ABDIEL
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Nationality: |
Britain |
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| Type: | Cruiser / Minelayer | |||||||||||||||
| Class: | ABDIEL - six in class | |||||||||||||||
| Builder: | White | |||||||||||||||
| Completed: | April, 1941 | |||||||||||||||
| Displacement: | 2,650 tons | |||||||||||||||
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Dimensions: (in feet and inches) |
418' x 40' x 14' 9" | |||||||||||||||
| Machinery: | 2-shaft Parsons geared turbines; 4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers; 72,000shp. Oil: 695 tons | |||||||||||||||
| Speed: | 39.75 knots | |||||||||||||||
| Armament: |
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| Compliment: | 242 |
Sister ships: APOLLO, ARIADNE, LATONA, MANXMAN, WELSHMAN
Pennant Number: M 39
Notes: A successful class of fast minelayers, also used for such duties as running special cargoes of ammunition to Malta. Soon after completion, ABDIEL had 4 - 20mm AA added. Later, her twin 4.7" mounts were replaced by twin 4" HA mounts, and 8 - 20mm (twin mounts) added.
ABDIEL served with the Mediterranean Fleet in 1941; she was transferred to the
Eastern Fleet in 1942, then returned to Home Fleet, 1942-43; she was sent back
to Mediterranean Fleet in 1943. As with her sister ships, ABDIEL was used in
both her original role as a minelayer, and as a fast transport ship, ferrying
supplies to bastions in harms' way in the Mediterranean. She laid many minefields, and those mines claimed ten victims; the Italian destoyers CARLO
MIRABELLO, CORSARO, SAETTA,
ASCARI, and LANZEROTTO MALOCELLO, the torpedo boat
CICLONE, the gunboats PELLEGRINO MATTEUCCI and URAGANO, and the transports
KYBFELS (German, 7,764 tons) and MARBURG (German, 7,564 tons). In addition,
the Italian destroyer MAESTRALE was severely damaged by one of ABDIEL's mines.
ABDIEL also landed British commandos at Suda Bay on 27 May 1941, and in the
company of the light cruiser PHOEBE and three destroyers, evacuated 4,000 troops from Crete on 31 May 1941 as this island was captured by German forces.
On 9 September 1943, ABDIEL berthed at Taranto Harbor, Italy, carrying troops
of the 1st Airborne Division (6th Royal Welsh Battalion). Her spot in the
harbor had been declined earlier by the American light cruiser BOISE. Unknown
to the Allied forces, the German MTB's S-54 and S-61 had placed ground mines in
the harbor hours earlier. Shortly after midnight on 10 October 1943, two of
those mines detonated. Mortally wounded, ABDIEL sank in three minutes. 48 of
her crew were killed, as were 58 soliders of the Airborne Division; another 150
were injured.
A special "thank you!" to the following on-line sources for additional information on the ABDIEL:
http://www.steelnavy.com/WEM350Abdiel.htm
http://uboat.net/allies/warships/class.html?ID=77&navy=HMS
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