Mr. Ms. Kortenaer (1945)

Mr.Ms. Kortenaer (D804)

The Kortenaer returned to Den Helder at the end of 1950

Ship data flag from 1945: Netherlands  other ship names HMS Scorpion (G72) until 1945 United Kingdom   Ship type Destroyer , 1957 frigate class S-class Shipyard Cammell Laird , Birkenhead Build number 1024 Order January 9, 1941 Keel laying June 19, 1941 as Sentinel Launch August 26, 1942 as Scorpion Commissioning May 11, 1943 Royal Navy October 1, 1945 Netherlands as Kortenaer Whereabouts 1963 demolished

Ship dimensions and crew length 110.6 m ( Lüa ) 103.5 m ( Lpp ) width 10.9 m Draft Max. 4.4 m displacement 1,730 ts standard; 2,350 ts maximum

Machine system machine 2 Admiralty three drum boilers 2 Parsons - geared turbines Machine performance 40,000 PS (29,420 kW) Top speed 36.75 kn (68 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 4 × 120 mm L / 45 Mk IX guns 1 × 4 2-pounder- "pom pom" -Vierling - Flak 4 × 2 20 mm Oerlikon - automatic cannons 2 × 4 533 mm torpedo tube 70-130 water bombs ,   4 launchers, drop rails 2 last: 4 × 120 mm L / 45 Mk IX guns 2 × 2 40 mm Bofors Mk.4 flak 8 × 1 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannon 2 × 4 533 mm torpedo tube Sensors Radar , sonar

The Dutch destroyer Hr.Ms. Kortenaer (1945) was a British S-class ship .
The destroyer was originally supposed to be named Sentinel , but was later christened Scorpion by the Royal Navy . It was named after the Dragonfly class gunboat sunk by the Japanese on February 13, 1942 in Bangka Street . The destroyer was awarded the Battle Honors Arctic 1943–45, North Cape 1943 and Normandy 1944 in the Royal Navy during World War II .

The destroyer, assigned to the reserve in September 1945, was sold to the Dutch Navy on October 1, 1945 , which put it into service as the Kortenaer . Immediately after its takeover, the destroyer was used in the Indonesian War of Independence , where the sister ships Hr.Ms. Piet Hein ex Serapis and Mr.Ms. Evertsen ex Scourge came into action immediately after their takeover. In 1957 the destroyer was reclassified as a fast frigate and, like its sister ships, was temporarily used as a station ship in Dutch New Guinea . After her return in early November 1962, the Kortenaer was decommissioned and sold for demolition, which took place in Ghent , Belgium .

History of the ship

The 9th Scorpion of the RN from 1910

In January 1941, two orders for destroyers of the “5th Emergency Flotilla” (S-Class) went to Cammell Laird in Birkenhead . The keel of the new building with hull number 1024 was laid on June 19, 1941. The new building was to be named Sentinel , which was last used by a scout cruiser built by Vickers from 1904 to 1923. When it was launched on August 26, 1942, the new building was given the name of the Royal Navy gunboat Scorpion, which was sunk by the Japanese on February 13, 1942 . Before that, a Beagle class destroyer was the 9th ship in the Navy from 1909 to 1921 . The destroyer, which was taken into service in the Navy on May 11, 1943 as the eleventh Scorpion , differed from other destroyers of the S, T, U, V and W classes by installing a quadruple "pom-pom" instead the actually planned 40 mm twin Bofors cannon .

The Scorpion was the first ship of the S-Group after two destroyers of the T-Group ( Troubridge and Tumult or Tuscan and Tyrian ) built by John Brown & Co. and Swan Hunter respectively, in the service of the Royal Navy.

Mission history

First missions and northern sea convoys

The Scorpion joined the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla at Home Fleet in Scapa Flow on May 11, 1943 and was used to secure convoys in the Northwestern Approaches . On October 20, she ran with nine other destroyers, a Norwegian corvette and two minesweepers in Operation FR to Kola Bay in order to return the cargo ships to Great Britain, which had to stay in Russian ports in the summer as no convoys were carried out in the Northern Sea during the summer . Additionally protected by thick fog, convoy RA 54A reached Loch Ewe on November 14, 1943 . The destroyers already secured the outgoing convoy JW 54B to Arkhangelsk . After the destroyers had returned to Scapa Flow, they ran out again on December 10th as securing the convoy JW 55A with the battleship Duke of York and the cruiser Jamaica . This rapid handling of the convoys by the Royal Navy surprised the Navy and the Soviet allies.

