- Yes
- No
KNM BERGEN - Destroyer Crescent-class
BUILDING SITE: Scotts SB & Eng. Co. Ltd., Greenock, Great Britain
PREVIOUS NAME: HMS Cromwell
LAUNCHED: 6 August 1945
HOIST NORWEGIAN COMMAND: 25 October 1946
ARMAMENT
1945-1961
Spoiler
4x 4,5" Fast firing cannons
6x 40mm Bofors cannons
2x 20mm Oerlicon cannons
4x 21" torpedotubes
Sinking mines rack
1961-1967
Spoiler
4x 4,5" Fast firing cannons
6x 40mm Bofors cannons
2x 20mm Oerlicon cannons
4x 21" torpedotubes
Sinking mines rack
1x6 KONGSBERG TERNE III ANTI SUBMARINE ROCKETS - launch pad with 6 rockets
TECHNICAL DATA
Displacement: 2.640 Ton
Hull: Steel
Length: 121.0m
Width: 12.0m
Depth: 5.3m
Crew: 241 men
MACHINERY
2x Parson turbines
Power: 40.000 AHK
Speed: 36.5 Knots
CALENDAR
1946: Purchased from Great Britain on 10 October and given the name KNM Bergen with pennant number J 03
1950: New pennant number D 304
1957: Ground support at Tananger 22 February
1967: Command canceled 1 January
1967: Sold for scrapping in Grimstad
C-CLASS
The eight destroyers in the CR class were already ordered in September 1942 at four different shipyards in Scotland. Their innovation was that the hulls were fully welded and that they were to have a new fully automatic control system for the guns. in return they lost four more torpedoes. due to delays with the aforementioned steering system, only the first of the two built for Canada (cresent) was completed before the end of the war. two of them, Crispin and Creole, were retained by the British themselves before being sold to Pakistan in 1958. the last four, which had already been given their British names, were still sold to Norway. we took them over straight from the shipyard and gave them Norwegian names at the same time as they took command. the large supply of warships after the war, together with our good relations with the British, contributed to an advantageous price. unsurprisingly, the problem eventually became that this large fleet became expensive to man, operate and maintain, let alone renew. Over several years, there was an internal discussion about whether it was right for small Norway to invest in an ocean-going navy with large destroyers, rather than investing in a coastal navy. the acquired destroyers of the Hunt class were in 1956 reclassified as frigates, while the fleet destroyers maintained their destroyer status. Skule Storheill and other prominent officers with combat experience from the large destroyers emphasized the importance of the destroyers. with American support, the fleet plan of 1960 became the rescue for the renewal of the aging fleet. there the coastal navy was founded, with five frigates as the largest ships. thus the C class could be gradually phased out, even before they had completed 20 years of peacetime service.
KNM BERGEN
KNM Bergen was taken over at the naval base Devonport in Plymouth on 25 October 1946. Already on 2 Christmas of the same year it set out on its first trip “across the pond”. The purpose was primarily to transport Norwegian maiden voyage boys who were to muster on various Liberty ships. as a foretaste of what was to come later, they encountered a giant wave in the Atlantic Ocean. a small fire broke out which they put out themselves, and otherwise it was no worse than losing most of the sinkers.
Service on board in the first years after the war was characterized by the strict hierarchy leading officers had become accustomed to from the Royal Navy. the commander is unassailable and the second-in-command carries out all his orders. it could probably frustrate the younger officers, but on board KNM Bergen they invented something they called “skull board”. it was an elaborate mahogany plate, with a recess in the upper part, mounted on the bulkhead in the mess. there, the younger officers, following an unreasonable order from the second-in-command, could take your frustration out on you, at least not before you were out of sight.
It was hardly due to this form of gallows humor, but when the enjoyable film “Operasjon Sjøsprøyt” was filmed, with Arve Opsahl among others, it was KNM Bergen who got the main role among the vessels.
It became more serious when KNM Bergen was chosen as the platform for testing and evaluation of the new, Norwegian-developed anti-submarine weapon Terne. the rocket-based sinking mine system had been developed since the early 1950s in close collaboration between the Norwegian Defense Research Institute and Kongsberg Arms Factory - and eventually this also became of interest to the USA. in 1957 a trial installation was made on the frigate KNM Balder. When development had progressed a little further, in the spring of 1961 such a system was also installed on board KNM Bergen. after first doing tests in Vågsfjorden, the trip went to Key West in 1962 to convince the Americans. here it was tested against the USS Nautilus itself, with the startling result that the cold rocket was stuck in the hull of the famous submarine. with Terne on board, KNM Bergen also became the one of our vessels that most often participated in NATO exercises.
It was even more serious on 1 November 1965, when during an exercise in the Irish Sea they experienced four continuous days of stormy weather that made it impossible to prepare hot food and sleep properly. suddenly, the storm apparently subsides and many of the crews pull out. then they soon discover that they are in the eye of the storm and they see a steel gray wall of water coming towards them. the giant wave wrecked the vessel, which for a while had the entire propeller clear of the water. the house around the aft cannon will be torn away, as will the middle deck house with the galley and several provisions lockers on deck. four men are thrown overboard, but most of the light boats/whale boats are smashed to pieces. eventually they get a smaller boat on the water and more boats and helicopters join the search, but they only find one of the four and he is dead. it turns out that KNM Bergen has also suffered a serious internal crack and as a result of this the heavy oil is floating on board. the commander nevertheless insists on participating in the search for three days, before he is almost forced to think about the exhausted crew. the story comes from a man named “Per Monsen” who was then 23 years old and a conscript Ensign on board. Unbelievably, it is the young ensign who alone gets the task of following the bier home to Norway, representing the Navy at the funeral and visiting the family of the other three
KONGSBERG TERNE III ROCKETS - launch pad with 6 rockets
Spoiler
Manufacturer: Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and A/S Raufoss
“Terne” is a Norwegian anti-submarine weapon system, which uses rocket-thrown depth charges. It was developed by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI- Forsvarets Forsknings institutt) in cooperation with the U.S. Navy in the late 1940s-early 1960s.
SPECIFICATIONS
Mass: 135 kg
Length: 1.95 m
Diameter: 0.21 m
Warhead: 50 kg
Detonation mechanism: Delay Fuse
Engine: Solid-fueled Rocket; 52 kN (11700 lb)
Wingspan: 0.24 m
Operational range: 425-1600 m
Guidance system: Unguided rocket + depth charge
Launch platform: Land and Naval ships
A Report from Norwegian Defence Research Establishment about the TERNE
https://publications.ffi.no/nb/item/asset/dspace:5901/FFIs-historie-nr2.pdf
PICTURES AND IMPORTANT DETAILS
Spoiler
SOURCES
Spoiler
https://www.antikvariat.net/sv/ada18406-90-ar-under-rent-norsk-orlogsflagg-thomassen-marius-adamstuen-antikvariat
Norske marinefartøy - samtlige norske marinefartøy 1814-2008 og marinens flygevåpen 1912-1944 | ARK Bokhandel
Fylkesbaatane – Om saluttkanoner - Kulturhistorisk leksikon
90 år under rent norsk orlogsflagg - Deichman.no
This post was made by
Til_Dovre_Faller
Warthunder_Norway