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FAMOUS SHIPS |
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FAMOUS SHIPS |
The CAMPBELTOWN
This
ship led a long life and came to a spectacular ending.
She started life as the U.S.S. BUCHANAN, DD-131.
A Wickes class destroyer as built, she displaced 1,154 tons.
Her dimensions were 314’ 5” (oa) x 31’8” x 9’ 10”.
Her armament as originally built was 4 x 4”/50, 2 x 1pdr AA, 12 x 21”
torpedo tubes.
Machinery, 24.200 SHP; Geared Turbines, 2 screws with a speed of 35 knots
and a crew of 103.
She was laid down by Bath Iron Works in Bath, ME on June 29, 1918 and
launched on January 2, 1919, being commissioned on January 20, 1919.
While
in the U.S. Navy, she had a relatively standard existence.
She was first attached to Destroyer Force at Guantanamo, Cuba with
Destroyer Squadron 2 but then went to the Pacific Fleet in July 1919 for duty
with Destroyer Flotilla 4.
This lasted through 1930.
She was then out of commission in San Diego for a short time then
attached to Destroyer Division 10 and operated off the West Coast until 1934.
She again went temporarily out of commission, but again became active at
the end of 1934 at was attached to Division 5, Destroyers, Battle Force.
She was then again out of commission at San Diego from April 1937 until
September 1939.
She was then refitted for service and performed various duties until she
was decommissioned and transferred to the United Kingdom in September, 1940.
At this point she was already 19 years old and obsolete by modern
standards of the day, but was desperately needed by the allies for WWII.
The
U.S.S. BUCHANAN was one of fifty destroyers then called the
“destroyers-deal”.
This was an agreement with the British and Americans, the British getting
the destroyers they so desperately needed and the U.S. getting bases in
Commonwealth territory.
In Britain they were referred to as Town-class escorts.
All of the destroyers did have a tendency to bad stearing control.
The U.S.S. BUCHANAN was renamed the H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN – she had two
incidents were bad stearing effected her performance.
She was again transferred to the Dutch, who had plenty of spare seamen at
the time. She
was activated by the Dutch Navy on January 17, 1941 and took part in several
escorting convoy duties on the Atlantic.
Her
history during this period of her life is reflected in typical convoy duty –
one convoy she was involved with was convoy OB-318, attacked on 7-10 May, 1941
by four submarines (U-94, U-110, U-201, U-556).
Another action which took place shortly before she was returned to the
Royal Navy was the successful salvage operation of the Norwegian tanker VINGA.
She had been damaged by a German plane and was floating around in the
Atlantic. A
whaleboat with volunteers boarded the ship with salvage-equipment and managed to
contain the fire after several hours of hard work.
A very valuable ship was thus saved for the war effort.
She
was returned to the Royal Navy in poor condition in October 1941.
She then spent most of her time in overhaul.
She was appointed to take part in operation Chariot, a suicide mission to
take out the Normandy dock in St. Nazaire.
This dock had to be destroyed to prevent the docks possible use by the
German battleship TIRPITZ.
H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN was prepared for this raid by having twenty-four
depth charges containing eight thousand five hundred pounds of high explosive
placed into a steel tank and set over the fuel tanks aft of the forward gun
turret. The
tank was sealed in concrete.
The exterior of the ship was given a major alteration so that she
resembled a German gunboat and additional armor plating was installed to protect
the Commandoes who would serve as crewman.
On
March 26, 1942, Operation Chariot was set in motion.
A small convoy went with H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN as she sailed to the Loire
River, gateway to St. Nazaire.
The old destroyer approached the Normandie drydock unchallenged for
several minutes, but eventually the Germans realized what was going on and
opened up with all guns.
The H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN returned the compliment to the Germans with every
gun they had on board.
With several fires visible on the deck of the ship, H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN,
with British colors flying, increased speed and suddenly, a few hundred yards in
front of the drydocks, turned to port and steamed full speed directly at the
drydock. H.M.S.
CAMPBELLTOWN, with a tremendous shower of sparks and flames amid the sound of
tearing metal and crumbling concrete, plowed directly into the Normandie drydock
gate. Delayed
fuses for the coming explosion were set and holes were blown in the stern of the
ship to sink the aged destroyer in place.
The Commandos left the ship to complete the rest of their tasks, leaving
the ship as the worlds first timebomb, the fuse being set for eight hours.
At
10:30 AM, March 28, 1942, H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN
exploded so violently that the drydock gate was torn from it’s
supports. The
sea completed the destruction of the drydock, carrying parts of the ship into
the dock and destroying two ships that were in the dock along with the dock
itself. It
is said that parts of both the ship and drydock fell over a mile away!
What an end for a DESTROYER.
There
is a Bluejacket kit available of the four-piper U.S.S. Ward that could easily be
changed into either the U.S.S. BUCHANAN or the H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN.
I think it would be a major challenge to convert the model to reflect her
final appearance as a German gunboat – she was heavily altered (three of her
four stacks disappeared, as an example).
Anyone challenged?
There
was another, more modern, H.M.S. CAMPBELLTOWN ( a type 22 Batch 3 Frigate, hull
#F86), but this is another story.
There are ties with this modern ship and the old US Destroyer which
became famous as indicated above.
The picture of the ship included with this article is of the Kit
available from Bluejacket, showing a typical “four-piper.