Nepal (G25)
 The Nepal
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The Nepal (G25) , regularly referred to in the literature and in linguistic usage with the prefix HMAS , was an N-class destroyer . The destroyer was originally to be named Norseman and, like four of its sister ships, was loaned by the Royal Navy to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and commissioned as Nepal for the RAN in May 1942 . The completion of the ship had been delayed considerably due to damage to the ship in an air raid on the shipyard. For her use in World War II , the Nepal was awarded the Battle Honors Indian Ocean 1942–45 , Burma 1944–45 , Pacific 1945 and Okinawa 1945 .
In November 1945, the destroyer retired from the service of the RAN and was taken over in Sydney as HMS Nepal by the Royal Navy and transferred to Portsmouth by December 28, 1945 . There and in Rosyth she served as a training ship for the torpedo school until November 1950, before the Nepal was added to the reserve in Devonport . A planned further use of the destroyer as a anti-submarine frigate did not take place and in January 1956 the demolition of the destroyer began.
history
The later Nepal was ordered on April 15, 1939 with another seven units of the N-class and should receive the name Norseman . The ships were only slightly modified replicas of the J- and K-Class ordered in 1937. The contractors for two newbuilds each were four shipyards, which had also built two units from the 1937 order that were being delivered in 1939. The Norseman was laid down at John I. Thornycroft & Company in Woolston near Southampton on September 9, 1939. On December 18, 1940, the destroyer under construction was badly damaged by a direct hit and two close-ups during a German air raid on the shipyard. During this bombing raid, the destroyer Opportune of the first war building program, which was under construction, was also badly hit. The necessary repairs delayed the launch of the Norseman until December 4, 1941.
While equipping the eight units of the N-class, the Royal Navy decided to make all eight units available to Allied navies. Five went to the Royal Australian Navy, two to the Dutch Navy and the first went to the Polish Navy ( ORP Piorun ). The two destroyers under construction at Thornycroft, Norman and Norseman, should initially be handed over to the Dutch Navy. After the bombing of the shipyard and the expected delay in the completion of the ships, the two destroyers under construction at Denny were designated for delivery to the Netherlands.
The loss of the L-class destroyer Gurkha on January 17, 1942 led to the renaming of the final equipment Norseman in Nepal in honor of the Himalayan Principality of Nepal , whose Gurkhas were an essential element in the British Army and the Royal Navy. On May 29, 1942, the HMAS Nepal was the last ship of the class and fifth for Australia.
Calls
The Nepal spent the break-in phase at Home Fleet in Scapa Flow and then went to a shipyard on the Clyde to remove defects and carry out initial repairs. After completing the work, the Nepal was assigned to the troop escort WS 21P to Cape Town in mid-July 1942 , to whose security the cruiser Orion and the sister ship Tjerk Hiddes (ex Nonpareil ), which had come into service for the Netherlands, also belonged. The two destroyers were destined for the "7th Destroyer Flotilla" on the Eastern Fleet, where the Australian sister ships Napier , Nizam and Norman were already in service. The convoy consisted of the five troop carriers Empress of Japan (the later Hanseatic ), Duchess of Atholl , Duchess of York , Oronsay and Windsor Castle . South of Freetown , the convoy joined the American convoy AS 4 of eight cargo ships with a US Navy fuse . The ten troop transports and freighters continuing towards Alexandria accompanied the two destroyers as far as the Kenyan coast, where they joined the “7th Destroyer Flotilla” in Kilindini Harbor . The Nepal secured in the period following the associations of Eastern Fleet. From September 10, 1942, he was one of the units that supported the completion of the occupation of Madagascar by landing an infantry brigade near Majunga . Next to her were u. a. her Australian sister ships Napier , Nizam and Norman as well as the Dutch Van Galen and Tjerk Hiddes are also used.
The destroyer performed defensive tasks in the Indian Ocean in the last months of 1942 and 1943 and secured units of the Eastern Fleet or increased the security of troop transports running through the operational area.
At the end of March 1944, the British Eastern Fleet with its heavy units and ten destroyers, including the Nepal and its sister ships Napier , Norman , Van Galen and Tjerk Hiddes , took a US Navy Task Group southwest of Cocos Island with the carrier Saratoga and three destroyers on who should carry out offensive actions with the British.
