I
wrote this short article for the Newsletter of the St Albans &
Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society (SAHAAS)
commonly referred to by its members, of which I am one, as the 'Arch
& Arch'. HMS St Albans was not a V & W Class destroyer and rightly should have no place on the website of the V & W Destroyer Association
but since I have lived in St Albans for 36 years and am responsible for
starting and maintaining this website I decided to make an exception in
this case.
I had to restrict the length of the article for the Arch & Arch to
600 words and I have slightly increased the length of this version and
added an edited extract from In the Grim Barents Sea by Capt G.G. Polyakov who was an officer in Zhyvuchy (Tenacious), the former HMS Richmond,telling the story of HMS St Albans after she was transferred to the Soviet Navy and renamed Dostoiny, meaning Worthy. This was written by Lt Cdr Frank Donald RN (Ret)
whose father served in three V & W Class destroyers and whose
Mother was born in St Petersburg with Russian as her native language. It is is based on the Google Translate version of the Russian text on the web.
Unfortunately, Google has recently withdrawn its "widget" which
provided online translations of websites. As a result you need to be
fluent in Russian to read the Russian text online but for most readers
Frank's summary will suffice.
Bill Forster
HMS St Albans Copyright reserved
The first HMS St Albans was named in 1687 after the Duke of St Albans, the son of Charles II and Nell Gwyn, and the present HMS St Albans
is a Type 23 Frigate built in 2002. This article is about a ship
named St Albans which fought under four flags. The future HMS St Albans was built at Newport News for the United States Navy (USN) in 1918 and named USS Thomas
after the first USN officer killed in the First World War. She was a
Wickes Class destroyer with four funnels, known as ‘four-pipers’. In
1940 she was selected as one of 50 destroyers to be transferred to
Britain under a ‘lend-lease’ agreement between Churchill and Roosevelt.
These became the Town Class destroyers named after towns common to the
United States and Britain. One British admiral called them the "worst
destroyers I had ever seen" but their transfer contrary to the
Neutrality Act contributed to America’s later entry into the war.
HMS St Albans
was commissioned in the Royal Navy at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in
September 1940 and taken to Britain by a RN crew. With three other
Town Class destroyers she escorted the 1st Minelaying Squadron off the
west coast of Scotland, laying mines in the Denmark Strait separating
Iceland from Greenland. On 14 April 1941 she was transferred to the
Royal Norwegian Navy as HNoMS St Albansunder the Norwegian flag and with a Norwegian crew. This was before the start of the 'Warships Week'
national savings programme which led to the adoption of ships by
cities, towns and villages throughout Britain. Had she not been
transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy she might well have been
adopted by St Albans instead of HMS Verulam.Almost immediately after transfer she collided with the minesweeper HMS Alberic sinking her and requiring repairs herself.
HNoMS St Albans
escorted Atlantic convoys with the 7th Escort Group at Liverpool and
took part in the sinking of U-401 on 3 Agust 1941 while escorting a
convoy from Sierra Leone. In April 1942 she escorted Arctic Convoy PQ15
to Murmansk and return convoy QP12 and, in a tragic accident, attacked
and sank the Polish submarine Jastrzab, the former British submarine P551. She was machine-gunned on the surface with five killed and six injured. Jastrzab
had strayed one hundred miles from her area of operation. The remainder
of the crew were saved but their boat, rendered unseaworthy, had to be
sunk (Chapter 11, 'Arctic Convoy to Russia' in A Hard Fought Ship, 2017).
From July to September she was
under refit at Silley Cox & Co at Falmouth before being
recommissioned back in the Royal Navy. After less than two months with
Western Approaches Command she required further repairs at Plymouth and
Portmouth before being sent to Rosyth as an Air Target Ship for
Barracuda Torpedo Bombers training in the North Sea, normally a sure
sign that her life as a fighting ship was over. In March 1943 she was
nominated for service with the Western Local Escort Force at Halifax,
Nova Scotia, and after further repairs at Plymouth was part of the
escort for Convoy ON.177 to Halifax where she escorted coastal traffic
between ports in USA and Canada until December when the decision was
taken to return her to UK and place her in Reserve, the last step
before being sent to the ship breakers.
Now came an extraordinary turn in
her fortunes. She was chosen as one of the ships to be transferred to
the USSR in lieu of 30 per cent of the surrendered Italian Fleet agreed
to by Churchill and Roosevelt at the Teheran Conference in 1943. In
late April, 2,300 Russian sailors had taken passage to Britain in
merchant ships and escorts for Arctic Convoy RA.59 to man the former
cruiser HMS Royal Sovereign, renamed Archangelsk (but nicknamed the ‘Royal Rouble’), nine Former Town Class destroyers, including HMS St Albans, renamed Dostoiny (Worthy), four former RN submarines and a dozen former USN submarine chasers.
