Eskdale (L36)

Eskdale

The Eskdale

Ship data flag  Norway Ship type Escort destroyer class Hunt class, type III Shipyard Cammell Laird , Birkenhead Build number 1080 Order August 23, 1940 Keel laying January 18, 1941 Launch March 16, 1942 Commissioning July 31, 1942 Whereabouts Sunk April 14, 1943

Ship dimensions and crew length 85.3 m ( Lüa ) 80.5 m ( Lpp ) width 9.6 m Draft Max. 3.73 m displacement 1,087  ts   crew 168 men

Machine system machine 2 boilers , 2 Parsons turbines Machine performance 19,000 PSw Top speed 27 kn (50 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 2 × 2 102 mm L / 45 Mk XVI guns 1 × 4 2pdr 40mm flak 3 × Oerlikon 20 mm automatic cannon 1 × 2 533 mm torpedo tubes 30–70 depth charges , 4 launchers

The Eskdale (L36) was a destroyer escort the British Hunt Class of type III , which for the British Royal Navy , but then in 1942 was built shortly before the completion of the Norwegian exile Marine passed as the second escort destroyer of the Hunt class and from this with Norwegian crew was used under British command until it was sunk by German speedboats on April 14, 1943 off Lizard Point . When the ship went down, 25 of the 180-strong crew lost their lives.

History of the ship

The ship was ordered as a Hunt-class Type III destroyer escort as part of the British war budget of 1940 at Cammell, Laird & Company in Birkenhead along with a sister ship . For the shipyard, which had already received the order for the lead ship of the Hunt class HMS Atherstone (L05) , it was the last order for ships of the class of which it built ten ships. The keel of the new building with the construction number 1080 took place on January 18, 1941. It was not launched as Eskdale (L36) until March 16, 1942 and came into service on July 31, 1942 under a Norwegian crew as a replacement for the Norwegian Navy ceded Newport , a retired American Town-class destroyer. The Vier-Schornsteiner, which was taken over by the Norwegians in March 1941, was undergoing repairs again since March 1942.

The immediate sister ship Glaisdale (hull number 1081, keel laid on February 4, 1941, launched on January 5, 1942) had already been loaned to the Norwegian Navy on December 23, 1941 and put into service with a Norwegian crew on June 12, 1942 .

USS Thomas (DD182)

The largest ships in the Norwegian Navy at the end of July 1942 were, in addition to the two Hunt destroyers, the St. Albans (ex-US destroyer Thomas (DD182) ) of the Wickes class and five corvettes of the Flower class .

War missions

The Eskdale was first commanded to the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow to train the crew and secured the Northern Sea Convoy PQ 18 with the old flotilla leaders Campbell and Malcolm and the Hunt destroyer Farndale from Loch Ewe to Iceland from September 2 to 6, 1942 . After this mission she came to the British 1st Destroyer Flotilla in Portsmouth , where the HNoMS Glaisdale , which had previously come into service , was used. On the night of October 14, 1942, the two Norwegian and three British Hunt destroyers ( Cottesmore , Quorn and Albrighton ) prevented the heavily secured auxiliary cruiser Schiff 45 Komet from breaking through the Channel with eight British speedboats ; the Komet was sunk by MTB 236 with two torpedoes and sank with its entire crew .

On December 12, 1942, there was a battle in the southern North Sea between German lock breakers and the destroyers Whitshed , Worcester , Vesper , Brocklesby , Albrighton and Eskdale , with the Eskdale before Le Tréport the lock breaker 144 ex Beijerland (387 GRT) and the Whitshed sank the barrier breaker 178 ex Gauss (1236 GRT) with torpedoes. Four men were killed and seven seriously injured on the Eskdale during the battle .

On April 14, 1943, the German 5th Schnellboot Flotilla attacked with six boats in front of Lizard Head the British convoy PW 323 , which was made up of six ships and was secured by the two Norwegian destroyers Glaisdale and Eskdale as well as two Norwegian and three British trawlers. S 121 torpedoed the British freighter Stanlake (1742 BRT), which S 90 and S 82 subsequently destroyed. "S 90" hit the Eskdale with two torpedoes, which were then finally sunk by " S 65" and " S 112" at the position coordinates: 50 ° 3 '18 "  N , 4 ° 54' 48"  W. 25 Eskdale men were killed and 155 castaways were rescued.

literature

• HT Lenton: Warships of the British and Commonwealth Navies. Ian Allan, 1969.
• Antony Preston: Destroyers. Hamlyn, ISBN 0-600-32955-0 .
• Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .

Web links

• Trygve Hansen recounts experiences from Norway to Normandy and beyond
• HNoMS Eskdale (L 36) in uboat.net ( engl. )
• HNorMS ESKDALE (L 36) - Type III, Hunt-class
• Hunt type 3 escort destroyers
• GLAISDALE escort destroyers (1942)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Service History HNoMS Eskdale
2. ^ THE NORWEGIAN NAVY IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR, The English Channel
3. ^ Rohwer: Chronicle of the naval war. P. 292.
4. ^ Rohwer, p. 350