In mid-April the first raid by the aircraft carriers Illustrious and the American Saratoga against Japanese facilities on the island of Sabang (Operation Cockpit) took place, in which the Nepal together with the sister ships Napier , Nizam and Van Galen in the cover group around the battleships Queen Elizabeth , Valiant and the French Richelieu took part. In May, the two porters launched another raid against Surabaja , in which the Nepal with Napier and Van Galen again participated in the cover group.
After an overhaul of the destroyer in the second half of the year in Australia, carried out more operations in Southeast Asia, In December 1944, supported Nepal with Napier and smaller units Seeflanke the units of the British army on the coast of Arakan by bombardment of Japanese positions.
On January 2, 1945 Napier and Nepal as well as the sloop Shoreham secured the transport unit that brought a British Commando Brigade ashore from Chittagong on the northwest tip of the Akyab Peninsula (Operation Lightning). Nepal supported the further advance of the Allied troops on the Burma front, which took place in part through further amphibious operations. The Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet used the destroyer from time to time to observe the progress of individual actions. From February 1, the destroyer regularly shelled Japanese positions on Ramree Island and tried to prevent the Japanese from retreating. On the 5th he ran into an underwater rock and damaged his starboard propeller. Although it can only be used with one machine, the Nepal remained in action for another week before it returned to Colombo for repairs . On March 1, the repaired ship left the main Trincomalee base of the Eastern Fleet with escort carriers Fencer and Ruler of the Bogue class to join the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) via Fremantle in Sydney .
In April 1945 the destroyer joined the British carrier task force, which supported the landing on Okinawa ( Operation Iceberg ). In May, the Nepal belonged to the security units of the British supply group together with Napier , Norman and Nizam , but also replaced other destroyers when necessary to secure the combat group with the aircraft carriers Indomitable , Victorious , Formidable and Indefatigable . In June the destroyer was again in Sydney for three weeks and at the time of the armistice in the Pacific was in Manus , the BPF's supply base. Four days after the formal surrender, the Nepal arrived in the bay off Tokyo and then remained in Japanese waters for five weeks. She then returned to Australia, where she arrived in Sydney on October 22, 1945 and was decommissioned.
Return and whereabouts of the Nepal
In October 1945 the destroyer retired from the service of the RAN in Sydney and was taken over as HMS Norman by the Royal Navy on November 19, 1945 and transferred to Great Britain by a crew of returning Navy personnel after use with the BPF or ashore in Australia . The destroyer arrived in Portsmouth on December 28, 1945 and was assigned to the torpedo school as a training ship. For this purpose, minor modifications were made and in July 1946 the Nepal took over the tasks and the crew of the destroyer Witch previously used here in Portsmouth and later in Rosyth . On November 16, 1950, the Nepal moved from Rosyth to Devonport , where it was decommissioned and added to the reserve. Plans to convert the ship into a Type 15 anti-submarine frigate were not implemented. The destroyer, lying up in Penarth near Cardiff since March 1953 , was sold for demolition in 1955, which took place from January 1956 at the Ward company in Briton Ferry in Wales .
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II . Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 (Original: Destroyers of World War Two . Arms & Armours Press, London), pp. 114-118 (N-Class), 219, 215.
Web links
- HMAS Nepal on Royal Australian Navy (engl.)
- HMAS NEPAL (G 25), ex-NORSEMAN - N-class Destroyer on naval-history.net (engl.)
- HMAS Nepal (G25) on uboat.net (engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i HMAS NEPAL (G 25), ex-NORSEMAN - N-class Destroyer
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 10.9.- 11.5.1942 Indian Ocean, Brit. Company to occupy Madagascar.
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 21.3.- 02.04.1944 Indian Ocean, Operation Diplomat.
- ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , April 16–24, 1944 Indian Ocean, Operation Cockpit.
- ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , May 6–27, 1944 Indian Ocean, Operation Transom.
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 11.- 24.12.1944 Indian Ocean.
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , 2nd - 4th April 1945 Indian Ocean, Operation Lightning
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 16.1.- 02.04.1945 Indian Ocean
- ↑ HMAS Nepal
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 3.- 29/05/1945 Central Pacific, continuation of operations at Okinawa.
Remarks
- ↑ Already the second loss of a destroyer with this name after the sinking of the tribal destroyer Gurkha on April 9, 1940
- ↑ Of the five N-class destroyers made available to Australia, the Nestor was lost on June 16, 1942 as the only one of the eight N-class ships in World War II.
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
