 M15 at Mudros, 1916 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | M15 |
| Builder | William Gray, Hartlepool. |
| Laid down | 1 March 1915 |
| Launched | 28 April 1915 |
| Fate | Sunk on 11 November 1917. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | M15-class monitor |
| Displacement | 540 tons |
| Length | 177 ft 3 in (54.03 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Draught | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
| Complement | 69 |
| Armament |
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HMS M15 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. She was sunk off Gaza by UC-38 on 11 November 1917.
Intended as a shore bombardment vessel, M15's primary armament was a single 9.2-inch Mk X gun which had been held as a spare for the Drake and Cressy-class cruisers. [1] In addition to her 9.2-inch gun, she also possessed one 12-pounder and one six-pound anti-aircraft gun. She was equipped with triple expansion steam engines rated to 800 horsepower (600 kW ) that allowed a top speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph). The monitor's crew consisted of sixty-nine officers and ratings.
M15 was ordered in March 1915, as part of the War Emergency Programme of ship construction. She was laid down at the William Gray shipyard at Hartlepool in March 1915 and launched on 28 April 1915. The vessel was completed in June 1915.
M15 was towed to Malta in July 1915, where she received her main armament. She then proceeded to Mudros, and later was involved in the defence of the Suez Canal.
After bombarding Gaza as part of the Third Battle of Gaza, on 11 November 1917, M15 and the destroyer HMS Staunch were torpedoed by the submarine UC-38. 26 men lost their lives in the sinking of M15, one kilometre (0.62 mi) from shore, in 90 metres (300 ft) of water. [2]
In 2020, Hamas divers recovered ammunition, including large-calibre naval shells, from the wreck of M15 with the intent of using explosives from the shells to make warheads and gunpowder propellant to make rocket fuel. After more than a century at the bottom of the sea,while Israeli sources claim the material was found to be unusable Hamas published a video of their members using it to make rockets . [3]
33 mètres de profondeur inspecter l'épave du HMS M15, un navire de guerre britannique coulé par un sous-marin allemand en 1917 à un kilomètre de la côte[a depth of 33 meters to inspect the wreck of HMS M15, a British warship sunk by a German submarine in 1917, one kilometer from the coast]
The M29 class comprised five monitors of the Royal Navy, all built and launched during 1915.
The first HMS Zulu was a Tribal class destroyer launched 16 September 1909 at Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard and commissioned in March 1910. She was mined during the First World War, on 27 October 1916 off Dover in a minefield lain by the Imperial German submarine UC-1. Her stern was blown off and sank, but the forward section remained afloat. It was towed into port and attached to the stern of Nubian, which had been torpedoed, to form a new destroyer named HMS Zubian.
HMS Ghurka was a Tribal-class destroyer built in 1907 for the Royal Navy. She served as part of the Dover Patrol during the First World War, playing a part in the sinking of the German submarine U-8 in 1915, and was sunk by a German mine in 1917.
HMS Derwent was a Hawthorn Leslie-type River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1901 – 1902 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Derwent in central England, she was the second ship to carry this name.
The M15 class comprised fourteen monitors of the Royal Navy, all built and launched during 1915.
HMS M28 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. She was sunk during the Battle of Imbros in 1918.
HMS M27 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. She was also served in the British intervention in Russia in 1919, and was scuttled in the Dvina River on 16 September 1919.
HMS M26 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor.
HMS M21 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. After service in the Mediterranean and the Dover Patrol, she struck a mine off Ostend in January 1918 and sank off Dover.
HMS M20 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor.
HMS M19 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor.
HMS M22 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. Later converted to a minelayer and renamed HMS Medea, she was wrecked whilst being towed for breaking up on 2 January 1939.
HMS M23 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. After service in the Mediterranean and the Dover Patrol, she was also served in the British intervention in Russia in 1919. Converted to the RNVR drillship Claverhouse in 1922, she served in that capacity at "Leith" until 1958.
HMS M18 was a M15-class monitor built for the Royal Navy during the First World War.
HMS M17 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor.
HMS M16 was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor.
HMS Foyle was a Laird-type River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1902–1903 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Foyle in Ireland, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy.
HMS Exe was a River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1901–1902 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Exe in southern England flowing through Exeter in the County of Devon, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy. She served on the China Station before World War I and in the North Sea during the war. She was sold in 1920.
HMS Partridge was a Royal Navy Admiralty M-class destroyer constructed and then operational in the First World War, later being sunk by enemy action in 1917. The destroyer was the sixth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name HMS Partridge.
HMS Rocket was an R-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy during World War I. Launched on 2 July 1916 after being stuck on the slipway since 30 June, the ship joined the Grand Fleet, operating as part of a destroyer flotilla undertaking anti-submarine operations in the North Sea. Although the ship did not successfully engage any German submarines, there was an incident with the Royal Navy boat K7 on 16 June 1917, although that attack was aborted after the erstwhile target was identified as a friendly vessel. After the War, the destroyer served with the anti-submarine and torpedo schools at Portsmouth, and briefly during the Chanak Crisis of 1922, before being sold to be broken up on 16 December 1926.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in November 1917 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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