Sea Power in World War II Album #1

 

British Army reinforcements arrive in the Middle East having been transported by the liner QUEEN ELIZABETH, 22 July 1942. (Imperial War Museum photo E 14706)

  

A sailor aboard an anti-submarine patrol vessel off the North African coast mans a Lewis Mk III machine gun on an anti-aircraft mounting, 13 April 1942. (Imperial War Museum E10583)

 

A Motor Launch enters the waters. Note the natives on the bows calling for the Blessings of Allah. (Imperial War Museum A15774)

 

A general view of a launching ceremony. (Imperial War Museum A15775)

 

The late Lord Moyne, right, Deputy Minister of State for the Middle East, watching one of the launching ceremonies. (Imperial War Museum A15773)

 

A boat made fast alongside after launching. (Imperial War Museum A15776)

 

The commissioning ceremony. The Commanding Officer, right, addresses his crew. (Imperial War Museum A15779)

 

The commissioning ceremony. Officers salute the White Ensign. (Imperial War Museum A15778)

 

The commissioning ceremony. The White Ensign is hoisted aft with the crew facing it while the officers salute. (Imperial War Museum A15777)

 

After the commissioning ceremony the crew bring aboard cooking utensils, buckets etc. (Imperial War Museum A15780)

 

Festooned with old car tyres (to prevent the sides being damaged) the Motor Launch leaves the shipyard on her journey from Cairo to Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15781)

 

A Motor Launch in the Sweet Water Canal en route. (Imperial War Museum A15789)

 

In the Sweet Water Canal en route. (Imperial War Museum A15791)

 

In the Sweet Water Canal en route. (Imperial War Museum A15790)

 

Waiting for the bridge to open at Bilbeis. (Imperial War Museum A15785)

 

The lock gates opening at Bilbeis. (Imperial War Museum A15786)

 

Entering Bilbeis lock. (Imperial War Museum A15787)

 

Maneuvering past barges on leaving the lock at Bilbeis. (Imperial War Museum A15788)

 

An Indian sentry stands guard as the boat enters Shubra lock. (Imperial War Museum A15782)

 

 

The boat in Shubra lock, the first of many locks on her journey from Cairo to Port Said. In the background is the River Nile. (Imperial War Museum A15783)

 

Leaving one of the locks just outside Cairo. (Imperial War Museum A15784)

 

Protecting the boats' side as she comes alongside at Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15793)

 

The Motor Launches safely berthed at Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15794)

 

Piecing together the awning. (Imperial War Museum A15768)

 

Piecing together the awning. (Imperial War Museum A15767)

 

Mounting the forward Gun at Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15795)

 

Lowering the after gun on board at Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15797)

 

Mounting the after gun at Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15796)

 

Arriving at Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15799)

 

 

The Motor Launch at speed during her acceptance trials at Port Said. (Imperial War Museum A15798)

 

A prototype X-craft churns along during trials. The British sent 10 X-craft midget submarines against the Tirpitz in September 1943. Two succeeded in depositing mines that damaged the battleship.

 

Prototype midget submarine X-3 or X-4 gets underway during trials in 1942.

 

British seamen operate their X-craft in the cramped space available for the four-man crew.

  

Midget submarine HMS XE8 'Expunger', plies the waters of the harbor at Sydney, Australia, in 1945, built by Broadbent, sunk as target 1952, recovered 1973 and preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard, on loan from the Imperial War Museum.

 

British midget submarine XE9.

 

Midget submarine HMS Sprat.

 

Midget submarine HMS Stickleback X51.

 

Midget submarine HMS Shrimp.

 

British midget submarine XE7.

 

A veteran of Operations Torch (North Africa), Husky (Sicily), and Avalanche (Salerno, Italy), HMS Roberts fires on German positions in the vicinity of Sword Beach with its 15-inch guns.

 

A British landing craft burns after being hit by a German shell off Sword Beach.

 

The Royal Navy heavy cruisers HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Cornwall under heavy air attack by Japanese carrier aircraft on 5 April 1942. The photo was taken from a Japanese aircraft.

 

HMS Belfast, Edinburgh class light cruiser.

 

HMS Campbeltown being converted for the raid on Saint Nazaire harbor. There are twin lines of armor plate down each side of the ship and the Oerlikon mountings. Two of her funnels have been removed, with the remaining two cut at an angle.

 

HMS Campbeltown after the raid.

