HMS Campbelltown

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HMS Campbelltown

(formerly USS Buchanan) Wickes-class destroyer (2f/2m). L/B/D: 314.4 × 31.8 × 9 (95.8m × 9.7m × 2.7m). Tons: 1,090 disp. Hull: steel. Comp.: 113. Arm.: 4 × 4 (2×2), 1 × 1pdr, 2 × 3pdr, 2 ×.30 cal; 12 × 21TT. Mach.: geared turbines, 26,000 shp, 2 screws; 35 kts. Built: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Me.; 1919.
Named for Admiral Franklin Buchanan, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1815 until joining the Confederate States Navy in 1861, USS Buchanan (DD-131) served with the Pacific Fleet out of San Diego for two decades. At the start of World War II, she was put on the Atlantic Neutrality Patrol designed to keep European combatants out of American waters. Turned over to the British as part of the lend-lease program in September 1940 and renamed HMS Campbeltown, she worked as a convoy escort on the Atlantic.
Concerned about the potential threat posed by Tirpitz should she break out into the Atlantic, the British launched Operation Chariot, to destroy the Normandie dock (named for the French ocean liner) at St. Nazaire, the only dock large enough to hold the German battleship. Packed with explosives and escorted by commandos in gunboats, motor torpedo boats, and motor launches, on the night of March 28, 1942, Campbeltown was driven into the dock caisson. Eleven hours later, the time-delayed explosives destroyed the dock and other port facilities. Only four of the motor launches returned from the chaotic operation, for which five Victoria Crosses were awarded, including one to Campbeltown's Lieutenant Commander S. H. Beattie.

Wingate, HMS "Campbeltown.".

tzt volgen nog HMS Belfast, HMNZS Ajax en HMS Hood .