After many delays, the ship was transferred to France in late 1943 where she escorted Axisblockade runners and submarines through the Bay of Biscay. After the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, she was one of the few remaining destroyers in French waters and they were ordered to attack the invasion shipping off the beaches. During the Battle of Ushant several days later, ZH1 was crippled and scuttled to prevent her capture, most of her crew being rescued by the Allies.
Design and description
The latest Japanese destroyers far outclassed the Royal Netherlands Navy's existing Admiralen-class destroyers when the Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyers were designed in the mid-1930s with assistance from the British company, Yarrow Shipbuilders. In response to the threat they were larger, faster and more heavily armed than the older ships. They did retain the floatplane carried by the Admiralen class for reconnaissance purposes.[1]
ZH1 had an overall length of 106.7 metres (350ft 1in) and was 105.2 metres (345ft 2in)long at the waterline. The ship had a beam of 10.6 metres (34ft 9in), and a maximum draught of 3.52 metres (11ft 7in). She displaced 1,604 long tons (1,630t) at standard load and 2,228 long tons (2,264t) at deep load. The two geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft, were designed to produce 45,000 shaft horsepower (34,000kW) using steam provided by three water-tube boilers for a designed speed of 36 knots (67km/h; 41mph).[2]ZH1 reached 37.5 knots (69.5km/h; 43.2mph) from 53,000shp (40,000kW) during her sea trials.[3] The ship carried a maximum of 520 tonnes (512 long tons) of fuel oil which gave a range of 2,700 nautical miles (5,000km; 3,100mi) at 19 knots (35km/h; 22mph). Her crew consisted of 12 officers and 218 sailors.[2]
The ship carried five Bofors 12-centimetre (4.7in)QF Mk 8 guns in two twin-gun turrets, fore and aft of the superstructure and a single gun mount positioned on top of the rear deckhouse, superimposed over the rear turret. ZH1's anti-aircraft armament consisted of four 3.7-centimetre (1.5in) SK C/30 guns in two twin mounts and four 2-centimetre (0.8in) C/38 guns in single mounts.[Note 1] The ship carried eight above-water 53.3-centimetre (21in)torpedo tubes in two power-operated mounts. She had four depth charge launchers and rails could be fitted on the rear deck that had a maximum capacity of 24 mines.[4]
Construction and career
The ship was laid down as Gerard Callenburgh on 12 October 1938 at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM) shipyard in Rotterdam and launched a year later. While she was still fitting out, Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 and the Royal Netherlands Navy decided to scuttle her to prevent her from falling into German hands five days later.[1] The Germans, however, refloated the ship on 14 July and towed her to the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg for repair on 11 October, renaming her ZH1,[2] standing for Zerstörer, [destroyer] Holland. The Kriegsmarine did not make many modifications as they wished to compare the ship to their own designs, retaining the main armament, propulsion machinery, and the gun and torpedo fire-control systems, despite the criticism of the latter systems. They did replace the original anti-aircraft armament of four 40-millimetre (1.6in) Bofors guns and four 12.7-millimetre (0.5in) anti-aircraft machineguns with German weapons.[3] She was towed back to RDM for completion and was commissioned after many delays on 11 October 1942. ZH1 sailed for the Baltic Sea on the 25th to begin working up. The ship began a brief refit in Hamburg on 18 January 1943. She collided with the Danishcargo shipDouro on 11 April, but was only lightly damaged. While under repair in June, ZH1 was further damaged during air raids on the dockyard, delaying the completion of her repairs, and she was not deemed combat worthy until October.[5] During this time she was fitted with a FuMO 24/25 radar set above the bridge.[3]
On 31 October ZH1 and the destroyer Z27 departed Kiel for France. During the voyage to Le Verdon-sur-Mer, both ships were slightly damaged by splinters from British coastal artillery as they passed through the English Channel. On 5 November they were unsuccessfully attacked by British motor torpedo boats off Cap d'Antifer, damaging several of their assailants. Now assigned to the 8. Zerstörerflotille (8th Destroyer Flotilla), the ship was one of the escorts for the 6,951-gross register ton(GRT) blockade runner MVOsorno through the Bay of Biscay, but salinity problems in her condensers forced her turbines to be shut down on 26 December and she had to be towed to port by the torpedo boatT25. Repairs were not finished until March 1944.[6] Early that month ZH1, the destroyer Z23, and the torpedo boats T27 and T29 escorted the Japanese submarineI-29 to Lorient. Later that month the ships escorted U-boats through the Bay of Biscay.[7]
