Soggy
30-12-2012, 05:27 PM
When i get some time over the coming weeks i'll put up a few bits and bobs i have regarding Armed Trawlers. Got the bug after diving the HMT Pine off of Selsey and our club adopted it. I then began the process of doing a little research and got hooked on finding out about these unsung hero's of both world wars.
So heres a thread for all things Armed Trawlers.
A Brief Introduction....
The Role of the Armed Trawler.
The start of the second world war saw a huge rise in the industrial needs of Great Britain as such our allies and trading partners had only one way to get the raw materials into this country and that was via the sea, it won’t of escaped your notice that we are island nation. Raw materials would be bought in from across the globe to our ports and harbours but they would need protecting throughout their journey. This protection was afforded these merchant ship via the Royal Navy but it left one vital link in the chain unguarded and that was the approaches to our coastline
Initially the armed trawler was a simple and effective attempt to protect the ports and harbours of the country, the navy quickly saw the benefit in converting fishing trawlers to protection duties around the approaches to our major ports after all who better to police the local area than the local fishermen. Many trawlers were quickly converted to both anti-submarine and mine-sweeping duties and crewed with the experience of the local fishing fleets.
This worked well for the fishermen as the boats they knew how best to handle were the very fishing boats being converted for war. Those self same boats were highly seaworthy and able to put out to sea in all weathers. They became the work horse of coastal protection with many and varied roles from the opening and closing of boom gates, barrage ballon tethers, anti-submarine warfare and sweeping the approaches for drifting submerged mines.
The navy initially classified the requisitioned trawlers’ by manufacturer and 3 classes of requisitioned trawler came about, they were the Mersey, Strath and Castle classes. It was only later that the navy began to commission new trawlers to be built and all subsequent classes of trawler had the same ancestry. It was the trawler Basset built in 1935 that all subsequent armed trawlers’ were based upon. There were 13 sub classes of armed trawlers, they were Basset, Tree, Dance, Shakespearian, Isles, Admiralty, Portuguese, Brazilian, Castle, Hills, Fish, Round Table and Military class, in total 250 armed trawlers were built between 1935 and 1945.
With the invasion and subsequent liberation of France, a new phase in the war emerged and the armed trawlers were suddenly called to serve in a new and unfamiliar capacity, this time as convoy protection, a role they were woefully unsuited for both in fire power and manoeuvrability. Many convoys’ plied the coastal routes and armed trawlers were called to provide protection from submarines to these convoys. The slow speed of the trawlers meant that often should a trawler be called away to investigate a submarine sighting or engage the enemy of any kind they would quickly drop behind the convoy and many hours would go by before the trawlers’ could return to their positions.
The German u-boat captains knew of the short comings of the trawlers and would play a cat and mouse game with the armed trawlers. The u-boats could out pace the armed trawlers on the surface so would let themselves be sighted before turning and trying to outrun the armed trawlers to get to a position enabling them to engage the allied convoys.
The heroism and bravery of the armed trawler captains didn’t go unnoticed by the German naval commanders and one engagement shows quite simply how the armed trawlers and their crews fought even in the face of over whelming odds.
Her Majesties Trawler Juniper, of the Tree Class, was escorting a tanker during the Norwegian campaign and while in Norwegian waters spotted a German naval squadron comprising two battleships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the cruiser Admiral Hipper and four destroyers. Seeing that she couldn’t escape this squadron as she didn’t have the speed, the HMT Juniper hoisted her battle ensign and turned under full steam for the enemy squadron. With only her diminutive 12 pounder, she turned into 530 tonnes of spitting , fighting fury and sailed head first into the squadron, incredibly surviving for an hour and a half before finally succumbing to the battleships, sinking beneath the waves and leaving only 4 survivors.
Armed trawlers were stationed in small fleets anywhere the admiralty thought they were required, many stationed around the coast of Britain, in Shetland, Plymouth, Portland, Portsmouth and Rosyth. A number of armed trawlers were stationed further a field from Iceland through Gibraltar and the Mediterranean to the Azores and South Africa. The humble armed trawler made her presence felt across the globe.
