HMS Sturgeon (73S)

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HMS Sturgeon (73S)
Mr. Ms. Zeehond
Royal Navy Koninklijke Marine (Royal Dutch Navy)
HMS Sturgeon around 1933
General data
Ship type : Submarine
Ship class : Swordfish class ( S class )
Navies :
Builder : Chatham Dockyard ( Chatham )
Keel laying : January 3, 1931
Launch : January 8, 1932
Commissioning:
  • February 27, 1933 (RN)
  • October 11, 1943 (KNM)
Whereabouts: Scrapped in Granton in 1947
Technical data
(see Swordfish class )

HMS Sturgeon (73S) was a Royal Navy submarine during World War II . The Sturgeon ( Engl .: Stör ) was handed over to the Dutch Royal Navy in 1943 and sold to Mr. Renamed Ms. Zeehond ( nld : dog seal ). The HMS Sturgeon was the first British submarine to sink an enemy ship in World War II. It was the only Swordfish- class submarine that was not lost in the war.

history

see: History of the Swordfish- Class and Detailed History of the S-Class

The Sturgeon was the second boat in the first group of the successful S-Class . This lot is also known as the Swordfish class. She was laid down at the Chatham Naval Shipyard on January 1, 1931, launched on August 1, 1932, and entered service by the Royal Navy on February 27, 1933.

At the beginning of the war , the submarine was in the North Sea and was relocated off the Norwegian coast. On September 14, 1939 came to an incident when the Sturgeon mistake her sister boat HMS Swordfish 50 NM east-southeast of Aberdeen at 56 ° 22 '  N , 1 ° 28'  O attack. The three torpedoes missed their target. However, in a similar incident on September 10, the HMS Oxley was sunk by its own submarine. As a result of the two accidents, the British Admiralty increased the distances between the patrol areas of their submarines from 4 to 16 nautical miles .

On November 20, 1939, the Sturgeon achieved the first combat success of a British submarine in World War II. They sank 100 NM west of Helgoland at 54 ° 32 '  N , 5 ° 10'  O the German patrol boat V 209 / Gauleiter Telschow (428 BRT) with torpedoes.

On September 2, 1940, the Sturgeon torpedoed and sank 15 NM north of Skagen at 57 ° 58 '  N , 10 ° 45'  E, the German troop transporter Pionier (3624 GRT). Eight days later, she attacked U 43 at 57 ° 25 ′  N , 6 ° 19 ′  E with six torpedoes, but missed the German submarine.

Two more sinks followed in November 1940. On November 3, the Danish trading ship was Sigrun (1337 BRT) 10 NM before Larvik at 59 ° 1 '  N , 10 ° 20'  O and November 6, the Norwegian merchant ship Delfinus (1294 BRT) west of Hå at 58 ° 34 '  N , 5 ° 37 '  O torpedoes.

On August 12, 1942, the German merchant ship Boltenhagen (3335 GRT) was sunk with torpedoes south of Norway at 58 ° 8 '  N , 6 ° 25'  E.

During an overhaul at Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth , the submarine was handed over to the Dutch Navy in April 1943. The Dutch presented the submarine on October 11, 1943 with the name of Mr. Ms. Zeehond on duty.

The boat remained in Dutch service until the end of the war and was used in the North Sea. The Dutch Navy decommissioned the Zeehond on September 14, 1945 in Dundee and returned it to the Royal Navy.

The Sturgeon was scrapped in Granton (Scotland) in 1947.

See also

Web links

Commons : British S-Class Submarines  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II. (Technology - Classes - Types. A Comprehensive Encyclopedia). 5th edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9 .
  • Robert Hutchinson: FIGHT UNDER WATER - Submarines from 1776 to the present day. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-613-02585-X .
  • Anthony Preston: The History of the Submarines. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1998, ISBN 3-86070-697-7 .

Explanations and references

  1. ↑ a b The uboat.net states that the Sturgeon was put into service as February 27, 1933. Hutchinson (see literature ) gives December 15, 1932.
  2. ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship .
  3. ↑ Mr. Ms. is the abbreviation for Harer Majesteits and the name prefix of Dutch ships. Mr. Ms. means Her Majesty's Ship .
  4. ↑ See Delfinus at www.warsailors.com/homefleet. (English)