Tag Archives: Swedish navy

Warship Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023: An Everlasting Pansarbat

Posted on by One comment

Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023: An Everlasting Pansarbat

Swedish Marinmuseum photo D 15043

Above we see the Aran-class pansarskepp HSvMS Manligheten of the Royal Swedish Navy as she pokes around Europe in the summer of 1937 while on a midshipman’s cruise. Note her distinctive funnel flash and forward superstructure arrangement which differentiated the “coastal battleship” from her three sisters.

She is 34 years young in the above image– launched some 120 years ago this month in fact– but still looks clean and neat. It should come as no surprise that Manligheten would continue to be afloat and in use in one form or another until just a few years ago.

The Aran class

Just after Swedish-born engineer John Ericsson had introduced the ironclad turret warship in 1862 when he lent his genius to the USS Monitor, his homeland soon ordered two classes of iron-hulled coastal monitors to counter Baltic Sea rival, Imperial Russia, as the Tsar was upgrading his own fleet with American-designed monitors. However, by the 1880s, those aforementioned vessels were almost considered quaint by rapidly evolving naval technology.

To reboot their fleet from the first-generation ironclads to steel warships, the Swedes in 1883 placed an order for the 3,050-ton, 248-foot HSvMS Svea for 1.24 million kron, followed by her two half-sisters, HSvMS Göta and HSvMS Thule. Carrying large (10-inch) main guns and swathed in as much as 10 inches of armor plate, they were rightly considered something of a coastal battleship or slow protected cruiser for their period.

This pansarbarten/pansarskepp concept was well-liked by the Swedes, who ordered another three-ship class, the Oden-class pansarskepp-type coastal defense ships (3445 tons, 2-10 inch guns, 9.5 inches armor, 16.5 knots) which were completed in 1899 and the one-off HSvMS Dristigheten (Audacity) which was basically an improved Oden with better armament.

Then, with lessons learned around the world that came from the Spanish-American War, the four-ship Äran class was ordered.

Made of all riveted steel in a 287-foot hull with 11 watertight sections, they were the heaviest Swedish warships at the time of their construction, hitting the water at 3,700 tons due to a belt that ran as thick as 7 inches of Krupp armor (as opposed to Harvey nickel-steel in the previous ships). Able to float in just 16 feet of water at a maximum load, they could hug the shoreline where larger battlewagons could not tread and still make 17 knots on an engineering suite that included 8 coal-fired Yarrow boilers and two Motala 3-cylinder triple-expanding steam engines.

The four members of the class were Äran/Eran/Aeran (Honor), Wasa/Vasa (in honor of several former Swedish ships of the line), Tapperheten (Bravery), and Manligheten (Manhood). To speed up construction as tensions were high with Norway at the time, they were completed at three different domestic yards– Lindholmen shipyard in Gothenburg (Äran), Finnboda shipyard in Stockholm (Wasa), and Kockum’s Mekaniska Verkstad in Malmö (Tapperheten and Manligheten). Approved in the Riksdag in 1899 (first three) and 1901 (Manligheten), all had entered service by 1904.

Launching of the Swedish coastal defense ship Wasa at Finnboda in 1901

Navy Yard Karlskrona with Pansarskepp Manligheten, Tapperheten, Wasa

While the earlier Sveas carried two Armstrong 1880s BL 10-inch guns, and the Odens two French-made 8.3″/42cal Canet m/94A guns, these new Äran-class pansarbarten would be equipped with a longer locally made 8.2″/45 m/98 gun produced by Bofors Gallspanz and trialed on Dristigheten. As noted by the 1914 Janes, these Swedish 8.2s could fire a 275-pound AP shell on a blend of special Bofors-made nitro-compound that was capable of penetrating 9.5 inches of armor at 3,000 yards. The maximum range was 11,000 yards due to the limited 12-degree elevation limits on the turret. The rate of fire was about one round per minute.

Here, the bow mount on Manligheten shows off one of her 8.2″/45 m/98s. The 21 cm kanon M/98 was made by Bofors and they were the standard main battery for Dristigheten, the four Ärans, and the circa 1905 one-off HSwMS Oscar II. Fo62130A

The secondary battery was another Swedish naval favorite, the 15,2 cm kanon (6″/45) m/98. Introduced in 1898 on Dristigheten, they would be used on the Ärans as well as the large minesweeper/training ship HSwMS Älvsnabben (M01). The Ärans would carry six of these guns in armored single-mount turrets, divided three on each broadside– a departure from casemated secondaries in previous Swedish pansarbarten. They were capable of firing a 101-pound shell to 10,000 yards at a rate of up to 7 shots per minute.

Dragning av en 15 cm kanon Manligheten Fo199419

The tertiary battery was 10 57mm/48 cal kanon m/89 guns. Made domestically by Finspongs bruk under license by Maxim-Nordenfeldt, these were QF guns that could fire 6-pounder shells out to 6,000 yards as fast as 35 rounds per minute as long as the passers and hoists could keep up. These were typically described as anti-torpedo boat guns in their era.

Manligheten Pansarskepp salute with 57mm ssk M89 mount. Note the 4,800-ton pansarkryssare or armored cruiser, HSvMS Fylgia in the background. Fo192889

Besides the mounted gun armament, the class carried a pair of m/1899 18-inch Armstrong torpedo tubes below the waterline for a dozen Whitehead m/93 and m/03 torpedoes while each of their two embarked 28-foot steam sloops could carry spar torpedoes and a one-pounder 37mm m/98B gun.

The Aran class, 1914 Jane’s

How the Arans stacked up against the rest of Sweden’s coastal battlewagons, via the 1915 Brassy’s.

Meet Manligheten

Laid down at Kockum’s behind her sister Tapperheten, Manligheten was launched on 1 December 1903. Her honorable name had been used by the Swedish Navy by a circa 1785 64-gun ship-of-the-line that had fought in Gustav III’s Russian war in 1788-80– blockading Viborg– as well as in the naval battles during the Finnish War of 1808–1809 and was only disposed of in 1864.

Manligheten was commissioned on 3 December 1904, the last of her class to join the fleet. A happy ship, she, along with her three sisters, formed the 1st Pansarbåtsdivisionen in 1905.

Pansarbåtseskader in Karlskrona i July 1906 showing Oden, Aran, Thule, Manligheten, Gota, Niord, and Svea. D 8868

Pansarbåten Manligheten år 1907 D 1391

She sailed in the summer of 1912, along with the cruiser Fylgia and the larger pansarbat Oscar II to bring King Gustav V and his family to Pitkepaasi outside Viborg for a meeting with the Tsar of Russia and his family to Russia.

HSvMS Fylgia, Manligheten, and HSvMS Oscar II in the 1912 painting by Johanson Arvid now in the Sjöhistoriska museet collection (Accession O 10597) celebrating the Swedish squadron’s return to Stockholm after the visit to Russia outside Viborg that summer. Salutes are being fired and King Gustav V and Queen Victoria are disembarking from a steam sloop.

War!

The Great War, with Sweden’s strictly enforced armed neutrality (Neutralitesvakten), saw the Arans were slightly modified in 1916, trading out a couple of their low-angle 57mm 6-pounders for some newer Lvk m/1924 models with increased elevation, meant for AAA and balloon busting.

Manligheten. Note her searchlights and mast arrangement. Fo197006A

As easy interbellum

In 1920, Manligheten took a cruise to Amsterdam, the first trip outside of Scandinavia by a Swedish coastal battleship since the summer of 1913.

In the mid-1920s, a refit saw new boilers installed including two oil-fired and six coal-fired. By this time, two further low-angle 6-pounders had been landed, replaced by two 25mm AAA guns– one on the top of each 8.3-inch turret.

