HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes (G16)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Nonpareil.
Right to left: HMS Nonpareil, Offa and Norseman at Scapa Flow, 25 June 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Nonpareil
Builder: William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton
Laid down: 22 May 1940
Fate: Transferred to Royal Netherlands Navy
Netherlands
Name: HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes
Namesake: Tjerk Hiddes de Vries
Completed: June 1942[1]
Acquired: 27 May 1942
Commissioned: 30 October 1942
Identification: pennant number: G16
Fate: Sold to Indonesia, 1 March 1951
Indonesia
Name: KRI Gadjah Mada
Namesake: Gajah Mada
Acquired: 1 March 1951
Fate: Scrapped 1961
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type: N-class destroyer
Displacement:
Length: 356 ft 6 in (108.7 m) (o/a)
Beam: 35 ft 9 in (10.9 m)
Draught: 12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Installed power:
Propulsion: 2 Shafts; 2 steam turbines
Speed: 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range: 5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 183
Sensors and
processing systems:
Armament:

The destroyer HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes was a British built, Dutch warship of World War II. She was laid down on 22 May 1940 as a British N-class destroyer, HMS Nonpareil, but on 27 May 1942, she was transferred to the Royal Dutch Navy.[2] The ship was commissioned in 1942[1][3] as HNMLS Tjerk Hiddes, named after the 17th century Dutch admiral, Tjerk Hiddes de Vries. Much of her war service was with the Royal Navy and United States Navy in the Indian Ocean and Australia. Following the war, the destroyer was sold to Indonesia and renamed KRI Gadjah Mada. She was scrapped in 1957.

War service

Acceptance trials started on 6 May; she was commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy service on 27 May and Tjerk Hiddes was allocated to serve with the British Royal Navy's 7th Destroyer Flotilla in the Eastern Fleet.[3]

At Scapa Flow, in June and early July, she worked-up with the Home Fleet and prepared for foreign service. In mid-July at the Clyde, she joined the escort[4] of military convoy WS21P from the Clyde to the Indian Ocean. During the voyage, on 5 August the convoy was augmented by eight ships of Convoy AS4, carrying equipment for the 8th Army in Egypt. On 20 August, Tjerk Hiddes and Nepal left the convoy, sailing to Kilindini, in Kenya.[3]

In September, Tjerk Hiddes joined the forces allocated to support landings to complete the occupation of Madagascar (Operation Streamline Jane), which was under the control of Vichy forces, and participated in preparatory exercises. On 9 September she left Kilindini to rendezvous with the assault convoy and its escort [5] on passage to Majunga for the landings. The two Dutch destroyers, Van Galen and Tjerk Hiddes were deployed as screen for HMS Illustrious.[3]

On 26–27 September, Tjerk Hiddes returned to Kilindini for convoy escort duties in the Indian Ocean. (At this time, other vessels of the 7th Flotilla were returning from detached service in Mediterranean.) Escort duties continued through October until her deployment for convoy defence between Sydney and Fremantle, under the control of the United States 7th Fleet.[3] This duty continued until January 1944, but on 4, 11 and 15 December, she made three voyages to evacuate Allied troops and civilians from Timor.[2]

Between 18 and 24 February 1943, she was deployed with sister ship Van Galen and cruisers HMAS Adelaide and HNLMS Tromp to escort a troop convoy between Fremantle and Melbourne (Operation Pamphlet; this military convoy was carrying the 9th Australian Division, recalled from the Middle East in response to the apparent Japanese threat to Australia).[3]

In January 1944, the Dutch ships Tjerk Hiddes, Van Galen and Tromp were transferred to the Eastern Fleet. On arrival in Trincomalee in February, Tjerk Hiddes rejoined the 7th Destroyer Flotilla for fleet screening and convoy protection duties in the Indian Ocean. From 22 to 24 February, she joined an unsuccessful search for a German blockade runner en route from Japan to Germany[3][6]

On 22 March, Tjerk Hiddes deployed with a large fleet[7] to practice at-sea refuelling and to rendezvous with the US aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. Saratoga's role was predominantly to act as a mentor for Commonwealth units intended for service in the western Pacific (as the British Pacific Fleet) with the United States Navy, where these units would have to convert to use American procedures. As a part of the retraining, Commonwealth and United States naval aircraft executed attacks on Japanese oil installations. Apart from the training and the damage thus caused, it was hoped that Japanese forces would be diverted from regions where the Americans planned to take the offensive.[3]

Tjerk Hiddes had to return prematurely to Trincomalee on 25 March, with mechanical defects, and remained under repair until June, when she returned to convoy escort duties in the Indian Ocean.[3]

In October 1944, she returned to the United Kingdom, joining the 8th Destroyer Flotilla at Plymouth on convoy duties in the Southwest Approaches. She moved to Dundee for a refit from May to August 1945, by which time the war was over.[3]

Post war

Tjerk Hiddes resumed peace time service with the Royal Netherlands Navy after completion of the refit at Dundee. She returned to the Dutch East Indies, and was transferred to newly-independent Indonesia in March 1951. She was renamed KRI Gadjah Mada and became the flagship of the Indonesian Navy. She was removed from the active list in 1961. The ship was scrapped in 1961[8] by Rijsdijk, in Hendrik-Ibo-Anbachht.[2][3]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Sources vary on this ship's commissioning date, some authoritative ones quoting October 1942. Since she is reliably listed as an escort for military convoy WS21P, from UK to the Middle East in July and August 1942, completion by June 1942 seems correct.
  2. 1 2 3 Whitley, M J (2000). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Arms and Armour Press. pp. 117 & 214. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Mason, Lt Cdr (Retd) Geoffrey B (2003). "Dutch HNethMS TJERK HIDDES (G 16), ex-HMS NONPAREIL – N-class Destroyer". SERVICE HISTORIES of ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS in WORLD WAR 2. Retrieved 9 Nov 2014.
  4. ↑ WS21P's escort also included the cruiser HMS Orion and a sister ship, the Australian destroyer HMAS Nepal
  5. ↑ The assault convoy's escort included the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, cruisers HMS Birmingham and HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck. Force M provided cover and control of landings and included battleship HMS Warspite, cruisers HMS Gambia and HMS Dauntless, minelayer HMS Manxman, monitor HMS Erebus, seaplane carrier HMS Albatross, destroyers HMS Foxhound, Hotspur, Arrow, Active, Inconstant and Fortune, HMAS Napier, HMAS Norman, Nepal and HNLMS Van Galen, and escort destroyer HMS Blackmore
  6. ↑ The search was performed by cruiser HMS Gambia with destroyers HMS Rotherham and Tjerk Hiddes.
  7. ↑ Operation Diplomat naval force included the Australian destroyers HMAS Norman, Nepal, Napier and Quiberon, British destroyers HMS Quilliam, Pathfinder, Queenborough and Quality and Dutch destroyers HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes and Van Galen as screen for the capital ships. These were the battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, cruisers HMS London, Ceylon, Cumberland and Gambia.
  8. ↑ Colledge, p.445

References

External links

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