Sea battle off the North Cape

→ Main article : Final battle before the North Cape

→ Main article : Saumarez off the North Cape

The Scorpion left the Kola Bay to Akureyri , (Iceland), for oiling with the battleship Duke of York and the cruiser Jamaica on December 16, 1943 with the Leader Saumarez , the Savage with the twin tower and the Norwegian Stord . This formation was to form the long-range coverage group under the command of the Home Fleet, Vice Admiral Bruce Fraser , for the following Allied convoy operation. The long-range coverage group did not reach the sea area off the North Cape again until December 26th , when convoy JW.55B was already further east and had repulsed the first attacks by German aircraft and submarines. The Kriegsmarine searched for the convoy ( Operation Eastern Front ) with a combat group under Rear Admiral Bey on the battleship Scharnhorst and with five destroyers of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla . A British cruiser surveillance group under Vice Admiral Burnett with Belfast , Norfolk and Sheffield close to the convoy located the Scharnhorst with radar. Without calling for support from its destroyers, the Scharnhorst led short skirmishes with the cruisers on the 26th, during which the main radar of the Scharnhorst was put out of action by a hit by the cruiser. Bey then canceled the search for the convoy and released his destroyers to march back to their bases. In the various battles, the German commander got the impression that a battleship belonged to the British unit and finally broke off his attempt to attack the convoy. The Scharnhorst tried at high speed to shake off British Association, whose composition is the lack of an efficient measuring device had no firm idea.

The British long-range coverage group under Admiral Fraser approaching from Iceland tried to relocate the German battleship to its base. Since the Germans had not discovered her, the Scharnhorst got in her way. When the enemy was detected by radar for the first time in the afternoon at a distance of more than 40 km on the Duke of York , the course of the group was corrected so that the British battleship half an hour later opened fire on the Scharnhorst from all ten heavy guns only could open another eleven kilometers distance. Despite heavy hits and the intervention of the Burnett unit from a northerly position, the Scharnhorst threatened to escape because the distance to her had increased again to 20 km in the battle and she again reached 26 knots.

Fraser therefore sent his four destroyers to keep the German ship busy and, if necessary, to stop or destroy it with torpedo hits. Their leaders formed two gangs, of which Saumarez and Savage first attacked from the port side, but were discovered early and broke off their attack because of the massive defensive fire. However, the destroyers used stun grenades to make it difficult for the enemy to see and to offer the second group a well-lit target.

Scorpion and Stord managed to get closer to the German battleship on the starboard side. Of the 16 torpedoes from the two destroyers, only one of the Scorpions reached the target. The successful evasive movements of the German ship enabled the other two destroyers to catch up again. Their renewed attack was more successful and they scored several hits. But the Saumarez also received a severe hit in its fire control station, which - without exploding - penetrated the ship and killed eleven men.

However, the pincer attack by the four destroyers had significantly delayed the Scharnhorst's escape , reduced their possible maximum speed slightly and further reduced their ammunition supplies. For this purpose, the Fraser and Burnett units had come within ten kilometers in the evening and began the radar-based bombardment and destruction of the German battleship. Burnett also used the destroyers he had used ( Opportune , Virago , Musketeer , Matchless ) against the German battleship.

Only 36 survivors of the 1972-man crew of the Scharnhorst were rescued from the icy northern sea by British destroyers, of which the Scorpion took 30 men on board, who were handed over to the flagship in Murmansk.

In March / April 1944, the Scorpion was still involved in securing the northern sea escorts JW 58 and RA 58 .

Support the invasion

The Scorpion in June 1944

When the landings in Normandy ( Operation Neptune ) began in June 1944, Scorpion was part of the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla , which provided artillery support in the attack on Ouistreham . The forces for the Sword landing section consisted of Force D with the British battleships Warspite and Ramillies , the Monitor Roberts , the cruisers Mauritius , Arethusa , Frobisher , Danae and the Polish Dragon , the destroyers Saumarez as flotilla leader, Scorpion , Scourge , Serapis , Swift as well as their Norwegian sister ships Stord and Svenner , plus Verulam , Virago and Kelvin and the Hunt destroyers Middleton , Eglinton and the Polish Slazak . On the night of June 11, four German maneuvered speedboats of the second S-flotilla a destroyer patrol with the Scorpion , Stord , Scourge and Kelvin made, then laid 16 mines west of Cape d'Antifer and attacked south of the Isle of Wight a British supply convoy from which they sank three small freighters. The destroyers pursued the German boats in vain for a long time. On the night of June 14th, the German torpedo boats T 28 and Möwe attacked the destroyers Stord and Scorpion from Le Havre without success .

