HNoMS Hitra
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| Career (Norway) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Hitra |
| Builder: | Fisher, Detroit, USA |
| Launched: | 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 26 October 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 8 December 1954 |
| Fate: | Sold to civilian interests in 1958, gifted to the Royal Norwegian Navy Museum in Horten in 1981, still active as a museum ship. |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 125 tons |
| Length: | 110.6 feet (33.71 m) |
| Beam: | 18.8 feet (5.73 m) |
| Draft: | 6 feet (1.83 m) |
| Propulsion: | Two General Motors diesel engines with 1,200 hp, two shafts |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37.04 km/h) |
| Range: | 2,500 nautical miles (4,630.00 km) at 10 knots (18.52 km/h) |
| Complement: | 24 men |
| Armament: | 1 x Bofors 40 mm gun 1 x 2 pounder pom-pom 2 x Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 2 x 12,7 mm Colt anti-aircraft machineguns |
| Notes: | All the above listed information, unless otherwise noted, was acquired from [1] |
The HNoMS Hitra (Norwegian prefix "KNM") is a Royal Norwegian Navy submarine chaser that saw action during World War II. She is named after the Norwegian island of Hitra.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Hitra was originally built as SC-718 for the United States Navy, but was transferred to the Shetland Gang in August 1943 because of Admiral Harold R. Stark's intervention. The Hitra and her sister vessels Hessa and Vigra complemented a fleet of civilian fishing boats that ran naval operations between Shetland and Norway.
After the war the Hitra performed coast guard duties until 1953. All three submarine chasers were mothballed at Marvika and formally decommissioned in 1959.
She seemingly ended her days in Karlskrona, Sweden when she sank after someone had opened the bottom valves. It wasn't until 1981, when the Soviet submarine U 137 (Whiskey on the rocks) ran aground, that S. Moen, the director of the Royal Norwegian Navy Museum in Horten saw the abandoned Hitra in a newspaper image. Subsequently, she was raised and shipped back to Norway, where she was restored to her original condition.
Today, the Hitra is a museum ship homeported at Haakonsvern, Bergen, touring the Norwegian coast in the summer months.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Abelsen 1986:: 278
[edit] Literature
- Abelsen, Frank: Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945, Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986 ISBN 82-7046-050-8
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Norwegian Defence Force website on the vessel (Norwegian)