One ship was lost from the convoy, the American Liberty Ship, William S Thayer, which by chance was carrying the designated crew for Dostoiny, the former HMS St Albans. Two
V & W Class destroyers, part of the close escort for RA.59 recued
most of the survivors and they were photographed aboard HMS Walker
by 95 year old Abert Foulser on his box camera. After arrival at
Greenock the Russian sailors spent three days at the Rosyth naval base
on the Firth of Forth before travelling by train to North Shields on
the Tyne where they spent three and a half months familiarising
themselves with their new ships before leaving for Scapa Flow
to join Arctic Convoy JW.59 to Murmansk on the Kola Inlet in Arctic
Russia. Click on the link to read the full story of the transfer of Warships to Russia.
The names of the former Town Class destroyers transferrred to the USSR for service at Murmansk with the Northern Fleet:
HMS / USS Name
HMS Royal Sovereign (Battleship)
USS Milwaukee (Cruiser)
Ship Adoptions - Warship Weeks Not adopted Not applicable
Not adopted Chigwell, Essex
Richmond, Surrey
Devizes, Wiltshire
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire Not adopted
Battle, East Sussex
Lincoln, Lincs (changed to Wakeful)
Wanstead & Woodford, East London
Russian Name
Arkhangelsk Murmansk
Russian - English Dostoiny - Worthy
Zharkiy - Hot
Zhyvuchy - Tenacious
Derzky - Audacious
Zhgouchy - Burning
Doblestny - Valiant Zhostky - Hard Druzhny - Friendly Deyatelny - Active (sunk 16 Jan 1945)
Six of these former Town Class destroyers "served under four flags": HMS Richmond, Chelsea, Leamington and Georgetown were transferred to the Canadian Navy before being sent to Russia and HMS St Albans and Lincoln served with the Norwegian Navy. And six (plus
all the RN submarines) were adopted by towns in Britain after Warship Weeks in
1941-2, a successful national savings programme to raise money for
building new ships. Click on the links to find out more about the
wartime
service of the other destroyers prior to their transfer to the USSR.
Frank Donald's summary of Capt Polyakov's account of Dostoiny's service with the Northern Fleet The maps are fromWith the Red Fleet: the war memoir of Admiral Arseni Golovko (Military Publishing House, Moscow 1960) With the Red Fleet: The War Memoirs of the Late Admiral Arseni G. Golovko (London: Putnam, 1965)
From North Cape south of Spitzberegen to Dikson on the Kara Sea and the Wilkitski Strait
The borders between Norway, Finland and Russia south of North Cape
Murmansk on the Kola Inlet south east of North Cape
On arrival at Murmansk Tenacious, the former HMS Richmond, and Valiant, ex HMS Roxborough, required repairs. Druzhny (HMS Lincoln)
had been offered by the British to provide essential spare parts, and
arrived on the next Northbound convoy. The remaining six destroyers
escorted convoys between the Nordenskiold Archipelago (at the east end
of the Kara Sea) and Iokanga (a river east of Kola Inlet) and
Arkhangelsk, via Dikson and ports on Novaya Zemlya.
Dostoiny
was commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Kozlov but he was succeeded by Capt. Nikolai Ivanovich Nikolsky when Kozlov was appointed
Commander of the 2nd Division of Destroyers of the Northern Fleet.
In early September a Northern Fleet Squadron was formed, comprising:
Battleship Arkhangelsk, the former HMS Royal Sovereign
Cruiser Murmansk, the former USS Milwaukee
1st Destroyer Division - Baku, Gremyaschy, Gromky, Razumny.
2nd Destroyer Division - Zharky (Hot), Zhivuchy (Tenacious),
Zhostky (Hard), Zhgouchy (Burning), Derzky (Audacious), Doblestny
(Valiant).
3rd Destroyer Division - Valerian Kuibshev, Karl
Liebnecht, Uritsky, Dostoiny (Worthy), Deyatelny (Active), joined later
by Druzhny (Friendly).
The former RN Battleship Arkhangelsk was
anchored in Kola Bay at Murmansk in a constant state of combat
readiness. The destroyers continued to provide anti-submarine defence
of internal communications in the Kara Sea.
After the formation of the Northern
Fleet squadron the destroyers became the basis of the anti-submarine
defence of convoys in the Barents and Kara Seas. They began to play a
more important role in convoy operations in autumn, when the use of the
Submarine Chasers was limited by frequent storms . The work load on the
destroyers increased markedly. The destroyers acquired in Britain were
inferior to the Soviet destroyers but the same Soviet sailors sailed in both.
