H.M Minkryssare Clas Flemming (1940)
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- No
H.M Minkryssare Clas Flemming was a mine laying cruiser in service with the Swedish navy and the only one of the type Sweden ever used. She was built from 1910 by Bergsunds Mekaniska Verkstad in Stockholm by a request from the Swedish naval command for a proper mine layer with recon capability and solid sea performance. In 1914 she joined the navy, serving through out ww1 mostly developing mine laying tactics. Going into the interwar period the navy learned a lot from her design and decided to modify her extensively leading up to ww2. In 1939 she was once again modernized, this time being ready for action in 1940, which is the form i am suggesting here. She served well throughout the war in the coastal fleet until the war ended and she was disarmed. She remained that way until 1959 where she was put out of service and used as a target ship until she was sold for scrap in 1960.
History and related info
In 1908, the Swedish naval command issued out a request for a mine layer capable of high speed, stability in all weather conditions and of course good mine laying capabilities. Prior to this, the Swedish navy had no dedicated mine layer, instead relying on vedette ships and destroyers with limited abilities to do so. As such they had no experience with a ship of such a roll, nevertheless in 1909 the request was granted and funds were allocated for the procurement of what would become the Clas Flemming.
The following year the construction of the Clas Flemming commenced at the Finnboda shipyard in Stockholm and only two years later in 1912 she was launched. After an additional two years she was ready and joined the Swedish navy in 1914 where she quickly found herself preforming tests and developing new tactics as the navy had not used this type of ship before. Towards the end of ww1 she was finally ready to use her newfound war tactics in something called “Offensive mining” but as luck would have it the war would end soon after.
HM Minkryssare Clas Flemming in her original form.
During the interwar period, many flaws in her design were found, the aft mine doors were too low, resulting in waves sometimes crashing into the openings, her main armament of 4 x 120mm Bofors m/11 were vulnerable to disablement with them being in twin turrets, also having very poor gun shields was a problem for the gunners if they saw enemy fire, the rapid development of aircraft saw her AA armament becoming out dated and much more. Therefore in the following years she saw multiple redesigns in an attempt to fix the flaws. In 1918 she raised the mine ports and the mine rails recieved some cover. During this time her armament was also changed, switching the twin turrets to singles and instead placing one cannon on each side of the midship, resulting in a weaker broadside of just 3 x 120mm cannons but allowing for a better chance of returning fire if one cannon was knocked out. In 1926 they upgraded the AA armament, replacing the 4 x 6.5mm machine guns with 3 x 25mm Akan’s. This was the form she would see until 1939.
In the November of 1939 she was once again sent into port for a modernization where she would receive a huge upgrade, her hull was lengthened 6 meters to fit the 4 new six-cylinder two-stroke diesel engines that were replacing six of her eight old steam engines, of which the remaining two were modified to be oil powered instead of coal, this also made her receive a third smokestack and all were made to slope backwards. Her aft mast was removed as the frontal was modified. Her armament was also modernized, the 120mm m/11’s were given better ammo and and new gun shields, allowing for longer range, thus becoming the M/11-40. The AA was also upgraded with 3 x 40mm Bofors cannons being installed.
The new and improved Clas Flemming.
It took a year but in August of 1940 she was back in action and put into the coastal fleet, serving through out ww2 with grace, however as the war ended so did the need for her and she was disarmed and put into storage all the way up to 1959 where they realized that she wasn’t going to be needed again and as such decommissioned and used as a shooting target for other ships. After a while, she was sold for scrapping in Ystad in 1960, ending her service to the country for good.
Armament and statistics
Length: 86 meters
Width: 10.4 meters
Draft: 4.3 meters
Displacement: 1640 / 1850 tons
Machinery: 2 DeLaval steam turbines and 4 six-cylinder two-stroke diesel engines.
Maximum speed: 20 knots
Crew: 160 men
Armor: The hull was split into 14 watertight compartments and protected by an armored deck that was 16–25 mm thick and the conning tower was protected by 75 mm of armor.
Main armament was 4 x 120mm/45cal Bofors M/11-40 in single turrets, one forward, one aft and one on each side of the midship. As these were upgraded M/11 cannons based on the m/03 (which in turn was a development of the m/94) they would be similar in performance. With the newer shells the cannons had a range of 13,4 km.
The Anti Air armament was 3 x 40mm Bofors cannons.
Her secondary armament consisted of around 190 mines, she was supposed to carry the M/12 but as it was a mine of such an advanced constructions, the navy couldn’t get it to work properly and had to use the older M/08 mines instead, during the interwar period they upgraded them to the M/14 mines and later on the M/22.