Further missions in the North Sea

The Scorpion was used again from September 1944 to protect Allied convoys in the Arctic Ocean; first with the battleship Rodney to secure the convoys JW 60 and RA 60 . In October, operations followed in Operation Lycidas to secure the two escort carriers Fencer and Trumpeter , whose aircraft mined the Norwegian coastal waters. In November Scorpion and Savage brought Norwegian troops to Murmansk ( Operation Freeman ), which with the Red Army were supposed to push the German troops back to Norway; These troops were accompanied by members of the Norwegian government in exile . Then the destroyers secured after the convoy RA 61A from November 11th with the two large troop carriers Empress of Australia (21,860 BRT, 1919, ex Tirpitz ) and Scythia (19730 BRT, 1921) back to the Clyde; the passenger ships had returned 11,000 Soviet prisoners of war liberated in Normandy to the Soviet Union. Two more missions with escort carriers against the Norwegian coastal traffic of the Germans follow later in November.

After a mission with the Home Fleet on the North Western Approaches , the destroyer ran to Kola Bay on January 9, 1945, to secure the return convoy RA 63 to England from the 11th , which was torn apart by extreme weather conditions. In 1945 the destroyer was involved in securing further North Sea convoys ( RA 64 in February and JW 65 and RA 65 in March). In addition, in February there were operations against the Germans in the Home Fleet Association against the Germans and their supplies to secure the escort carriers deployed (Operations Selenium , Shred and Groundsheet ). The destroyer remained in the Home Fleet association with the sister ships Serapis , Scourge and half-sister Scorpion until August 1945 and monitored and supported the disarming of German units in Norway since the end of the war in Europe.

Scout cruiser Tromp 1946

Post-war sentence as Mr. Ms. Kortenaer from 1945 to 1962

Destroyer Piet Hein left Rotterdam on a world tour in 1950

On October 1, 1945, the Scorpion was sold to the Dutch Navy as Mr. Ms. Kortenaer put into service. The slightly overhauled destroyer was dispatched to the Dutch East Indies on October 28th to prevent supplies by sea for the rebels there. Which also from the Netherlands bought sister ships Hr. Ms. Piet Hein (ex Serapis ) and Mr. Ms. "Evertsen" (2) (ex Scourge ) followed her until the end of February 1946. The Dutch names of the destroyers are reminiscent of three destroyers of the first admiral class, which were lost in the battle against the Japanese in 1942.

see: The sister ships of Mr. Ms. Van Ghent as Mr. Ms. Piet Hein

Larger combat ships of the Dutch Navy in what was later to be Indonesia were the Tromp , which came from the British Eastern Fleet , as well as its half-sister Jacob van Heemskerck , who was then sent to Indonesia on September 15, 1945 , who together with the destroyer Mr. Ms. Van Galen and crews of volunteers should try to keep the Netherlands its colonial empire. The two scout cruisers were withdrawn again in January and July 1946.
In May 1947, the Kortenaer returned to the Netherlands, only to move to Indonesia again the following year. In 1950 the destroyer was then briefly a station ship in the remaining colony of Dutch New Guinea . After conversion and a thorough overhaul, various missions followed, often together with the aircraft carrier Mr. Ms. Karel Doorman . In 1957 the destroyer was reclassified as a fast frigate and converted to the model of the sister ship Piet Hein . From 1960, the Kortenaer was used again in Dutch New Guinea. In January 1962, the Kortenaer was involved with the sister ship Evertsen in a battle with three Indonesian motor torpedo boats off New Guinea , which were transporting troops that were to infiltrate the Dutch colony. The destroyers set fire to one of the MTBs. While this boat was sinking, the other two escaped. At the end of November 1962 the frigate returned to the Netherlands. Due to its poor condition, the former destroyer was sold on December 13th, which was canceled in 1963 at the Van Heyghen company in Ghent , Belgium .