25 mm automatkanon on aft turret Manligheten. This photo was during her WWII era. Fo199420

Pansarskeppet Manligheten D 14983_21

Manligheten i Oban MM01497

Manligheten Pansarskepp MM01485

Sisters Tapperheten and Manligheten, once completing their mid-life refit, would undertake two back-to-back European goodwill tours during the summers of 1926 (Amsterdam-Portsmouth-Guernsey-Vlaardinggen) and 1927 (Plymouth-San Sebastian-Bilbao-Rotterdam).

Swedish pansarskeppet Tapperheten and Manligheten in San Sebastian, Spain, during the long voyage they undertook together in 1927. Fo229219

Aran class Swedish coastal battleships Janes 1931

Besides her typical spate of peacetime drills and exercises, followed by iced-in winters, Manligheten survived a grounding in 1930 and was tapped for another European deployment in the summer of 1937. This latter trip, with port calls at Amsterdam, Newcastle, Rouen, Cardiff, Oban, Trondheim, and Memel, was her only solo tour and she embarked 90 officer cadets. It was largely followed by a repeat trip in the summer of 1938. By then, she carried both a pair of 25mm/58 cal Bofors m/32 AAA guns and 37mm Bofors as well. 

Manligheten in Memel Lithuania July 25, 1938. Note the 37mm AAA guns arrayed behind the 8.2-inch mount (with a covered 25mm gun atop) and four forward-facing 6-inch turrets. MM01502

Swedish Sweden Aran Class Coastal Defence Ship HSwMS Manligheten Queen Alexandra Docks Cardiff to Coal,1937

John Grantham, Lord Mayor of Newcastle on board the visiting Swedish warship Manligheten, 5 June 1937 TWAM ref. DF.GRA53

Swedish Aran Class Coastal Defence Ship HSwMS Manligheten at the Queen Alexandra Docks, Cardiff to coal, 1937

Swedish Aran Class Coastal Defence Ship HSwMS Manligheten at the Queen Alexandra Docks Cardiff, 1937. Note her large steam launch, covered to the left

That’s no joke

Blindfolded Boxing in Öresund on board Manligheten 1938 MM01487

A close-up of the above (MM01487). Check out those expressions.

Manligheten at sea 1938 MM01499

War, again

Then came World War II and, with Sweden seriously isolated and pressured by the Germans, stepped up her Neutralitesvakten as much as possible.

However, by this time the 40-year-old Arans were in rough shape. Tapperheten had been laid up in a sort of reserve capacity since 1928 while Aran was likewise mothballed in 1933. Wasa, which had not been refitted since 1924, was found to be in such poor condition that she was decommissioned in 1940 and rebuilt for use as a decoy target ship.

Manligheten, in the best material condition, retained her original 8.3-inch and 6″/45 guns as well as her pair of 25mm/58 cal Bofors m/32 AAA guns, but landed all of her old 57s in favor of a battery of four 57mm Bofors Lvk m/1924s, two 40mm/56 cal Bofors m/36s, and a pair of 8x63mm Browning Kulspruta Lvksp m/36 water-cooled heavy machine guns. Her torpedo tubes were retired. This armament package, along with topside changes, a single and more streamlined mast, camouflage, and recognition stripe, greatly changed her appearance.

H.M. Pansarskepp Manligheten WWII D 14983_23

Trainees on Manligheten note 40mm Bofors Fo196844

Pansarbåt Manligheten WWII Fo124AB

Tapperheten and Aran likewise received the same modernization.

Manligheten was, notably, a flagship for the task force searching for the lost Swedish Draken class submarine HSvMS Ulven (Wolf) in April 1943, which had been sunk by a mine.

Battleship Manligheten. On the West Coast on 20 Apr. 1943 Fo89732A

Two Swedish minesweeping trawlers (Minsvepare) and Pansarskepp Manligheten, during the search for the submarine Ulven. Note the false bow and wave painted on her hull. Fo125AB

1945: The 1,500-ton Sveabolaget-owned cargo ship turned auxiliary cruiser (hjälpkryssaren) Fidra (Hjkr 10), pansarskeppet Manligheten, 1,200-ron Gothenburg-class destroyer leader (stadsjagare) Karlskrona (J8), and the 685-ton coastal destroyer (kustjagare) Mode (29). Marinmuseum IV1025

Gothenburg Squadron summer 1946, sans white recognition stripe. HMS Manligheten MM01373

The 1946 Jane’s listing for the three active members of the class (Wasa was a target ship by 1940).

Following the end of the war, Aran and Tapperheten were withdrawn from service on 13 June 1947 and scrapped, while the hulked target ship/decoy Wasa experienced a similar fate.

Manligheten was the last of her class in commission, withdrawn from service on 24 February 1950. She was partially scrapped in 1952-53 at Karlskrona.

Manligheten Skrotningar scrapping 1953 V5515

Manligheten Skrotningar scrapping 1953 V5516

While her guns (more on this below), superstructure, and machinery were removed, Manligheten’s welded-up armored hull, under the shortened name “MA” proved sturdy enough to continue service as a floating pontoon dock at the new Gullmarsbasen naval base in remote Skredsvik on the country’s west coast, where she served as a base for the minesweepers stationed there in the 1950s and the mothballed destroyers HSvMS Göteborg (J5) and HSvMS Stockholm (J6) in the 1960s.

It was planned to tow the old girl around the country for use as a Krigsbro (ersatz war bridge) if needed during WWIII.

In 1984, ex-Manligheten/MA was disposed of by the Swedish military after 80 years of service and sold commercially for continued use as a floating dock, a role she would continue until 2015, hosting tugs for the Switzer group at Lahälla in Brofjorden. It was only afterward that she was sold to the breakers. 

Manligheten’s hull in Lahälla in Brofjorden in Bohuslän in 2011. The ship’s hull then functioned as a berth for tugboats. Preemraff can be seen in the background. Photo via WikiCommons

Arming coastal outposts

The main and secondary armament from Oscar II, the three Svea class, and the four Aran class pansarskepp were extensively redeployed around the country in the 1940s ashore as kustartilleripjäs (coastal artillery piece) for use by the five coastal artillery regiments (kustartilleriregemente)– KA 1, Vaxholms; KA 2, Karlskrona; KA 3 Gotlands, KA 4, Älvsborg; KA 5, Härnösands. These included eight 210mm guns in three batteries and 22 152mm guns in nine batteries. In all, they would remain in operation (typically held in readiness for use by reserves upon mobilization) until the late 1960s in the case of the 210s and 2001(!) when it came to the 152s.

One of the three 152mm guns of Battery Trelge (TG), manned by KA3 in wartime, remained in materiel readiness a bit into the 1980s. Even these old guns, manned by a dozen reservists, could still crank out 101-pound shells at 7 shots per minute to a range of 23,000 yards. The cage around it is for camouflage netting. GFM.001870

21 cm kanon m/98A

  • Hamnskär (3 pj) HS KA1 Discontinued 1962, (last firing 1962).
  • Hultungs (3 pj) HG KA3 Discontinued 1964 (last firing 64), Decommissioned 1968.
  • Öppenskär (2 pj) ÖS KA2 Discontinued 1959, Decommissioned 1965.

