Admiralen-class destroyer

The Admiralen class were eight destroyers built for the Royal Netherlands Navy between 1926 and 1931. All ships fought in World War II and were scuttled or sunk.

Admiralen class

HNLMS Evertsen
Class overview
Name	Admiralen class
Operators	Royal Netherlands Navy
Preceded by	Wolf class
Succeeded by	Gerard Callenburgh class
Built	1926–1930
In commission	1928–1942
Completed	8
Lost	8
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1,316 tons standard 1,640 tons full load
Length	98 m (321 ft 6 in)
Beam	9.53 m (31 ft 3 in)
Draught	2.97 m (9 ft 9 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft, Parsons geared turbines 3 Yarrow type boilers 23,000 kW (31,000 hp)
Speed	36 kn (67 km/h)
Range	3,200 nmi (5,900 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Complement	129 (120 in second group)
Aircraft carried	1 × Van Berkel W-A
General characteristics First group
Armament	4 × 120 mm (4.7 in) no. 4 Bofors guns (4 × 1) 2 × 75 mm (3 in) no. 6 AA guns 4 × 13 mm (.5 in) Browning machine guns 6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (2 × 3)
General characteristics Second group
Armament	4 × 120 mm (4.7 in) no. 5 HIH Siderius guns (4 × 1) 1 × 75 mm (3 in) no. 7 (VG, WW) and no. 8 AA HIH Siderius (BK, VN) guns 4 × 40 mm (1.6 in) no. 1 Vickers AA guns 4 × 13 mm (.5 in) Browning machine guns 6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (2 × 3)

HNLMS Van Galen

Design

These ships were built in the Netherlands with assistance from the British company Yarrow (at that time the leading builder of destroyers in the world). The Dutch ships were based on the British destroyer HMS Ambuscade. A novel feature was the provision of a seaplane for scouting. There was however no catapult, the plane being lowered into the sea by a crane.

The differences between the two groups were minor; the second group was fitted for minesweeping rather than mine laying, and they carried one less 75-millimetre (3 in) gun for 30 tons of fuel.^[1]

Design

Between 1925 and 1928 eight new destroyers were laid down to replace the Wolf-class destroyers. The design came from Yarrow & Co, they based it on HMS Ambuscade and HMS Amazon. The Royal Netherlands Navy took the Yarrow & Co design and made some minor changes.

The first group was fitted with four 120mm no. 4 Bofors guns, while the second group was fitted with four 120mm no. 5 HIH Siderius guns. The main differences are the mounts used and the no. 4 were able to elevate between −5 and +30 degrees while the no. 5 guns could elevate between −5 and +35 degrees, giving a range of 19,500 meters.^[2]

The second group was equipped with 40mm no. 1 Vickers AA guns, however these guns had problems firing at higher angles; the guns would malfunction or not fire at all. Because of this the ships of this group could use only their single 75mm AA gun against targets above 1000 meters. After 12 years of ignoring this issue it was finally solved in 1939 by stiffening the guns, however when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 this issue wasn't solved for the surface ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

Ships

Admiralen-class destroyers

Name	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Builder	Fate
First group
Van Ghent ex-De Ruyter	28 August 1925	23 October 1926	31 May 1928	KM de Schelde	Served in the Netherlands East Indies as part of Admiral Karel Doorman's command. Ran aground and was scuttled on 15 February 1942.
Evertsen	5 August 1925	29 December 1926	12 April 1928	Burgerhout	Served in the Far East. Sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy on 1 March 1942.
Kortenaer	24 August 1925	30 June 1927	3 September 1928	Burgerhout	Served in the Far East. Sunk by a torpedo from the Haguro during the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942.
Piet Hein	26 August 1925	2 April 1927	25 January 1928	Burgerhout	Served in the Far East. Sunk by Japanese destroyers during the Battle of Badung Strait on 19 February 1942.
Second group
Van Galen	28 May 1927	28 June 1928	22 October 1929	Fijenoord	Based in the Netherlands at the start of World War II, the ship was dispatched to help with the defence of Rotterdam. Targeted by German bombers in the narrow river she suffered bomb damage and sank on 10 May 1940. The wreck was salvaged and scrapped by the Germans.
Witte de With	28 May 1927	11 September 1928	20 February 1930	Fijenoord	Scuttled on 2 March 1942 on account of damage incurred during the Battle of the Java Sea.
Banckert	15 August 1928	14 November 1929	14 November 1930	Burgerhout	Damaged by Japanese bombers and scuttled in Surabaya dockyard. Salvaged by the Japanese, but not repaired and returned to the Dutch after the war. Sunk as a target in September 1949.
Van Nes	15 August 1928	20 March 1930	12 March 1931	Burgerhout	Sunk after a two-hour battle by Japanese aircraft on 17 February 1942, while escorting an evacuation ship (which was also sunk).

References

Citations

1. Conway's 1922–46, p. 390.
2. Visser, Jan. "12 cm Mark 4, 5, 6 and 7". netherlandsnavy.nl. Retrieved 4 July 2017.

References

• Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger, eds. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0851771467. OCLC 7734153.
• Whitley, M.J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Cassell Publishing. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
• Goossens, A.M.A. (2007), Het Staatsbedrijf der Artillerie Inrichtingen, p. 9

External links

• Dutch destroyers at Unithistories.com Archived 2020-11-16 at the Wayback Machine