HMS Bedouin (F67)

HMS Bedouin at Hvalfjörður, Iceland
History
United Kingdom
Name:	Bedouin
Namesake:	Bedouin
Ordered:	19 June 1936
Builder:	William Denny, Dumbarton
Cost:	£340,400
Laid down:	13 January 1937
Launched:	21 December 1937
Completed:	15 March 1939
Identification:	Pennant number: L67, later F67
Fate:	Sunk, 15 June 1942
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	Tribal-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,891 long tons (1,921 t) (standard) 2,519 long tons (2,559 t) (deep load)
Length:	377 ft (115 m) (o/a)
Beam:	36 ft 6 in (11.13 m)
Draught:	11 ft 3 in (3.43 m)
Installed power:	44,000 shp (33,000 kW) 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range:	5,700 nmi (10,600 km; 6,600 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	190
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC
Armament:	4 × twin QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XII guns 1 × quadruple QF 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns 2 × quadruple QF .5-inch (12.7 mm) Mk III anti-aircraft machineguns 1 × quadruple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 × rack, 2 × throwers

HMS Bedouin was a Tribal-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II. She was launched on 21 December 1937 by William Denny and Brothers.

Trials

During her trials Bedouin made 37.457 knots (69.370 km/h; 43.105 mph) at 372.4 RPM with 44,522 shp (33,200 kW) at 2,035 long tons (2,068 t).^[1]

Service history

She served in the Second Battle of Narvik, where she was slightly damaged, and in the 1941 commando raid on the Lofoten islands. During Operation Harpoon, a large allied convoy to ressuply Malta, she was sunk by the combined action of Italian cruisers Raimondo Montecuccoli and Eugenio di Savoia and an SM.79 torpedo bomber on 15 June 1942. She was hit by at least 12 six-inch rounds and near-misses from the cruisers and an aerial torpedo before sinking. A gunner manning a .5-inch (12.7 mm) quad machine gun mounting shot down the torpedo bomber which delivered the coup de grâce.^[2][3] Twenty-eight men from her complement were killed in action and 213 were taken as prisoners of war by the Italian Navy.^[4]

Bedouin sinking, 15 June 1942

Notes

1. March, p.362
2. "HMS Bedouin (F 67) of the Royal Navy - British Destroyer of the Tribal class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
3. "HMS Bedouin story". www.world-war.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
4. "HMS Bedouin, destroyer". www.naval-history.net. Retrieved 2016-10-13.

References

• Brice, Martin H. (1971). The Tribals. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0245-2.
• English, John (2001). Afridi to Nizam: British Fleet Destroyers 1937–43. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-64-9.
• Friedman, Norman (2006). British Destroyers and Frigates, the Second World War and After. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-86176-137-6.
• Haarr, Geirr H. (2010). The Battle for Norway: April–June 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-051-1.
• Haarr, Geirr H. (2009). The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-310-9.
• Hodges, Peter (1971). Tribal Class Destroyers. London: Almark. ISBN 0-85524-047-4.
• Lenton, H. T. (1998). British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892-1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service. OCLC 164893555.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.

External links

• IWM Interview with survivor William Collins

Coordinates: 36°12′0″N 11°38′0″E / 36.20000°N 11.63333°E