Steam turbines
Boiler system	42 oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox steam boilers
Turbines	Brown-Curtis - steam turbines with direct drive
Shafts & screws	4 shafts, 4 three-wing screws
power	112,000 WPS (83,550 WkW)
Fuel supply	1000 t (normal) 4243 t (maximum)
Fuel consumption	180 t / day at 10.0 kn 1400 t / day at 31.7 kn
control
Steering gear	1 rudder in the stern
Performance
Top speed	31.7 kn (59.7 km / h)
Marching speed	20.0 kn (37.7 km / h)
Power to weight ratio	4.23 hp / t
Range	3650 nm at 20 kn
Armament
Main artillery	6 × 15 "- (381-mm) -L / 42 Mark I in 3 twin towers
Middle artillery	9 × 4 "- (102-mm) -L / 40 in 3 triplet mounts
Air defense	8 × 102-mm (4-in) flak (2 × 2, 4 × 1) 24 × 40-mm (2-pdr) - pom-pom (3 octets) 8 × 20-mm flak (8 × 1)
Torpedoes	8 × 533-mm (21-in) torpedo tubes
Armor
Side armor (vertical)	229 mm (9 in) amidships, inclination 0 ° (tapers at the bottom to 51 mm [2 in])
Upper deck (horizontal)	38 mm (1.5 in)
Armored deck (horizontal)	102 mm (4 in) over magazines 64 mm (2.5 in) over boiler rooms 76 mm (3 in) over machine rooms 102 mm (4 in) slope to the side
Lower deck (horizontal)	102 mm (4 in) above magazines
Main artillery	Tower front: 279 mm (11 in) Tower sides:? Tower ceiling:? Barbettes: 178 mm (7 in)
Command tower	254 mm (10 in)
Exhaust ducts	51 mm (2 in)
Aircraft
Flight system	1 two-way compressed air - catapult , 2 hangars
Planes	until 1941: 4 × Fairey Swordfish from 1941: 4 × Supermarine Walrus
crew
Normal crew	1181 men
As a flagship	1205 men
Commanders
	Captain William “Ginger” Boyle Captain George Tennant

HMS Repulse was a British battle cruiser the Renown class of 1916, of the First and Second World War was used. She was modernized several times, but without total reconstruction as with the sister ship HMS Renown 1936-1939. After operations against the Navy and the hunt for the Bismarck , she wasrelocatedto Singapore because of the expected war in the Pacific . On December 10, 1941, she wassunkwith the battleship HMS Prince of Wales by Japanese aircraft in Malay waters near Kuantan . This first loss of capital ships by aircraft on the open sea heralded the decline of the battleship era.

history

The Repulse 1916/17 shortly after the test drives after small changes, but still without headlight towers on the rear chimney

The battle cruiser Repulse , like its sister and class ship Renown, dates from the time of the ruinous naval competition with the Imperial German Navy in the 1910s and was the penultimate battle cruiser ever for the Royal Navy at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank ( Scotland ) built. Both were designed in response to the new German Mackensen-class battlecruisers under construction and were initially intended as additional Revenge-class (also known as R-class ) units, but according to a modified design based on the Revenge-class in Commissioned, which is why they still looked quite similar to them (until 1936-39 the Renown was visually approximated in a complete renovation of the newly designed King George V- Class ). In the Renown class was set mainly on the combination of power and speed, the armor was from that on the ships of the Invincible - and Indefatigable class derived, but soon the British was Admiralty clear that the armor of the two battle cruisers much was too weak. Both ships were heavily armed with six 381 mm guns in three twin towers, but because of their very large propulsion system, which allowed a speed of a little over 32 knots , they were only very lightly armored for reasons of weight and therefore vulnerable with their inadequate deck armor . The Renown class is thus one of the most unfortunate constructions in warship building.

Like its sister ship, the Repulse attracted attention due to frequent malfunctions in the very large engine system, which was consistently designed for speed, which is why it was given the unflattering nickname “ HMS Repair ”, alluding to its always enormous maintenance effort . In return, her sister ship was called “ HMS Refit ” (German: “HMS Umbau / HMS Nachrüsten”).

Later, the Royal Navy tried to eliminate the deficiencies through several conversions and changes - which only succeeded to some extent with a total conversion of the type ship Renown , which lasted from 1936 to June 1939 . The machine system of the Repulse did not always remain free of problems even later, even if these did not occur as often as in the past due to the changes or improvements made.

