HMS Sturdy (H28)
.jpg) The Sturdy in stormy weather (the picture was released in 1936, but is believed to be from 1921).
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The HMS Sturdy (ID: H28) was a destroyer in the British Navy . Commissioned during the First World War , the ship was only put into service after the end of the war. The destroyer was one of the eleven S-Class destroyers that were still used by this class , which originally comprised 67 units, during World War II .
The Sturdy was the first ship in the history of the Royal Navy to receive this name . The appointed in June 1917 destroyer was in March 1918 at the shipyard of Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Scotland's Greenock laid down on and ran on 25 June 1919 by the stack. She was the fifth destroyer of this class that the shipyard built. The commissioning took place on October 15, 1919.
Modifications
Relocated to reserve between 1920 and 1939 , the Sturdy experienced few changes. Originally with three 10.2-cm guns armed, the tail gun came before July 1939 as part of the Wiederindienstnahme from board to on the aft space to accommodate two mining guide bars and up to 40 sea mines to create. The ship was intended as a destroyer with mine-laying capabilities for the Local Defense Flotilla in Hong Kong, which had received some S-class destroyers in the mid-1930s. In addition, at the beginning of 1940, the ship may have received an ASDIC system and two depth charges. The original top speed of 36 knots was no longer reached in World War II, but around 1940 it should have been at best 30 to 31 knots.
period of service
Like almost all S-Class ships, the Sturdy only saw a very short period of use after the First World War. After the acceptance by the Royal Navy, the destroyer was briefly assigned to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet . The flotilla led by the "leaders" Bruce and Grenville had in November 1919 thirteen other destroyers of the S-class and two destroyers of the previous R-class . As early as 1922, the destroyer was transferred to the fleet reserve and remained there until July 1939. Initially, the ship was in Portsmouth, then from 1928 with over thirty other destroyers of the S-Class in Rosyth and finally in Plymouth. In the context of the British-French guarantee for Poland and the imminent danger of war, the now very outdated Sturdy was finally put back into service on July 31, 1939 under the command of Lieutenant Commander George T. Cooper. Initially stationed in Portsmouth, the destroyer performed various security tasks.
Together with the Argus , which was put back into service in October , Sturdy left Devonport on November 11, 1939 . Because of the bad weather conditions at home, the old aircraft carrier was supposed to train British carrier pilots off Toulon . Sturdy was originally supposed to move through the Mediterranean to East Asia. The destroyer remained in the Mediterranean as a security ship and companion of the carrier. At the beginning of June 1940, shortly before Italy entered the war , the Argus broke off training in the Mediterranean and moved back to Great Britain via Gibraltar . Sturdy stayed in Gibraltar and controlled shipping in the Mediterranean with the Keppel and four V- and W-Class destroyers . Ships of the Axis powers were searched and merchant ships of neutral states searched for contraband . In mid-June 1940, Sturdy escorted the 24-ship convoy HG-34F from Gibraltar to Plymouth with the sloop Scarborough . The destroyer was immediately used in the evacuation of Allied forces and went with the flotilla commander Mackay to Brest and helped to tow a French submarine to Portsmouth. After a brief overhaul, the Sturdy was deployed in the Western Approaches to escort convoys arriving and departing there. In the following months, the destroyer secured several convoys, including OB-229 and HX 79 .
loss
On October 29, 1940, the Sturdy was detached to secure the 40-ship convoy SC-8 running from Sydney (Nova Scotia) to Liverpool . The destroyer did not belong directly to the security of the convoy, but, operating from Glasgow , was supposed to serve the merchant ships on the night of 29./30. Run towards October. The ship, however, got caught in a strong storm and drifted off course in the dark in a northeasterly direction. At around 3 a.m., the Sturdy ran aground on rocks off the west coast of Tiree Island , near Sandaig. An attempt to reach the bank with a dinghy failed. The boat capsized in a storm and was smashed on the rocks, killing five sailors. The drama could be observed from the coast, whereupon residents of Sandaig were able to take eight crew members off board at great risk with the help of a trouser buoy , including two injured.
However, since the rescue efforts were made very difficult by the dark and storms, the crew was signaled with the aid of a Morse code lamp to stay on board the destroyer until daylight if possible. Although the keel of the ship broke through during the night, most of the crew stayed on board. Shortly after daybreak, the sister ship Saber came up and was able to remove the rest of the crew from the wreck, also with the help of a trouser buoy. The Sturdy was eventually completely crushed by the storm. Remnants of the ship are still in front of Tiree today (position 56 ° 29 ′ N , 6 ° 59 ′ W ), with debris of the bow section can be seen from the bank.
To commemorate the victims, a memorial stone with a plaque was erected near Sandaig in October 2010.
literature
- Cocker, Maurice / Allan, Ian: Destroyers of the Royal Navy 1893-1981 . Ian Allan, London 1981.
- Whitley, Mike J .: Destroyers in World War II. Technology, classes, types . Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, p. 80f.
Web links
- The Sturdy in Wrecksite-Database (English)
- Entry about the ship at uboat.net (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ Kindell: ROYAL NAVY SHIPS, SEPTEMBER 1939
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://antirisdeach.com/latest-stories/tiree-welcomes-hms-sturdy-families/
