Mr. Ms. Van Galen (1928)
.jpg) The Van Galen
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Mr. Ms. Van Galen was a Dutch destroyer of admirals class , in 1929 in the Dutch Royal Navy was put into service. She was the third after Admiral Jan van Galen named warship of the Dutch Navy. The destroyer served in the waters of the Dutch East Indies until 1939 when it was relocated home. The ship, which arrived at home three days before the German attack on the Netherlands, was badly damaged by the German air force while attempting to intervene in the fighting and was finally sunk by its own crew.
history
The destroyer was laid down on May 28, 1927 as the first ship of the second group of the Admiral class together with the sister ship Witte de With at the Fijenoord shipyard in Rotterdam and was launched on June 28, 1928. The ship was put into service on October 22, 1929 and, like the ships of the first group, was intended for service in the Dutch East Indies .
The four destroyers of the second group of the Admiral class differed only slightly from the ships of the first group, which began in 1925 ( see Mr. Ms. Van Ghent ).
They only had one 75 mm flak , but each received four modern 40 mm L / 60 Bofors guns . They were also not prepared to work as miners. The bunkering capacity of the new destroyers was slightly larger than that of the units of the first group.
Calls
The destroyer, like all ships of the class, was stationed in the Dutch East Indies. In addition to training and exercises in the Dutch colonial area, tasks were also carried out outside of it. Van Galen left Surabaya on February 22, 1932 to protect Dutch interests in Shanghai . In April the destroyer returned from this mission. On August 16, 1937, the destroyer was dispatched to Shanghai again to land 150 marines to protect European citizens and their interests.
The destroyer also took part in representation tasks, such as a visit to Saigon in French Indochina on November 16, 1935 with the sister ship Witte de With and the cruiser Sumatra .
The end of the Van Galen
At the beginning of 1940 the Van Galen was ordered back home. On May 8, 1940, the destroyer reached the Netherlands.
On May 10, 1940, the German raid on the Netherlands took place . The destroyer that had just returned was in the port of Den Helder . The Van Galen was ordered to intervene in the fighting near Rotterdam . During the trip to Rotterdam, some German seaplanes were seen on the beach near Ter Heijde . Van Galen opened fire and destroyed some. In the afternoon, the Van Galen headed for the Nieuwe Waterweg to Rotterdam at Hoek van Holland . The ship was attacked by German combat bombers from Kampfgeschwader 4 near Vlaardingen . Due to technical problems, the 40 mm guns were not ready for use and only the 12.7 mm machine guns could be used to repel the attackers. Although none of the 30 or so bombs hit, the ship was badly damaged. Steam pipes cracked and bulkheads broke. One crew member died and several were injured. The commander stopped at the right bank of the Maas Merwehaven in Rotterdam. The inspection of the ship showed that the ship was no longer usable for further warfare. The crew sank the Van Galen on May 12th .
On October 23, 1941, the Van Galen was lifted by the German occupiers and scrapped in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht after a negative examination for further usability .
In honor of the mission of the destroyer and its crew, the first N-class destroyer purchased by the Royal Navy in 1941 was renamed Van Galen again .
The sister ships of the Van Galen
The Van Galen formed the second group of the Admiral class with the following three destroyers:
| Surname | Shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Witte de With | Fijenoord Rotterdam |
05/28/1927 | 09/11/1928 | 02/20/1930 | Sunk in Surabaja itself on March 2, 1942 |
| Banckert | Burgerhout Rotterdam |
08/15/1928 | 11/14/1929 | 11/14/1930 | sunk in Surabaja itself after bomb damage on March 2, 1942, lifted by the Japanese, used as an escort ship, returned to the Netherlands in 1945, sunk as a target ship |
| Van Nes | Burgerhout | 08/15/1928 | March 20, 1930 | 03/12/1931 | sunk as a companion of a troop transport on February 17, 1942 south of the island of Bangka by aircraft of the carrier Ryūjō |
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .
Web links
- Admiral class at netherlandsnavy.nl (engl.)
- Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Ed. Library for Contemporary History / Württemberg State Library Stuttgart 2007 to 2017