Town-class destroyer
This destroyer was one of the fifty destroyers of the "destroyers-deal", an agreement between the British and Americans, for which the Americans got bases in Commonewealth territory in exchange for the destroyers. These ships, in Britain known as the Town-class escorts, generally have performed well, being available when they were most needed, but one of their less features was a bad stearing control. This resulted in several accidents, in the case of the Campbeltown, two times. She served with the 17th Flotilla Western Approaches, later in the 7th escort group. The Dutch had personell to spare since most of the new ships were still fitting out at the dockyard, and this gave them the chance to anticipate actively in the Battle of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, this ship was in a rather bad condition on take-over. She had lost her bow, needed replacement propellors and had a malfunctioning electrical dynamo. She was ready for service on April 6 1941, after which she took part in escorting convoys on the Atlantic. One particular action, in her last days with the Dutch Navy, was the successful salvage operation of the Norwegian tanker Vinga (7321 gross tons, a "straggler" from convoy OS-6). This ship was floating around in the Atlantic after being damaged by a German plane. A whaleboat with volunteers boarded the ship with salvage-equipment and managed to contain the fire after several hours of hard work. Later another fire broke out which could be extinguished easily. A very valuable ship was thus saved for the war effort. She was given back to the Royal Navy in October 1941, after which she spent most of the time in overhaul. She was apparently in such a poor condition, that she was appointed to take part in operation Chariot, in fact a suicide mission to take out the Normandy dock in St Nazaire, pre-war used for the big French liner Normandy. This was the only place on the French coast, where the Tirpitz could dock if she'd make an attempt to raid the British supply routes. This action was executed perfectly, and the dock was taken out of commission.
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| HMS Campbeltown still as USS Buchanan |
| Construction details | |
| Name | Campbeltown (ex - USS Buchanan) |
| Dockyard | Bath Iron Works (Bath, Maine, USA) |
| Laid down | June 29 1918 |
| Launched | January 2 1919 |
| Commissioned | January 20 1919 (US Navy) September 9 1940 (RN) January 17 1941 (RNN) |
| Pennant | DD.131 (US Navy) I.42 (RN/RNN) |
| Status | Returned to Royal Navy on October 15 1941. Destroyed at St Nazaire March 28 1942 during operation Chariot. |
| Specifications | ||
| Displacement (standard / full) | 1090 t / 1154 t | |
| Crew | 110 - 122 | |
| Dimensions | 95,8 x 9,17 x 2,8 m | |
| Armament | 4 x 4 inch (4x1) 1 x 76 mm |
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| Torpedoes | 12 x 21'' in 4 triple mounts* | |
| ASW | 2 depthchargeracks, asdic | |
| * These destroyers usually had their aft two mounts removed and replaced by DC throwers. I don't know if it was the case with the Campbeltown. | ||
| Propulsion details | ||
| Boilers | 4 Normand | |
| Machinery | 2 Parsons geared turbines | |
| Performance | 24200 hp | |
| Shafts | 2 | |
| Range | 2500 nm @ 20 knots 3800 nm @ 15 knots |
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| Bunkerage (design / max) | 225 t / 275 t | |
| Max Speed | 30 - 35 knots (design) | |
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