HNoMS Garm
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 Plan of Draug class destroyer  HNoMS Garm before the war, clearly showing off her four funnels |
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| Career (Norway) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Garm |
| Builder: | The Royal Norwegian Navy's shipyard at Horten |
| Launched: | 27 May 1913 |
| Commissioned: | 6 July 1914 [1] |
| Decommissioned: | 26 April 1940 |
| Fate: | Sunk by Luftwaffe bombers 26 April 1940 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Draug class |
| Displacement: | 580 tons standard [2] |
| Length: | 69.2 metres (227.03 ft) |
| Beam: | 7.3 metres (23.95 ft) |
| Draft: | 2.9 metres (9.51 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Two steam turbines with 8000 hp |
| Speed: | 27 knots (50.00 km/h) |
| Complement: | 76 men |
| Armament: | 6 × 7.6 cm (3 inch) guns 1 × 12,7 mm Colt anti-aircraft machine gun 3 × trainable 45 cm torpedo launchers |
The destroyer HNoMS Garm, known locally as Torpedojager Garm (litt.: torpedohunter), was the third destroyer built for the Royal Norwegian Navy, and was a Draug class destroyer. Garm was constructed several years after her two sisterships, but to the same plans. She was built at the naval shipyard in Horten, with build number 107.[3]
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[edit] Reactivation at the outbreak of World War II
Garm was mothballed after she became obsolete, but was recommissioned 28 August 1939 and took part in the defence of Norway after the German invasion in 1940. She was deployed to the 2nd Naval District's 1st destroyer division [4], a district covering an area roughly the same as the Vestlandet and Trøndelag regions.
[edit] Name
She was named after Garm, the greatest of all wolfs and guardian of Hel - the Norse underworld for those died ingloriously of disease or in old age.
[edit] Neutrality duties and the Altmark incident
On 15 February 1940 Garm was the third and final Royal Norwegian Navy warship to search the German tanker and POW ship Altmark after she entered Norwegian territorial waters up until the Altmark incident. Garm transported the commanding admiral of the 2nd naval district, Admiral Carsten Tank-Nielsen, to the German vessel, then in the Hjeltefjord, so could personally approve the decision to let the ship proceed. After this final cursory inspection Garm let the German ship continue southwards.
[edit] Norwegian campaign service
On 9 April 1940 Garm was stationed at Norway's second largest city, Bergen, and the vessel operated in the Sognefjord after the Germans had occupied Bergen.
[edit] Attempted defence of Bergen
During the German attack on Bergen Garm intercepted the last ship of the enemy flotilla, the cruiser Königsberg, and tried to carry out a torpedo attack. This failed due to the distance between the two ships being to great for a quick surprise attack by the tiny Norwegian destroyer. As the Garm's commander, Captain S. Skjolden, attempted to close to torpedo range of the cruiser (the distance between the ships was about 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) and the torpedoes were pre-set for 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) range) the Königsberg opened fire and straddled the Norwegian ship with 15 cm shells. After a number of narrow misses from the German guns the Garm broke off her attack and fled to the north, pursued by Luftwaffe bombers.
[edit] Sinking in the Sognefjord
She was sunk by a direct hit from Luftwaffe bombers while anchored near her sister ship Troll at their Sognefjord base of Bjordal on 26 April.
Five German bombers attacked the two destroyers and one of the around thirty bombs dropped hit the Garm right behind the front funnel, detonating two of her torpedoes and some other ammunition. The old ship was almost broken in half by the explosion and burned for hours before sinking. All members of the crew had abandoned ship when the attack came as she had no effective anti-aircraft weapons to defend herself with, hence no casualties were endured during the Garm's sinking.
[edit] Other ships called Garm
The Royal Norwegian Navy between 1956 and 1977 had a River class frigate that until 1965 was known as HNoMS Garm and was then renamed HNoMS Valkyrien.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ History of the Royal Norwegian Navy: The month of July (Norwegian)
- ^ Abelsen 1986: 27
- ^ Horten municipal archive for local history: Build numbers at Hor Template:No icten Yardon
- ^ Administrative Order of Battle Royal Norwegian Navy
[edit] Source
- Abelsen, Frank: Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945, Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986 ISBN 82-7046-050-8 (Norwegian)&(English)
[edit] External links
- Naval History via Flix: KNM Draug, retrieved 29 January 2006 (English)
- Ships of the Norwegian navy, retrieved 29 January 2006 (English)
- Byggenummer ved Horten verft, retrieved 8 February 2006 (Norwegian)
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