HSwMS Södermanland (1963) of the Östergötland class
- Yes
- No
HMS Södermanland, known as the HSwMS Södermanland internationally, was a destroyer in the Swedish navy and the second ship of the Östergötland class. She was built by Götaverken shipyard, Göteborg in 1956 and put into service in 1958 where she and her sisters defended the Swedish coastline. She served into the 80’s where in 1984 she was put out of service and was later sold to be scrapped in Spain.
History
In 1951 the Swedish navy was going through a lot of changes, the war had been over for a while, old ships were going out of service, HM (Type of ship - Name of ship) was no longer in use and the navy needed to decide how it was going to change with the times. Therefore they set out on a mission to see just what would need to be done in order to have a effective, modern and most of all cheap navy. It was decided that cruisers were too big and expensive for the Swedish navy to continue running with. With the oldest cruiser in the navy “HM Kryssare Gotland” growing old and soon to go out of service, it was decided to replace the future of the Gotland as well as two destroyers that were also going out of service with smaller yet more plentiful destroyers, this would result in the creation of the Östergötland class.
HMS Östergötland, the first of the class.
The Östergötland class was a fairly heavy destroyer, at least by Swedish standards. It was largely based on another destroyer class already in service with the Swedish navy, the Öland class, only heavier and with better armament as well as being modified to carry the extra weight. The resulting ships were just like the Öland class, 111 meters long and 11.2 meters wide, however due to the heavier armament, the draft was increased by 0.3 meters. She also received double rudders to increase her mobility. Another difference form the Öland was that the Östergötland was built fully out of steel, making her more well protected but significantly heavier.
The Östergötland class resulted in four ships (HMS) Östergötland, Södermanland, Gästrikland and Hälsingland, these ships would end up being the last destroyers in the Swedish navy.
HMS Södermanland in her original form, in Södermanland!
HMS Södermanland would join the Swedish navy in 1958 and would regularly join with her sisters and other ships in jagarflottilj (Destroyer flotilla) practice. In a war scenario, two Östergötland class destroyers, one Halland class destroyer and six various torpedo boats would work as a group in their own jagarflottilj. Other than that, she mainly just sailed around the coast, ready to receive orders at any moment. In 1963, the Östergötland class were ready for modernization, the 40mm Bofors was not equipped to deal with the times air threats and as such the navy were looking for a solution. The answer to their problem would be the new British “Sea cat” Short range surface to air missile system, designated as the Rb 07 in Sweden, that had shown itself just a year prior. This was the first operational ship based sam system in the world and was as such very attractive to any nation looking for a way to replace their gun based AA systems, especially Sweden. And after some negotiation, it was purchased and ready to be mounted on Swedish destroyers.
HMS Södermanland was the first of her class to receive the RB 07’s, due to the weight difference between AA guns and SAM systems, two 40mm Bofors were removed and the aft triple torpedo tubes were moved forward and made into a sextuplet torpedo tube instead. The rest of her armament stayed the same.
RB 07 Firing off HMS Södermanland.
She rejoined the navy later on and served in this state until 1984, where she would be put out of service and scrapped in Spain in 1985, ending a long career of doing, well, pretty much nothing other than looking good, but isn’t that the best career for a warship to have after all?
Armament and stats
Length: 111,8 m
Width: 11,2 m
Draft: 3.7 m
Displacement: 2.600 ton
Speed: 35 knots
Crew: 244 men
Her main armament consisted of consisted of four 12 cm cannons of the m/44 type in two twin turrets, one in the bow and one in the stern. Each cannon was capable of firing 20 shells a minute giving the ship a fire rate of 80 shots a minute. The cannons could fire HE Shells as well as HE-VT shells.
Her Anti Air armament was five 40mm Bofors Lvakan m/48 and one RB 07 Seacat SAM Launcher.
Her Secondary armament was six 53.3mm torpedoes “Torped 61” in a sextuplet tube.
For anti submarine duties she also had one 30.5 cm anti-submarine mortar m/51, two depth charge racks m/44.
For Illumination purposes she also had one 10.3 cm illumination flare launcher and four 10.3 cm illumination flare racks m/55 on the turrets.
She could also carry and drop 58 mines.
