HNoMS Honningsvåg
Honningsvåg off Iceland
| |
History | |
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Germany | |
Name | Malangen |
Builder |
|
Yard number | 645[1] |
Launched | February 1940 |
Captured | by Norwegian militia on 13 April 1940 |
Norway | |
Name | Honningsvåg |
Namesake | Port of Honningsvåg |
Acquired | 13 April 1940 |
Commissioned | 23 April 1940 |
Decommissioned | 22 August 1946 |
Fate | Sold to civilian interests in 1947, scrapped in 1973 |
Service record | |
Commanders: | Lieutenant A. E. T. Plyhn |
Operations: |
|
Victories: | 1 ship (192 tons) sunk |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 487 gross register tons |
Length | 177.2 ft (54.01 m) |
Beam | 27.5 ft (8.38 m) |
Draft | 16.3 ft (4.97 m) |
Installed power | 1,000 ihp (750 kW) |
Propulsion | 1 × shaft; 1 × Triple-expansion steam engine |
Speed | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
Range | 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Armament |
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Notes | All the above listed information, unless otherwise noted, was acquired from [4] |
HNoMS Honningsvåg was a
German career
Malangen was launched in February 1940 with the designation PG 550 for the trawler company Norddeutsche Hochseefischerei AG. At this early point in the war the Kriegsmarine had not yet begun requisitioning all new trawlers and Malangen was used as an ordinary fishing vessel.[5]
Maiden voyage and capture
On 27 March 1940 the Malangen departed Wesermünde on her maiden voyage to the fishing grounds of the Barents Sea. While she operated off Norway the German invasion of that country began. As she attempted to make her way back to Germany Malangen entered the port of Honningsvåg in the Norwegian Finnmark county on 13 April.[6]
When the German trawler entered the small port she was swiftly boarded by a locally raised guard unit led by
Norwegian Campaign
On 23 April 1940, ten days after the capture of Malangen, the Royal Norwegian Navy
Operations in Nordland
After Honningsvåg arrived at Bodø the naval district commander there stationed the trawler at Sandnessjøen for local patrol missions. While stationed in Sandnessjøen fenrik Plyhn was promoted to løytnant.[13] In April and May 1940 Honningsvåg was one of two Norwegian naval vessels patrolling the southern coastline of Helgeland, keeping German forces away from the coastal areas even as they advanced northwards along Norwegian national road 50 further inland towards Narvik. The other warship on the Helgeland coast was the 192 ton requisitioned local steamer HNoMS Heilhorn[14][15]
Aiding British landings
On 9 May the British troopship Royal Watch arrived at Bodø carrying a 600 men-strong force of two companies codenamed Scissorforce to help block the German advance northwards from Trondheim. Honningsvåg, two local coastal steamers and three fishing vessels were assigned to help land the British forces. By the morning of 10 May all the British soldiers and their equipment had been brought ashore by the Norwegian vessels.[13]
Capturing German air crews
14 May saw Honningsvåg being despatched to the
On 15 May a German land aircraft made an emergency landing at Alstahaug where it was approached by a local militia force. After the German aircrew refused to surrender, the Norwegians opened fire, wounding one of the crew and forcing the four airmen to capitulate. The wounded German was brought to the hospital in Sandnessjøen while the other three were taken by fishing boat to a prisoner-of-war camp.[13]
Honningsvåg became involved in the episode later the same day when a Heinkel He 59 D-AKUK, an ambulance seaplane of the German Seenotflugkommando 1 (Sea Emergency Command 1), responded to emergency calls that the downed German aircrew had made before being captured. At Alstahaug the German officer in charge of the rescue operation, Oberstleutnant Branger, was told by the local population that the crew of the German aircraft had been moved and that there were German wounded and prisoners in nearby Sandnessjøen.[13]
After encountering rifle fire from armed guards at the Alstahaug plane wreck Branger decided to continue on to Sandnessjøen to free the wounded Germans held there. Landing at Sandnessjøen at 1730hrs, Branger and an Unteroffizier armed themselves and went to the hospital where they demanded the release of the wounded Germans held there. Although the chief physician refused to release the Germans the police commissioner at nearby Nesna ordered him to comply with the Germans' demands. While the Germans attempted to gain the release of their comrades Honningsvåg arrived at Sandnessjøen. Løytnant Plyhn contacted the district commander in Bodø and was ordered to seize the He 59 and capture the Germans. Oberstleutnant Branger and the Unteroffizier were the first to be taken prisoner, while the two Germans remaining with the seaplane refused to budge and stayed on board until Plyhn approached them alone and after firing a warning shot took them prisoner. The captured Germans were handed over to the police.[16] The He 59 proved impossible to remove due to low tide. After attempts to pull it free had damaged the pontoons and wings beyond repair, it was towed out on the Leirfjord and sunk on 18 May.[16][17]
The Albion
The next engagement involving Honningsvåg occurred four days later, on 19 May. The
Air attacks
As the
Honningsvåg was subjected to her first attack on 20 May when she was strafed by a single German aircraft while out on patrol in the Ranafjorden, suffering no damage. The next day Sandnessjøen was bombed while Honningsvåg was nearby. This time also being attacked with bombs, as well as strafed, Honningsvåg made evasive manoeuvres and returned fire with her two anti-aircraft machine guns. Suffering minor damage from machine gun hits, she had her first casualty of the war when one of her gunners was lightly wounded.[16]
