HNoMS Nordkapp OPV (1937)

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The Nordkapp off Iceland
Career (Norway)
Name:	Nordkapp
Builder:	Horten naval shipyard
Launched:	18 August 1937
Decommissioned:	29 July 1954
Fate:	Sold to civilian owners in 1956, converted into fishing vessel, sank off West Africa on 27 November 1972[1]
General characteristics
Displacement:	234 tons standard
Length:	130.5 feet (39.78 m)
Beam:	21.5 feet (6.55 m)
Draft:	7.5 feet (2.29 m)
Propulsion:	Two Sulzer diesel engines with 580 hp, 1 shaft
Speed:	13.7 knots (25.37 km/h)
Range:	3,200 nautical miles (5,926.40 km) at 11 knots (20.37 km/h)
Complement:	As built: 22 men After UK rebuild:[1][2] 28 men
Armament:	As built: 1 × 47 mm gun After UK rebuild:[1][2] 1 × 3 in. (76 mm) Armstrong Whitworth main gun 1 × 20 mm Oerlikon 4 × 12,7 mm Colt Browning AA machine guns 12 × depth charges in two rows
Notes:	All the above listed information, unless otherwise noted, was acquired from [3]

The lead ship of the Nordkapp class of fishery protection vessels, Nordkapp was launched 18 August, 1937 at Horten naval shipyard, with build number 123.^[4] She had one sister ship, HNoMS Senja. Nordkapp was named after the North Cape in Finnmark. As was typical of her class Nordkapp was very unstable in rough seas and was viewed from the beginning as a second-rate vessel. Even with such a poor outset Nordkapp sailed throughout World War II with a fine service record.^[5]

Contents 1 Nordkapp in the Norwegian Campaign 1.1 Sinking the Kattegat 1.2 Guard and escort duties 1.3 Patrol and bombardment missions 1.4 Friendly fire incident and evacuation 2 Service abroad 2.1 Iceland and the Shetland Bus 2.2 Operation Neptune and Scapa Flow 3 Return to Norway 4 Post-war 5 See also 6 References 7 Literature

[edit] Nordkapp in the Norwegian Campaign

When the Germans invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, Nordkapp was stationed in North Norway, belonging to the Royal Norwegian Navy's 3. Naval District^[6] and commanded by Lieutenant Commander Jon Seip.^[3] During the Norwegian Campaign Nordkapp saw the first actions of her career.

[edit] Sinking the Kattegat

In the evening of 9 April Nordkapp intercepted the 6,031 ton German tanker Kattegat^[7] in the Glomfjord south of Narvik. Kattegat was one of two tankers the Germans intended to use in order to quickly refuel the ten destroyers of the Narvik task force, enabling them to escape back to Germany before the Royal Navy could trap and sink them. While the other tanker, Jan Wellem, had reached Narvik before the German attack the captain of the Kattegat had been warned of a British naval mine field in the Vestfjord (Operation Wilfred) and refused to continue, choosing instead to anchor up in Sandlågbukta, Neverdal at Ørnes, Glomfjord. Before confronting the German ship the Nordkapp's commander had been instructed by the 3. Naval District to take her as a prize, but after speaking with two Norwegian pilots who had guided the German tanker a short time earlier he decided that this would be too hazardous an undertaking.^[8]

As the pilots reported that the tanker's thirty-nine man crew was armed Lieutenant Commander Seip considered it impossible to seize the ship since his own 22 man crew had a total of only four rifles amongst them. He assessed that to control the large German crew all the way into the port of Bodø while being outnumbered and probably out gunned would have been too difficult.^[8]

When Nordkapp reached the tanker she stopped at some distance with her gun manned and signalled the German vessel. The signal was an order to abandon ship within ten minutes or take the consequences. At the end of the ten minutes the Norwegian warship fired four 47 mm rounds into the Kattegat's water line. As the Germans had opened their ship's valves while leaving the tanker the Kattegat sank quickly. Thirty-four of the crew were brought on board the Nordkapp as POWs from a nearby wharf while the remaining five escaped into the hills after their ship was sunk^[8][9]. The effect of removing the Kattegat from the Germans' supply chain was that the German destroyers at Narvik could only be refuelled two at a time, instead of the planned four at a time. Consequently, the German warships at Narvik failed to make their escape in time and were destroyed by the Royal Navy in the Battles of Narvik.^[10]

The Kattegat was later salvaged by the Norwegian military, with 1,400 tons of diesel and 207 barrels of grease unloaded at Svolvær. On 15 May, before Kattegat was ready to sail to Tromsø, she was bombed and damaged by a German plane. As the damaged ship still held 5,000 tons of oil the local fishing boat fleet helped themselves to the cargo until the Germans arrived to retake the ship after the capitulation of mainland Norway in June.^[11] The short time Kattegat was in Norwegian hands she served under the name M/T Bodø.^[7]

[edit] Guard and escort duties

The next task for Nordkapp after she had dealt with Kattegatt came on 13 April when she was ordered to go to Brønnøysund. A German Heinkel He 115 had landed there after running out of fuel and been seized by the local police who had taken the four German airmen into custody. The plane was captured intact with a full bomb load and was later flown to Tromsø by Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service lieutenant Sivertsen and pressed into Norwegian service.^[12]

From 16 to 22 April Nordkapp was deployed with a Royal Navy squadron of 14 warships and two troopships that had arrived at Sjonafjord north of Sandnessjøen. As the force split up and some of the destroyers sailed south Nordkapp followed the main force north. During the time she followed the British vessels the force was subjected to several German air attacks without the Norwegian ship suffering any damage.^[12]

[edit] Patrol and bombardment missions

After leaving the British task force Nordkapp spent most of her time until late May patrolling and guarding a British mine field in the Andfjord in northern Nordland / southern Troms.