15,2 cm kanon m/98E i 15,2 cm vallav m/38 (15,2 cm pjäs m/98E-38)

  • Korsö (2 pj) KO/KO1 KA1 Decommissioned 1992.
  • Korsö (2 pj) KO/KO1 KA1 Decommissioned 1992.
  • Söderarm (2 pj) SA/SA1 KA1 Replaced by 12/70, last KFÖ 1968.
  • Mellsten (3 pj) M1 KA1 Replaced by 12/70.
  • Bungenäs (3 pj) BN KA3 Replaced by 15/51, Decommissioned 2001.
  • Trelge (3 pj) TG KA3 Discontinued 1978/79, Decommissioned 1999.
  • Lungskär (3 pj) LR KA2 Discontinued 1978/79, Decommissioned 1999.
  • Trelleborg (Dalköpinge) (1 pj) TE/TE1 KA2 Replaced by 12/70.
  • Holmögadd (3 pj) HD/HO1 KA5 Replaced by 12/70, Decommissioned 1980.

The coast artillery augmented these static gun batteries with S.11 rockets (RBS- 52) and locally made RBS-15s as well as 24 Bofors 120mm R Kapj 12/80 KARIN mobile guns and 30 12/70 single ERSTA emplacements— the latter two based on the excellent domestically produced Haubits FH-77 field howitzer– in the 1980s.

The 120mm 12/70 ERSTA emplacements and 12/80 KARIN mobile guns had a rate of fire of up to 16 rounds per minute and a range of 32 kilometers. They were only withdrawn in 2000. 

The last Bofors guns were fired on 26 September 2000 and the units disbanded by October 31 of that year, rebranded as amphibious troops (amfibiebataljonen).

Today they use portable Hellfire launchers, designated the RBS-17.

Swedish Älvsborgs amfibieregemente coast ranger RBS-17 Sjömålsrobot 17 Hellfire

A few 210s and 152 from the old battlewagons remain as museums, for instance, these at the Gotlands Försvarsmuseum

A 21 cm pjäs m98, removed from its emplacement. This was formerly a Pansarbåt gun.

Epilogue

When it comes to enduring relics, Manligheten’s 54×82 inch stern ornament is preserved at the Marinmuseum as well as some other items.

There is also some maritime art, such as the painting by Arvid above, and period postcards that remember the ship in better times. 

The Swedish Navy has not christened a third Manligheten.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Three Crowns Underway

Posted on by Leave a comment

This striking circa summer 1944 image shows the Swedish coastal battleship (pansarskeppet) HSwMS Sverige with a bone in her teeth despite her rather old-fashioned Edwardian-era bow form. Note her twin forward 11.1″/45 Bofors guns above white “neutral stripes” over an overall camouflage scheme, the latter very useful when hugging the coastline and hiding out along the country’s craggy coastline. The Tre kronor (Swedish “Three crowns”) is a national emblem of Sweden dating back to the 13th century.

Photo by Ernfrid Bogstedt via the Sjöhistoriska museet. Fo196138

The lead-ship of her class, Sverige was laid down in 1912, completed during the Great War where she helped enforce the country’s brand of heavily-armed neutrality, was modernized in the 1930s and continued to serve both through WWII as seen above and the early days of the Cold War. 

May 1934, the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans at Stockholm (center) with the twin pansarskeppet Gustav V and Sverige in the foreground. Fo39197

The Sverige trio, some 7,700 tons at their heaviest, were just under 400 feet long but were protected akin to a heavy cruiser with up to 8-inches of armor and carried a quartet of Bofors M/1912 11.1-inch/45 caliber guns, the latter capable of landing a 672-pound armor-piercing “arrow nose shell” an impressive 31,000 yards away (the latter a closely-held secret until as late as the 1960s, with most foreign intelligence pointing to a more sedate 20,000-yard range).

Janes’s 1946 entry on the class

She was only decommissioned in 1953, after over 40 years of service, and was scrapped in 1958.

As for her contemporaries, she outlived almost all of them. For the record, the last of the pansarskepp-era mini-battleships, Sverige‘s sister HSvMS Gustav V, was used as a training hulk and pier side until 1970 when she was finally scrapped.

Happy 500th, Marinen!

Posted on by Leave a comment

Tracing its lineage to that time the scrappy hövitsman Gustav Eriksson (later Gustav I, later Gustav Vasa) purchased a dozen ships from the Hanseatic town of Lübeck for the princely sum of 7,600 marks on 7 June 1522, the Swedish Navy predated old Gus’s 37-year reign, one that didn’t begin till the summer of 1523 after he licked the Danes– with the help of said ships.

Principal among the vessels purchased from the Germans was Lybska Svan, aka the “Svanen från Lübeck,” or the “Swan from Lubeck,” a plucky little 20-gun brig.

Lybska Svan via the Swedish Naval Museum. The ship fought in nine sea battles in its short career, and it hosted the Denmark capitulation in 1523 that paved the way for Sweden to become an independent state. To Sweden, it is a combination of the USS Missouri and Independence Hall.

For those with basic math skills, that means the Marinen is fast approaching its 500th anniversary.

PostNord Sverige has just released a set of three 26-kroner stamps to celebrate the Swedish Navy’s 500th anniversary this year.

One stamp depicts an advanced Saab A26 AIP hunter-killer submarine, currently being built for the force, and the commemorative sheet also shows a Saab CB90 Next Generation patrol boat in action as well as a UH-46/KV-107, which the Swedes used for SAR and ASW from 1963-2011. For a throwback, the Lybska Svan is depicted, of course.

Disappearing Swedish Ships, still a thing

Posted on by Leave a comment

In the past several years, we have often talked about how much the Swedish Navy has appreciated physical camouflage since at least the 1930s.

Thus: 

Swedish coastal defense battleship HSwMS Gustav V, using extensive camouflage, a serious tactic used to great extent by the Swedes, especially for air defense

The Swedish navy has had a long history of camouflaging their ships while hidden next to rocky isolated inlets and islands, even large capital ships.

The above, with the ship highlighted after the fact

After all, in a country whose craggy, rocky, geography gives it a 2,000 mile-long coastline along the Baltic, and whose fleet in modern times has never topped 100 warships, the concept of hiding among said crags and rocks– with the aid of a bit of extra concealment via tarps and vegetation– is an easy sell.

Speaking of which, the Swedes are still at it, with Saab’s Barracuda Camouflage system, which is already used on tanks and vehicles and includes IR blocking, has a Marine Solution that works not only against the MK 1 Mod 0 eyeball, but also defeats “90 percent” of near-infrared (NIR), shortwave infrared (SWIR), thermal infrared (TIR) and broadband radar wavelengths.

Note the below images of a 52-foot Stridsbåt 90 H(alv)/Combat Boat 90 (CB90)– a fast military assault craft developed by Swedish boat maker Dockstavarvet, a part of Saab subsidiary– with Barracuda camouflage panels installed, then against a rocky coastline, and finally with the camouflage net fully deployed.

Via Saab:

Barracuda’s Camouflage Marine Solution has been uniquely designed to offer complete confidence to soldiers operating from the water, whether cutting through waves at breakneck speeds or moored to the coastline. Comprised of interlocking, fully customizable panels and an advanced multispectral camouflage net, this innovative solution delivers unrelenting protection from state-of-the-art enemy sensors in times when uncertainty could mean defeat.

If Saab could make a jungle and reef variant, I could see serious uses for this among the atolls of the Western Pacific.

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020: Scandinavian Shellbacks

Posted on by 3 comments

Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020: Scandinavian Shellbacks

Sjöhistoriska museet, Statens maritima museer/Swedish Maritime Museum/ Fo229117

Here we see the pansarkryssare or armored cruiser, HSwMS Fylgia of the Swedish Royal Navy passing through the Weimar Republic’s Kiel Canal in the summer of 1928 during the vessel’s annual goodwill cruises. A beautiful ship that remained a stalwart sentinel in the fleet of the three crowns, Fylgia endured a career that spanned 50 years– and her guns lasted even longer.