 

Close up of HMS Campbeltown after the raid. Note the shell damage in the hull and upper works and the German personnel on board the vessel.

 

The Normandie Dock months after the raid. The wreck of HMS Campbeltown can be seen inside the dry dock.

  

Town class destroyer HMS Broadway (H90). Originally commissioned as Clemson class USS Hunt (DD-194) and transferred to Britain in 1940.

 

 

2nd Submarine Squadron, Gibraltar.

 

 

The British subs at Malta. Even in the island’s blackest days subs still sailed from Malta to attack the enemy’s North Africa supply lines.

 

British ferry ships were devised by the British War Department to carry special gear so that locomotives and rolling stock could be quickly linked up with a nearby railway system. Cherbourg, 1944.

 

 

Fairmile D motor torpedo boat.

 

Cargo ship SS Agnete Maersk. Agnete Maersk was launched by Yarrow & Co. Shipbuilders Ltd. in Scotland in 1921. The merchant weighed 2,104 GRT, was 286 feet (87.17 meters) long, powered by a 208 nhp three-cylinder triple expansion engine (one screw), and could make 9 knots. The vessel's first owner was the Danish company Nord-Psterso, based in Copenhagen. Under the name "SS Aabenraa", the ship was operated until 1924. A. P. Moller, also based in Copenhagen, then acquired the vessel and renamed it "Agnete Maersk". The merchant remained in service until it was taken by the British for convoy duty on February 11th, 1941. While part of Convoy OG 56 ("OG" standing for "Outbound to Gibraltar"--usually forming off the west coast of France), Agnete Maersk was torpedoed and sunk by Italian Marcello-class submarine Veniero (1938) on March 24th, 1941. There were no survivors. I believe the vessel was operated by a crew of 28 and was likely captained by Rasmus Peter Henry Parkholm at the time.

 

QF 2-pdr Mark VIII "multiple pom-pom" AA gun(s?). Development of the multiple pom-pom began in the early-1920s, based on the earlier single-barreled Mark II "pom-pom." The weapon was designed to fulfill a requirement for a multi-barreled AA weapon that could effectively engage aircraft at a close range. The weapon entered service in 1930. The multiple pom-pom came in many different arrangements. There were single-barrel versions, quad versions, etc. This particular mount appears to have seven or eight barrels. The pom-pom cannon was widely used by Allied naval forces, often mounted on corvettes, destroyers, aircraft carriers, and many other vessels.

 

QF 2-pdr Mark VIII "multiple pom-pom" AA gun(s?). Development of the multiple pom-pom began in the early-1920s, based on the earlier single-barreled Mark II "pom-pom." The weapon was designed to fulfill a requirement for a multi-barreled AA weapon that could effectively engage aircraft at a close range. The weapon entered service in 1930. The multiple pom-pom came in many different arrangements. There were single-barrel versions, quad versions, etc. This particular mount appears to have seven or eight barrels. The pom-pom cannon was widely used by Allied naval forces, often mounted on corvettes, destroyers, aircraft carriers, and many other vessels.

 

HMS Olympus (N-35) in Grand Harbour, Malta, in December 1941.

 

HMS Egret (L75) in 1942, with four twin 4-inch mountings. HMS Egret was a sloop of the British Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class. She was built by J. Samuel White at Cowes, Isle of Wight and was launched on 31 May 1938. Egret was the first ship ever to be sunk by a guided missile. The Germans had used the Henschel Hs 293 glider bomb for the first time on 25 August 1943 against the 40th Support Group in the Bay of Biscay. Landguard was slightly damaged by a near miss. Bideford was hit and damaged, with one sailor killed, though more serious damage was avoided because the bomb's explosive charge did not fully detonate.

 

HMS Mermaid underway in 1944. HMS Mermaid was a Modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Mermaid saw service as a convoy escort during the Second World War, taking part in the sinking of two German submarines while escorting Arctic convoys to and from the Soviet Union. Mermaid, built by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, Scotland, was laid down on 8 September 1942, launched on 11 November 1943, and completed 12 May 1944.

 

 

The wartime HMS Mermaid, Black Swan program.

 

HMS Rochester in 1945. HMS Rochester (L50) was a Shoreham-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War and was a successful anti-submarine warfare vessel, being credited with the destruction of five U-boats.

 

British Fairmile B motor launch.

 

British cruiser HMS Penelope.

 

A group of “little ships” on their way up the Thames River for minor repairs after the evacuation of Dunkirk was over. May 1940.

