Shakespeare class
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|
|---|---|
| Shakespeare class | |
 The HMS Keppel in its original form |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| units | 5 |
| Shipyard |
Thornycroft & Co. , |
| Order | 1916-1918 |
| Launch | from July 1917 |
| period of service |
1917-1945 |
| Whereabouts | 1942 Broke war loss |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement | |
| length |
100.3 m (329 ft) overall |
| width |
9.6 m (31.5 ft) |
| Draft |
3.81 m (12.5 ft) |
| crew |
164-182 men |
| drive |
|
| speed |
> 36 kn |
| Range |
4900 nm at 15 kn |
| Armament |
5–12 cm / L45 Mk.I cannons |
| Fuel supply |
500 ts |
The Royal Navy received five Shakespeare- class boats . They were flotilla commanders who were built by the John I. Thornycroft & Company shipyard at the end of the First World War between 1917 and 1925 for use with the V and W class destroyers . Three of them were still in service in 1939; the HMS Wallace , however, was converted into an anti-aircraft escort boat (WAIR). Only the HMS Keppel survived the world war.
Following the pattern of the Shakespeare class emerged in 1929 in the UK, the three destroyers of the Argentine Mendoza class and 1930 in Italy two destroyers for Romania .
Design and construction history
The five flotilla leaders of the Thornycroft shipyard built between 1917 and 1925 were created in parallel to the eight flotilla leaders of the Admiralty draft ( Scott class ) for the V and W classes .
The boats differed from the Admiralty design by the two laterally flattened chimneys, a typical feature of the Thornycroft buildings of the war building program. They also had Brown Curtis turbines, in contrast to the Parsons turbines that are usually used otherwise .
In April 1916 Thornycroft received orders for two boats according to his own design, which came into service in January 1918 as HMS Shakespeare and HMS Spenser . In April 1917 another boat was ordered, which was launched before the end of the war as HMS Wallace , but could not be put into service until 1919. In April 1918, the Royal Navy ordered another four boats of the type from Thornycroft and considered building two more boats from Cammell Laird , whose construction contract was changed at an early stage. The order to Thornycroft was also halved and only two other boats actually came to the water as HMS Keppel and HMS Rooke . These two boats were not completed at Thornycroft, but the hulls were transferred after their launch in 1920 to the naval shipyards in Portsmouth and Pembroke for final equipment, where they were completed by 1925.
The five Shakespeare- class flotilla leaders (HMS's Shakespeare , Spenser , Wallace , Keppel, and Broke ex Rooke ) completed for the Royal Navy were 329 feet (318 feet in the waterline) in length by 31.5 feet in breadth. The three boats completed by Thornycroft, with their 40,000 hp Brown-Curtis turbines, reached over 37.5 knots on their test drives. All boats were armed with five 12 cm cannons (4.7 "/ 45 (12 cm) BL Mk.I) and a 76 mm / L45 anti-aircraft cannon Mk.VIII. There were also two 21-inch triple torpedo tubes.
Of the five boats only HMS's Wallace , Keppel and Broke remained in service after 1936 , of which only the Wallace was included in the conversion program for old destroyers into escort boats.
Keppel and Broke were then heavily modified during World War II .
The Thornycroft Flotilla Commanders
| Surname | Launch | in service | off-duty |
|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Shakespeare (F89) | 07/07/1917 | 10/10/1917 | September 2, 1936 |
| HMS Spenser (F90) | 09/22/1917 | 12/12/1917 | 09/29/1936 |
| HMS Wallace (L64) | 10/26/1918 | 09/14/1919 | 03/20/1945 |
| HMS Keppel (D84) | 04/23/1920 | 04/15/1925 | 07/25/1945 |
| HMS Broke (D83) | 16.09.1920 as HMS Rooke |
01/20/1925 | November 8, 1942 |
Mission history of the class
The lead ship of the class, the HMS Shakespeare , was the first Royal Navy unit named after the poet William Shakespeare . The flotilla commander came into service with the Harwich Force in October 1917 , where he was given the identification F.89 in early 1918. Since December 1917, the mission took place together with the sister ship, HMS Spenser (F.90), which was ordered at the same time , named after the poet Edmund Spenser , a role model for Shakespeare. The HMS Shakespeare received a serious mine hit in June 1918. At the end of the war, the two sister boats were two of the four flotilla leaders of the total of 30 boats strong 10th Destroyer Flotilla, which formed the Harwich Force under Rear Admiral Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt with eight cruisers of the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron . These two oldest destroyers of the class, which were still in service briefly during World War I, were sold to the Ward demolition company in September 1936 and scrapped in Jarrow near Newcastle ( Shakespeare ) and Inverkeithing ( Spenser ).