Laid down at Bergsunds Mekaniska Verkstads AB (Finnboda) in October 1902, Fylgia was named for the mythological Norse guardian angel figures, which represented her intended role in the Swedish battlefleet– that of being the leader of the country’s growing flotillas of torpedo boats, vessels that would be the mainstay of the Baltic nation’s coastal defense throughout the 20th Century.

The 4,800-ton, 379-foot cruiser was speedy-ish on her engineering suite of 12 Yarrow-style coal-fired boilers and two triple expansion engines, ginning up 22.8 knots on her trials. In a nod to her auxiliary role as the school ship for the Swedish Navy’s officer corps, her 322-man complement could be expanded by as many as 50 midshipmen. Notably, when launched, she was the fleet’s longest modern warship, running some 65 feet longer than the coastal defense battleship (Pansarskepp) Oscar II.

Relatively protected, her Krupp armor ranged up to 5 inches deep which protected her boiler and engine rooms, making her one of the smallest armored cruisers in the world.

Her armament included eight Bofors 15.2 cm/50 (6″) Model 1903 guns in four twin enclosed armored turrets– rare in an age of cruisers with simple shielded guns– including two on the centerline edges and one each fore and aft. She had 14 smaller anti-torpedo boat guns, mostly in casemates, and a pair of submerged 18-inch torpedo tubes to lend her own “Swedish fish” (see what I did there?) to a torpedo attack against those who would enter the country’s waters. Like most cruisers of her day, she also could carry and deploy mines. 

Pansarkryssare Fylgia coming into the harbor on her 1922 cruise. Note one of her characteristic oblong 6″ turrets. These guns were effective to 15,000 yards with a 101-pound AP shell. D 13816_178

Her 1914 Jane’s entry. Note her armament arrangement

Once completed in June 1907, she was off immediately on what was to be her calling card– långresor goodwill cruises that waved Sweden’s flag while training her mids. She made 32 such cruises over the coming decades.

With Prince Wilhelm of Sweden aboard, Fylgia visited Norfolk for the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, and her crew was the subsequent talk of the town in New York where the original knickerbocker Teddy Roosevelt hosted a July 4th reception in honor of the midshipmen. They also squeezed in visits in Boston, France, Bermuda, and England before arriving back at Karlskrona in September.

FYLGIA (Swedish Armored Cruiser) Photographed in Hampton Roads on 20 August 1907 during the Jamestown, Virginia 300th Anniversary Exposition. NH 92340

A period postcard showing our cruiser with Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland. The Norwegian-Swedish noble of the Bernadotte family, born in 1884, was married to the Tsar’s first cousin and was something of an author, penning numerous books in his lifetime. Fo220335

Before the Great War hampered her peacetime trips, she would complete another 10 out-of-Baltic cruises in six years, often taking as many as three deployments a year.

In that time, she called at ports in Belgium, Scotland, Spain, Holland, Italy, Algeria, Portugal, Panama, Trinidad, Cuba, Egypt, and other exotic locales throughout the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

Navigation training D 13816_12

Bilden visar pansarkryssaren Fylgia som passerar Kielkanalen vid Levensauer Hochbrücke 1907 D 15032

War was declared!

As the lights went off across Europe, Fylgia had just left Karlskrona on the way to Gibraltar and all points Med when she received a signal to return home post-haste. Landing her finery, she made ready for armed neutrality (Neutralitesvakten) and held the line for the next four years, challenging and keeping an eye on foreign ships in Swedish water for the next four years.

Fylgia armored cruiser Swedish Navy passing under Årstabrons bridge in Stockholm Photo by Hennos AB

Pansarkryssaren Fylgia, wartime postcard. Marinmuseum D 14983

Interbellum

By 1919, with peace once again returned to (most of) Europe, she left Sweden for a winter cruise to the U.S., calling at New York, Hampton Roads, and Savannah before roaming as far south as Cuba and Panama then returning home in time for Easter 1920.

Fylgia in Havanna, 14 Februari 1920. Note the salute being fired and Morro Castle. Photo by Hugo Karlsson. Bohusläns museum collection

Then came a series of increasingly longer cruises, heading to India and Sri Lanka via the Suez in 1921 and an epic Latin American excursion in the winter of 1922-23.

During that South American trip, she left Sweden on 6 November, touching at Kiel and Spain before crossing the line on the way to Brazil.

Archive photos show what looks to be a downright spooky Neptunus Rex ceremony on that occasion.

Calling at Uruguay, Argentina, then rounding the Horn into the Pacific, she continued up the West coast of the continent to the Ditch, then crossed back into the Caribbean and heading for England, arriving back at Karlskrona in April in what was to be her longest mission– making 21 port calls.

Rocking and rolling! This isn’t the Baltic anymore.

Ahh, the improvised underway swimming pool

Under sails on her schooner rig to conserve fuel on her trip down to Sydamerika

Note the rarely-seen Swedish navy tropical officers’ uniform, complete with sun helmets and white leather shoes. Note the shoeless bluejacket to the left

Bilden visar pansarkryssaren Fylgia som passerar Kielkanalen Photo by Cay Jacob Arthur Renard, 1924-25 D 11821

Pansarkryssaren Fylgia firing a salute at Kiel, photo by Cay Jacob Arthur Renard, D 11820

FYLGIA in the port of Alexandria on January 18, 1926, Fo229223

“Swedish armored cruiser Fylgia docks at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Warping the Fylgia to her berth, the cruiser, with a crew of 390 men and twenty-two cadets in training remains here until Saturday, when she leaves for Mobile, Alabama. After visiting the Azores, she will return to Sweden” on 1/30/1930. Temple University Collection

By July 1933, she would complete another 16, mostly shorter, overseas sorties. On her 1927 trip, while visiting Latin America once again, she collided with the Brazilian freighter SS Itapura, sending the merchantman to the bottom. Nonetheless, Fylgia’s crew sprang into action, rescuing all of Itapura’s mariners.

Then her mission changed.

Rebuilt for a new era

Thoroughly obsolete and outdated, Sweden’s familiar cruiser was disarmed and laid up as new Italian-designed Tre Kronor-class light cruisers were ordered, capable of 30+ knots and packing new high-elevation 6″/53 Bofors.

By 1939, with Europe again headed to war, it was thought that Fylgia could be reworked for a coastal defense mission, after all, she still had a sound hull and a decent armor scheme.

The armored cruiser FYLGIA under reconstruction at Oskarhamn’s shipyard from 1939-1940. Note, that all of her funnels are gone. Fo62553A

Transferred to Oskarshamn, Fylgia spent 18 months undergoing a complete modernization. With that, her 12-pack of coal-burning boilers was junked in favor of a quartet of new Penhoët oil burners, which made one of her three boiler rooms an empty compartment–converted to accommodations– and allowed her No. 1 funnel to be deleted. She could again make 21+ knots.

Note the usual Swedish 1940s scheme that consisted of a mottled grey-on-grey camouflage with white recognition stripes.

And another shown just with stripes, likely late in the war or just after

Topside, her entire arrangement changed with a new superstructure and a redesigned bow. To give her teeth, she picked up eight new 1930-pattern 15.2 cm/55 (6″) Bofors, and a mixed suite of 57mm, 40mm, 25mm, and 20mm AAA guns as well as two larger 21-inch deck-mounted torpedo tubes. For sub-busting, she picked up depth charges and listening gear. 

The result was a new, albeit slow for the era, 34-year-old light cruiser.

Joining the Gothenburg Squadron in October 1941, Fylgia spent her summers on neutrality patrol then embarked midshipmen in the winter for schoolship missions in home waters, a familiar task.