After word of the Allied landings at Normandy on 6 June was received by Kapitän zur See (Captain) Theodor von Bechtolsheim, commander of the 8. Zerstörerflottile, ordered his three remaining destroyers, ZH1, Z24, Z32, and the torpedo boat T24, to sail for Brest, France to begin operations against the invasion fleet. They were attacked by Beaufighters during their journey, with Z32 damaged by a pair of rockets and one aircraft forced to ditch. By this time, ZH1's armament had already been increased to four quadruple 2cm mounts. On the night of 8/9 June, the four ships set out from Brest for Cherbourg, but were intercepted by eight Allied destroyers of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla in the Battle of Ushant. The German ships had been spotted first and the British opened fire first, with the Germans responding with a four-torpedo salvo from each destroyer that missed when the Allied ships turned to evade them. The British fire was extremely effective with ZH1 badly damaged by HMSAshanti and HMSTartar only moments after firing her first salvo. The most damaging hit was one that severed the main steam line in the engine room and another that flooded the forward boiler room, knocking out all power. The two British destroyers then shifted their fire to Z24 and lost track of ZH1 in the darkness. They later fired at Z32 which, in turn, engaged Tartar and set her aflame. Ashanti was preparing to turn to engage Z32 when ZH1 drifted into the area and fired at Tartar with her rear guns in manual mode. Ashanti then torpedoed ZH1, blowing off her bow; despite this, her forward turret continued to fire at the British ship. ZH1 also fired off her remaining torpedoes one at a time under manual control, missing with all four. Her situation hopeless, her captain ordered her crew to abandon ship and rigged depth charges to scuttle the ship at 48°52′N4°28′W / 48.867°N 4.467°W / 48.867; -4.467. Three officers and thirty-six crewmen were killed during the battle. One boat with a single officer and twenty-seven men reached the French coast and the British rescued one hundred and forty men.[8]
Notes
↑ Whitley says that two quadruple 2cm mounts were installed.[3]
↑ Koope & Schmolke, p. 121; Whitley 1991, pp. 158–60
Bibliography
Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships 1815–1945. Vol.1: Major Surface Warships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN0-87021-790-9.
Koop, Gerhard & Schmolke, Klaus-Peter (2003). German Destroyers of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN978-1-59114-307-9.
Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Reviseded.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN1-59114-119-2.
Sieche, Erwin (1980). "Germany". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0-85177-146-7.
At the outbreak of the Second World War Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine had 21 destroyers in service, while another one was just being completed. These 22 vessels – comprising 3 classes – had all been built in the 1930s, making them modern vessels. Including that final pre-war vessel, a further 19 were brought into service during the war and more were captured from opposing navies, including the Italian Navy after the Italian Armistice with the Allies in 1943.
Vasilefs Georgios was the lead ship of her class of two destroyers built for the Royal Hellenic Navy before the Second World War. Flagship of the navy's Destroyer Flotilla, she participated in the Greco-Italian War in 1940–1941, escorting convoys and unsuccessfully attacking Italian shipping in the Adriatic Sea. While under repair during the Axis invasion of Greece in 1941, Vasilefs Georgios sank when the floating drydock that she was in was either scuttled or sunk by German aircraft.
The Gerard Callenburgh class were a group of four destroyers ordered for the Royal Netherlands Navy just before World War II. Two ships were completed - Gerard Callenburgh by the Germans after being captured and Isaac Sweers in Britain after being evacuated as the Netherlands fell to the Nazis.
The Battle of Ushant, also known as the Battle of Brittany, occurred on the early morning of 9 June 1944 and was an engagement between German and Allied destroyer flotillas off the coast of Brittany. The action came shortly after the initial Allied landings in Normandy. After a confused engagement during the night the Allies sank one of the German destroyers and forced another ashore, where she was wrecked.