Icing caused a lot of problems for our ships. The firemen (stokers) on the Dostoiny
found a solution which was adopted by all the ships. They ran flexible
hoses to the stern and connected them to steam heating and this cut
through the ice like butter.
The Commanding Officers of three of three former Town Class destroyers after their transfer to the USSR
From left to right: Capt E A Kozlov (Dostoiny), Capt P.M. Gonchar (Deyatelny, ex HMS Churchill), Capt.A.I Andreev (Derzky) Kozlov was replaced by Capt. Nikolai Ivanovich Nikolsky in November and Gonchar was relaced a month before the formerHMS Churchill was sunk with the loss of her CO and most of the crew From The Grim Barents Sea by Capt G.G. Polyakov (Murmansk, 1978)
Around 19 November 1944 Dostoiny
with minesweepers and large submarine chasers were escorting a convoy
of three transports and a tanker from Dikson on the Kara Sea to Lokanga. They were
caught in dense fog followed by frequent snow blasts; the
transports and escorts were separated, the ships left unprotected and
in great danger. The convoy was commanded by the CO of Dostoiny,
Captain 3rd Rank Nikolai Ivanovich Nikolsky, an experienced officer and
a wonderful sailor, although unrelated he had the same name as the head
of the Electro-Mechanical department in Zhivuchy.
Using radar and inter-squadron
radio Nikolsky was able to gather the ships together and continue
escorting the convoy but the weather worsened, there were
frequent snow squalls and the CO did not leave the bridge for three
days. The merchant ships and their escorts were separated more than
once, and got lost in the squalls. When the wind increased to force
nine from the north the ships began to ice-up. On 22 November the
minesweeper T-109 could not clear the ice fast enough and became
unstable. The CO ordered abandon ship near Kolguev Island. Dostoiny
headed for the scene and found three sailors in a lifeboat. There were
several people floating in the vicinity but they were all dead. While
the Dostoiny
was away the convoy and escorts got separated again, but that was the
last time and the rest of the ships arrived safely at their
destination.
The following day Dostoiny made a successful attack on a u-boat. She was escorting two transports and a tanker from Indiga to Iokanga, accompanied by Derzky, minesweepers and large submarine chasers. Derzky was the first to spot the enemy, with Dostoiny a
little later. After an attack with depth charges and Hedgehog
projectiles the surface of the water heaved up and air bubbles and debris came to the surface. The boat must
have been damaged or sunk.
Soon after the 8 December the crew of the Dostoiny
had a further success. While escorting three transports from
Linakhamari (a Finnish port captured in October 1944 which became a
convoy terminal) to the Kola inlet, Dostoiny
detected an enemy submarine heading for the convoy. Captain 3rd Rank
Nikolsky’s skillful manoeuvring forestalled the enemy. Mines fired from
the Hedgehog at the bow bow at split second intervals covered an
elliptical area of sea ahead of the destroyer. An underwater explosion
was heard. Depth charges were dropped, air bubbles appeared on the
surface, some debris floated up and a large oil slick spread around.
Three victories in a few days
showed that British doubts about the Northern Fleet’s ability to
protect the Allied convoys in their operational zone were unfounded.
The destroyers and submarine chasers often provided the escort for the
section of the convoys from Britain which continued to the White Sea,
meeting the merchant ships off the Kola Inlet and heading south east to
Archangel.
On January 16 at 1330, Convoy KB-1 of eight ships escorted by the Baku, Grozny, Razumny. Deyatelny, Zhivuchy Derzky, Doblestny, Dostoiny and Zhostky
left the Kola Bay en route the White Sea. A foggy frosty haze spread
over the bay. On the approaches to Kildin the convoy encountered a
series of snow squalls. Visibility deteriorated to zero, only
occasionally could the masts and funnels of the other ships be seen
through the snow and this led to the loss of Deyatelny, the former HMS Churchill.
The convoy was formed into three columns led by Baku a mile ahead. On the starboard side the convoy was screened by Razumny, Derzky and Deyatelny at a range of one and a half miles. On the port side Grozny, Zhostky, Zhivuchy, Doblestny and Dostoiny carried out an anti-submarine patrol and search. Capt. Polyakov, an officer in Zhyvuchy, the former HMS Richmond, gave a detailed description of the loss of Deyatelny (Lt Cdr K.A. Kravchenko),the
only one of the former Town Class destroyers to be
sunk. Her CO and most of the crew were killed, the only officer who
escaped was Oleg Makarovich Machinsky. Click on the link for a detailed
account of the loss of Deyatelny.
