Tribal class (1936)
 The only surviving Haida
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
The Tribal class were a group of sixteen destroyers built for the Royal Navy before World War II . They were larger than the previously ordered destroyers of the A to I class and a reaction of the British Navy to the large destroyers of the other navies, especially Japan.
The sixteen boats of the Royal Navy came into service by March 1939. Twelve were lost during World War II ; the remainder were retired by 1949.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) each ordered seven destroyers of this type.
Three boats built in Australia for the RAN were completed during the war. The remaining orders were canceled. In 1969 the last Australian boat was canceled.
Four of the boats for the RCN were built in Newcastle (England) from 1940 and delivered in 1942/43. One was lost in 1944, the Haida became a museum ship in 1964 and has been preserved. The construction of another four boats (one additional for the war loss) began during the war in Canada, but they were only completed after the end of the war and scrapped in the 1960s.
The tribal class ships were considered large, complex and expensive.
History of the second tribal class
After the Tribal class of 1905 , which was also much larger than the destroyers procured before it, the British Navy again received a group of ships that were named after tribes that were said to have special military virtues. The design was a further development of the design of a light fleet cruiser, as it was realized a little later in the cruisers of the Dido class . The new units were intended to be a counterpart to the large destroyers of the other navies, such as the Japanese Fubuki class (3 × 2 127 mm cannons, 3 × 3 TR) and the Italian Navigatori class (3 × 2 120 mm Cannons, 2 × 3 TR).
The British Admiralty chose a destroyer with more powerful artillery armament for the new Tribal class. In doing so, it stuck to the tried and tested main guns of the previous destroyers, although in the end eight 120 mm guns were to be set up in newly developed twin mounts instead of the four individual guns customary up to now. These weapons were only partially suitable for defense against aircraft, as their maximum elevation was only 40 °.
The air defense in the close range was originally supposed to do two, then only one 2pdr quad and two heavy machine gun quadruples . The torpedo armament of the new boats was reduced to a set of four.
The first seven units were commissioned on March 10, 1936; in June of the same year nine further orders followed. All were launched at seven British shipyards in 1937. The commissioning of the first ship, the HMS Afridi , was on May 3, 1938. Due to various changes during the equipment phase, six ships were not delivered until 1939; The Punjabi was the last tribal destroyer to join the Royal Navy at the end of March 1939.
When they were put into service, the boats formed two “tribal flotillas”: the first for the Mediterranean fleet and the second for the Home Fleet . Before the war began, they were renamed normal destroyer flotillas (6th DF Home Fleet, 4th Med). The boats experienced their first combat missions from April 1940 off Norway, where the Afridi and the HMS Gurkha were lost in air raids. In the period that followed, the boats' air defense capabilities were improved. All boats replaced the rear raised 120mm twin gun with a 102mm / L45 Mk. XVI twin gun . The light flak weapons were also gradually modernized and increased. However, three more boats were lost in 1941 and seven more in 1942, so that the Royal Navy only had four Tribal-class boats at the beginning of 1943, which then survived the war. At the end of the war in Europe, the Ashanti had been in the overhaul since September 1944 and did not return to active service. The three other boats had come to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean and were used off Burma. Nubian and Tartar returned home in November 1945 and were decommissioned. As the last active boat in the Tribal class, the Eskimo , who returned in December 1945, was assigned to the reserve in February 1946. It was only with a lot of luck and effort that she survived a heavy torpedo hit in the battle with the German destroyers in Narvik on April 13, 1940.
The Royal Canadian Navy received the first four of their original seven boats between December 1942 and September 1943 from the High Walker Shipyard of Vickers-Armstrong , which had already built four boats for the Royal Navy. The four boats ordered in Canada (including the replacement for the war loss) did not enter service until September 1945 and October 1947.
The Royal Australian Navy put their first boat into service on April 30, 1942, the Cockatoo- built Arunta , which was followed by two more boats by May 25, 1945.
The boats completed during the war for the Commonwealth Marines came with only three 120 mm twin cannons Mk.XII and one 102 mm / L45 Mk.XVI twin multi-purpose gun in the "X" position as well as light 20 mm Oerlikon cannons in service. The Canadian replicas did not receive any 120 mm cannons, instead they received two 102 mm / L45 Mk.XVI twin guns and 40 mm Bofors flak . The Canadian boats were converted into anti-submarine boats in the 1950s. The armament was changed again and Squid mortars were added. The superstructures were also changed. They then displaced 2200 ts. Similar changes were made to two Australian boats.
