12 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2009
639
Last of the old breed
OF THE ten original Type 42
of Lancaster’s Regiment (which has
destroyers built as guardians
picked up the banner of the King’s
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
of the Fleet against air attack,
Regiment), RAF 12(B) Squadron
at Lossiemouth and the Worshipful
only one remains on active Company of Pewterers.
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service.
Understandably given the city’s
Her name is HMS Liverpool.
seafaring heritage, there’s an equally
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The Liver Bird is the last of the
long and proud list of previous HMS
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shortened 42s (batches 1 and 2) which
Liverpools.
can be called upon for front-line duties
The line begins in 1741 with a fifth-
H
service (Nottingham is currently
rate frigate which served for 15 years
winding down in Portsmouth Naval
before being sold for the princely sum
Heligoland ....................Hli l d 1914
e Hoe
Base).
of £494... before the Admiralty bought
Mediterranean ............. 1940 But she won’t be called upon
her back and recommissioned her as
Calabria ........................ 1940 just yet. Liverpool is undergoing a
HMS Looe.
Arctic ............................ 1942 substantial overhaul in her home port
They couldn’t bring her back as
Malta Convoys ............. 1942 for the last act of a career.
HMS Liverpool because by 1758,
Battle Honours The 29-year-old vessel needed a bit
the second ship to bear the name
of a makeover following six months
had arrived, a sixth-rate frigate which
in the South Atlantic and African
served, on and off, for the next two
Class: Type 42 (Batch 2)
waters – Falklands, South Georgia,
decades until wrecked off Long Island
destroyer
Brazil, South Africa, Angola, Ghana,
in 1778.
Pennant number: D92
Sierra Leone and Senegal – during the
Liverpool III – a fourth-rate frigate
Builder: Cammell Laird,
– served for a mere eight years during
Birkenhead
summer and autumn of 2008.
and after the Napoleonic wars. It was
Laid down: July 5 1978
So since the end of last year, she’s
another four decades before the name
Launched: September 25 been a hive of activity in Pompey where
was resurrected as a screw frigate in
1980 lots of Intersleek 500 (not a train but
1860. Such was the pace of change
Commissioned: July 1 1982 a special coat of paint which makes
that she was obsolete in a decade.
Displacement: 4,820 tons the destroyer scythe through the waves
Into the 20th Century and the fifth
Length: 125 metres (410ft) more efficiently) has been applied,
HMS Liverpool, a Town-class cruiser,
Beam: 14.3 metres (47ft) adding a transom flap (an underwater
served with distinction in the Great
Draught: 5.8 metres ‘spoiler’ on her stern which also makes
War, notably at the Heligoland Bight
Speed: 30 knots
es
the ship scythe through the waves
in the first month of the conflict.
Complement: 287 more efficiently), a revamp for her
She also tried to tow dreadnought
Propulsion: COGOG: 2 x aft machinery space, upgrades to the
HMS Audacious to safety – alas
Rolls Royce Olympus weapons systems and general tweaks
unsuccessfully – after she was mined.
TM3B gas turbines; throughout the 410ft hull.
And so to the previous holder of
2 x Rolls Royce Tyne RM1C
All that work will devour the time
the name, a Gloucester-class cruiser
gas turbines
and energy of the ship’s company
which was heavily engaged in the
Armament: Twin Sea Dart
and shipwrights and engineers until
Mediterranean. She helped sink
missile launcher; 4.5 inch
September, when she undergoes initial
the Italian destroyer Espero with a
Mk 8 gun; 2 x 20mm close
trials and tests.
substantial cruiser force in the ‘Battle
range guns; 2 x Phalanx;
Rededication follows on November of the Espero Convoy’ off Crete in
Seagnat and DLF3 decoy
27, then it’s Operational Sea Training June 1940.
launchers
with the taskmasters of FOST in the Twice the cruiser survived being
Helicopter: 1 x Lynx Mk8
Facts and figur
new year and finally deployment. badly damaged by aerial torpedo
Aside from affiliations with her attack, off Crete in 1940 and during
namesake city and good causes on the Malta convoys in the summer of
Merseyside, the ship is bound with 1942. She was paid off a decade later
47 (Air Defence) Regiment RA, Duke and broken up in 1958.
photographic
HEROES OF THE ROYAL NAVY No.61
THE moment naval aviation was truly born. The date is May 2 1912. The place is HMS Hibernia at sea S/Lt David Balme DSC
off Weymouth. And the deed is the fi rst launch of an aircraft from a ship under way. The man at the
controls is Charles Rumney Samson, one of the fi rst four sailors to learn to fl y and the father of naval Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp was a rather HMS Broadway. Stopped perhaps 100 yards
fl ight. The historic moment was captured on camera by Oswald Short (of the eponymous aircraft contradictory fi gure. away was HMS Bulldog.