HMS Wallace , which was launched in the last days of the World War, was completed and delivered to Thornycroft in the fall of 1919. The boat named after Admiral James Wallace (1731-1803) was first used in the Baltic Sea to protect the newly founded Baltic States from the Soviet Union. The Wallace then served in the 1st destroyer flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet and then came into reserve in the course of the reduction of the fleet in the post-war period. In 1938 she was selected to be converted into an anti-aircraft escort, which was carried out at the Devonport State Shipyard .
During this so-called WAIR conversion, almost all the superstructures of the affected boats were removed, a boiler was removed, the propulsion system was renewed and new superstructures were built. The completely removed armament was replaced by two 4-inch twin anti-aircraft guns with the associated fire control system. As light anti-aircraft weapons, the boats received two quadruple Vickers machine guns side by side on an elevated position behind the funnels and in front of the rear deckhouse. In addition there was a strong depth charge armament. The originally planned conversion of 36 boats was not carried out, because shortly after the start of the war the trade war shifted mainly to the Central Atlantic outside the attack possibilities of the German Air Force and the 4 inch twin guns were not available to the desired extent and then preferably in new destroyers escorted by the Hunt class were installed. In addition to the Wallace as the only flotilla leader, 15 V- and W-class boats were subjected to the WAIR conversion. The conversion was started on most of the boats in peacetime, but only the HMS Wallace and the HMS Valorous were completed when the war began. The other boats were in service with the Royal Navy until the end of 1940. The size of the flotilla leader allowed the Wallace to install additional light anti-aircraft weapons. It had a few additional Lewis machine guns in the bridge area and a 2pdr quadruple “pompom” gun at the rear . With three more boilers she could still reach 30 kn.
The Wallace was tested in home waters, returned to service on June 14, 1939, and moved to Rosyth as a deployment station in September 1939 . Their first war mission was the reception of the Polish destroyers Burza , Grom and Blyskawica , which broke through from the Baltic Sea , together with the HMS Wanderer in the North Sea, who were escorted to the Scottish port of Leith . Like the other WAIR conversions, it was used to secure the British east coast convoys in the North Sea.
From June 1942 on the Wallace served the Greek Prince Philip , later husband of the British Queen Elizabeth II , who was the first officer of the boat from October 1942 to the beginning of 1944 before he was transferred to the new destroyer HMS Whelp . In July 1943, the Wallace was used with other WAIR conversions to secure the units during the Allied landing on Sicily (Operation Husky).
On March 16, 1945, the Wallace collided with the destroyer escort HMS Farndale off the Humber . The repair of the old boat was no longer considered sensible and the HMS Wallace was sold for demolition.
The two other flotilla leaders of the Shakespeare class, which were still launched at Thornycroft in 1920, were transferred to state shipyards for completion.
The HMS Rooke launched in September 1920 , named after Rear Admiral George Rooke (1650-1709), came to the state shipyard in Pembroke, where it was renamed HMS Broke in April . It took up the name of the flotilla leader of the Faulknor class deployed in World War I , which was given to the original client Chile in 1920 . Both boats were named after Rear Admiral Philip Broke (1776–1841). At the end of January 1925 the boat was completed and served from 1933 until the start of the war in the "Local Destroyer Flotilla" in Devonport . From October 1939 to May 1940 it was used to secure convoy security in the eastern Atlantic to the British ports. In June she was also used in the evacuation of France and was one of the last boats to call at St. Nazaire before the German occupation and was one of the security units for a bombardment of Cherbourg on October 10, before returning to the old task. Your identifier was changed from D83 to I83. On April 6, 1941, she was one of the units that were largely able to save the crew of the burning and sinking auxiliary cruiser Comorin (15116 GRT). In October the Broke collided with the destroyer HMS Verity while securing the convoy ONS29 and suffered considerable damage.
