HMS Fearless (H67)
_IWM_FL_013091.jpg) HMS Fearless in 1935
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Fearless |
| Ordered | 17 March 1933 |
| Builder | Cammell Laird, Birkenhead |
| Cost | £245,728 |
| Laid down | 17 July 1933 |
| Launched | 12 May 1934 |
| Completed | 19 December 1934 |
| Identification | Pennant number: H67 |
| Fate | Torpedoed by Italian aircraft and scuttled, 23 July 1941 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | F-class destroyer |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 329 ft (100.3 m) o/a |
| Beam | 33 ft 3 in (10.13 m) |
| Draught | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) (deep) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph) |
| Range | 6,350 nmi (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement | 145 |
| Sensors and processing systems | ASDIC |
| Armament |
|
| Service record | |
| Part of: |
|
| Operations: |
|
| Victories: | |
HMS Fearless was an
scuttled
on 23 July 1941.
Description
The F-class ships were repeats of the preceding
Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of 36,000 shaft horsepower (27,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph). Fearless carried a maximum of 470 long tons (480 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 6,350 nautical miles (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ships' complement was 145 officers and ratings.[1]
The ships mounted four
12-pounder AA gun by April 1941, but she still had both sets of torpedo tube by that date and was probably not rearmed before her loss a few months later.[3]
Construction and career
Fearless was ordered on 17 March 1933 from
Non-Intervention Committee from November 1936 to March 1937. During this time, Fearless escorted the elderly liner SS Habana, full of refugee children, from the Basque Country to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France. She returned to Gibraltar for three-month detachments in August 1937, January 1938 and January 1939. The 6th DF was renumbered the 8th Destroyer Flotilla in April 1939, five months before the outbreak of World War II. Fearless remained assigned to it until May 1940, escorting the larger ships of the fleet.[4]
After a pair of
head seas.[6]
A week later, she was escorting the
Allies began to execute Plan R 4 after the German invasion on 9 April. The convoy entered the Andfjorden on the morning of 15 April en route to make their landings at Harstad, but paused there after reports of a German submarine on the surface inside the Vågsfjorden were received. Fearless, the destroyer Brazen, and the trawler Amethyst were ordered into the Vågsfjorden to investigate. Fearless's ASDIC found a submarine and the ship dropped five depth charges near U-49. The submarine commander, Lieutenant (Kapitänleutnant) Curt von Gossler, panicked and ordered his crew to surface and scuttle the boat. Machinegun fire from Fearless discouraged von Gossler from properly disposing of his secret documents and a boat from Brazen was able to retrieve many of them, including a map showing the location of all U-boats in Norwegian waters. Valiant, Fearless, Brazen and the destroyer Griffin were ordered to return to Scapa Flow that evening.[7]
Beginning on 23 April, the ship was one of the escorts for the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Glorious as they conducted air operations off the coast of Norway in support of Allied operations ashore. Fearless was detached to refuel at Sullom Voe on the 28th and rejoined the screen two days later.[8] The ship was under repair from 15 May to 10 June at Middlesbrough. A week later, she was escorting the battlecruiser Hood and Ark Royal, together with her sisters Faulknor and Foxhound and the destroyer Escapade, from Scapa Flow to Gibraltar where they would form Force H.[9]
Force H, 1940–41
On 3 July she took part in the attack on the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir (Operation Catapult). A month later the ship escorted Force H during Operation Hurry, a mission to fly off fighter aircraft for Malta and conduct an airstrike on Cagliari on 2 August.[10] Two days later, while returning to the UK, Fearless collided with the trawler Flying Wing and was repaired at the Barclay Curle shipyard in Scotstoun between 10 August and 11 October. On 30 October she was involved in another collision with SS Lanark at Greenock that fractured her stern. More repairs followed at Troon, and Fearless did not rejoin Force H at Gibraltar until 18 January 1941.[11]
On 31 January, Force H departed Gibraltar to carry out
freighter SS Bangkok, supposedly laden with 3,000 metric tons (2,953 long tons; 3,307 short tons) of rubber, which had already been unloaded. Fearless was ordered to board and capture Bangkok, but she was thwarted by gunfire from a coast-defence battery off the port of Nemours, Algeria. A few days later, Fearless and four other destroyers escorted Sheffield, the battlecruiser Renown, and Ark Royal in Operation Winch, which delivered 12 Hurricane fighters to Malta.[13]
In early May she was part of the destroyer screen with five other destroyers for the battleship
minesweeping gear rigged to allow them to serve as a fast minesweepers en route to Malta. Despite this, one merchant ship was sunk by mines and another damaged. The ship escorted another flying-off mission to Malta on 14 June; two days later, after German blockade runners reached France, Force H sortied into the Atlantic on a failed search for more blockade runners. Together with her sisters Faulknor, Foresight, Forester and Foxhound, Fearless helped to sink U-138 on 18 June. Four days later, the 8th DF was tasked to intercept a German supply ship spotted heading towards the French coast. The next day they intercepted MV Alstertor which was scuttled by her crew upon the approach of the British ships. They rescued 78 British POWs taken from ships sunk by German raiders as well as the crew.[14]
.jpg)
Another Malta convoy (
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bomber at 09:45 on 23 July. The detonation killed 27 and wounded 11 of her crew, set the aft oil tank on fire, and knocked out all power and the port propeller shaft. Forester closed to render assistance, but Fearless could not be saved under the circumstances. Her crew were taken off by her sister, which then sank the wrecked and burning ship with torpedoes at 10:57,[15] about 50 nmi (93 km; 58 mi) north-north-east of Bône, Algeria, in position 37°40′N 08°20′E / 37.667°N 8.333°E.[16]
Notes
- ^ Lenton, p. 156
- ^ Whitley, p. 103
- ^ Friedman, pp. 236, 241
- ^ English, pp. 75–76, 78
- ^ English, p. 78; Rohwer, pp. 4, 17
- ^ Haarr 2009, pp. 65–66, 87, 92, 105
- ^ Haarr 2010, pp. 198, 203–05
- ^ Haarr 2010, pp. 143, 150
- ^ Rohwer, p. 29
- ^ Rohwer, pp. 31, 34
- ^ English, p. 79
- ^ Admiralty Historical Section, pp. 48–53
- ^ English, p. 79; Rohwer, pp. 66–67
- ^ English, p. 79; Rohwer, p. 74, 77–78
- ^ English, p. 79; Evans, pp. 71–72; Kemp, p. 151
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "HMS Fearless (H 67)". uboat.net. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
References
- Admiralty Historical Section (2002). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean. Whitehall histories., Naval Staff histories. Vol. 2, November 1940–December 1941. London: Whitehall History in association with Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-5205-9.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- English, John (1993). Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. Kendal, England: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-64-9.
- Evans, Arthur S. (2010). Destroyer Down: An Account of HM Destroyer Losses 1939–1945. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 978-1-84884-270-0.
- Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8.
- Haarr, Geirr H. (2010). The Battle for Norway: April–June 1940. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-057-4.
- Haarr, Geirr H. (2009). The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-323-9.
- Kemp, Paul (1999). The Admiralty Regrets: British Warship Losses of the 20th Century. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1567-6.
- Lenton, H. T. (1998). British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
- Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.
External links
| E class |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F class |
| ||||||
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in July 1941 | |
|---|---|
| Shipwrecks |
|
| Other incidents |
|
