Van Galen (G84)

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Mr.Ms. Van Galen
The Van Galen 1942
The Van Galen 1942
Ship data
flag NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands
other ship names

built as HMS Noble until 1942

Ship type destroyer
class N class
Shipyard William Denny and Brothers , Dumbarton
Build number 1345
Order April 15, 1939
Keel laying July 10, 1939
Launch April 17, 1941
takeover February 2, 1942
Decommissioning October 1956 deleted
Whereabouts Broken down in 1957
Ship dimensions and crew
length
108.6 m ( Lüa )
106 m ( KWL )
103.4 m ( Lpp )
width 10.8 m
Draft Max. 4.22 m
displacement 1770  ts standard;
2,380 ts maximum
 
crew 218 men
Machine system
machine 2 Admiralty three-drum boilers ,
Parsons geared turbines
Machine
performance
40,000 PS (29,420 kW)
Top
speed
36 kn (67 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

last:

  • 6 × Sk 12 cm-L / 45-Mk.XII (3 × 2)
  • 4 × Flak 4 cm-L / 39- (2pdr Mk.VIII) (1 × 4)
  • 6 × Flak 2 cm L / 70 Oerlikon
  • 10 × torpedo tube ⌀ 53.3 cm (2 × 5)
  • 45 depth charges,
    4 launchers, 2 dropping racks
Sensors

Radar , sonar

The Dutch destroyer Van Galen (G84) was a British N-class destroyer . The destroyer was originally to be named Noble and was sold to the Dutch Navy in March 1941 with its sister ship Nonpareil before being launched by the Royal Navy and commissioned as Van Galen in February 1942 . During the Second World War he was assigned to the "7th Destroyer Flotilla" of the British Eastern Fleet , to which four sister ships lent to the Royal Australian Navy were subordinate. In November 1944 the destroyer returned to Great Britain for a shipyard overhaul and remained under British command in the "8th Destroyer Flotilla" until August 1945. During this time, it was being prepared at a British shipyard for future use in the Dutch East Indies the destroyer left the Netherlands in August 1945. Interrupted by a return of several months in 1947, the Van Galen was used until December 1949 to restore the pre-war situation in Indonesian waters. From March 1951 to June 1952 another foreign mission followed when the Van Galen was deployed off Korea under the command of the United Nations. The destroyer was decommissioned in October 1956 and sold to Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht for demolition on February 8, 1957 .

The Van Galen of the admiral class

history

The later Van Galen was ordered on April 15, 1939 with another seven units of the N-class and was to receive the name Noble . 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 Noble was laid down at Denny Brothers in Dumbarton on July 10, 1939 with the hull number 1345 as the first N-class ship. In the second half of 1940, the Royal Navy's plans also began to hand over new builds of destroyers to Allied navies. This then included all eight units of the N-class; the first destroyer went to the Polish Navy ( ORP Piorun ex Nerissa ), five to the Royal Australian Navy and two to the Dutch Navy. The two destroyers under construction at Thornycroft, Norman and Norseman , provided initial planning . A heavy German bombing raid on the shipyard on the Solent in December 1940 put its completion a long way off, so that the new buildings at Denny for the Netherlands were then completed. In contrast to the duties paid to Poland and Australia, the destroyers for the Netherlands were not loaned out, but sold for good in 1941. The new building planned as HMS Noble was probably launched as Van Galen on April 17, 1941. On February 11, 1942 the ship, completed as the 6th N-class ship, was put into service by the Dutch Navy. The sister ship Tjerk Hiddes , completed at the same shipyard, followed at the end of May 1942. The name was taken over from the destroyer Van Galen , completed in 1929, which sank on May 10, 1940 after fighting with the German Air Force . It was named after the Admiral Johan van Galen (1604–1653).

Calls

The Van Galen spent the run-in phase at Home Fleet in Scapa Flow . On April 15, 1942, the destroyer with the escort destroyer was Tetcott the Hunt class the troops convoy WS 18 to Freetown allocated to the long-range backup (ocean escort) nor the cruiser Frobisher and Uganda belonged. The convoy with troops and equipment for the Middle East and India included 21 transporters and the destroyer depot ship Hecla . In the Atlantic, the Van Galen left the convoy from April 20-29 to refuel in the Azores . In Freetown the destroyer finally left the escort to continue via Simonstown and Durban to Kilindini Harbor , where the destroyer of the "7th Destroyer Flotilla" was placed under the Eastern Fleet . The Australian sister ships Napier , Nizam and Norman were already on duty in the flotilla . The destroyer secured units and merchant ships in the area of ​​the Eastern Fleet in the period that followed.

