I-class (Royal Navy)

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I-class from 1935 Royal Navy
HMS Imogen.jpg
HMS Imogen
Technical specifications
Ship type : destroyer
Displacement : 1,370 ts HMS Inglefield : 1,544 ts
Length: 323 ft (98.5 m) HMS Inglefield : 337 ft
Width: 33 ft (10.05 m) HMS Inglefield : 34 ft
Draft : 12 ft 5 in (3.78 m)
HMS Inglefield : 12 ft 6 in
Drive : 2 steam turbines with a total of 34,000 hp HMS Inglefield : 38,000 hp
Speed : 36 kn
Range : 5,530 nautical miles at 15 kn
Crew : 145 men HMS Inglefield : 175 men
Armament:
(as a new building) 		4 x 4.7-in (120-mm) -Schiffsgeschütze
HMS Inglefield : 5 x 4.7 in
8 Jean Sufryd 0.5-inch air defense machine guns
in (533 mm) 2 × pentasubstituted 21 Torpedo - pipes
Turkish vessels : 2 × quadruple
60 depth charges

The I-Class was a class of eight destroyers built for the British Royal Navy as part of the 1934 naval program. A ninth ship, HMS Inglefield , had a slightly modified design to serve as a flotilla commander .

Four identical ships were under construction in British shipyards for the Turkish Navy at the beginning of World War II . Two of these destroyers were seized by the British government in exchange for compensation . They are regularly assigned to the I class. The other two destroyers were delivered to Turkey as Demirhisar class in 1942 .

The destroyers of the I-class came to various combat missions in World War II; seven of the eleven ships were lost during the war.

draft

The design for the I-Class was essentially based on the design for the previous H-Class . The changes affected, among other things, the new five-fold torpedo tube sets and the ability to lay mines in four ships . The modified structure of the bridge , tried and tested on two H-class destroyers , was adopted on all ships.

HMS Inglefield was slightly larger than the other ships to accommodate the flotilla commander , staff and other crew members.

As long as they were not lost prematurely, the equipment and armament of the destroyers were, in some cases, considerably modified in the course of the Second World War. This includes, for example, the equipment with radar and the Huff-Duff radio direction finding system , with additional or modified guns, mainly anti-aircraft guns and rapid-fire weapons, as well as new depth charges.

War effort

During the Second World War, the I-Class ships were used primarily as escorts for convoys and warships and for hunting submarines , but also for various landing operations.

Seven of the eleven ships were lost in these operations, all but one to combat operations or mines. In return, the I-class destroyers were involved in the sinking of seven German and five Italian submarines as well as an Italian light cruiser .

After the end of the war, the remaining ships were technically obsolete, worn out by years of military service and barely usable. The remaining originally Turkish destroyer was handed over to Turkey.

I-class ships

Flotilla Leader:

Turkish ships:

literature

  • Maurice Cocker, Ian Allan: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981. Ian Allan, London 1981, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
  • Leo Marriott, Ian Allan: Royal Navy Destroyers since 1945. Ian Allan, London 1989, ISBN 0-7110-1817-0
  • HT Lenton: British and Empire Warships of the Second World War. Greenhill Books, London 1998, ISBN 1-85367-277-7
  • Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. Conway Maritime Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-85177-146-7
  • Michael J. Whitley: Destroyers of World War II. An International Encyclopedia. Cassell Military, London 2002, ISBN 0-304-35675-1

Web links

Commons : I class  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files