The necessary repairs were used to significantly convert the boat into a destroyer escort with up-to-date radar equipment for sea and air surveillance. The 12 cm armament was reduced to two guns. From April 1942 the boat was ready for use again. From October the Broke secured convoys in preparation for the Allied landings in North Africa ( Operation Torch ) and was then scheduled in Gibraltar with the flotilla commander HMS Malcolm for the landing of US rangers in the port of Algiers ( Operation Terminal ), the destructive measures of the Vichy troops should prevent. When breaking through the French security systems on the evening of November 8th, the Broke came under fire from the coastal artillery. After the troops (280 men) had withdrawn, the heavily damaged boat, which could no longer return the enemy fire, tried to retreat. The attempt of the destroyer escort HMS Zetland to tow the badly damaged Broke to Gibraltar failed. After the two boats collided, the HMS Broke sank on November 9, 1942 to 36 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ N , 0 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ E about 115 nautical miles west of Algiers. Nine Broke men lost their lives in the attack on Algiers.
The last ship of the class came into service on April 15, 1925, after the Admiral Augustus Keppel (1725–1786) named HMS Keppel , which had been transferred to the naval shipyard in Portsmouth for completion in 1920 . In February 1923 the still unfinished boat was taken to the naval shipyard in Pembroke Dock (Wales), where the rest of the work was done. The new flotilla leader D84 was first used in the Mediterranean fleet and moved to the China station in September 1926 . In 1931 the boat returned to Great Britain for an overhaul and then used again in the Far East. In the course of the Abyssinia crisis , the Keppel moved to the Mediterranean in 1935 and returned home in 1936. In October 1937 the Keppel was decommissioned and assigned to the reserve.
In 1939 she was reactivated in August 1939 and was the only ship of the class to remain active until June 1945. The Keppel's first port of operation was Gibraltar as the leader of the 13th destroyer flotilla. At first she secured passing convoys and accompanied them part of the way, but kept returning to the port of operations. In June 1940 she ran to southern France, where British civilians and Polish and Czech soldiers were evacuated from Port-Vendres and Seta. At the beginning of July she then took part in the Force H attack on the French fleet in Mers-el-Kébir ( Operation Catapult ). She also took part as a security destroyer in the following first air raid on Cagliari by the HMS Ark Royal carrier aircraft . At the end of the month the Keppel was relocated to the Home Fleet . From August to October she was used by the Greenock base to secure Atlantic convoys. After various security tasks with the Home Fleet, the destroyer returned to convoy security in February 1941, where it was initially assigned to the 12th Escort Group, then from August to the 1st British Escort Group, operating from Londonderry , mostly as a command boat. The group also included the destroyers HMS's Saber , Shikari , Venomous and the former US American Lincoln and Rockingham , plus the four Corvettes of the Flower class, HMS's Alisma , Kingcup , Sunflower and Dianella . On November 11, the Keppel was badly damaged by a collision with the Venomous and was then repaired and rebuilt in Newport . In addition to new search equipment, it received a Hedgehog launcher instead of the foremost gun . In January 1942 the Keppel was able to resume its service with EG B1. On June 25, in Reykjavík , she became the command boat of the direct convoy protection of the northern sea convoy PQ 17 through the Arctic Ocean to the Soviet Union, whose security was withdrawn after German air raids and because of feared attack by heavy German surface units, which resulted in the extensive destruction of the convoy from the air and through Led submarines.
The Keppel moved to Gibraltar and in August secured the carrier HMS Furious during several advances towards Malta to transfer aircraft to the attacked island. In September the Keppel was relocated to the Home Fleet again and secured the heavy units that protected the convoy PQ 18 with other destroyers .
After a brief mission in the Atlantic, the ship was completely overhauled in London from November 1942 to March 1943, including conversion to an escort destroyer. The armament then comprised only two 12 cm cannons in positions B and Y , furthermore a 76 mm anti-aircraft gun, two 20 mm Oerlikon anti -aircraft cannons , two drop rails and four launchers for depth charges and the Hedgehog mortar . The torpedo tubes had been removed. It was also equipped with the latest radar and tracking devices. In April 1943, was Keppel lead boat of the Escorts Group B3 in Greenock to the destroyer HMS Escapade and the Polish ORP Burza , the frigate HMS Towy , the British corvette HMS Orchis and Narcissus and the three French corvettes FFL Roselys , Aconite and Lobelia the Flower class belonged to. In June the Keppel escorted a convoy (KMS16, OS49) with Burza and six corvettes for the first time to Freetown and returned in July with SL132 and MKS16 (from Gibraltar). Afterwards used again in the North Atlantic, the Keppel sank during the defense of the convoys ONS 18 / ON 202 on September 22nd U 229 at 54 ° 36 '0 " N , 36 ° 25' 0" W , whose radio had been located. Because of the damage suffered by the ramming, the Keppel gave up the leadership of the escort group and ran back to Liverpool in the HX 259 convoy after making makeshift repairs in Newfoundland and was overtaken in London by January 1944.
She has now been assigned to the 8th Escort Group, whose task was to secure the arctic convoys to northern Russia. On February 24, 1944, she succeeded in sinking U 713 at 69 ° 27 '0 " N , 4 ° 34" 0 " E while securing convoy JW 57 . On April 2, they also still submerged U 360 in securing the following convoy JW 58 to 72 ° 28 '0 " N , 13 ° 4' 0 ' O .
In May, the Keppel was assigned to the security units for the Normandy landing, but returned to the security units for the North Sea convoys in August. On August 24, she was involved with other boats in the sinking of U 354 north of Murmansk at 72 ° 49 ′ 0 ″ N , 30 ° 41 ′ 0 ″ E , as well as in securing RA 59A as on September 2 Keppel with the old destroyer HMS Whitehall and the sloop HMS Mermaid and HMS Peacock the sinking of U 394 west of the Lofoten to 69 ° 47 '0 " N , 4 ° 41' 0" O succeeded, the aircraft of the HMS Vindex was discovered .
From February to April 1945 the Keppel was overhauled again in Glasgow and was therefore ready for use again at the end of the war. On June 24, 1945, the HMS Keppel was decommissioned in Barrow and disarmament began. The following month it was sold to Ward for demolition.
Similar ships
In addition to the Shakespeare class boats in 1918/1919, the Royal Navy received eight similar flotilla leaders of the "Admiralty type", which was also referred to as the Scott class . Of them, the HMS Scott was lost in World War I and the HMS Bruce was sunk as a target ship in 1939. The other six boats survived, mostly used in Geleitzugsicherung, the Second World War, including in 1933 RAN used HMAS Stuart .
According to the plans of the Scott class, 18 Churruca class boats were built in Spain in three lots between 1928 and 1951, of which the first two were given to Argentina after completion.
Argentina had previously ordered three new buildings based on the plans of the Shakespeare class in Great Britain, which were built as the
→ Mendoza class
by J. Samuel White & Co in Cowes with Parsons turbines and delivered in 1929. The three boats remained in service until 1962.
According to the plans of the Thornycroft leaders, two more destroyers for Romania were built at the Pattison shipyard in Naples . However, they received Swedish Bofors cannons and a fire control system from Siemens . Regele Ferdinand and Regina Maria were extradited in September 1930. The two destroyers were the largest Axis forces in the Black Sea during World War II and had to be extradited to the Soviet Union after the Romanian surrender in 1944. In 1951 Romania got back the two boats that were canceled before 1970.
literature
- Bodo Herzog: 60 years of German submarines 1906–1966 . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968.
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .
- Alexander Bredt (Ed.): WEYERS Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten 1941/1942. Lehmanns Verlag, Munich / Berlin 1941.
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2 . Cassell Publishing, 1988, ISBN 1-85409-521-8 .
Web links
- SHAKESPEARE leaders (1917–1925 ), accessed August 19, 2013
- SHAKESPEARE CLASS DESTROYER LEADERS accessed October 18, 2013
- HMS Wallace accessed October 18, 2013
- HMS Wallace accessed October 21, 2013
- HMS Broke, accessed October 18, 2013
- HMS Broke (D 83 ) accessed October 21, 2013
- HMS Keppel accessed October 18, 2013
- HMS Keppel (D 84 / I 84) (Engl.) Accessed October 21, 2013
- MENDOZA destroyers (1929 ) Retrieved August 19, 2013
- RULE FERDINAND destroyers (1930 ) Retrieved August 19, 2013
- SCOTT leaders (1918–1919 ), accessed August 19, 2013
Individual evidence
- ↑ 12 cm / L45 Mk.I
- ↑ Weyers Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten, p. 38ff, p. 256.
- ↑ a b Weyers, p. 40.
- ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , p. 58.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 257.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 270.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 386.
- ^ Herzog: U-Boats, p. 269.
- ↑ Herzog, p. 279.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 436.
- ↑ a b Herzog, p. 272.
- ↑ Herzog, p. 273.
- ↑ Weyer, pp. 38 f., 256.
- ↑ Weyer, pp. 178 f., 380, 382.
- ↑ Weyer, pp. 150 f., 354.