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. the sister ship Tjerk Hiddes , which has meanwhile also arrived in the Indian Ocean, and her Australian sister ships Napier , Nizam and Norman are also used.

The tromp

The destroyer moved in October 1942 together with the sister ship Tjerk Hiddes and the Dutch torpedo cruiser Tromp to Fremantle . With this transfer to Western Australia, the Dutch ships left the Eastern Fleet area and came to the American-run Pacific area. The old Australian cruiser Adelaide and she Jacob van Heemskerck , the sister ship of the Tromp , later joined the unit stationed in Fremantle . The association secured the Australian coastal traffic.

Île-De-France and Aquitania during Operation Pamphlet

The most important task in February 1943 was to secure the pamphlet convoy with the return of 30,000 men of the 9th Australian Division from Suez to Melbourne and Sydney . The Dutch ships secured the convoy with the troop carriers Queen Mary (80,774 GRT), Aquitania (45,647 GRT), Ile de France (42,050 GRT), Niew Amsterdam (36,287 GRT) and the auxiliary cruiser Queen of Bermuda (22,575 GRT) along the section the Australian coast between Fremantle and Melbourne.

It wasn't until January 1944 that the Van Galen returned to the Eastern Fleet area with the sister ship Tjerk Hiddes and the Tromp . At the end of March 1944, the British Eastern Fleet with its heavy units and ten destroyers, including the Van Galen and her sister ship Tjerk Hiddes, southwest of Cocos Island, took on a US task group with the carrier Saratoga and three destroyers, who carried out offensive actions with the British should perform. Van Galen then took part in the raids of the aircraft carriers Illustrious and Saratoga in mid-April against Japanese facilities on the island of Sabang and in mid-May against Surabaja (Operation Transom) in the cover group around the battleships Queen Elizabeth , Valiant and the French Richelieu .
After general security tasks, the destroyer fired on Japanese positions on the Nicobar Islands on October 17, 1944 together with the heavy cruiser London and the Australian destroyer Norman .

In November 1944, the two Dutch destroyers Van Galen and Tjerk Hiddes marched to Great Britain for major overhauls. The Van Galen was overhauled in Plymouth and, like her sister ship, was temporarily assigned to the 8th Destroyer Flottilla . From February to June 1945, further modernizations were carried out at Thornycroft for future use in Southeast Asia.

Post-war operations of the Van Galen

Mr. Ms. Van Galen

In August 1945 the destroyer came under national command again. On August 23, 1945, the Van Galen left the Netherlands for the Dutch East Indies, where it was used to restore colonial order in recaptured Dutch territory. In early 1947, the destroyer returned to the Netherlands for major repairs, before being used again in the old colonial area from November 1947. After Indonesia gained independence in December 1949, Van Galen returned to the Netherlands. From March 1951, the ship replaced the destroyer Evertsen off Korea . On June 21, 1952, the Van Galen returned from this UN mission to Den Helder . In the reserve since 1953, the destroyer was finally decommissioned in October 1956. On February 8, 1957, the ship was sold to Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht for demolition .

literature

  • John English: Afridi to Nizam: British Fleet Destroyers 1937-43 , World Ship Society, Gravesend 2001, ISBN 0-905617-64-9
  • Norman Friedman: British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2006, ISBN 1-86176-137-6
  • 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

Commons : J, K and N classes  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f Dutch HNethMS VAN GALEN (G 84), ex-HMS NOBLE - N-class Destroyer
  2. Rohwer: naval warfare , 10.9.- 11.5.1942 Indian Ocean, Brit. Company to occupy Madagascar.
  3. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , February 4–27, 1943 Indian Ocean, March of the convoy pamphlet .
  4. Rohwer: naval warfare , 21.3.- 02.04.1944 Indian Ocean, Operation Diplomat.
  5. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , April 16–24, 1944 Indian Ocean, Operation Cockpit.
  6. ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , May 6–27, 1944 Indian Ocean, Operation Transom.
  7. Rohwer: naval warfare , 15.- 19.10.1944 Indian Ocean, operation Millet .
  8. a b http://www.go2war2.nl/artikel/2158/Britse-destroyers-voor-de-Nederlandse-marine.htm?page=2 Britse destroyers voor de Nederlandse marine N-class torpedo boat hunters