1943-45. The brand new coastal destroyer J29 HMS Mode (J29) leads the armored division (pansarbåtsdivisionen) in an archipelago trail. In addition to Mode, we see the Sverigeskeppen pansarskeppen HMS Sverige, HMS Drottning Victoria, and HMS Gustaf V. Three more destroyers follow after that.

An excellent wartime image of her at Malmo, on 4 May 1944, showing her aerials and armament. Note the three crowns badge on her hull.

Fylgia 1946 Jane’s entry.

Into the Cold War

Once WWII concluded, the rejuvenated Fylgia resumed her old work as a seagoing training ship, sailing on a series of four short tours around Western European ports and a lengthy cruise to West Africa over the winter of 1947-48, calling at Dakar and Freetown.

Fylgia passing the Hembrug bridge across the North Sea Canal headed to Amsterdam, on 28 May 1948, Dutch Nationaal Archief 902-7703. Note some of her wartime AAA guns have been stripped but her long-barreled 6-inchers remain aboard.

It was during that cruise that the Swedish Olle Lindholm musical comedy, Flottans Kavaljerer, was filmed aboard and it has remained a classic.

However, the turn-of-the-century vessel was showing her age and remained in Swedish waters after 1949. By 1953, she was again decommissioned and disarmed, turned into a floating target ship, an inglorious but still useful tasking.

As target ship, 1956 Fo155A

In 1957, Fylgia was sold for her value in scrap and dismantled in Copenhagen.

Her beautiful circa 1906 ship’s bell is preserved at Karlberg Palace

Nonetheless, Fylgia’s still-young Bofors 6″/55s would live on in service much longer.

Emplaced in the Siknäs battery as part of the Swedish Kalix line (Kalixlinjen), all eight were positioned in four new purpose-built emplacements to cover the deepwater port of Töre and the approaches to Boden along Highway 13 (E 4).

Note the camo screening is scarce, but the framework remains. Via SiknasFortet Museet

The battery was served by a local defense battalion of over 300 men and was when it was finished in 1960, considered the largest and most modern of the Kalix line’s approximately 3,000 installations.

And a better look at how it would look netted up. Via SiknasFortet Museet

Each battery system was constructed of concrete with four floors based on springs to mitigate shockwaves and was extensively camouflaged. They included self-contained generators, magazine facilities, barracks with showers, and kitchens and were fully protected against nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Outside of the emplacements, they were protected by a ring of 40mm AAA guns and counter-assault pillboxes manned by infantry.

The trees have grown up in the past 20 years, but you get a general idea. Via SiknasFortet Museet

Despite being 1930s technology, these could still ruin a perfectly good Russian destroyer moving about the Swedish littoral well into the 1990s. Via SiknasFortet Museet

The Siknäs battery, operated by the Swedish Army until as late as 1998, is preserved as a museum today.

Echos 

Other parts of the old cruiser survive, such as her elegant porcelain tea set, which has been broken out on at least five continents.

Sjohistoriska museet O 10224.J

And of course, there is a ton of maritime art in circulation, particularly in postcard format.

O 11892

Painting by Jacob Hägg 1908 depicting H.M. armored cruiser Fylgia meeting H.M. the corvette Saga in the open sea O 10037

Pansarkryssaren HMS Fylgia

Specs:

Fartygsmodell av pansarkryssaren Fylgia MM 25577

(1907)
Displacement: 4,800 tons
Length: 379 feet
Beam: 48 ft 7 in
Draft: 16 feet
Propulsion: 12 Yarrow coal boilers 2 Finnhola steam triple expansion, 2 screws, 12,000 ihp
Speed: 22 knots
Range: 8,000 nmi at 10 knots with maximum 900-ton coal load
Complement: 322 but at times would run over 400
Armor:
Side belt 100 mm (3.9 in)
Turrets 50–125 mm (2.0–4.9 in)
Deck 22–35 mm (0.87–1.38 in)
Conning tower 100 mm
Armament:
8 x 152 mm/50cal. Bofors M/1903
14 x 57 mm/48cal. QF M/1889 (10 in casemates)
2 × 37 mm/39cal. cannons M/1898B
2 × 45 cm torpedo tubes M/1904
Mine rails (max 100 mines)

Fylgia original compared to her 1940 format, model by H Biärsjö MM 18071

(1941)
Displacement: 4,800 tons
Length: 378 feet
Beam: 48 ft 7 in
Draft: 20 feet
Propulsion: 4 oil-fired boilers, 2 4cyl-triple expansion, 2 screws, 13,000 ihp
Speed: 21.5 knots; 5,770nm endurance @10kts on 500 tons oil
Complement: 341
Armor:
Side belt 100 mm (3.9 in)
Turrets 50–125 mm (2.0–4.9 in)
Deck 22–35 mm (0.87–1.38 in)
Conning tower 100 mm
Armament:
8 × 152 mm/55cal. Bofors M/1930
4 × 57 mm/55cal. AA M/89B-38B
4 × 40 mm/56cal. Bofors AA M/1936
2 × 25 mm/58cal. Bofors AA M/1932
1 × 20 mm/66cal. Bofors AA M/1940
2 × 533mm torpedo tubes
2 depth charge throwers

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019: Italian Mosquitos of the Baltic

Posted on by 2 comments

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019: Italian Mosquitos of the Baltic

Motortorpedbåt T 28 i full fart i skärgården 1943 Fo196168

All photos, Swedish Sjöhistoriska Museet maritime museum unless noted. This one is file no. Fo196168

Here we see HSwMS T 28, a T 21-class motortorpedbåt (motor torpedo boat) of the Svenska Marinen (Royal Swedish Navy) in 1943 as she planes on her stern, her bow completely above the waves. If she looks fast, that’s because she was– like 50 knots fast.

The Swedes in the 1930s had the misfortune of being sandwiched between a resurgent Germany and a newly ambitious Soviet Union, both having come up on the losing side of the Great War and suffered much during the generation immediately following. This fear went into overdrive as World War II began.

With a lot of valuable coast to protect, the Flottan’s plan to do so was the new Tre Kronor (Three Crowns)-class of three fast cruisers (kryssaren) who were to each serve as a flotilla flagship of a squadron of four destroyers and six motor torpedo boats while three  pansarskepps (literally “armored ships”) bathtub battleships would form a strategic reserve.

For the above-mentioned MTBs, Stockholm turned south, shopping with the Baglietto Varazze shipyard in Italy– which is still around as a luxury yacht maker). Baglietto’s “velocissimo” type torpedo boat, MAS 431, had premiered in 1932 and was lighting quick but still packed a punch.

MAS 431, via Baglietto

Just 52.5-feet long overall, MAS 431 was powered by a pair of Fiat gasoline engines, packing 1,500hp in a hull that weighed but 12-tons. The 41-knot vessel carried a pair of forward-oriented 18-inch torpedoes, a couple of light machine guns, six 110-pound depth charges for submarines (she had a hydrophone aboard) and was manned by a crew of seven.

MAS 431 craft proved the basis for the very successful MAS 500 series boats, with more than two dozen completed. These boats used larger Isotta-Fraschini engines which coughed up 2,000hp while they could putter along on a pair of smaller 70hp Alpha Romero cruising motors. The Swedes directly purchased four of these (MAS 506, 508, 511, and 524) which became T 11 – 14 in 1939. These 55-foot MTBs could make 47 knots.

MAS 500 in the Mediterranean 1938, via Regina Marina

However, the Swedes weren’t in love with the wooden hulls of the Italian boats and went to design their own follow-up class of MTBs in 1941. The resulting T 15 class, built locally by Kockums with some support from Italy, went 22-tons in weight due to their welded steel hulls. However, by installing larger Isotta-Fraschini IF 183 series engines, they could still make 40+ knots.

