A-class minesweeper

HNLMS A prior to departure to the Dutch East Indies
Class overview
Builders: Rijkswerf Willemsoord
Operators:
Completed: 4
Laid up: 4
General characteristics
Type: Minesweeper
Displacement: 179 t (176 long tons)
Length: 42.8 m (140 ft 5 in)
Propulsion: 700 hp (520 kW) engine
Speed: 13.5–14.5 kn (25.0–26.9 km/h; 15.5–16.7 mph)
Complement: 3138
Armament: 2 × 12.7 mm calibre machine guns

The A class were four minesweepers of the Royal Netherlands Navy. They were the first purpose-built minesweepers of the Dutch Navy, as earlier minesweepers were converted tugboats.

The A class was based on a German design used during the First World War. All ships of the A class were built between 1928 and 1930 at Willemsoord, Den Helder. All four ships were commissioned on 4 August 1930, and two days later, on 6 August 1930, all four sailed to the Dutch East Indies, arriving at Surabaya on 30 October 1930.

During the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in March 1942 all four ships were scuttled by their crews. Three of the ships, A, B and C, were salvaged and put into service with the Imperial Japanese Navy as auxiliary submarine chasers no. 113, 112 and 116, being rearmed with a single 47 mm gun, three 25 mm cannons, a 13.2 mm machine gun and eight depth charges. All three were sunk by US forces in 19441945.[1]

Ships in class

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jentschura et al 1986, p. 223.
  2. "HNMS D of the Royal Dutch Navy". Uboat. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to A-class minesweepers.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, October 04, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.