So heres a thread for all things Armed Trawlers.
A Brief Introduction....
The Role of the Armed Trawler.
The start of the second world war saw a huge rise in the industrial needs of Great Britain as such our allies and trading partners had only one way to get the raw materials into this country and that was via the sea, it won’t of escaped your notice that we are island nation. Raw materials would be bought in from across the globe to our ports and harbours but they would need protecting throughout their journey. This protection was afforded these merchant ship via the Royal Navy but it left one vital link in the chain unguarded and that was the approaches to our coastline
Initially the armed trawler was a simple and effective attempt to protect the ports and harbours of the country, the navy quickly saw the benefit in converting fishing trawlers to protection duties around the approaches to our major ports after all who better to police the local area than the local fishermen. Many trawlers were quickly converted to both anti-submarine and mine-sweeping duties and crewed with the experience of the local fishing fleets.
This worked well for the fishermen as the boats they knew how best to handle were the very fishing boats being converted for war. Those self same boats were highly seaworthy and able to put out to sea in all weathers. They became the work horse of coastal protection with many and varied roles from the opening and closing of boom gates, barrage ballon tethers, anti-submarine warfare and sweeping the approaches for drifting submerged mines.
The navy initially classified the requisitioned trawlers’ by manufacturer and 3 classes of requisitioned trawler came about, they were the Mersey, Strath and Castle classes. It was only later that the navy began to commission new trawlers to be built and all subsequent classes of trawler had the same ancestry. It was the trawler Basset built in 1935 that all subsequent armed trawlers’ were based upon. There were 13 sub classes of armed trawlers, they were Basset, Tree, Dance, Shakespearian, Isles, Admiralty, Portuguese, Brazilian, Castle, Hills, Fish, Round Table and Military class, in total 250 armed trawlers were built between 1935 and 1945.
With the invasion and subsequent liberation of France, a new phase in the war emerged and the armed trawlers were suddenly called to serve in a new and unfamiliar capacity, this time as convoy protection, a role they were woefully unsuited for both in fire power and manoeuvrability. Many convoys’ plied the coastal routes and armed trawlers were called to provide protection from submarines to these convoys. The slow speed of the trawlers meant that often should a trawler be called away to investigate a submarine sighting or engage the enemy of any kind they would quickly drop behind the convoy and many hours would go by before the trawlers’ could return to their positions.
The German u-boat captains knew of the short comings of the trawlers and would play a cat and mouse game with the armed trawlers. The u-boats could out pace the armed trawlers on the surface so would let themselves be sighted before turning and trying to outrun the armed trawlers to get to a position enabling them to engage the allied convoys.
The heroism and bravery of the armed trawler captains didn’t go unnoticed by the German naval commanders and one engagement shows quite simply how the armed trawlers and their crews fought even in the face of over whelming odds.
Her Majesties Trawler Juniper, of the Tree Class, was escorting a tanker during the Norwegian campaign and while in Norwegian waters spotted a German naval squadron comprising two battleships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the cruiser Admiral Hipper and four destroyers. Seeing that she couldn’t escape this squadron as she didn’t have the speed, the HMT Juniper hoisted her battle ensign and turned under full steam for the enemy squadron. With only her diminutive 12 pounder, she turned into 530 tonnes of spitting , fighting fury and sailed head first into the squadron, incredibly surviving for an hour and a half before finally succumbing to the battleships, sinking beneath the waves and leaving only 4 survivors.
Armed trawlers were stationed in small fleets anywhere the admiralty thought they were required, many stationed around the coast of Britain, in Shetland, Plymouth, Portland, Portsmouth and Rosyth. A number of armed trawlers were stationed further a field from Iceland through Gibraltar and the Mediterranean to the Azores and South Africa. The humble armed trawler made her presence felt across the globe.