Swedish Motortorpedbåt T 15. 5 Just four of these craft would be built by Kockums. The camo scheme and white “neutral” racing stripe were standard for Sweden’s wartime fleet. Fo101806

Nonetheless, there was still room for improvement. Upgrading to larger 21-inch torpedo tubes and stretching the hull to 65-feet, the T 21 class carried 3,450hp of supercharged 18-cylinder IF 184 engines which allowed a speed listed as high as 50 knots in Swedish journals. They certainly were a seagoing mash-up of Volvo and Ferrari.

T 28 MTB Fo200188

Motortorpedbåten T 28. 1943 Fo88597A

T30. Bild Sjöhistoriska Museet, Stockholm SMM Fo88651AB

Besides the torpedoes, the craft was given a 20mm AAA gun in a semi-enclosed mount behind the pilothouse while weight and space for two pintle-mounted 6.5mm machine guns on either side of the house and one forward was reserved. As many as six depth charges were also carried.

Torpedbåt, motortorpedbåt typ T 21

The T 21s proved more numerous than the past Swedish MTB attempts, with a total of 11 boats produced by 1943. They proved invaluable in what was termed the Neutralitetsvakten (neutrality patrol) during the rest of WWII.

Assorted Swedish splinter boats clustered at Galo Island in Stockholm, 1943. (Motortorpedbåtar vid Gålö år 1943 Fo88679A)

Hkn Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland, who in the 1970s served as heir to his nephew King Carl XVI Gustaf, clocked in on Swedish torpedo boats during the first part of WWII before he was reassigned in 1943 as a naval attaché to London.

HRH Prince Bertil of Sweden aboard a torpedo boat, holding a pair of binoculars Nordiska Museet NMA.0028790

Due to their steel hulls, the craft proved much more durable than comparable plywood American PT-boats or the Italian MAS boats and, while the latter’s days were numbered immediately after WWII, the Swedish T 21s endured until 1959, still keeping the peace on the front yard of the Cold War.

In late 1940s service and throughout the 1950s they carried a more sedate grey scheme.

1947 Janes entry

Motortorpedbåt T 25. Propagandaturen på Vättern, Juli 1947 Fo88595A

T24, note another of her class forward, with the M40 20mm cannon showing

Swedish torpedo boat Motortorpedbåten T29, 1950 Gota Canal. Note the 20mm cannon, which is now better protected, and the depth charges with two empty racks. The Swedes, then as now, were not squeamish when it came to dropping cans on suspect sonar contacts in their home waters. 

The T 21s were later augmented by the similar although up-gunned (40mm Bofors) T 38 class and finally replaced by the much-improved Spica-class, which remained in use through the 1980s with the same sort of tasking as the craft that preceded them.

The T-30, seen here in an idyllic peacetime setting, remained in Swedish service during the Cold War. The follow-on Motortorpedbåtar T38 class reached a speed of 51.6 knots during a speed test outside Karlskrona in April 1956.

At 139-feet oal, the Spicas were more than twice as long as the T 21s and carried a half-dozen torpedoes in addition to a 57mm Bofors gun.

However, that welded steel hull and the mild salinity of the Baltic has meant that at least one of the old T 21s, T 26 to be clear, has been preserved as a working museum ship in her Cold War colors and is still poking around, although she probably could not make her original designed speed at this point.

Fo196168

Update 9/2/2020: Motortorpedbåten T28, which has been in private hands since 1970 and stored ashore, is now undergoing further preservation as a running museum ship in Sweden. 

Specs:

Displacement: 28 tons
Length: 65.66-feet
Beam: 15.75-feet
Draft: Puddle
Engines: 2 Isotta-Fraschini IF184 supercharged gas engines, 3450hp
Speed: 50 knots max
Range:
Crew: 7 to 11
Armament:
2 21-inch torpedo tubes forward
1 20 mm LuftVärnskanon M.40 AAA gun, rear
up to 6 6.5mm machine guns (if using dual mounts on three pintles)
6 depth charges

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Warship Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018: Oscar’s boldest pansarbat

Posted on by 7 comments

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018: Oscar’s boldest pansarbat

(Photos: Karlskronavarvet/Marinmuseum)

Here we see a colorized photo of the Swedish pansarskepp HSvMS Dristigheten (Swedish= “The Boldness”) passing under the iconic Levensau High Bridge in Germany’s Kiel Canal during a visit to that country, between 1912 and 1927.

Pansarskepps (literally “armored ships”), or pansarbats, were a peculiar design that was popular in the Baltic from about 1900-45. These short, shallow-draft ships could hug the coastline and hide from larger capital ships while carrying big enough guns to be able to brutally bring the pain to any landing ship escorted by a shallow-draft light cruiser or destroyer approaching from offshore. Sweden had kept out of wars since Napoleon was around, but she was still very wary of not only Russian and German but also British designs on the Baltic. With her neutrality only as good as the ships that could protect it, the country built a series of 15 coastal defense vessels, or pansarskepps, from 1886-1918.

Sometimes referred to as battleships or cruisers, these warships were really neither. Nor were they destroyers.

They were pansarskepps.

Sandwiched roughly in the middle of these vessels was Dristigheten, preceded by the trio of Svea-class vessels (3,200 tons, 2×10-inch guns) and a matching threesome of Oden-class ships (3,445 tons, 2×10-inch guns), while she was followed by eight more advanced Aran, Oscar II, and Sverige-class ships.

A standalone vessel, Dristigheten was laid down at Lindholmen, Göteborg in October 1898, just after the world was amazed by the recent steel navy combat that was the Spanish-American War. While most of Sweden’s pocket battleships carried names drawn from Norse mythology or the country’s royal family, Dristigheten is a traditional Swedish warship name going back to the 18th Centur,y where it was carried by a 64-gun ship whose figurehead is preserved to this day.

Some 3,600 tons, she was just 292 feet overall or about the size of a small frigate these days. However, she had as much as 247mm (that’s pushing 10 inches) of good (for the time) Harvey nickel-steel armor and a pair of domestically produced 209mm/43cal M1898 naval rifles.

One of those pretty 209mm/43s. Dristigheten, the first to mount such guns in the Swedish Navy, carried one forward and one aft. She was also the first Swedish naval ship to use water tube boilers.

These 8.3-inch guns, as noted by the 1914 Janes, could fire a 275-pound AP shell on a blend of special Bofors-made nitro-compound that was capable of penetrating 9.5 inches of armor at 3,000 yards. A half-dozen smaller 152mm guns were the secondary battery. A dozen 6-pdr and 1-pdr popguns would ward off torpedo boats. As such, she was the first Swedish capital ship with only quick-fire artillery. A pair of submerged torpedo tubes added to the party favors.

Commissioned 5 September 1901, Dristigheten was a happy ship and was inspected on several occasions by King Oscar II of Sweden, a septuagenarian who had joined his country’s navy at age 11.

The picture shows four Swedish armored ships Göta, Wasa, Äran, Dristigheten (without her later tripod foremast, which was fitted in 1912), and collier Stockholm, which anchors during the winter season in Karlskrona’s naval harbor. Ships are flagged for King Oscar II’s birthday on January 21, 1903. The boats are frozen solid in the ice, and people can be seen moving around on the pack. (2289×1213)

1899 impression of the Swedish fleet with several Swedish pansarbats featured, including #2. ODEN (1896) #3. THOR (1898) #4. NIORD (1898) and #5. DRISTIGHETEN (1900), then under construction. Via Karlskronavarvet 11788 (2778×728)

For a quarter-century, Dristigheten steamed around European waters, showing the flag, training naval cadets, and visiting friends (Sweden knew nothing but friends, although some were friendlier than others).

