J, K and N classes
 The HMS Kelvin
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
The J, K, and N class were a class of 24 destroyers in the Royal Navy ordered before World War II. The first 16 J and K class destroyers were ordered from eight British shipyards on March 25, 1937. After the second tribal class , which relied on cannons rather than torpedoes as armament, they were a return to smaller ships with heavier torpedo armament. The ships were built in three groups of eight each, whose names began with J, K and N. The eight N-class boats were ordered on April 15, 1939 before the M-class . The HMS Jackal was the first boat of the class to be delivered on March 31, 1939. When the Second World War broke out , ten boats had been completed and taken over by the Royal Navy. By the end of the year, the remaining destroyers from the first order had also been delivered. The ship identification was changed in 1940 from "F" to "G".
No destroyer from the follow-up order of the N-Class came into active service in the Royal Navy. The first completed Nerissa was commissioned by the Polish Navy as ORP Piorun . The Royal Australian Navy manned five boats and used them until 1945, when they were then exchanged for Q-Class war structures . The other two structures were commissioned by the Dutch Navy as Van Galen and Tjerk Hiddes .
During the World War six J-class boats, six K-class boats and one of the Australian N-class destroyers were lost. The four remaining J / K boats were scrapped in 1949. The five returned N-class boats were part of the fleet reserve and were also canceled from 1955 without being reactivated. Only the Dutch destroyers remained in active service after 1946. Van Galen was sold for demolition in 1957. The Tjerk Hiddes was handed over to Indonesia in 1951 , renamed Gadjah Mada and broken up there as the last surviving boat of the class in 1961.
History of the design
The design was intended as a smaller successor to the Tribal class . For the first time on destroyers of the Royal Navy, the steam boilers were arranged in two rooms. This reduced the length of the fuselage and managed to get by with one chimney, which reduced the silhouette and increased the areas where the light anti-aircraft guns were aimed. The disadvantage of this design was that there were two relatively large compartments that could be flooded by a single unfortunate hit. Such a hit would have resulted in the loss of all drive power from the steam boilers.
Another innovation was the use of the Isherwood system , that is, longitudinal instead of transverse frames . The reinforcements of the shell thus ran lengthways and not across. The bug has also been changed compared to the previous Tribal class . The clipper bow was replaced by a straight stern that increased the yaw. This change was not an improvement, as the forecastle cut into the wave crests even in moderate swell, and as a result there was a lot of water on the foredeck, which delayed the emergence of the sea until it ran out. It also made entering the deck and operating the forward guns much more difficult. This is why the old bow shape was used again from the S-Class . With the exception of the boiler's vulnerability, the design turned out to be compact, stable and very successful. The hull became the base of all destroyers of the Royal Navy of the war building program from the O / P to the Cr class of 1944 (War Emergency Destroyers).
The armament of the J / K / N class was based on the Tribal class , but a 120 mm twin mount was replaced by an additional torpedo tube set . The 120 mm guns had an elevation range of 40 ° and a lateral range of 340 °. The X-tower was surprisingly arranged so that its blind spot of 20 ° was towards the stern and not towards the bow, where the bridge and masts restricted the fire area anyway. This meant that the guns couldn't fire straight aft. The flak remained unchanged from the Tribal class , which later turned out to be inadequate. The torpedo armament was increased to two sets of five, a total of ten tubes.
The arrangement of the fire control differed from the Tribal class . There was only one range finder with a 9 foot wide base that was behind the control tower. Later, the rangefinder was heavily modified to control the main armament in the air defense.
The N-class was ordered as a copy of the J-class in 1940 after the larger and more complicated L- and M-class destroyers ran over budget. The only change to the design concerned the X-tower, which now had its blind spot towards the bow. Already during the construction phase, the previous war-related changes to the J and K-Class were taken into account by installing two twin Vickers machine guns of 0.5 ″ caliber on the quarterdeck, which were later replaced by 20-mm cannons.
Changes
In 1940 and 1941, the aft torpedo tube set was removed on all ships and replaced by a 4 ″ QF Mark V cannon. The inadequate machine guns were replaced with 20 mm Oerlikon machine guns , and another pair was installed on the platform of the searchlights amidships. The equipment for clearing mines was replaced by a roll-off platform and two depth charges for 45 depth charges. Furthermore, an increase was radar type 286 installed to warn of air raids next to the fire control radar Type 285 AD.
