- Yes.
- No.
- In a Dutch or BeNeLux techtree.
- In the British techtree as a premium.
- Other (Please explain).
- I said ‘No’ in the first question.
Hello everyone, today I’d like to suggest a Dutch interwar period class destroyer!
This is the Admiralen-class destroyer, Van Galen!
HNLMS Van Galen
History about the Admiralen-class
Spoiler
The Admiralen-class (In English, Admiral-class) destroyers were made out of the need to replace the ageing Roofdier-class destroyers. The Roofdier-class consisted of eight ships, therefor this new Admiralen-class would also consist of eight ships.
These ships being:
- HNLMS Evertsen (EV)
- HNLMS Kortenaer (KN)
- HNLMS Piet Hein (PH)
- HNLMS De Ruyter (DR) (Later renamed Van Ghent (GT))
- HNLMS Van Galen (VG)
- HNLMS Witte de With (WW)
- HNLMS Banckert (BK)
- HNLMS Van Nes (VN)
The (EV), (PH) or (BK) in the names of the ships is a shortening of the ship’s name, and interestingly also painted on the side of each ship is very large letters. Thus you can very quickly reconize the different ships by reading the letters.
The ships were laid down in three batches, of which the first batch differed from the second and third. First ‘Evertsen’, ‘Kortenaer’, ‘Piet Hein’ and ‘De Ruyter’ were laid down during August of 1925. Then ‘Van Galen’ and ‘Witte de With’ followed in May of 1927. And at last ‘Banckert’ and ‘Van Nes’ were laid down in August of 1928.
Just like many ship classes, the first batch of four ships served as a good testing ground to futher improve the class. To point out some differences, this first batch originally had much shorter smoke stacks, which quickly proved to be very annoying, so they were lengthened shortly after, and for the second and third batch this lengthened smoke stacks came standard.
HNLMS De Ruyter (Later renamed to Van Ghent), of the 1st Batch, with the original shorter smoke stacksAlso something the first batch differs in is secondairy armaments. The 40mm pom-pom was not quite in use yet for the Dutch so this first batch had to do without, whereas the second and third batch did have pom-pom’s. But to make up for this lack of autocannons, the First batch did recieve an extra secondairy 75mm gun, giving it two compared to the single on found on the second and third batch.
When the ships were laid down, it turned out that the ships were very well designed, and overall a succes. One ship of the class (HNLMS Piet Hein) reached a top speed of 36 knots during a test once. That was 4 knots faster then what was originally intended for the design.
The only downside to the class design was that they were fairly lightly armed compared to other destroyer designs of the time. But they made up for it with the excellent Dutch fire control systems.
At first the ships were used in the Dutch Caribbean during their early career. They mostly patrolled the waters there, and did not engage in any battles.
After 1933 the ships started to move towards the Dutch East Indies, where they carried out more patrol duties, and simple duties like going to a location just to show the Dutch dominance there.
During the 1940’s the ships carried out guarding and escort duties.
HNLMS Van Galen, HNLMS Banckert and HNLMS Arend in Curaçao during 1931
Ship design (2nd Batch Admiralen-class)
Spoiler
Blueprint of the 2nd Batch destroyers ‘Van Galen’ and ‘Witte de With’The design of the ship was based on the British Ambuscade and Amazone destroyers. These two British destroyers served as the prototypes for the Admiralen-class.
The primary armament of the Admiralen-class consisted of four single 120mm guns. On the 2nd Batch these were the No. 5 type. While four primary guns is not very impressive, the fire control system on the ships was excellent. Thus making the guns much more accurate then what can be seen on ships of other countries.
The 12cm No. 5 guns on HNLMS Van GalenThe secondairy armaments for the 2nd Batch consisted of a single 75mm No. 7 gun. This one was located amidship on a raised platform. This gun is dual purpose, so it can also engage aircraft.
The 7,5cm No. 7 gun located amidship, on board HNLMS Van GalenSomething the 2nd Batch of Admiralen-class destroyers improve over the 1st Batch, is the addition of four 40mm No. 1 (pom-pom) autocannons. These were located in four single mounts, with two on either side of the ship.
The 40mm pom-pom’s onboard HNLMS Van Galen, note that they have a piece of cloth around of for when the ship is not engaged in battleFuther weaponry include four 12.7mm Browning machine guns, with two being located on near the bridge, and the other two near the 75mm gun platforms. Six 533mm torpedo tubes in two tripple tube launchers were also carried. These carried Whitehead Type II torpedoes with a range of 4.000 meters.
4 depthcharge throwers, with a total of 12 depth charges, and 2 minelaying rails with a total of 24 mines completed the armaments of the 1st Batch Admiralen-class.
