HMS Swift (G46)

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HMS Swift
HMS Swift 1943 IWM FL 7061.jpg
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) United Kingdom
Ship type destroyer
class S to W class
Shipyard J. Samuel White
Cowes
Order January 9, 1941
Keel laying June 12, 1941
Launch June 15, 1943
Commissioning December 12, 1943
Whereabouts Sunk June 24, 1944 after being hit by a mine
Ship dimensions and crew
length
110.6 m ( Lüa )
103.5 m ( Lpp )
width 10.9 m
Draft Max. 4.4 m
displacement 1,710  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

The Swift was a British S-class destroyer . The ship was part of the January 1941 fifth order for destroyers of the war type for the Royal Navy from the War Emergency Program. The destroyer was launched on June 15, 1943 , as the second of the two orders awarded to the J. Samuel White shipyard in Cowes , and entered service on December 12, 1943.

At the beginning of February 1944, the first mission took place as an escort of a northern sea convoy . As of May, the destroyer was preparing for use as a backup destroyer on the planned Allied landing in northern France . The Swift was used there from the first day of landing in Normandy and broke on June 24, 1944 in front of the Sword landing section after a mine hit. 53 crew members lost their lives when the destroyer went down.

Building history

The Swift was an S-class destroyer and displaced 1710 ts as standard and fully loaded 2530 ts. Like its sister ships, the destroyer had a length of 362 ft 9, a width of 35 ft 8 in and a draft of up to 14.5 ft. It was propelled by two Parson gear turbine sets, each of which drove a propeller shaft. The total drive power of 40,000 PSw was generated with the steam from two Admiralty boilers and gave the ship a top speed of over 36 knots . At full load, the Swift could carry up to 615 ts of fuel, with which she could cover up to 4675 nm at a cruising speed of 20 kn. Their crew normally consisted of 170 men.

The destroyer was armed with four 4.7-inch (120 mm) / L45-Mark XII guns , which became real multi-purpose weapons thanks to the new suspension. A Bofors 40 mm twin gun in a Hazemeyer type carriage developed in the Netherlands and four automatic twin cannons of the 20 mm Oerlikon type were also available to ward off air attacks . In addition, the destroyer was armed with two 21 inch quadruple torpedo tube sets and usually had 70  depth charges on board, which were deployed via two drainage rails and four launchers.

The construction of the destroyer was awarded with the fifth, in January 1941 as part of the War Emergency Program order of destroyers for the Royal Navy to J. Samuel White in Cowes along with a sister ship, which was completed as the Norwegian Stord off the Swift . Construction of the second ship to be built in Cowes began in May 1942. The destroyer was launched on June 15, 1943 and entered service on December 12, 1943 as the 28th Swift of the Royal Navy; Most recently, the flotilla leader Swift , which was created as a single ship, had the name from 1907 to 1921. The new building was completed as the sixth S-class destroyer. When it went into service, the Royal Navy already had seven destroyers of the identical T- class and nine other destroyers of the war type from classes that were started later.

Mission history

The ship carried out further tests and then the acceptance runs and was taken into service with the 23rd (British) Destroyer Flotilla at Home Fleet in January 1944 , which consisted of the S-class destroyers, of which the Scorpion on May 11th 1943 was the first to enter the service of the Royal Navy. The retraction of the ship and crew continued in Scapa Flow .

The Swift accompanied other northern sea convoys , so from February 6, 1944 RA 56 , which she ran towards with Obedient and Verulam to strengthen its security, and then the convoys JW 57 and RA 57 , during which it was unsuccessfully attacked by U 739 . In April, the destroyer was assigned to the support forces for the invasion of Normandy . He should shoot targets in Franceville .

At the beginning of June 1944, the Swift with her sister ships Saumarez , Scorpion , Scourge , Serapis , Svenner and Stord led the heavy units intended for the bombardment Warspite , Ramillies and Mauritius from the Clyde to the Solent . Late in the evening of the 5th, the Flottenverband ran to fire support in the Sword landing section with two battleships, a monitor, five cruisers and over ten destroyers through a canal cleared of mines in front of the landing section, around the German position under fire in the early morning of the 6th to take. Shortly after the start of the bombardment of the coast, the German torpedo boats T 28 , Jaguar and Möwe of the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla under Corvette Captain Heinrich Hoffmann suddenly appeared from a smoke screen that British aircraft had deployed around the bombardment unit. The Germans, surprised by the size of the British federation, fired a torpedo salvo and then quickly retreated to Le Havre . They only scored one hit, which sank Swift’s Norwegian sister ship Svenner . The other torpedoes of the Germans could be dodged or they missed their targets, so that the British association had no further victims to complain about. The Swift rescued 67 men from the sister ship, while most of the ships carried out their operational orders in support of the landing troops. Over 100 other castaways were rescued from other ships. From June 7th, Swift had to support the landing forces in the "Eastern Task Force" with their main artillery and to prevent further attacks by German surface forces or submarines in front of the landing area.

The end of the Swift

The sinking of the Swift

The Swift , who gave artillery support to the troops who had landed , ran to Portsmouth for the last time on June 23, 1944 to replenish their supplies. When she went back close to the coast on the 24th to fulfill her duties, she ran over a mine that had probably been thrown from the air. The destroyer broke and sank, killing 53 crew members.

A memorial stone has been on the beach at Hermanville-sur-Mer since 2001 to commemorate the operation of the Swift and the 23rd destroyer flotilla .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lenton, p. 174
  2. ↑ English, pp. 62f.
  3. ↑ a b c Service History HMS Swift (G46)
  4. ^ Rohwer, June 6, 1944 Canal Allied Invasion ("Decision Day") in Normandy.
  5. ^ Cenotaph in Hermanville-sur-Mer

literature

  • 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 VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-009-7
  • MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2 , Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, 1988), ISBN 0-87021-326-1

Web links

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