The following days saw steadily increasing German air activity and Honningsvåg was bombed and strafed repeatedly. Skilled manoeuvring and good gunners enabled the trawler to avoid direct hits until she evacuated the area on 24 May. Being completely out of machine gun ammunition, and suffering from major leaks after several near misses from bombs, Honningsvåg sailed to Harstad where she was placed on a slipway for repairs.[2][16]
Evacuation to the UK
As the repairs on Honningsvåg were being completed her commander, løytnant Plyhn, was amongst the Norwegian naval officers that received orders on 7 June to sail their vessels to the UK as the
Honningsvåg departed Harstad on 7 June 1940 to begin five years
Repair work in the UK
After arrival in the UK Honningsvåg had a number of repairs carried out and was rearmed with a 4-inch (100 mm) main gun, a
Iceland Group
She was declared war ready on 31 August 1940 and joined the Iceland Group of the RNoN on 6 September 1940
Jan Mayen
In November 1940 Honningsvåg was sent on a rescue mission to the Norwegian Arctic island of Jan Mayen to retrieve the shipwrecked crew of the Fridtjof Nansen, the latter ship having hit an uncharted underwater reef off the island's southern coast and sunk on 8 November. The crew of the Fridtjof Nansen had managed to abandon ship in lifeboats and land at the nearby Eggøya peninsula on Jan Mayen, from where they were picked up by the Honningsvåg on 12 November and brought back to Iceland.[31] April 1941 saw Honningsvåg return to Jan Mayen in order to re-establish the weather station on the small volcanic island.[32] Honningsvåg and the other vessels of the Iceland Group returned regularly to Jan Mayen with replacement crews and supplies throughout the war.[33] During the visit the crew of Honningsvåg spotted the remnants of two German Heinkel He 115 seaplanes that had been wrecked during a failed October 1940 attempt at establishing a floating seaplane base off the island to provide for meteorological operations.[34]
Anti-submarine patrols
During patrols and convoy escorting in the Denmark Strait Honningsvåg and fellow Norwegian patrol vessels Namsos, Farsund and Svolvær repeatedly attacked German U-boats. These attacks led to numerous unconfirmed claims of U-boat sinkings.[33] On 10 November 1944 the UK – Reykjavik convoy UR-142[35] was attacked by U-boats off western Iceland. The British steam tanker Shirvan[36] and the Icelandic merchant vessel Godafoss[37] were both torpedoed and sunk by U-300.[38] In response Honningsvåg and a Royal Navy escort vessel counter-attacked with depth charges, claiming a sinking after hearing a large underwater explosion, seeing oil slicks on the surface, and losing the Asdic contact. Following the attack Honningsvåg picked up 25 survivors from the Shirvan and the Godafoss.[33]
Post-Second World War
After returning to Norway in the second half of May 1945 Honningsvåg continued in naval service until she was decommissioned and transferred to Naval Command Trøndelag on 23 August 1946. The next year she was sold to a civilian trawler company in Kristiansund and was converted back to her original role as a fishing trawler. In 1973 she was sold for scrapping in Tjeldsund.[3]
Notes
- ^ "Honningsvaag (5154208)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ a b Steen 1958: 207
- ^ a b c Abelsen 1986:: 86
- ^ a b c Abelsen 1986:: 262
- ^ a b Heise, Hans-Jürgen. "Deutsche Fischdampfer vor Norwegen (1940)". Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart (in German). Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ a b c Lawson, Siri Holm. "D/S Honningsvåg". Warsailors.com. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Sivertsen 2000: 34
- ^ Rohwer, Jürgen; Gerhard Hümmelchen. "Seekrieg 1940, April". Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart (in German). Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Fjeld 1999: 211
- ^ Lawson, Siri Holm. "D/S Nova". Warsailors.com. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Sandberg 1945: 174
- ^ Steen 1958: 250
- ^ a b c d e f Sivertsen 2000: 35
- ^ Skogheim 1984: 229
- ^ Lawson, Siri Holm. "D/S Heilhorn". Warsailors.com. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sivertsen 2000: 36
- ^ Hafsten 1991: 308
- ^ Lawson, Siri Holm. "D/S Albion". Warsailors.com. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ a b c Skogheim 1984: 230
- ^ Skogheim 1990: 63–66
- ^ "Hegra Festning: 4.1 Festningens utvikling". Nasjonale Festningsverk (in Norwegian). Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Sivertsen 2000: 28
- ^ Sivertsen 2000: 29
- ^ Smith, Gordon. "Naval Events, June 1940, Part 1 of 4 Saturday 1st – Friday 7th". naval-history.net. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Sivertsen 2000: 16
- ^ Sivertsen 2000: 234–235
- ^ a b c Sivertsen 2000: 235
- ^ Rønberg, Per (6 March 2003). "Royal Norwegian Navy – Iceland Group". Greenland WW2. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Thomas, Edward. "Norway's role in British wartime intelligence". Newcastle University. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Berg 1997: 92
- ^ Thomassen 1995: 228
- ^ Evans 1999: 62
- ^ a b c Berg 1997: 93
- ^ Barr 2003: 148
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit from convoy UR-142". uboat.net. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Shirvan". uboat.net. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Godafoss". uboat.net. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "U-300". uboat.net. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
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- Evans, Mark Llewellyn (1999). Great World War II Battles in the Arctic. ISBN 0-313-30892-6.
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- ISBN 82-10-02582-1.
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