The Repulse 1916-17 in the Firth of Forth (Scotland) around 1916-17 with the Forth Bridge in the background

First World War

Like her sister ship, the Repulse was put into service in 1916 and immediately afterwards put into service in the First World War. Although the ship came too late to take part in the sea battle at Skagerrak , it was also too early to take into account the lessons and knowledge gained from this battle during the construction. In September 1916 she joined the Grand Fleet and became the flagship of the First Battlecruiser Squadron under Admiral Sir Charles Napier. She had her first war mission in the naval battle near Helgoland on November 17, 1917, during which the First Battlecruiser Squadron came to the rescue with the Repulse and the battlecruisers Tiger , Courageous and Glorious, two cruisers chasing German mine clearance boats . The squadron attacked the two German battleships Kaiser and Kaiserin , which were covering the mine clearance boats , before they retreated to the protection of their own minefield after a brief firefight. At the end of the same year, the Repulse was damaged in a collision with the battle cruiser Australia and was canceled for the remainder of the war due to the necessary repair work.

1920s and 1930s

The Repulse during its world voyage 1923-24 with additional armor on the side and catapults for aircraft on towers "B" and "X"

The repulse during maneuvers in the late 1920s with reinforced belt armor, but still without torpedo bulges ; behind the sister ship Renown

From the end of 1918 to the beginning of 1921, from 1924 to 1925 and again between 1933 and 1936, the Repulse was slightly modernized and improved again and again, which is why it was given the nickname "HMS Repair". These measures were taken to increase the ship's combat value and to finally overcome the constant problems with the propulsion system.

The first conversion of the two-year-old Repulse took place between the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1921 and followed the repair work after the collision with the Australia . It mainly involved the replacement of the light side armor of 152 mm (6 in ) with a new one with a thickness of 229 mm (9 in) as well as the installation of 152 mm (6 in) thick armor in the area above that was previously completely unarmored was. Together with the new, improved torpedo beads, this meant the application of 4,300 tons of additional armor. In addition, the torpedo tubes were moved from their original positions below the waterline to the upper deck and various changes were made to the propulsion system. The cost was £ 860,684, the equivalent of a Carlisle-class light cruiser .

In the years 1922 to 1924 the Repulse undertook a trip around the world, on which it called at many port cities.

In the years 1924 to 1925 the middle artillery was changed. The peculiar mixture of 102 mm (4-in) guns with low barrel elevation and 76.2-mm (3-in) guns was combined with twelve uniform 102-mm (4-in) guns in triplet mounts Replaced protective shields (the number was reduced to nine in 1938). Improvements were also made to the anti-aircraft armament and an initially simple on-board flight system with a corresponding crane for small reconnaissance aircraft was installed on the aft 381 mm tower.

In the late 1920s, the Repulse took part with her sister ship Renown in the naval maneuvers of the Royal Navy off the coast of Portland .

The last major renovation from 1933 to 1936 essentially resulted in a reinforcement of the armor, especially in critical areas, the revision of the anti-aircraft armament and various improvements to the propulsion system. Equipped until then only a few anti-aircraft weapons Repulse received new and more numerous 2-Pdr "Pom-Pom" - anti-aircraft guns and four-barreled 12.7 mm (0.5-inch) - Vickers machine guns . A new board flight system with two hangars and a usable in both directions catapult for four Fairey Swordfish - float planes was also incorporated (the Swordfish planes were 1941 four reconnaissance flying boats of the type Super Walrus replaced).

After the third and final conversion which displaced Repulse for two years in the Mediterranean to the Mediterranean Fleet and operated there from headquarters in Gibraltar , Malta and Alexandria .

From August 1938 she was back in the Home Fleet , the part of the British fleet that was responsible for the defense of British home waters.

The total renovation of the Repulse planned for autumn 1939 , as with the sister ship Renown , was not carried out, however, because the worsening foreign policy situation in Europe meant that the outbreak of war had to be expected and under these circumstances the Admiralty would not have a ship of this size for over two years in the yard wanted to shut down.

Second World War

Use in the North Atlantic

The Repulse was used from October 1939 to combat various units of the German Navy in the North Sea and the North Atlantic . In 1939 she operated in various groups that were formed to confront German ships waging a trade war (e.g. the Admiral Graf Spee ), but did not succeed in getting in touch or even attacking them. After some convoy security tasks between Canada and the United Kingdom in December 1939, it was used in April 1940, like the Renown , off Norway to protect mine- layers. When the destroyer Glowworm was lost in the attack on the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in April 1940 , the Repulse took part in the search without being able to track down the Admiral Hipper . In June 1940 the battle cruiser was deployed on the battleship Gneisenau, which had been badly damaged by a torpedo hit . Towards the end of this campaign, while the British troops were evacuating from Norway, the ship was relieved of its convoy security duties in order to search for the invasion fleet due to fears that a German occupation of Iceland was imminent. However, it quickly became apparent that no invasion was planned and that no German naval forces were on their way to Iceland.

