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HMS Cranstoun (K511)
Career Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom
Name: HMS Cranstoun
Laid down: 9 June 1943
Launched: 28 August 1943
Commissioned: 13 November 1943
Decommissioned: 3 December 1945
Struck: 7 February 1946
Honours and
awards:
English Channel
North Foreland[1]
Fate: Sold for scrapping, 20 November 1947
General characteristics
Class & type: Captain-class frigate
Displacement: 1,400 long tons (1,422 t) standard
1,740 long tons (1,768 t) full
Length: 306 ft (93 m) o/a
300 ft (91 m) w/l
Beam: 36 ft 9 in (11.20 m)
Draught: 9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion: 2 × Foster Wheeler Express "D"-type water-tube boilers
GE 13,500 shp (10,067 kW) steam turbines and generators (9,200 kW)
Electric motors 12,000 shp (8,948 kW)
2 shafts
Speed: 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range: 5,500 nmi (10,200 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 186
Electronic warfare
& decoys:
SA & SL type radars
Type 144 series Asdic
MF Direction Finding antenna
HF Direction Finding Type FH 4 antenna
Armament: 3 × 3 in (76 mm) /50 Mk.22 guns
1 × twin Bofors 40 mm mount Mk.I
7-16 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns
Mark 10 Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar
Depth charges
QF 2 pounder naval gun
Service record
Commanders: Lt. Eric W. Rainey, RN
(23 November 1943 – 23 June 1945)
A/Lt.Cdr. Alfred S. Miller, DSC, RNZNVR
(23 June–September 1945)
A/Lt.Cdr. John P. Kilbee, RNR
(September–October 1945)[2]
Victories: U-1063 (15 April 1945)

HMS Cranstoun (K511) was a Captain-class frigate of the British Royal Navy that served in the last two years of World War II. The ship was laid down as a Buckley-class destroyer escort at the Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard at Hingham, Massachusetts on 9 June 1943, with the hull number DE-82, and launched on 28 August 1943. The ship was transferred to the UK under Lend-Lease on 13 November 1943,[3] and named after Captain James Cranstoun, an officer who served in the American Revolutionary and French Revolutionary Wars.

Service history[]

Cranstoun served as a convoy escort, and was attached to the Nore Command, and then the 19th Escort Group.[4]

At 21:14 on the evening of 15 April 1945 Cranstoun and Loch Killin, while part of the escort to Convoy TBC 128, detected the German submarine U-1063 in Bigbury Bay, Devon. The two ships mounted a coordinated attack, with Loch Killin using her Squid anti-submarine mortar three times and Cranstoun her Hedgehog mortar once, to force the U-boat to the surface. Burges then also joined the attack, as the U-boat was illuminated by the ship's searchlights and fired on with 20 mm and 40 mm guns. U-1063 attempted to escape, but Loch Killin attacked with depth charges and sank her. Only 17 of the crew survived.[5]

Cranstoun was returned to the U.S. Navy on 3 December 1945, struck from the Navy List on 7 February 1946, and sold for scrapping on 20 November 1947.[3]

References[]

  1. Tynan, Roy (2006). "Captain Class Frigate - Battle Honours". captainclassfrigates.co.uk. http://www.captainclassfrigates.co.uk/honours/bhon.html. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
  2. Helgason, Guðmundur (2011). "Allied Warships of WWII : HMS Cranstoun". uboat.net. http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5653.html. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Smolinski, Mike (2010). "Destroyer Escort Photo Index - HMS Cranstoun (K511)". navsource.org. http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/082.htm. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
  4. Collingwood, Donald (1998). The Captain Class Frigates in the Second World War. Barnsley: Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-615-9. 
  5. Phillips, Stephen (2003). "Into the Lion's Den: The Loss of U-1063". ubootwaffe.net. http://www.ubootwaffe.net/research/reports.cgi?a=2. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 




All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at HMS Cranstoun (K511) and the edit history here.
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