Flower class corvette Aconit, the submarine killer

Arghail · August 17, 2023, 4:14pm

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Flower class corvette

Aconit

The Submarine killer

About this ship and its interest in War Thunder

This corvette is an iconic ship of the FNFL, which was decorated by De Gaulle and was active during the whole war. In an effort to highlight potential Premium ships or event ships for the French navy, I thought about making a suggestion for this ship which could perfectly fit this role given its history, and the fact that the class is already present in the game.

About the Aconit

The Aconit was a Flower class corvette launched in march 1941 in the UK. Four months later, it was given to the FNFL, and was used mostly as an escort ship to protect convoys in the Atlantic. It escorted many convoys during its first year of commission and chased away a couple submarines, without ever sinking them. Its first known action was saving the entire crew of an 8000t torpedoed tanker, the Imperial transport. After that it kept escorting convoys, without any other events than a violent blizzard near the Canadian coast.

On March 11th, 1943, while escorting convoy HX228, the Aconit encountered two U-boat in the same day : The first was the U-444, which it rammed and sank in the middle of the night. After taking 4 German prisonners, it patrolled around the immobilized convoy which was being attacked by another submarine, the U-432, which sank at least two other ships. The HMS Harvester was damaged during the combat, and immobilized. It was then torpedoed by the U-432 at 1PM, and sank immediately. The Aconit spotted the U-432 and attacked it with its canons and crippled it, before ramming it, sinking the ship. It managed to capture 22 prisonners, after which it went on to save the survivors of HMS Harvester.

For her feat, the ship was made “Compagnon de la Liberation”, received the “Croix de guerre 1939/45” medal, and was decorated by the Royal navy. She would sail again until the end of the war, escorting convoys and participating to D-day. It ultimately was given back to the Royal navy in 1947, then sold to the civilian life, where it was used as a whaler, until its demolition in 1967.

Specifications

DIMENSIONS

Total length : 62. 7 m

Total width : 10.9 m

draught : 2.7 m

displacement : 950 tons

crew : 70

ENGINES

VTE, Steam 4 cylinder

2750 HP

Max speed : 16 knots

ARMAMENT :