Swedish coast defense ship DRISTIGHETEN, note the early single foremast she carried from 1900-1912

Postcard of the Swedish battleship HMS Dristigheten in Algiers, 1906

Dristigheten, 1920, Bordeaux. Note the tripod foremast, added in 1912.

The non-colorised version of the Kiel photo (Marinmuseum Fo113541A)

While the Baltic would freeze over, she would traditionally voyage on a long-haul winter cruise (in times of peace) to the Mediterranean, visiting Southern Europe and North Africa. Malta, Tangier, Vigo, Salonika, Suda Bay, Toulon, Bizerte, and Smyrna all saw the big Swede on a semi-regular basis.

Janes listed her as a “battleship” in 1902, 1914, and 1919. A 3,600-ton battleship.

During WWI, she, along with the rest of the pansarbats, kept a cautious neutrality in Swedish waters between the warring Allies (composed of the Tsar’s Baltic fleet and the occasional British submarine) and German surface and untersee units.

Once the war ended, the days of these plucky ships were numbered, to bring more modern cruisers and destroyers online while keeping a few of the newer pansarbats around as a strategic reserve.

As such, in 1927 Dristigheten was refitted as a seaplane carrier (flygmoderfaryget.) With this conversion, she lost her big guns and torpedo tubes, trading them in for a few smaller caliber AAAs and the capability to handle a few floatplanes as well as tend small craft such as patrol boats and coastal gunboats. Also gone was her aft mast. Her magazine space was largely converted to avgas bunkerage.

The Swedish Navy’s Marinens Flygväsende (MFV) at the time flew a host of early Friedrichshafen and Hansa models with Dristigheten lifting these recon seaplanes from her deck to take off on the water and retrieving them from the drink on their return. In her later years, she carried Heinkel HD 16/19s

She continued her service as a seaplane tender through WWII, during which she was augmented with a dozen additional AAAs and served as a key mothership for coastal patrol/artillery units.

Dristigheten in Karlskrona WWII note camo. Note the 40mm Bofors mounts under weather protection.

1943-45. The brand new coastal destroyer J29 HMS Mode (J29) leads the armored division (pansarbåtsdivisionen) in an archipelago trail. In addition to Mode, we see the Sverigeskeppen pansarskeppen HMS Sverige, HMS Drottning Victoria, and HMS Gustaf V. Three more destroyers follow after that.

Decommissioning on 13 June 1947 after a solid half-century on the King’s naval list, Dristigheten was converted to a training hulk and target ship, continuing to serve for another 13 years, testing Sweden’s new weapons, keeping the fleet’s existing guns in action, and teaching fresh classes of sailors in damage control.

In 1960, the testing reached a tipping point, and she sank.

Raised, she was scrapped in 1961, outliving most of her contemporaries.

Shown in the Oscarsdockan in Karlskrona

As for her contemporaries, she outlived almost all of them. For the record, the last of the pansarskepp-era mini-battleships, HSvMS Gustav V, was used as a training hulk and pierside until 1970 when she was scrapped.

Dristigheten is remembered extensively in maritime art.

Herman Gustav af Sillen Swedish, (1857–1908) “Dristigheten under stridsskjutning 1903.”

Pansarbat Dristigheten by Axel A. Fahlkrantz

Specs:

Displacement: 3,600 tons
Length: 292 ft overall
Beam: 48 ft 6 in
Draught: 16 ft 0
Propulsion: Steam triple-expansion engines, 2 screws, 8 Yarrow boilers, 5,570 shp
Speed: 16.8 kn
Range: 2,040 nmi at 10 kn on 310 tons coal. 400 tons of maximum coal would allow for “6 days at full speed.”
Complement: 262 (1901) up to 400 as tender
Armament:
(1900)
2 x 209 mm/44cal. Bofors 21 cm M/98
6 x 152 mm/44cal. Bofors M/98
10 x 57 mm/55cal. Ssk. M/89B 6-pdrs (Janes also lists a pair of 1-pdrs)
2 × 457 mm submerged torpedo tubes. Whitehead torpedoes (1901-1917), Karlskrona torpedoes (1917-22)
(1922)
2 x 210 mm/44cal. Bofors M/1898
6 x 152 mm/44cal. Bofors M/98
8 x 57 mm/55cal. Ssk. M/89B 6-pdrs
1 x 57 mm/21,3cal. Bofors lvk M/16
1 x 57 mm/21,3cal. Bofors lvk M/19
(1927)
4 x 75mm/60cal. Bofors lvk M/26-28 AAA
2 x 40mm/56cal. Bofors lvk M/36 AAA
4 x 8 mm/75,8cal. lvksp M/36 MGs
Armor: Harvey Nickel: 247mm in the conning tower, 6-8 inches main belt, barbettes, and turrets; 4 inches casemates, 2 inches deck.
Aircraft carried (1927-47) : 2-4

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to encouraging the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Warship Wednesday December 3, 2014, The Hidden Scandinavian Lion

Posted on by 9 comments

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, December 3, 2014, The Scandinavian Leviathan

Here we don’t see the Tre Kronor-class cruiser Hennes Majestäts Skepp (HSvMS) Göta Lejon (Gothic lion) of the Royal Swedish Navy. Her ship’s motto was Nemo me impune lacessit (“No one provokes me with impunity”) and she meant to back that up as needed.

Can’t see her?

How about now in this enhanced photo?

camo swedish ship reveal

Ok, this may actually be a destroyer, or a banana, or Tom Sawyer’s raft, but how can you tell for sure?

The Swedish navy has had a long history of camouflaging their ships while hidden next to rocky isolated inlets and islands, even large capital ships.

The Swedish navy has had a long history of camouflaging their ships while hidden next to rocky isolated inlets and islands, even large capital ships– note the bluejackets standing on mine rails

Swedish coastal defense battleship HSwMS Gustav V, using extensive camouflage, a serious tactic used to great extent by the Swedes, especially for air defense

Designed before the start of World War II, the Tre Kronor (Three Crowns)-class of three fast cruisers (Kryssaren) were to each serve as a flotilla flagship of a new squadron of four destroyers and six motor torpedo boats. As such, they were much larger, faster, and modern than the long long line of 18 Pansarskepps (literally “armored ships”) coastal defense ships built for the crown between 1897 and 1918.

1943-45. The brand new coastal destroyer J29 HMS Mode (J29) leads the armored division (pansarbåtsdivisionen) in an archipelago trail. In addition to Mode, we see the Sverigeskeppen pansarskeppen HMS Sverige, HMS Drottning Victoria, and HMS Gustaf V. Three more destroyers follow after that.

Kryssaren HMS Göta Lejon without her camouflage netting.

Kryssaren HMS Göta Lejon without her camouflage netting.

The three most modern (but still slow) pansarskepps would form a strategic reserve while the three new cruisers would race their destroyers up and down the coastline, sinking enemy ships and laying minefields as needed. Capable of sinking smaller fast ships and running away from those that could wreck them in turn; they were supposed to be “stronger than the quicker and quicker than the stronger.”

25255

Note the twin rear mine-laying chutes in stern and pair of twin 152mm turrets facing the national ensign.

Built to an Italian design, when the war broke out in 1939 the third ship was cut, with just class leader Tre Kronor and her sister, Göta Lejon remaining. With construction beginning in 1943 as the country suffered from shortages of everything due to her tense neutrality during WWII, they were only completed by Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstads AB, Gothenburg after the war’s end.

