Arendal (ship)
 The Arendal on May 13, 1945 in Oslo
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The Arendal ran on 17 March 1941 as HMS Badsworth (L 03) at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead as escort destroyer of the Hunt class of Type II launched . The ship was used as Badsworth in the Atlantic , Mediterranean and North Sea by the Royal Navy during World War II .
The ship was handed over to the Norwegian Navy in Exile on November 16, 1944 in Liverpool and remained in service as Arendal until May 1, 1961. From 1962 the ship was demolished in Arendal .
career
As part of the war building program, the “Admiralty Job No. J3260 “for a Type II Hunt Escort Destroyer on December 20, 1939 to Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. The keel was laid on May 15, 1940 with hull number 1055. On March 17, 1941, the new building was the first Badsworth of the Royal Navy to be launched. On August 18, 1941, HMS Badsworth (L03) was delivered to the Navy.
British destroyer escort
After its commissioning, the Badsworth came to the "Londonderry Escort Force". End of April 1942 was one of the Badsworth with the Somali , the Matchless , the Boadicea , the Venomous and the traveling with Norwegian crew St Albans for securing the convoy PQ 15 to Murmansk. The Badsworth rescued 54 crew members and eight passengers from the Jutland (6153 GRT) torpedoed by the I / KG 26 on May 2 . After reaching the destination port on May 6, the Badsworth also secured the return QP 12 with the Venomous , the Boadicea , the St Albans , the Escapade and the flotilla leader Inglefield .
In June, the ship was used to secure convoy WS 19 for supply to Malta , when the Royal Navy tried to overcome the forces of the Axis powers with a double convoy operation ( Operation Harpoon of Gibraltar and Vigorous of Alexandria ). The local security of the western convoy of five freighters and one tanker was provided by the anti-aircraft cruiser Cairo , five fleet destroyers, four minesweepers, six motor cannon boats (MGBs) and, in addition to the Badsworth , the destroyer escorts Blankney and the Polish Kujawiak . The fast mine- layer Welshman was also at times right next to the convoy. Due to attacks by Italian surface forces and the German and Italian air forces, the convoy lost the destroyer Bedouin , three freighters and the tanker Kentucky (9308 GRT).
The transporter Orari (10,350 GRT), the destroyer Matchless , the mine sweeper Hebe and the Badsworth were damaged in a minefield just outside Malta . The Kujawiak coming to the aid of Badsworth sank after a mine hit.
On August 10, the empty convoy with the transports Troilus and Orari , led by the makeshift repaired destroyers Matchless and Badsworth , ran out of Malta, while a new supply convoy for Malta from Gibraltar was marching with Operation Pedestal . On the 12th, near Cape Bon , they met the Italian destroyer Malocello , who had laid 104 mines there, and the torpedo boat Climene . Both sides believed they were confronted with Vichy- French units and avoided each other.
From the end of August 1942 the final repair of the ship took place in North Shields , and in December the Badsworth returned to the "Londonderry Escort Force".
In mid-March 1943, the ship was used to secure the fast Gibraltar convoy KMF 11 with 9 transporters, which was secured by the Douglas , two sloops and the five Hunt destroyers Badsworth , Eggesford , Whaddon , Goathland and the Polish Krakowiak . The Badsworth remained in Gibraltar for operations in the western Mediterranean and was badly damaged on April 22 by a mine hit off Bône . One machine completely failed and both shafts were damaged. The ship was put on the beach to avoid sinking. The minesweeper Clacton then dragged the destroyer in the harbor. In May the ship was transferred to Malta, underwent emergency repairs and in June transferred to Great Britain by the tug Frisky in convoy MKS 15. From July 1943, the Badsworth was repaired in Liverpool. Because of the expected duration of the repair, the ship was decommissioned and offered to the Norwegian Navy for takeover. On August 8, 1944, an agreement was reached to take over the ship after the second Norwegian Hunt destroyer Glaisdale had also failed. On November 16, 1944, the Norwegian Navy took over Badsworth as Arendal in Liverpool .
Norwegian destroyer
The now Norwegian destroyer came after tests and training drives in December 1944 to the 16th destroyer flotilla of the Royal Navy in Harwich to secure the North Sea and the English Channel .
On the night of March 25, 1945, the Arendal , the Polish Krakowiak and the frigate Riou thwarted attempts by German speedboats to lay mines between the Thames and the Scheldt .
On 12./13. May 1945 returned the Norwegian Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government-in-exile on the mine-layers Apollo and Ariadne , accompanied by the cruiser Devonshire and the destroyers Iroquois , Savage , Scourge and the Arendal , back to Oslo.
In September 1945, the Arendal transferred the urns of 400 Norwegians who died during the war in Great Britain from Leith to Oslo, where they were greeted by King Haakon VII , Crown Prince Olav and Prince Harald . Later, the Arendal secured landing craft on their crossing from Great Britain to Norway, which were to be used as ferry and cargo ships for post-war reconstruction. On August 7, 1949, Crown Prince Olav visited Longyearbyen on the Arendal in Svalbard . In the years 1950–1951 the ship was modernized in the naval shipyard in Horten and was given the identification D 310. Subsequently, the ship was used as a cadet training ship .
In 1952 the Norwegian Navy acquired two sister ships of the Arendal from the British naval reserve, which were put into service as Tromsø and Haugesund . When these were converted to anti-submarine defense ships in 1956 (two triple squid launchers replaced a 102 mm twin gun) and reclassified as frigates , the two other Norwegian Hunt training ships Arendal and Narvik were reclassified.
The Arendal was finally decommissioned on May 1, 1961 and broken up in Arendal the following year .
literature
- Henry Trevor Lenton: Warships of the British & Commonwealth Navies. 2nd edition, Ian Allan, 1969, ISBN 978-0711000650 .
- Antony Preston: Destroyers. Hamlyn, 1978, ISBN 0-60032955-0 .
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
Web links
- Side to Badsworth- / Bramhammoor-pack (Engl.)
- HNoMS Arendal (L 03) in uboat.net (English)
- Service history Badsworth / Arendal (L03)
- Hunt type 2 escort destroyers
- BADSWORTH escort destroyers (1941–1942 / 1944–1952)