units
| Name HMS | shipyard | Launched In service |
Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afridi |
Vickers Armstrongs Newcastle , build no. 6th |
June 8, 1937 May 3, 1938 |
capsized and sunk on May 3, 1940 in the North Sea off Namsos (Norway) after a bomb hit by a Ju 87 dive fighter aircraft of the Luftwaffe . 92 dead. |
| Ashanti |
William Denny , Dumbarton , build number 1300 |
November 5, 1937 December 21, 1938 |
sold for demolition: April 12, 1949 |
| Bedouin | William Denny, lot 1301 |
December 21, 1937 March 15, 1939 |
during Operation Harpoon damaged two Italian cruisers and torpedo hit by a SM.79 the Aeronautica Militare dropped on 3 July 1942 at the Mediterranean. 28 of 241 men were killed - 213 were taken prisoner of war in Italy. |
| Cossack | Vickers-Armstrongs, Newcastle, build no. 7th |
June 8, 1937 June 7, 1938 |
sank on October 27, 1941 after a torpedo hit by U 563 three days earlier in tow in heavy seas west of Gibraltar with 159 men |
| Eskimo | Vickers-Armstrongs, Newcastle, build no. 8 1 |
September 3, 1937 December 30, 1938 |
sold for demolition: June 27, 1949 |
| Gurkha |
Fairfield , Govan , build no. 659 |
07/07/1937 21/10/1938 |
Sank on April 9, 1940 in the North Sea off Stavanger (Norway) after bomb hits by the Luftwaffe Ju 88 and He 111 . 15 dead |
| Maori | Fairfield, build no. 660 |
2.09.1937 2.01.1939 |
aground on February 12, 1942 after a bomb hit in the Grand Harbor of Valletta (Malta). A dead one. Lifted in late 1942 and towed in front of St. Elmo . Broken in two parts during a rescue attempt in tow in July 1945. The stern section was sunk outside the harbor basin. |
| Mashona | Vickers-Armstrongs, Newcastle, build no. 9 1 |
September 3, 1937 March 28, 1939 |
Sank on May 28, 1941 after being hit by a bomb in the Atlantic off the coast of Galway . 46 dead |
| Matabele |
Scotts , Greenock , build no. 568 |
October 6, 1937 January 25, 1939 |
Sank on January 17, 1942 during the escort of the Northern Sea Convoy PQ-8 after a torpedo hit by U 454 in the Barents Sea . 2 out of 238 men were saved. |
| Mohawk |
JI Thornycroft , Woolston |
October 15, 1937 September 7, 1938 |
sank on April 16, 1941 after two torpedo hits by an Italian destroyer in the Mediterranean off the Kerkenna Islands . 43 dead |
| Nubian | JI Thornycroft | December 21, 1937 December 6, 1938 |
sold for demolition: June 11, 1949 |
| Punjabi | Scotts, build no. 569 |
December 18, 1937 March 29, 1939 |
on May 1, 1942 in the Atlantic by British battleship HMS King George V in the fog amidships, broken in two and sunk. Of the 258 Punjabi crew members , 205 were rescued. |
| Sikh |
A. Stephen , Linthouse, Building No. 553 |
December 17, 1937 October 12, 1938 |
Sunk in the Mediterranean off Tobruk on September 14, 1942 during the Operation Agreement , 23 dead, 223 prisoners of war |
| Somali |
Swan Hunter , Wallsend , building no. 1527 |
August 24, 1937 December 12, 1938 |
sank in tow north of Iceland on September 24, 1942 after a torpedo hit by U 703 four days earlier |
| Tartare | Swan Hunter, building no. 1528 |
October 21, 1937 March 10, 1939 |
sold for demolition: January 6, 1948 |
| Zulu | A. Stephen, Building No. 552 |
23.09.1937 09.07.1938 |
sunk on September 14, 1942 during Operation Agreement in the Mediterranean off Tobruk |
1 Installation of the turbine system and completion at Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Co. , Wallsend
| Name HMCS |
shipyard | Launched in service |
Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athabaskan (I) |
Vickers Armstrong's Building No. 28 Newcastle upon Tyne |
11/18/1941 02/03/1943 |
Sank on April 29, 1944 after torpedo hits by T 24 and T 27 in the English Channel northeast of Ouessant . Out of 256 men, 129 were killed, 83 were rescued from German ships and taken prisoner of war; The sister ship HMCS Haida was able to accommodate another 44 . |
| Athabaskan (II) |
Halifax Shipyard Halifax (Canada) |
May 4, 1946 January 12, 1947 |
Decommissioned April 21, 1966, scrapped in 1969 |
| Cayuga | Halifax Shipyard | 28.07.1945 10.20.1947 |
1964 in Faslane scrapped |
| Haida | Vickers-Armstrong's Building No. 41 | 08/25/1942 09/18/1943 |
since 1965 museum ship in Hamilton (Ontario) |
| Huron | Vickers-Armstrong's No. 40 building | 25.06.1942 07.20.1943 |
In 1965 La Spezia scrapped |
| Iroquois | Vickers-Armstrong's No. 27 building | 23.09.1941 10.12.1942 |
1966 in Bilbao scrapped |
| Micmac | Halifax Shipyard | September 18, 1943 September 14, 1945 |
Wrecked in Faslane in 1964 |
| Nootka | Halifax Shipyard | April 26, 1944 August 9, 1946 |
Wrecked in Faslane in 1964 |
| Surname |
shipyard | Launch |
Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arunta |
Cockatoo Port Jackson Naval Shipyard (Sydney) |
November 30, 1940 April 30, 1942 |
decommissioned on December 21, 1956, sold in 1968 and sunk in tow on February 13, 1969 en route to Taiwan for scrapping off Sydney Heads |
| Bataan | Cockatoo naval shipyard | January 15, 1944 May 25, 1945 |
decommissioned on October 18, 1954 and sold to a Japanese company for scrapping in May 1958 |
| Warramunga | Cockatoo naval shipyard | 02.06.1942 23.11.1942 |
decommissioned on December 7, 1959 and sold to a Japanese company for scrapping in early 1963 |
literature
- David Lyon: HMS Cossack Tribal Class Destroyer. Profile Publication Ltd., Windsor (1970)
- David Lyon: The British Tribals, 1935. In Superdestroyers. Conway Maritime Press, Greenwich 11978, ISBN 0-85177-131-9
- MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ David and Hugh Lyon; Siegfried Greiner: Warships from 1900 to today, technology and use . Buch und Zeit Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne 1979, p. 62 .