Armed with 7 M1942 Bofors 6-inch (152/53 mm) high-elevation guns, each capable of firing an impressive 10 rounds per minute (with a combined broadside of 70 rounds per minute) due to automatic loaders, she was classified as a light cruiser. They could fire a 99-pound AP/HE shell out to 28,400 yards and could be used in an AAA role if needed due to their high elevation.

hms_tre_kronor_50_talet_50d4ab6b9606ee5a68105afb

*As a side note, these guns were designed as 5.9-inchers by Bofors for the Royal Dutch Navy (Koninklijke Marine) cruiser De Zeven Provinciën. After the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, these artillery pieces were confiscated by the Swedes and promptly recycled into their new cruisers, stretched to accommodate the Swedish standard 6-inch shell. The DZP did eventually get a new set of guns of the same type delivered by Bofors— after the war. The sole survivor of the class, currently in service as the BAP Almirante Grau (CLM-81) of the Peruvian Navy, is the last WWII-era “gun” cruiser in fleet service.

152mm shells aboard Gota Lejon Wiki http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:OgreBot/Watercraft/2012_January_11-20

152mm shells aboard Gota Lejon Photo Wiki

For dooming larger vessels, Göta Lejon carried a half-dozen 533mm surface torpedo tubes. Her armor was adequate, at 2.8 inches, to defend her against destroyer-sized weapons while it was hoped her 33-knot speed could move her away from bigger brawlers. AAA was accomplished with ten twin 40mm Bofors (after all, the company was based in Sweden) and several smaller guns.

HMS_Göta_Lejon_in_ice

Iced in. Note early pre-modernization superstructure tower

Built as a large, well-armed minelayer of sorts, Göta Lejon could carry up to 150 heavy (300# warhead) contact mines in a hold below decks and rapidly drop them over the stern after running them down her topside deck on fitted rails.

HSwMS Göta Lejon with mines on her after deck, 1948, Fo70916AB

GL-minlastning

Hey, that’s MINE! (Get it)

Gota Lejon dropping it while its hot. She could sow mines at 20-knots if needed and her crew got the hustle on Wiki http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:OgreBot/Watercraft/2012_January_11-20

Gota Lejon dropping it while it’s hot. She could sow mines at 20 knots if needed and her crew got the hustle on. Photo Wiki

Mines are a big business in the Baltic. An estimated 200,000 mines were laid by all sides in the East of Sweden and the Straits of Kattegatt and Skagerrak to the West throughout the two world wars and are still regularly encountered.

Commissioned on 15 December 1947, Göta Lejon had a tense span of Cold War service with an increasingly active Soviet Navy poking its nose into Swedish waters. Over the next ten years, the older pansarskepps were retired while just the two cruisers endured.

Swedish cruisers kryssarna Tre Kronor and Göta Lejon together in 1951 in a rare meeting in Stockholm when both were active at the same time

Göta_Lejon_Original_Superstructure

A good close-up of how she looked as commissioned. She had a usual main battery layout with a triple single turret forward and two twin turrets aft. Note the HF/DF gear under the bridge.

Then, in 1958, her only slightly older sister and class leader Tre Kronor was laid up, leaving the Göta Lejon as the principal ship in the Swedish Navy, a legit WWII-style cruiser in a 60’s era fleet of mosquito boats and tin cans.

1954--note, no camo

1954–note, no camo, and modified superstructure

As such she was modernized, given advanced surface and air-search radars (Type 277 and Type 293), and her AAA suite augmented by more modern Bofors 57mm guns. Further, she was fitted to carry helicopters as needed.

Gota Lejon at anchor. Note the swabbie greasing and coating the mine rails as an armed platoon of sailors prepares to go ashore. Wiki http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:OgreBot/Watercraft/2012_January_11-20

Gota Lejon at anchor. Note the swabbie greasing and coating the mine rails as a Mauser-armed platoon of sailors drills nearby. The Swedish navy has long used national servicemen and, as with any large group of semi-motivated young men, must be kept busy. Photo Wiki

Tre Kronor (rear) and Göta Lejon (front) in Karlskrona, 1964, note the laid-up sister has been camouflaged as has the active-duty cruiser. Photo by Ingvar Andersson

As she appeared in 1978. The Swedes were very into camo by this time.

As she appeared in 1978. The Swedes were very into camo by this time. Note the large surface search radars

Tre Kronor was scrapped in 1964 as Göta Lejon remained, kept alive in part with items cannibalized from the elder whose steel was repurposed as a pontoon bridge.

A 15-minute long Swedish film from 1964 showing the cruiser under steam, in operations in the Baltic, laying mines (at the 3-4 minute mark) getting all camoed up (at the 9-ish minute mark), delivering broadsides (13 mins), and dropping depth charges.

In 1970, it was planned to modernize the ship by removing her aft turrets and replacing them with U.S. Terrier missiles. However, this plan was scrapped, as it would likely have brought political repercussions from the nearby Soviets.

HMS KkrV Göta Lejon handed over to her new owners

Aft view of HMS KkrV Göta Lejon handed over to her new owners on a sad and rainy afternoon.

With time marching on and no refit in sight, by 1 July 1970, after 24 years of service, she was withdrawn from the King’s naval list and transferred to the Republic of Chile the same year.

original_dsc_0635.jpg

At a hard turn. Note the extreme 70-degree elevation on the 152mm mount forward.

Renamed Almirante Latorre (CL-04) after the revered Jutland-veteran battleship of the same name, the ship sailed to Latin America and gave a hard dozen years of service to that fleet, serving as a counter to the aging Argentine Brooklyn-class light cruiser ARA Gen. Belgrano and Peruvian BAP Almirante Grau (small world) in times of tension.

Almirante LaTorre live fire 1983

Almirante Latorre lives fire 1983. At this point, her battery was four decades old.

As Almirante LaTorre

As Almirante LaTorre on a sunshine-filled day in the Pacific.

However, despite a limited refit when transferred, she was in poor condition again in just a few years and by 1980 rarely sailed. On 2 January 1984, she was decommissioned and held in reserve for two years.

latorre 1986

Then, in Sept. 1986, she was sold to the Shion Yek Steel Corp of Taiwan, tugged across the Pacific, and scrapped. No doubt her good Swedish steel has been re-blended and recycled into a myriad of household items by now.

Nevertheless, at least one of her screws is retained on display in Chile while her original Göta Lejon bell and shield remain in Sweden.

Admiral Latorre's port-side screw at Naval Base de Talcahuano, Chile

Admiral Latorre’s port-side screw at Naval Base de Talcahuano, Chile

Specs:

 

http://www.shipbucket.com/images.php?dir=Real%20Designs/Sweden/CL%20Tre%20Kronor%201964-70%20camo.PNG CL Tre Kronor 1964-70 camo shipbucket

CL Tre Kronor 1964-70. Image by ship bucket

Displacement: 7,400 long tons (7,519 t) standard, 9,200 long tons (9,348 t) full load
Length: 174 m (570 ft. 10 in) (pp)
182 m (597 ft. 1 in) (oa)
Beam: 16.45 m (54 ft. 0 in)
Draft: 5.94 m (19 ft. 6 in)
Propulsion:
Two shaft geared turbines, 4× 4-drum boilers,
100,000 shp (75,000 kW)
Speed:             33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Complement:   618
Armament:      As-built:
7 × Bofors 152 mm guns
20 × 40 mm guns
7 × 25 mm guns
6 × torpedo tubes
Post-1958:
7 × 152 mm (6 in) guns
4 × 57 mm Bofors
11 × 40 mm guns
6 × torpedo tubes
Armor:
Belt: 70 mm (2.8 in)
Deck: 30 mm (1.2 in) upper, 30 mm (1.2 in) main
Turrets: 50–127 mm (2.0–5.0 in)
Conning tower: 20–25 mm (0.79–0.98 in)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to encouraging the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!