In 1942, the 4 ″ cannon on the remaining ships was replaced by torpedo tubes. With the exception of the cannons on the quarter deck, the 20 mm Oerlikon cannons were replaced by twin mounts. A type 291 radar replaced the type 286 radar.
In the units HMS Jervis , HMS Kelvin , HMS Nerissa and HMS Norman , the searchlight was replaced by a type 271 radar, and a type 272 at HMS Javelin and HMS Kimberley . The HMS Napier , HMS Nizam and HMS Norseman (later also the HMS Norman ) received the American SG-1 radar; instead of the 271 radar, a 40 mm Bofors cannon was installed in the Norman . At the end of the war, the J- and K-class ships still in existence carried a type 293 radar for target acquisition and a type 291 radar for air surveillance.
commitment
By the outbreak of World War II, seven J-Class destroyers and the Kelly had gradually entered service since March 1939. The remaining eight destroyers from the 1937 budget were then taken over by the Royal Navy by the end of March 1940. As they were the most modern and powerful destroyers in the Royal Navy when the war broke out, they were in frequent use. As a result, of the 24 ships built, six J-, six K- and one N-class units were lost. None of the replicas of the N-Class entered active service in the Royal Navy. The first ship to be completed was in exile as Piorun in the Polish Navy from 1940 to 1946 . Five ships were operated by the Australian Navy (RAN). Like the Polish ship, the remaining Australian ships were returned to the Royal Navy after the end of the war. These five ships were scrapped in the mid-1950s. Two ships entered service for the Dutch Navy in 1942 . The Van Galen remained in service there until 1957. The second ship was handed over to Indonesia in 1951. The destroyer started as a Nonpareil stayed in service as Gadjah Mada and was scrapped in 1961 as the last ship of the class.
units
J / K class
| Surname | Manufacturer | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Jubilant |
|
|
|
|
Ordered on March 25, 1937, canceled December 1937 |
| HMS Jackal (F22) |
John Brown Clydebank , building no. 556 |
09/24/1937 | 10/25/1938 | March 31, 1939 | Bombed on May 11, 1942 by Junkers Ju 88 of Lehrgeschwader 1 off Marsa Matruh and sunk by torpedoes by HMS Jervis the following day |
| HMS Jersey (F72) |
J. Samuel White Cowes |
08/26/1937 | 09/26/1938 | 04/28/1939 | Run across a mine off Valletta on May 2, 1941, broken in two and sunk two days later |
| HMS Jervis (F00) |
Hawthorn, Leslie Hebburn , BauNo. 614 |
08/26/1937 | 09/09/1938 | 05/12/1939 | Sold for scrapping in 1949 |
|
HMS Javelin (F61) (ex-HMS Kashmir) |
John Brown Building No. 557 |
10/11/1937 | December 21, 1938 | 06/10/1939 | Sold for scrapping in 1949 |
| HMS Jupiter (F85) |
Yarrow & Co. Scotstoun , Building No. 1705 |
09/28/1937 | 10/27/1938 | 06/25/1939 | Torpedoed by destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Java Sea on February 27, 1942 and sunk the following day |
| HMS Janus (F53) |
Swan Hunter Wallsend , building no. 1549 |
09/29/1937 | 11/10/1938 | August 5, 1939 | 23 January 1944 torpedoed and sunk by aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 100 in front of Anzio |
| HMS Kelly (F01) | Hawthorn Leslie Building No. 615 |
08/26/1937 | 10/25/1938 | 08/23/1939 | Sank on May 23, 1941 after being bombed by German aircraft south of Crete |
|
HMS Juno (F46) (ex-HMS Jamaica) |
Fairfield Govan , building no. 667 |
October 5, 1937 | December 8, 1938 | 08/25/1939 | Bombed and sunk off Crete on May 21, 1941 |
| HMS Jaguar (F34) |