Former British destroyer in the Royal Navy of the Netherlands

Surname	ex ".."	shipyard	finished	takeover	use	The End
Campbeltown (I42)	ex USS Buchanan	Bath Iron Wks	1/20/19 40 British	1/17/41	Return 1.10.41 to RN	29.03.42 blown up as a block ship in St. Nazaire
van Galen G84, J5, D806	Build as HMS Noble	Denny	02/11/42	w. v.	45 to 49 two missions in Indonesia, 3.51 to 6.52 Korea	10.56 a. D. from 2.57 demolition in Belgium
Tjerk Hiddes G16, J3, D803	Build as HMS  Nonpareil	Denny	5/6/42	w. v.	7.47 to 10.49 assignments in Indonesia, 2.51 sales to Indonesia ,	Gadjah Madah , canceled in 1961
Kortenaer  (1945) J6, D804, F812	HMS  Scorpion  G72	Cammell Laird	05/11/43	1.10.45	see above	11.62 a. D., demolition
Piet Hein (1945) J4, D805, F804	HMS Serapis G94	Scotts	12/23/43	3.10.45	45-47 Indonesia, 52/53 Korea, 58-61 New Guinea	10.61 a. D., 1962 demolition in Belgium
Evertsen (1946) J2, D802, F803	HMS Scourge G01	Cammell Laird	3.07.43	1.02.46	46/47 Indonesia, 50/51 Korea , 58-62 New Guinea	12.62 a. D., demolition in Belgium
Banckaert J1, D801	HMS Quilliam	Hawthorn Leslie	10/22/42	11/21/45	46/47 Indonesia, 50/51 New Guinea	10.56 a. D., demolished in Belgium in 1957
Marnix HX4, F801	HMS / ORP Garland	Fairfield	3.03.36 , 4.40 Polish	11/14/47	1950 in service as a training ship,	01/31/64 a. D., demolition in Belgium

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gunboat Scorpion , White Shipyard, Cowes, BNr. 1825, December 20, 1937, launched, in service in November 1938, 700 ts, 63.6 m × 10.6 m × 1.8 m, 4500 hp tubing, 2 screws , 17 kn, 2 × 102 mm L / 45 Mk.V, 1 × 87-mm-L / 13 howitzer, 2 × 47-mm-3-pdr, 93 men
2. ^ Destroyer Scorpion , built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, BauN ° 387,
3. ↑ According to Raven / Roberts: O to Z classes , 13 destroyers of the S to W class received no twin Bofors gun when they were completed; only the five affected destroyers of the T-Gruppe and the Undine were retrofitted with the 40 mm twin Bofors gun during the war . For the time being, single or twin Oerlikons have been installed, including on Swift and Savage . In addition to the Scorpion , the Volage , Wessex and Whelp, delivered shortly before the invasion , received a pom-pom quadruplet in place of the Bofors twin .
4. ^ Service History HMS Scorpion. on naval-history.net
5. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 12.-31. December 1943, Northern Sea
6. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. December 26, 1943, North Sea
7. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. June 6, 1944, Canal, Allied invasion (“Decision-Day”) in Normandy
8. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 6-13 June 1944, Canal / North Sea, attempted attack by German surface ships against the invasion fleet.
9. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. September 15 - October 5, 1944 Northern Sea, convoy operation JW.60 / RA 60
10. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 11-17 November 1944, North Sea.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Contributors to UN Forces in Korea

Web links

Commons : HMS Scorpion  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• HMS Scorpion (G72) on uboat.net, April 26th, 2019
• Service history HMS Scorpion (G72) - S-class Destroyer on naval-history.net, April 26th, 2019
• "S", "T", "U", "V" and "W" destroyers (1943–1944) on navypedia.org, April 26, 2019
• Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Published by the Library for Contemporary History, Württembergische Landesbibliothek (Stuttgart 2007) , April 26, 2019
• British 23rd Destroyer Flotilla Memorial Hermanville-sur-Mer, 04/26/2019
• Britse destroyers voor de Nederlandse marine, S-class torpedo boatjagers , April 26th, 2019

literature

• Heinrich Bredemeyer: battleship Scharnhorst. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2000, 5th edition, ISBN 3-7822-0592-8 .
• Roger Chesneau (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich 1980, ISBN 0-85177-146-7 .
• John English: Obdurate to Daring: British Fleet Destroyers 1941–45. World Ship Society, Windsor 2001, ISBN 978-0-9560769-0-8 .
• Henry Trevor Lenton: British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1998, ISBN 1-55750-048-7 .
• Alan Raven, John Roberts: War Built Destroyers O to Z. Bivouac Books, London 1978, ISBN 0-85680-010-4 .
• Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-0097 .
• MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2nd Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 198, ISBN 0-87021-326-1 .