HMS Wryneck
.jpg) The WAIR conversion Westminster
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The first HMS Wryneck the Royal Navy was the end of the First World War as a destroyer of the V- and W-Class completed. The destroyer was first used in the Baltic Sea during the Russian Civil War. Until 1932 the ship was used in the Atlantic and then in the Mediterranean fleet. In 1933 the ship came to the reserve and was in this status from 1938 in Gibraltar. There the ship was converted into a fast escort boat according to the WAIR plan from May 1939 .
In May 1940, the ship was operational again and moved to the Eastern Mediterranean to be used to secure British shipping. During the evacuation of mainland Greece in April 1941, she was dispatched to support the destroyer Diamond , who rescued survivors from the burning troop transport Slamat coming from Nauplia . When the destroyers ran back to Crete with the rescued people , they were attacked by the air force on April 27, 1941 and sunk near Cape Malea .
History of the ship
In December 1916, the Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company in Jarrow received the order to build two W-class destroyers of the Royal Navy. The two ships were completed as the Waterhen and Wryneck . The shipyard, which had delivered destroyers to the Navy since 1895, received a. a. still orders for 16 destroyers of other classes.
The Wryneck was the first Royal Navy ship that the English name of the bird turncoat received. The keel laying of the two orders took place in July 1917 and the Wryneck with hull number 879 was launched on May 13, 1918 and was delivered on November 11, 1918.
First missions
After its completion, the Wryneck was assigned to the "11th Destroyer Flotilla" at the Grand Fleet . When this flotilla was disbanded in March 1919, the destroyer came to the newly formed "1st Destroyer Flotilla", led by the flotilla leaders Wallace and Valorous along with fifteen other V and W class destroyers. The first use of the ship took place in 1919 with the British units, which in the Baltic Sea protected the newly formed Baltic States, especially against the Soviet Union . On May 31, 1919, she belonged to the British units with the three cruisers Cleopatra , Dragon and Galatea , the Wallace and the other destroyers Voyager , Vanessa , Versatile , Vivacious and Walker, as well as two submarines that were at the then Finnish island of Seskari and from the Soviet battleship Petropavlovsk were shot at. After his return, the Wryneck was assigned to the "5th Destroyer Flotilla" in the Atlantic Fleet , where she served alongside the flotilla leader Malcolm and seven other destroyers of the class. On July 12, 1921, the destroyer accompanied the sister ship Watchman and the cruiser Cleopatra the British royal yacht Victoria and Albert with the British royal couple George V and Queen Mary on a visit to Jersey . From October 1923 the Montrose was the leader of the flotilla and also joined the Waterhen , which was also built by Palmers, to the flotilla. From 19 to 26 July 1924, the Duke of York and his wife used the Wryneck from Stranraer for an official visit to Belfast and Northern Ireland . In April 1925 the flotilla moved to the Mediterranean Fleet as "1st Destroyer Flotilla". with Montrose , Vampire , Vendetta , Vivacious , Vimiera , Voyager , Walrus , Waterhen and Wryneck . There, the old V and W class destroyers were replaced from 1932 by new D-class ships and were put into reserve. Wryneck was initially part of the reserve in the Nore , later in Rosyth and from late 1938 in Gibraltar .
In 1938 the destroyer was selected for the conversion to a fast escort boat according to the WAIR plan , which should take place at the Gibraltar Dockyard. The renovation was intensified from September 1939, but could not be completed until March 1940.
War missions
The Wryneck returned to service in April 1940 and was given the new identifier L04 . After completion of all tests, the ship was ready for use in August 1940 and should be stationed in Alexandria and used to secure convoy in the Mediterranean. When the aircraft carrier Illustrious moved with the battleship Valiant and the two flak cruisers Coventry and Calcutta through the Mediterranean to the Mediterranean Fleet in Alexandria at the beginning of September , the Wryneck was one of the ships used for security. From Malta she ran with the light cruisers Orion and the Australian Sydney to meet the association on Sicily Road. For the march back to Alexandria, the Mediterranean fleet was divided into three units. The Wryneck came to the main unit around the Illustrious , which marched back north of Crete and should attack Italian bases in the Dodecanese. This association included the battleships Valiant and Warspite , the Calcutta , and the destroyers Stuart , Voyager , Decoy , Defender , Hereward , Imperial , Hyperion , Ilex and Hasty .
The Wryneck then took over security tasks on Allied convoy trains between Greece and Egypt. In November, the fast escort replaced the destroyer Decoy in the "10th Destroyer Flotilla" and took part in Operation Collar in the Mediterranean Fleet , through the Royal Navy on the cruisers Manchester and Southampton and three fast transporters, air force personnel and military material to Malta and the east Mediterranean transported. While there was a battle in defense of the convoy between Force H and the Italian fleet on the western side with the sea battle at Cape Teulada , there was no combat contact of the Mediterranean fleet.
From December 10th, the Wryneck secured the battleships Barham and Valiant with the flak cruiser Coventry and six other destroyers , which intervened with their heavy artillery from sea in the land battles near Sollum . For the Wryneck , deployments in the convoy security followed. Like the anti-aircraft cruisers Calcutta and Coventry, it was primarily used where attacks by the enemy from the air were to be expected.
When the Mediterranean fleet bombarded Bardia in early 1941 , the Wryneck belonged to the association of the deposed Illustrious , which was only to intervene if necessary. From January 11, 1941, she accompanied an association around the Barham and the old porter Eagle on an advance into the Aegean Sea and against the then Italian Rhodes . Then she took over security duties on allied convoys between Greece and Egypt, where she worked several times with the Australian Vendetta . From March onwards, the Wryneck secured the transfer of British and Commonwealth troops to Greece Operation Luster , in order to help rescue the Allied troops as early as April.
The end of the Wryneck
During the evacuation of mainland Greece in April 1941, on the morning of April 27, 1941, Vendetta and Waterhen joined British units who had evacuated Allied troops from Nauplia ( see HMS Diamond ). She was dispatched to support the destroyer Diamond , who rescued survivors from the burning troop transport Slamat , who was also coming from Nauplia and who had stayed behind . The straggler had been attacked by the air force , was on fire and could not be saved.
When the two destroyers ran back to Crete with the rescued , they were attacked by the Air Force on April 27, 1941 and near Cape Malea at 36 ° 30 ' N , 23 ° 34' E, Sunk Of the approximately 1,000 men on the three ships, only a few survived. Of the more than 500 soldiers taken on board by the Slamat , there were only eight, and eleven of the 214-strong crew. Twenty men of the 166 men of the Diamond were rescued and 79 men died of the crew of the Wryneck ; only 27 Wryneck men survived their demise.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wryneck 1918
- ↑ 11th DF, December, 1918; March, 1919
- ^ 1st DF, March 1919 ff.
- ^ Rear Admiral Walter Cowan: Operations in the Baltic , London Gazette, 6th April 1920
- ↑ Service History HMS WRYNECK (L 04)
Remarks
- ↑ Completely conclusive loss and survivor numbers could not be found, the numbers from Engl. Slamat disaster taken over; According to NavalHistory-net : 263 dead on both destroyers (all 149 men of the Diadem and 114 of the Wryneck ); Survivors: 42 of the Wryneck , eight soldiers, five crew members of the Slamat ; see NAVAL EVENTS, April 1941, Tuesday 15th - Wednesday 30th
literature
- John English: Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. World Ship Society, Kendal 1993, ISBN 0-905617-64-9 .
- Norman Friedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2009, ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8 .
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms and Armor Press, London 1988, ISBN 0-85368-910-5 .