HMS Albury explained

HMS Albury was a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Aberdare sub-class built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War and survived the Second World War to be sold for scrap in 1947.

Design and description

The Aberdare sub-class were enlarged versions of the original Hunt-class ships with a more powerful armament. The ships displaced 800LT at normal load. They measured 231feet long overall with a beam of 26feet. They had a draught of 7feet. The ships' complement consisted of 74 officers and ratings.[1]

The ships had two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by two Yarrow boilers. The engines produced a total of 2200ihp and gave a maximum speed of 16kn. They carried a maximum of 185LT of coal[1] which gave them a range of 1500nmi at .[2]

The Aberdare sub-class was armed with a quick-firing (QF) 4inches gun forward of the bridge and a QF twelve-pounder (76.2 mm) anti-aircraft gun aft.[1] Some ships were fitted with six- or three-pounder guns in lieu of the twelve-pounder.[2] Albury was fitted with a single six-pounder gun in 1931,[3] but by 1939 was listed as having an armament of 1 × 4 inch and 1 × 12-pounder gun.[4]

Construction and career

HMS Albury was built by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company at their shipyard in Troon, Ayrshire. She was launched on 21 November 1918,[5] and commissioned on 17 February 1919.[6] [7] On 21 November 1919, Albury was laid up in reserve at the Nore.[8]

Albury served in the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla in Home waters from 1927 to 1935.[9] In 1939 Albury was in reserve at Malta, part of the 3rd Minesweeper Flotilla.[10] [11] On 3 March 1940, Albury was one of five minesweepers ordered back to British waters from the Mediterranean, joining the 5th Minesweeping Flotilla at Harwich on 2 April 1940.[12] [13] [14] She took part in the Dunkirk evacuation, Operation Dynamo, from 28 May–4 June 1940, carrying out six evacuation trips and landing 1851 evacuees back in Britain.[15] By June 1941, Albury was part of the 4th Minesweeping Flotilla.[16] On 7 November that year, she was attacked by German bombers off the East coast of Scotland. She was near missed by German bombs, which caused minor machinery damage, which took five weeks to repair.[17] [18]

On 19 January 1942 Albury was involved in a collision with HMS Sutton, another Hunt-class minesweeper, and took serious damage.[19]

D-Day and the invasion of Normandy

On 6 June 1944, Albury, still part of the 4th Minesweeping Flotilla, took part in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy.

The 4th Flotilla Group was tasked with sweeping the path ahead of D-Day and in support of the US forces landing at Omaha and Utah beaches. The ship was the first to return to England laden with the dead and wounded from the landings.[20]

From January 1945, Albury was laid up as part of the Reserve Fleet at Falmouth, and on 13 March 1947 was sold to Dohman & Habets of Liège, Belgium for mercantile conversion.[21]

Pennant numbers

Pennant NumberDate
T9/January 1919
G64November 1919
N411939[22]
J411940

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. Gardiner & Gray, p. 98
  2. Cocker, p. 76
  3. Parkes, p. 80.
  4. News: Albury. (Ch.). February 1939. 215. The Navy List .
  5. Dittmar & Colledge, p. 112.
  6. Web site: Helgason. Guðmundur. HMS Albury (J 41): Minesweeper of the Hunt Class. uboat.net. 15 January 2016.
  7. Worth p. 7
  8. News: 23a Albury (Ch.). December 1920. 724. The Navy List .
  9. Web site: Watson. Graham. Between the Wars: Royal Navy Organisation and Ship Deployments 1919–1939. Naval-History.net. 15 January 2016.
  10. Web site: NMM, vessel ID 379655. Warship Histories, Vol V. National Maritime Museum. 15 January 2016. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20131030115558/http://www.rmg.co.uk/upload/pdf/Warship_Histories_Vessels_v.pdf. 30 October 2013. dmy-all.
  11. News: VI.—Mediterranean. The Navy List. February 1939. 206.
  12. Web site: Kindell. Don. Royal Navy Ships, September 1939. British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day . Naval-History.net. 15 January 2016.
  13. Web site: Kindell. Don. Naval Events, April 1940 (Part 1 of 4): Monday 1st – Sunday 7th . British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day . Naval-History.net. 15 January 2016.
  14. Web site: Watson. Graham. Organisation of the Royal Navy 1939–1945. Naval-History.net. 15 January 2016.
  15. Winser, pp. 16, 81.
  16. Web site: Kindell. Don. Naval Events, June 1941 (Part 1 of 2): Sunday 1st – Saturday 14th . British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day . Naval-History.net. 15 January 2016.
  17. Web site: Kindell. Don. Naval Events, November 1941 (Part 1 of 2): Saturday 1st – Friday 14th . British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day . Naval-History.net. 15 January 2016.
  18. H.M. Ships Damaged or Sunk by Enemy Action p. 302.
  19. Web site: Mason . Geoffrey B. . HMS Sutton (N 78) - Old Hunt-class Minesweeper . 15 January 2016 . Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2 . Naval-History.net.
  20. Web site: Gibraltarians at D-Day and the Battle of Normandy . 2024-06-06 . en.
  21. Worth p. 8.
  22. Lenton & Colledge pp. 193, 199.