William Denny Dumbarton , BauNr. 1323 |
11/25/1937 | 11/22/1938 | 09/12/1939 | Sunk by U 652 off Sollum on March 26, 1942 |
| HMS Kingston (F64) | White | 10/6/1937 | January 9, 1939 | 09/14/1939 | Badly damaged by the Italian battleship RN Littorio on March 22, 1942 during the Second Naval Battle in the Gulf of Syrte . Later on April 11, 1942, bombed by German aircraft in the dry dock in Valletta and written off as a total loss. Used as a block ship off Malta. |
| HMS Kandahar (F28) | William Denny building no. 1324 |
January 18, 1938 | 03/21/1939 | 10/10/1939 | Run into a mine off Tripoli on December 19, 1941 and sunk by HMS Jaguar the following day |
| HMS Kashmir (F12) |
Thornycroft Woolston, Hampshire |
11/18/1937 | 4.03.1939 | 10/26/1939 | Bombed by German aircraft on May 23, 1941 and sunk south of Crete |
| HMS Khartoum (F45) | Swan Hunter construction no. 1551 |
10/27/1937 | February 6, 1939 | 11/6/1939 | Damaged on June 23, 1940 when the Italian submarine Torricelli was sunk off Perim , beached and written off as a total loss |
| HMS Kelvin (F37) | Fairfield building no. 668 |
October 18, 1937 | 01/19/1939 | 11/27/1939 | Sold for scrapping in 1949 |
| HMS Kipling (F91) | Yarrow building no. 1706 |
10/26/1937 | 01/19/1939 | 12/22/1939 | Bombed by German aircraft on May 11, 1942 and sunk south of Mersa Matruh |
| HMS Kimberley (F50) | Thornycroft construction no. 1179 |
January 17, 1938 | 1.06.1939 | 02/21/1940 | Sold for scrapping in 1949 |
N class
The Royal Australian Navy's N-class ships were manned and maintained by Australia but remained the property of the United Kingdom.
| Surname | Manufacturer | Keel laying | Launch | completion | Whereabouts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Polish Navy 
|
||||||
| HMS Nerissa (G65) | John Brown Building No. 563 |
07/26/1939 | May 7, 1940 | November 4, 1940 | In service as ORP Piorun in 1940 , returned in 1946, renamed HMS Noble , sold for scrapping in 1955 | |
Royal Australian Navy 
|
||||||
| HMAS Napier (G97) | Fairfield building no. 673 |
07/26/1939 | May 22, 1940 | December 11, 1940 | 1946 Reserve Royal Navy, sold for scrapping in 1956 | |
| HMAS Nizam (G38) | John Brown Building No. 564 |
07/27/1939 | 4.07.1940 | January 8, 1941 | 1946 Reserve Royal Navy, sold for scrapping in 1955 | |
| HMAS Nestor (G02) | Fairfield building no. 674 |
07/26/1939 | July 9, 1940 | 02/12/1941 | Bombed by Italian aircraft on June 15, 1942 and sunk by HMS Javelin depth charges | |
| HMAS Norman (G49) | Thornycroft | 07/27/1939 | 10/30/1940 | 09/15/1941 | 1946 Reserve Royal Navy, sold for scrapping in 1958 | |
|
HMAS Nepal (G25) (ex- Norseman ) |
Thornycroft construction no. 1203 |
09/09/1939 | December 4, 1941 | 05/29/1942 | 1946 Reserve Royal Navy, sold for scrapping in 1956 | |
Royal Navy 
|
||||||
| HMS Noble (G84) | Denny construction no. 1345 |
07/27/1939 | 04/17/1941 | 02/11/1942 | 1942 as Dutch Hr.Ms. Van Galen in service, sold for scrapping in 1957 | |
| HMS Nonpareil (G16) | Denny construction no. 1346 |
May 22, 1940 | 06/25/1941 | 2.05.1942 | 1942 as Dutch Hr.Ms. Tjerk Hiddes in service, sold to the Indonesian Navy as Gadjah Mada in 1951 , sold for scrapping in 1961 | |
Web links
Footnotes
J-class Jackal | Jaguar | Janus | Javelin | Jersey | Jervis | Juno | Jupiter
K-class Kandahar | Kashmir | Kelly | Kelvin | Khartoum | Kimberley | Kingston | Kipling
N class Napier | Nepal | Nerissa | Nestor | Nizam | Noble (G84) | Noble (G65) | Nonpareil | Norman
Australia :
Napier |
Nepal |
Nestor |
Nizam |
Norman