 

The sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse as seen from a Japanese bomber.

 

This Royal Marine supply party in the HMS Illustrious is passing ammunition up to the 4.5-inch guns in the mounting above. The white hoods and gloves, always worn in action, protected them against burns.

 

Flower class corvette HMS Lotus. Note the "acoustic hammer" fitted to the bow for exploding mines at a safe distance using sound waves.

 

 

HMS Tally Ho was launched in 1943 and successfully sank scores of Japanese enemy warships.

 

HMS Tally Ho’s crest. ‘Celeriter in hostem’ was the sub's motto, which translates as ‘Swiftly among the foe.’

 

A motor launch boat still smoldering in the Loire Estuary after the Saint Nazaire raid.

 

 

British submarines Taku (foreground) and Unison in Malta Harbour in 1943.

 

HMS Barham.

 

The battleships HMS Valiant, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Barham steam in line, 1941. Valiant is nearest the camera.

 

HMS Broadway, a destroyer built as the USS Hunt in 1918. Broadway was one of the fifty American destroyers loaned to Britain in September 1940. On 26 January 1940, USS Hunt once again was taken out of mothballs and brought to life by a fresh crew as the Navy needed ships for the new neutrality patrol in the initial stages of World War II. Shipping for the Caribbean, she escorted the USS Searaven (SS-196), a Sargo-class submarine, from the Canal Zone to Florida then performed training tasks in the Chesapeake. Hunt got underway from Newport 3 October 1940 and reached Halifax, Nova Scotia two days later, where she took on 103 British sailors and, three days after that, she decommissioned from the U.S. Navy, was struck from the Naval List, and taken up by the Royal Navy as the Town-class destroyer HMS Broadway (H80) as part of the infamous “Destroyers for Bases Agreement” between the two countries. As noted by Lt Cdr Geoffrey B Mason’s service histories, “Broadway” had not previously been used for any RN ship but did represent both a city in the UK and one in the U.S. Changes to her by the Brits included removal of mainmast and shortening of the foremast, trimming the after funnels, and replacing the 3in and 4in guns mounted aft with a 12pdr British HA gun in X position. The aft torpedo tubes were also jettisoned and the U.S. style depth charges were replaced with British ones.

 

The huge ‘Magic Eye’ on the bows of the HMS Broadway as she leaves on another trip. HMS Broadway also picked up an “Evil Eye” or “Magic Eye” on her bow, painted by her crew to ward off bad spirits. Joining 11th Escort Group, she had an eventful career in the Atlantic, joining in no less than 29 convoys between and 10 December 1940 and 21 June 1943– just 18 months! During this time, she directly helped shorten the war on 9 May 1941 when assisting the destroyer HMS Bulldog and corvette HMS Aubretia, she captured German submarine U-110 between Iceland and Greenland. The Type IXB U-boat provided several secret cipher documents to the British as part of Operation Primrose and was one of the biggest intel coups of the war, helping to break the German Enigma codes.

 

HMS Broadway also helped chalk up a second German torpedo slinger when on 12 May 1943 she joined frigate HMS Lagan and aircraft from escort carrier HMS Biter in destroying U-89 off the Azores.

 

Sub Lieut Roy A. Gentles, RCNVR, officer on loan to the Royal Navy, who was the first lieutenant on board HMS Broadway in the successful anti-u-boat action in the North Atlantic.

 

The destroyer HMS Broadway off the East coast of Scotland April 1944 after becoming an Air Target Ship. Hunt/Broadway, showing her age, was relegated to training duties by 1944 in Scotland, where she was a target ship for non-destructive bombing and practice strafing runs by new pilots. For this much of her armament to include her radar, anti-submarine mortar, torpedo tubes, and HF D/F outfit was removed. She did get one last hurrah in at the end of the war, sailing for Norwegian waters where she performed occupation duties that included taking charge of several surrendered German U-boats in Narvik and Tromso as part of Operation Deadlight. Hunt/Broadway, who served more in the Royal Navy than she ever did in the naval service of her homeland, was paid off 9 August 1945 and placed in an unmaintained reserve status. She was eventually sold to BISCO on 18th February 1947 for demolition by Metal Industries and towed to the breaker’s yard in Charlestown near Rosyth in 1948.

 

A boat load of Royal Engineers leaves HMS Cairo on board a Motor Fishing Vessel to land at Narvik in Norway, June 1940.