At 24 May she called at Bodø and by 30 May the evacuation of 4,000 British Army troops from the Bodø region began. By that time Bodø had been heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe over several days and German troops was observed advancing towards Røsvik north-east of Bodø. On 3 June Nordkapp was despatched together with the 463 ton British-operated Q-ship Ranen^[13] to the Leirfjord to try and stop the advance of the enemy by sea. The two ships bombarded German forces in the area before splitting up and heading north, Nordkapp sailing to Svolvær.^[12]

[edit] Friendly fire incident and evacuation

On 7 June, 1940 Nordkapp arrived at Svolvær and received the order that had been given by the Norwegian High Command to evacuate all operational naval vessels to allied ports. While most of the thirteen navy ships that escaped the capitulation of mainland Norway started their journeys that day, Nordkapp remained until the early hours of the next day in order to give refugees and volunteers more time to gather for the voyage to the UK. According to Lieutenant Commander Seip's orders his ship's first destination abroad was to be the Faroe Islands.^[14]

In the evening of 7 June German planes bombed and destroyed an oil tank facility in the town. At around 0200 hrs, before Nordkapp was ready to sail west and start five years of service in exile, two ships arrived at Svolvær and started destroying the remaining oil tanks with artillery fire. Assuming the ships to be German the second in command of the Nordkapp, Ensign Andersen, who was in command of the ship as Lieutenant Commander Seip was in a conference on land at the time, sailed out and attacked the two unknown ships. As he opened up on the two ships with his single cannon they quickly returned fire and a 45 minute artillery duel ensued. Neither side managed to hit their adversary during the fight and eventually the two sides discovered each others true identity. The ships Nordkapp had been battling for three quarters of an hour were the Ranen and the 655 ton Royal Navy ASW trawler Northern Gem.^[15] The Ranen had been bombarding German positions together with Nordkapp just four days previously.^[14]

After the nearly fatal friendly fire incident Nordkapp returned to Svolvær and took on board volunteers before leaving port at 0300 hrs on 8 June.^[16] The passengers included 19 Royal Norwegian Navy personnel, many of whom were crew members of vessels sunk in the preceding two months.^[17]

On 9 June Nordkapp joined the British evacuation convoy. During the journey west the ships were attacked by German bombers but avoided suffering any damage.^[18]

After four days at sea Nordkapp reached Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands on 12 June,^[3] resupplying before continuing on to the UK.

[edit] Service abroad

[edit] Iceland and the Shetland Bus

After arrival at Rosyth in Scotland on 18 June 1940 Nordkapp was rebuilt and rearmed^[2] and was declared operational on 14 September 1940.^[1] She was posted to Iceland from 21 September, 1940.^[3] On Iceland she served as a patrol vessel until 9 September, 1943 when she was transferred to Shetland in order to support the Shetland bus operations. At Shetland she operated from 22 September 1943^[1] together with the RNoN patrol vessels Horten, Molde, Narvik and Risør.^[19]

[edit] Operation Neptune and Scapa Flow

Between D-day and 18 June 1944 Nordkapp took part in Operation Neptune, the naval part of the invasion of Normandy. On 6 June she escorted a convoy of transports from Southend-on-Sea in the East of England to the British invasion beaches and thereafter escorted ships along the coast of Normandy.^[20] The main threat from which she protected allied shipping was that of German E-boat and U-boat attacks.^[21]

On 11 September 1944 she sailed from Portland to Aberdeen for maintenance and stayed there until 15 December 1944 when she was again transferred,^[22] this time to guard duties at the Home Fleet's main base at Scapa Flow, a role she would continue until 1 January 1945. Thereafter she moved to Lerwick, Shetland were she was based until VE day.^[1]

[edit] Return to Norway

Ten days after the final German surrender in Norway, on 18 May, 1945, Nordkapp left her exile in Methil in the UK and sailed for home. Two days later, on 20 May, she arrived at her new base at the south-western port of Stavanger, ending almost five years of exile.^[22]

[edit] Post-war

After the end of World War II Nordkapp resumed her pre-war duties as a coast guard vessel until being decommissioned and laid up in Horten on 29 July 1954. She was sold off to civilian ownership in 1956 finding a new career as a fishing vessel under two owners, first as the Skarodd and then from 1971 as the Tor Hugo. Her long career ended on 27 November 1972 when she sank off West Africa after suffering leaks and disastrous hull failure.^[1]

[edit] See also

• List of World War II ships of less than 1000 tons
• List of Allied forces in the Normandy Campaign

[edit] References

[edit] Literature

• Abelsen, Frank: Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945, Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986, ISBN 82-7046-050-8 (English)&(Norwegian)
• Berg, Ole F.: I skjærgården og på havet - Marinens krig 8. april 1940 - 8. mai 1945, Marinens Krigsveteranforening, Oslo 1997 ISBN 82-993545-2-8 (Norwegian)
• Sivertsen, Svein Carl (ed.): Jageren Sleipner i Romsdalsfjord sjøforsvarsdistrikt april 1940, Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen, Hundvåg 1999 (Norwegian)
• Sivertsen, Svein Carl (ed.): Med Kongen til fornyet kamp - Oppbyggingen av Marinen ute under Den andre verdenskrig, Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen, Hundvåg 2000 ISBN 82-994738-8-8 (Norwegian)
• Sivertsen, Svein Carl (ed.): Sjøforsvaret dag for dag 1814-2000, Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen, Hundvåg 2001 ISBN 82-92217-03-7 (Norwegian)
• Thomassen, Marius: 90 år under rent norsk orlogsflagg, Eide Forlag, Bergen 1995 ISBN 82-514-0483-5 (Norwegian)