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Letters
Town Class Destroyers, HMS Bath A query as a result of our piece on the Town Class Destroyers, HMS Bath was one of those that went off to Norway, don't know if I can help, but will search in due course. I would like to find information on the Crew who were aboard the HMS Bath when she was sunk in August of '41. The info in the U.S. is skimpy as there were no US Sailors aboard. If you know of any other sources, or Norwegian contacts, I would appreciate. "Under Lend-lease, she was recommissioned 23 September 1940 and was transferred to Great Britain as part of the destroyers-bases exchange. Renamed Bath, the ship was manned by the Norwegian Navy and was sunk in August 1941." Noel Nichols MM3 Noel, I am not going to be of much use to you. Found it impossible to find any details of the Norwegian crew who manned HMS Bath ( I-17 ). I am sure you know she was ex USS Hopewell ( DD 181 ) and was part of the 50 Town Class traded by your country for Bases in the early part of WW2, in a deal between Roosevelt and Churchill. Bath joined the Royal Navy on the 23rd. of October 1940 at Nova Scotia, and was then manned by Norwegian Sailors when she transferred to the RNN on the 9th. of April in 1941. This ship became part of the 5th. Escort Group based on Liverpool, and was escorting her 6th. convoy to Gibraltar, when convoy OG 71, was attacked by 3 U-Boats, U-204, U-519, and U-201 on the 19th. of August 1941. Kell in U-204, was the first boat to sight the convoy, and attacked first. He struck Bath in the engine room with a Torpedo, she broke in two, sinking in 3 minutes, of her 128 crew, only 42 survived. She sank in position 48 degrees 30 minutes North, 17 degrees 45 minutes West. In all, the 3 U-Boats sank Bath, and 3 freighters that day. Now, on the 19th. of October 1941, U-204 was herself sunk, off Tangier by HM Ships, Mallow and Rochester, and all the crew of U-204 died. Sorry, I was of little help to you, but I guess the fact that Bath was manned by the Norwegian Navy in exile at the time makes it almost impossible to track down her crew by name. From: "USS Hopewell DD681" hopewell_dd681@hotmail.com That's more than I had. But I was looking for Family of the survivors and deceased. Interesting there is so little. Noel Nichols MM3 Web-Snipe USS Hopewell DD 681 '62-64 Home Port http://www.geocities.com/Hopewell_dd681/ I found some more info on the Bath and her crew; |