The Type 1936B destroyers were a group of five destroyers built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine between 1941 and 1942, of which only three were completed and saw service. Eight ships of this design were ordered, but the orders for three ships were cancelled before construction began. Z35 was the first ship of the class to be completed and was commissioned in mid-1943. Her sister ships, Z36 and Z43, followed in 1944. Z44 was sunk during an air raid in 1944 before she was completed while Z45 was never completed. Both ships were scrapped after the war.
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Z43 was a Type 1936B destroyer built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in mid-1944, the ship spent the war in the Baltic Sea, escorting German ships, laying minefields, and bombarding Soviet forces. She participated in a minelaying operation in December 1944, where her sister ships Z35 and Z36 were sunk when they accidentally entered a German minefield. She was badly damaged by a mine on 10 April 1945, and scuttled on 3 May of that same year.
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Z23 was one of fifteen Type 1936A destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in 1940, the ship spent the war in Norwegian and French waters, escorting German ships and occasionally engaging Allied warships. In early 1941 she escorted ships between the Baltic and southern Norway before spending four months protecting ships as they transited through the Bay of Biscay. A few months after the Operation Barbarossa began in June, Z23 was transferred to northern Norway where she attempted to intercept one of the Arctic convoys returning from the Soviet Union and helped to lay several minefields.
Z24 was one of fifteen Type 1936A destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in 1940, the ship spent the first half of the war in Norwegian waters. She was very active in attacking the Arctic convoys ferrying war materials to the Soviet Union in 1941–1942, but only helped to sink one Allied ship herself.
Z25 was one of fifteen Type 1936A destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in 1940, the ship spent most of the war in Norwegian waters, escorting German ships and laying minefields, despite venturing to France in early 1942 for the Channel Dash, escorting two battleships and a heavy cruiser home through the English Channel. She was active in attacking the Arctic convoys ferrying war materials to the Soviet Union in 1941–1942 but only helped to sink one Allied ship.
Z27 was one of fifteen Type 1936A destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in 1941, the ship was transferred to Norwegian waters later that year where she remained for most of the next several years, escorting convoys and laying minefields. She sank a Soviet oil tanker in late 1942 before sailing to Germany for a refit. Upon its completion in mid-1943, Z27 returned to Norway and participated in Operation Zitronella, the raid on the island of Spitsbergen in September.
Z28 was one of fifteen Type 1936A destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Built as a flotilla leader with fewer guns than her sister ships, she was completed in 1941. The ship spent most of the first few years of her service in Norwegian waters, escorting convoys and laying minefields. Z28 ran aground in early 1943 and spent the rest of the year under repair. The ship briefly returned to Norway at the beginning of 1944, but was transferred to the Baltic shortly afterwards to support minelaying operations in the Gulf of Finland. That was her primary focus through July and then she began escorting German cruisers as they bombarded Soviet troops ashore in addition to German convoys evacuating people from Finland and the Baltic States.
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Z34 was a Type 1936A (Mob) destroyer built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in 1943, the ship spent all of 1944 in Norwegian waters, and was twice damaged by British aircraft attacking the battleship Tirpitz. She escorted troop convoys from northern Norway when the Germans began evacuating the area beginning in October. Z34 was transferred to the Baltic with two of her sister ships at the beginning of 1945 and participated in the action of 28 January 1945 when they were intercepted off the Norwegian coast by a pair of British light cruisers. The ship was only lightly damaged during the battle and all three destroyers were able to disengage.
Z37 was a Type 1936A (Mob) destroyer built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in 1942, the ship spent most of her brief career deployed in France. She participated in the Battle of the Bay of Biscay at the end of 1943 before she was accidentally rammed by the destroyer Z32 in early 1944. Towed back to port, the Kriegsmarine decided that Z37 was too badly damaged to repair and disarmed her hulk. Decommissioned later that year, she was scuttled by her crew before being scrapped by the French in 1949.
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Nazi Germany