One last thing that the Admiralen-class also had was a aircraft catapult. This was located on top of the aft Torpedo tube launcher. This catapult could carry a Van Berkel W-A floatplane. But in reality this plane was never really carried a lot. And during the course of the 1930’s, this catapult was discarded.
A Van Berkel W-A floatplane
Another blueprint of the 2nd Batch destroyers ‘Van Galen’ and ‘Witte de With’
History of Van Galen
Spoiler
HNLMS Van Galen sailing at seaDuring the mobilization of the Netherlands it was decided to bring one of the Admiralen-class destroyers from the East Indies to the Netherlands. And so HNLMS Van Galen was choses. She arrived in the Netherlands on the 8th of May 1940. The ship was quite old at this point but still good enough for war.
But there was one problem. The 40mm No. 1 autocannons could not fire while in an elevated position. This was something that had to be fixed right away, and so Van Galen was planned to get this fixed in Den Helder. But on the 10th of May German invaded the Netherlands.
The German forces had gotten a foothold in parts of Rotterdam, but the Dutch torpedoboat ‘Z 5’ and the PT boat ‘TM 51’ had a lot of succes attacking the Germans at this location. So it was decided to send another warship to Rotterdam to futher help the forces. Van Galen quickly left the dock of Den Helder and set out for Rotterdam.
While on route to Rotterdam, Van Galen had spotted a bunch of German aircraft landed near a beach. Van Galen opened up fire on the aircraft without slowing down, and managed to take out three of them.
When Van Galen got close to Rotterdam, she was attacked by Ju-87 dive bombers. And this was just the start, she would endure another 30 attacks from aircraft following this. But since her 40mm guns were not upgraded yet, they could not engage aircraft, so she could not counter these air attacks.
The ship was not hit by any direct bomb hits. But all the indirect hits had already caused to much damage. After Van Galen had quickly docked near a friendly base, the commander inspected the damage and saw that it was already to late. The aft of the ship was already sinking, and many internal pipelines had sprung.
The commander ordered to abandon ship, and shortly after the ship sank.
The Germans raised the ship in 1941, but it was to far gone for repairs, so it was scrapped.
During these attacks only one person died, and three others were wounded.
HNLMS Van Galen
Specifications, Van Galen
Spoiler
Length: 98,15 m
Width: 9,45 m
Depth: 3 m
Displacement: 1.316 Tons empty, 1.680 tons fully loaded.
Engine: 2 x Parson turbines, 3 x 3-drum Yarrow waterpipeboilers
Engine power: 31.000 hp
Number of screws: 2
Max speed: (Planned) 32 knots / (Achieved during a test by HNLMS Piet Hein) 36 knots
Crew: 149
Armaments:
- 4 x 1 120 mm No. 5 cannon
- 1 x 1 75 mm No. 7 cannon
- 4 x 1 40 mm No. 1 autocannon
- 4 x 1 12.7 mm Browning machine gun
- 2 x 3 533mm Torpedo tubes, with Whitehead Type II torpedoes (Max range of 4.000 meters)
- 4 x 1 Depth charge throwers, with 12 depth charges total
- 2 x 1 mine lauching rails, with 24 Vickers mines total
- 1 x 1 Aircraft catapult, with the Van Berkel W-A floatplane carried. (Max speed 135 km/h, 1 x 7.92 mm Lewis machine gun in a gunner position)
The floatplane catapult was discarded early on in the 1930’s
Ingame
Spoiler
Ingame I would like to see these ships added in a Dutch or BeNeLux techtree. The ships are not extremely powerfull so putting them in, for example, a British techtree will just make people skip past them. But in a Dutch or BeNeLux techtree they would actually form the backbone of the destroyer line, so there they would serve a much better purpose.
If a Dutch or BeNeLux techtree is out of the question, then having it in the British techtree as a premium makes the most sense.
The fast speed and accurate guns will make the Admiralen-class a pretty fun class to play. The ability to lay mines, launch aircraft, and drop pretty good torpedoes will make the HNLMS Van Galen a very capable ship!
Make sure to check out the other ships of the Admiralen-class!
1st batch
2nd batch
- HNLMS Van Galen
- HNLMS Witte de With
3rd batch
HNLMS Van Galen
And there we go, that was the Admiralen-class destroyer HNLMS Van Galen!
Make sure to vote in the poll above, and put a comment down below! See you next time!
Extra Photos
Sources
Spoiler
Primary source:
- Nederlandse marineschepen 1939-1945, Deel 1 , book by Peter Kimenai.
Secondairy sources:
Van Berkel W-A floatplane:
Historical photos:
Blueprints: