L- and M-class
 The HMS Marne
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The L- and M-Class were a class of 16 destroyers that were ordered by the British Royal Navy from 1937 to 1939 as the last in peace . Based on the design of the previous J-class , new 120-mm cannons with a longer barrel length and a heavier projectile were provided, which also had a larger barrel elevation in a turret-like cladding of the double mounts. However, the new guns were not manufactured as quickly as the destroyer hulls were in wartime. Therefore, it was decided that four boats with four 102 mm twin guns would be completed as anti-aircraft destroyers. For the additional twin gun, the stern structure of these boats was changed in order to allow the higher-up guns a better field of fire.
The HMS Legion was the first boat to enter service on December 19, 1940 . First boat with the new 120-mm cannon was also at Hawthorn Leslie built Lightning , which came as the fourth boat on May 28, 1941 in service. The other boats followed until April 1943. The last boat was the Mahratta , the completion of which at Scotts was significantly delayed by a bomb hit during construction. Ten boats were lost.
The M-class Myrmidon was transferred to the Polish Navy as an ORP Hurricane when it was completed in November 1942 ; she was one of ten casualties in World War II and was sank on October 8, 1943 in the North Atlantic with 198 dead.
Plans in the 1950s to convert the existing boats were not realized. In 1957 four M-class boats were sold to Turkey .
There the boats were in service from 1959 to 1971 after being overhauled in Great Britain and were then canceled.
Building history
The armament of the new destroyers was already hotly debated when the order was placed. Since the Spanish Civil War , the British Admiralty also considered heavy defensive armament against aircraft to be necessary, especially since other navies apparently installed multi-purpose weapons on their destroyers that could be used against both sea and air targets.
Otherwise, the boats of the L and M classes were a direct further development of the previous J / K class with almost identical hull shape and length and the same machinery. They had a front tripod mast and a short mast just beyond the middle of the boat. The bridge construction had a basic shape similar to that of all destroyers ordered in the war since the I-Class . However, on the new boats it did not have the same slope towards the helm as on the other boats. The height of the guns forced an almost flat roof to give the helmsman sufficient visibility ahead.
In 1937 and 1939, one class each with a flotilla leader and seven destroyers were ordered. All ships were to receive three 120 mm twin cannons for the first time in fully enclosed gun positions and eight torpedo tubes . As with the J-Class, the flotilla leaders hardly differed externally from the other boats in the class, as they only had more cabins and were given better radio equipment.
The armament
The boats were ordered with six 120 mm Mark XI guns in newly developed twin mounts raised at the bow and in an elevated position at the stern. The rear gun had a fire range of 320 degrees with a slight rise in the barrel, which increased to 360 degrees from an elevation of around 20 °. The new Mark XI gun was much stronger than the previous 120 mm guns, as it fired a 62-pound shell compared to the previous 50-pound projectiles of the previous classes. The new carriage was completely closed for the first time on British destroyers and was hardly affected by the weather. It allowed an independent alignment of the individual guns. However, the new setup was not a real gun turret, as the ammunition feeder did not rotate with the mount. With strong rotations of the mounts, this meant a difficult supply of ammunition to the guns. Since the supply had to take place between the individual guns, the guns in the carriage were noticeably far apart. The new mounts allowed a maximum tube elevation of 50 ° compared to the previous 40 °. However, this increase compared to aircraft attacking at high speed and at high speed only allowed a short period of fire against such attackers within the effective range of the guns at a relatively low rate of fire. As anti -aircraft weapons, the new guns were a compromise and far inferior to the 114 mm cannons on the Ark Royal , which allowed the barrel to be raised by 80 °. However, these guns were unsuitable for installation on such small vehicles. However, the new gun was clearly superior to the guns of the war opponents in its anti-aircraft role, even if the likewise new central fire control device (HA / LA Mk.IV (TP)) had weaknesses with larger elevations and was too heavy. Here, too, the device was partly unsatisfactory but superior to the opponent, who partly did not have any similar devices at all.
When the boats were ordered, the light armament for close range was not specified, since various weapons were being developed here. The outbreak of war and the resulting mass production of a few types and their availability then determined the equipment. A quadruple 2 pdr pompom (except on Lightning and Laforey ) and two heavy quadruple Vickers machine guns were installed .
Changes due to the war
The outbreak of war focused the armament discussion on the question of the speedy delivery of the destroyers. In February 1940 it was decided to equip four of the new destroyers ( Legion , Gurkha (ex Larne ) , Lance and Lively ) as main armament with 102 mm Mark XVI twin guns , which were already used as anti-aircraft armament for the Southampton -class light cruisers Were used and were installed on the Sloops of the Black Swan class as the main armament. At the same time, the initially exempted short-range air defense was set to a quadruple 2 pdr pompom and two quadruple 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) machine guns.
After the battle for Norway and the withdrawal from the continent via Dunkirk, it was decided in July 1940 to install four instead of three guns on the pilot series with the 102 mm Mark XVI twin guns. For this purpose, the rear structure was changed and both twin guns were raised. As a result, they limited themselves in their fire areas, but remained operational in all weather conditions. The four modified destroyers came into service as the first, third and fifth ships of the class. Initial concerns that these boats would not be able to hold their own against other destroyers because of their lighter main armament were dispelled as they made up for this with the significantly higher rate of fire.
Concerns about insufficient anti-aircraft capabilities led to the installation of a single 102-mm Mark V single gun in the twelve boats equipped with 120 mm cannons, of which the Lightning was finished first, instead of the rear torpedo tube set.
The L- and M-class destroyers
| Surname | Shipyard | Launch | finished | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
HMS Legion |
Hawthorn, Leslie BauNo. 619 |
December 26, 1939 | December 19, 1940 | after air raid in the port of on March 26, 1942 Malta dropped |
|
HMS Gurkha as Larne started |
Cammell, Laird Building No. |
July 8, 1940 | 02/18/1941 | torpedoed and sunk by U 133 west of Sollum on January 17, 1942 ; 9 dead |
| HMS Lance |
Yarrows building no. 1720 |
11/28/1940 | 05/13/1941 | badly damaged by air raids in Malta on April 5 and 9, 1942; Towed to Great Britain, abandoned as not worth repairing in 1944 |
| HMS Lightning | Hawthorn Leslie Building No. 620 |
04/22/1940 | May 18, 1941 | torpedoed and sunk north of Bizerta on March 12, 1943 by the German S 55 speedboat . Approx. 50 dead |
| HMS Lively | Cammell, Laird Building No. 1038 |
01/28/1941 | 07/21/1941 | Sank on May 11, 1942 northeast of Tobruk after an air raid. 77 dead |
|
HMS Laforey flotilla leader |
Yarrows building no. 1719 |
02/15/1941 | 08/21/1941 | Torpedoed and sunk by U 223 north of Palermo on March 30, 1944 , 182 dead |
| HMS Marne |
Vickers-Tyne construction no. 18th |
10/30/1940 | November 2nd, 1941 | 1959 to 1971 as Maresal Fevzi Cakmak in the service of the Turkish Navy |
| HMS lookout |
Scott's building no. 578 |
November 4, 1940 | 01/30/1942 | Scrapped in 1948 |
| HMS Matchless |
Stephens building no. 573 |
September 4, 1941 | 02/26/1942 | 1959 to 1971 as Kilicali Pasha in the service of the Turkish Navy |
| HMS Martin | Vickers-Tyne construction no. 19th |
12/12/1940 | 4.04.1942 | Torpedoed and sunk by U 431 off the Algerian coast on November 10, 1942 , 161 dead |
|
HMS Milne flotilla leader |
Scott's building no. 583 |
12/30/1941 | August 6, 1942 | 1959 to 1971 as Alp Arslan in the service of the Turkish Navy |
| HMS Meteor | Stephens building no. 574 |
November 3, 1941 | 08/12/1942 | 1959 to 1972 as Piyale Pasha in the service of the Turkish Navy |
| HMS Musketeer |
Fairfields building no. 675 |
December 2, 1941 | September 18, 1942 | Scrapped in 1955 |
| HMS Loyal | Scott's building no. 579 |
October 8, 1941 | 10/31/1942 | October 12, 1944 badly damaged by a mine hit in the Adriatic Sea, not worth repairing. Towed home for demolition in 1948 |
|
ORP hurricane as Myrmidon from the stack |
Fairfields building no. 676 |
2.03.1942 | 11/18/1942 | Torpedoed and sunk by U 378 in the North Atlantic on October 8, 1943 , 198 dead |
|
HMS Mahratta as Marksman started |
Scott's building no. 584 |
07/28/1942 | April 8, 1943 | Torpedoed and sunk by U 990 in the Barents Sea on February 25, 1944 , 200 dead |
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ March, British Destroyers, p358.
Laforey † | (Larne) / Gurkha † | Lance † | Legion † | Lightning † | Lively † | Lookout | Loyal †
(Marksman) / Mahratta † | Marne | Martin † | Matchless | Meteor | Milne | Musketeer
Poland :
(Myrmidon) / ORP Hurricane †
Turkey :
Alp Arslan |
Kilicali Pasha |
Maresal Fevzi Cakmak |
Piyale Pasha