fi rm). Samson’s S38 T2 aircraft had air-bag fl oats to allow it to land on water and was launched via a Cool-headed – he sank 17 vessels and Aboard the latter, 20-year-old S/Lt David
trolley-shuttle system down a ramp which stretched from Hibernia’s bridge to bow, over her forward damaged the battleship Barham – he could also Balme was rounding up eight shipmates to
12in guns. (Neg Q71041) be hot-headed and rash at times. Instructed form a boarding party. His instructions from his
once to remain on patrol merely to send weather captain were succinct: “Get what you can out ■ THIS photograph – and 9,999,999 others from a century of war and peace – can be viewed or
purchased at www.iwmcollections.org.uk, by emailing photos@IWM.org.uk or by phoning 0207 reports to U-boat HQ, he signalled home one of her.”
416 5333. particularly terse report: ‘Shit. Lemp.’ As U110’s crew spilled into the Atlantic, Balme
And he could lose his head. He had lost it on and his comrades rowed towards the stricken
the first day of war, torpedoing the 13,000-ton U-boat. She was down by the stern – but she
liner Athenia bound for Montreal, convinced she was not sinking.
was a merchant cruiser when a more thorough David Balme realised it. So too did Fritz-Julius
inspection would have told him otherwise. Lemp. He turned to swim back to his boat and
U-boat chief Karl Dönitz tore a strip off the scuttle her or at least destroy the codebooks. He
26-year-old offi cer – and tore a strip out of never made it. Some say he drowned. Some say
his logbook to cover up the attack. But his he was struck by one of the many British bullets
U-Bootwaffe needed skilled commanders which were whizzing around. Some even say he
and Fritz-Julius Lemp was skilled. Within four committed suicide.
months he earned the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Whatever Lemp’s fate, David Balme could
Class. Within a year, the Knight’s Cross – Nazi not believe the Germans “would have just
Germany’s second-highest decoration – had abandoned this submarine”. He was convinced
been pinned to his chest. a Hun or a booby trap lay in wait for him as he
Faith in Lemp seemed well placed. In the began searching the deserted, stricken boat
spring of 1941, he was given a fresh boat to under the blue hue.
take the fi ght to the enemy, U110. His fi rst patrol There were no pitfalls, only prizes. Balme’s
proved disappointing. Two ships damaged, telegraphist, Allen Long, headed for the radio
none sunk. His second would change the course room. He found papers, signals, codebooks, and
of history. a typewriter. He pressed a key – and a little light
After a dozen barren days, Friday May 9 on a different letter fl ashed on a display panel.
1941 offered hope. Lemp and U201 were The ‘typewriter’ was unscrewed, passed down
closing on convoy OB318, 350 miles east of a human chain and eventually transferred to
the southernmost tip of Greenland. U110 would HMS Bulldog. All the time compressed air hissed
strike fi rst. from broken pipes and the U-boat shook under
Today was a day for Fritz-Julius Lemp the hot- the distant detonations of depth charges being
headed. There were nine escorts shepherding dropped on other prey.
the merchantmen westwards. Lemp attacked The boarding party spent some six hours
anyway. taking what they could from U110. Bulldog tried
His bravado paid off – initially. Steamers to tow the crippled submarine to Iceland, but
SS Bengore Head and Esmond were mortally she foundered the following day.
wounded. But then Lemp’s radio operator The real prize was not the boat, but the
heard the ominous sound of pinging in his ‘typewriter’: a working Enigma machine. “We
headphones. have waited the whole war for one of these,”
And then: Wasserbomben – depth charges. an intelligence offi cer enthused when he saw it
Valves cracked. Fuel and water poured from three days later at Scapa Flow.
broken pipes and tanks. The depth gauge Not that Bulldog’s ship’s company could
shattered. The engines failed. U110 was crippled. celebrate their success. The capture of the
Her crew contemplated being crushed as she machine – Operation Primrose – was, the
sank deeper and deeper, but somehow the boat Admiralty ordered, “to be treated with the
surfaced. greatest secrecy and as few people allowed to
Lemp was the fi rst up the conning tower ladder. know as possible.”
He fl ung open the hatch, then yelled down: And so when George VI presented the 20-year-
“Endstation Uhlandstrasse. Alles aussteigen!” old junior offi cer with his DSC later that year, the
“Last stop: Uhlandstrasse. All change.” There monarch apologised that “for security reasons”
was no time to collect the cipher and code the award could not be higher.
books and throw them over the side. “Leave The actions of Balme and his boarding party
everything,” he urged. “Get out.” were, he added, “perhaps the most important
Bearing down on Lemp’s stricken boat was single event in the whole war at sea.”
012_NN_May.indd 1 15/4/09 11:14:14
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