At the beginning of 1941 the Repulse initially returned to escort duties, but later pursued the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau . Then she took part in the persecution of the Bismarck in May 1941 . From the summer of 1941, the Repulse continued to operate as part of the Home Fleet.

Use in Southeast Asia

The Repulse leaves Singapore two days before it sinks

In 1941, the ship was moved to Southeast Asia because the British government feared a Japanese attack on Malaysia , which also followed shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . In August 1941 the Repulse ran to Cape Town , in October it went on to India , where it arrived on October 28th. Towards the end of the year, as the threat of war with Japan increased, the Repulse was relocated to Singapore.

In its new application which formed Repulse with the destroyers Electra , Express , Tenedos , Vampire and the modern battleship Prince of Wales , the Force Z under Admiral Sir Tom Phillips . The Force Z was Japanese naval forces prevent conduct a landing on British colonial territory in Southeast Asia and for the invasion of Malaysia Japanese troops certain convoys and convoys intercept.

Admiral Phillips knew that the local British Royal Air Force forces were unable to provide aerial cover for his formation. Nevertheless, he decided to take action against Japanese troop convoys, as he assumed that his ships would be relatively safe against air attacks, especially since the largest unit sunk by airplanes was only a heavy cruiser, not a battleship or battle cruiser. He also assumed that the Japanese would not be able to air strikes so far from the mainland on the open sea without aircraft carriers on the ground. Shortly after the outbreak of fighting in the Pacific region on December 8, 1941, the Repulse , which is still considered technically unreliable, left Singapore with the battleship Prince of Wales and the four destroyers to try to intercept a Japanese troop convoy heading for Malaysia.

Sinking the repulse

The Repulse (in the background) with the battleship Prince of Wales (left) after the first Japanese air raid with torpedoes on December 10, 1941. In the front right the Destroyer Express

On December 10, 1941, the Repulse and Prince of Wales were on their march back to Singapore after the association had failed to find the Japanese convoys. Japanese planes were sighted at 11:00 a.m. local time. Both ships were of a total of 86 near Saigon in Indochina launched, land-based Japanese bombers and torpedo bombers of the 21st and 22nd air flotilla of the Japanese Navy type Mitsubishi G3M Chukou (Nell) and Mitsubishi G4M Hamaki (Betty) at Kuantan near Tioman ( Pahang province ) attacked and sunk in seven waves.

The Prince of Wales , restored after her mission against the Bismarck , was the first target of the air attack as the strongest ship in the association and was badly hit and sunk by torpedoes after a short time, despite her evasive efforts and non-stop anti-aircraft fire.

The Repulse was able initially to dodge 14 torpedoes. After she too had become the target of the attack, she survived a first bomb hit without serious damage, but was then no longer buoyant after a total of five torpedo hits and capsized within five minutes. The repulse , which was drifting down the keel , sank at 12:23 p.m., killing 513 crew members. The commander, Captain George Tennant , and 796 men of the crew were rescued from the ship and from the sea by the destroyers Electra and Vampire . The rescued sailors allegedly immediately went to the combat stations to relieve the destroyers' personnel, to save more survivors and to further defend the destroyers themselves. The rescued dentist immediately helped the Electra paramedics take care of the wounded.

The sinking of the Repulse and the Prince of Wales proved that capital ships without adequate cover from the air from land or from aircraft carriers were quite vulnerable. They were the first battleships to be sunk on the open sea by an air raid with armor-piercing bombs and above all with torpedoes.

today

The outlines of the Force Z battleships, lying at a relatively shallow depth of around 60 m, can still be seen from aircraft today. Navy divers of the Royal Navy periodically replace the British war flag on the propellers of the ships.

Both wrecks were in 2001 by the Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986 as a protected place placed under special protection, which it is forbidden to enter the interior of the wreck and make recoveries of wreckage.

The wreck was nevertheless looted for the first time between September 2012 and May 2013. The theft of the bronze ship's propellers was followed by theft of other valuable metals such as copper, and finally aluminum and steel.

literature

Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970 (contains many drawings).
John Roberts: Battlecruisers. Chatham Publishing, London 1997, ISBN 1-55750-068-1 .
Martin Middlebrook, Patrick Mahoney: Battleships. Ullstein Verlag, ISBN 3-548-23535-2 .
Joseph M. Horodyski: Military Heritage. December 2001, Volume 3, No. 3, pp. 69-77 (essay on the repulse and its sinking).