On the evening of 29 January Zhivuchy, Doblestny, Derzky and Dostoiny searched for enemy submarines in the Iokanga – Bolshoi Oleniy sector of the Kola Bay outside the inlet. Derzky
detected the 'pirate' using "passive acoustics" (hydrophones) instead
of and dropped depth charges. The U-Boat turned away sharply into
Zhivuchy’s
detection zone. Once again underwater explosions broke the silence. The
enemy was experienced and went deeper, but was caught by depth charges
from the Derzky.
Dull explosions were heard from the depths, bubbles appeared on the
surface with a lot of diesel fuel. The success of the attack was beyond
doubt.
Four days later the same four
destroyers searched for the enemy along the route from Iokanga to Kola
Bay. The Commander of the 2nd Destroyer Battalion, Captain 2nd Rank E A
Kozlov, was embarked in Dostoiny, on the right flank. The first to sight the submarine by the light of the moon was the OOW of the Dostoiny, Viktor Babiy. The signalmen also saw a dark silhouette right ahead. Dostoiny
prepared to ram but the U-Boat increased speed trailing a plume of
smoke. Captain Nikolsky ordered open fire. The target was engaged
by A Gun and the two oerlikons. The submarine crash dived and Dostoiny dropped a large pattern of depth charges.
A close lookout was kept and soon
Signalman Kondrykin spotted a barely perceptible wake, and reported
“torpedo Green 50”. Evading the torpedo the destroyer came close to the
position of the u-boat which had fired the torpedo. Her CO raised his
periscope for a close-range shot, but miscalculated.
“Periscope Red 90, three cables”
reported Signalman Kondrykin. “Hard a Port” came the order and the ship
closed the enemy at full speed. “Submarine has turned north” reported
Nikodimov on the sonar, a large pattern of depth charges was
dropped. One of the explosions was stronger, the hull shuddered, the
concussion disabled the sonar equipment and a leak developed in the
tiller flat. Small bubbles and oily liquid appeared on the surface.
The defects to the sonar were
quickly rectified, a weak echo was detected and Captain Nikolsky again led
the destroyer into the attack. The anti-aircraft gunners and the
Boatswain’s team helped supply more depth charges. The stock of depth
charges was running low when after another series of explosions the Asdic operator reported that the submarine had sunk.
Water gushed to the surface with tons of diesel fuel. A thunderous “Hurrah”
swept over the sea. The crew of the Dostoiny had got even with the enemy.
Good news continued to come in from
the fronts. Soviet troops were fighting on the outskirts of Berlin.
Despite this Doenitz’s submarines continued to attack our lines of
communications. On April 21st they attacked a convoy en-route from
Linakhamari to Kola Bay. The transports were escorted by Derzky, Zhostky, Dostoiny, and Karl Liebnecht, as well as several large Sub Chasers, torpedo boats, and two Norwegian minesweepers.
There was a great deal of activity by enemy submarines. After about a third of the transit the Zhostky’s
acoustics detected an enemy penetrating the screen and dropped depth
charges. At Tsyp Navalok,at the east end of the Rybachi Penensuka in Kola Bay, enemy boats penetrated the screen and damaged
the Norwegian transport Idefiord and the Russian Onega. The Escort Leader Karl Liebnecht
was attacked, two torpedoes were sighted from the quarterdeck. The
destroyer counter attacked, and sank the submarine with gunfire when it
surfaced. The Nazis attacked the convoy six more times but without
success. At the end of the passage the Dostoiny, attacked a U-Boat and blanketed it with depth charges at the fourth attempt.
In the final days of the war the
destroyers went out three times to escort allied transports travelling
in both directions. Not a single transport or a single escort was
damaged apart from the Corvette HMS Goodall
which was sunk on the 29th April while searching the approaches to Kola
Bay before the departure of Convoy RA66. This was the last casualty of
the war in the Barents Sea.
*************
Deyatelny, the former HMS Churchill,
was torpedoed on 16 January 1945 but all the other former Town Class
destroyers were returned to Britain between 1949 and 1952 and sent to
the ship breakers. HMS Leamington
had a brief reprieve when she was chartered from the breakers to take part in a British film ’Gift Horse’ starring
Trevor Howard and Richard Attenborough based on the St Nazaire Raid of March 1942 when HMS Campbeltown, sister ship of the Leamington, rammed and blew up the lock gates at St Nazaire. It
could be seen in full on YouTube until recently but has now been
withdrawn for copyright reasons - but copies can still be bought on DVD from ebay. Dostoiny served with the Northern Fleet until 1948 and was returned to Britain at Rosyth on 28th February 1949. Renamed HMS St Albans
she was de-stored and placed on the Disposal List. She was sold to
BISCO on 4th April for demolition by Metal Industries and arrived in
tow at the breaker’s yard in Charlestown near Rosyth on 18th May 1949.
