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HMS Begonia (K66)

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
HMS Begonia (K66) IWM A 5483.jpg
HMS Begonia (K66), underway at sea, September 1941
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Begonia
NamesakeBegonia
BuilderCook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverley
Laid down25 July 1939
Launched24 April 1940
Commissioned3 March 1941
Decommissioned10 March 1942
IdentificationPennant number: K66
FateTransferred to United States Navy
United States
NameUSS Impulse
Commissioned10 March 1942
Decommissioned22 August 1945
IdentificationHull number: PG-68
FateReturned to Royal Navy
United Kingdom
NameHMS Begonia
NamesakeBegonia
Commissioned22 August 1945
FateSold into civilian service, 22 July 1946, wrecked 1970
General characteristics
Class and typeFlower-class corvette
Displacement925 long tons (940 t; 1,036 short tons)
Length205 ft (62.48 m)o/a
Beam33 ft (10.06 m)
Draught11.5 ft (3.51 m)
Propulsion
  • single shaft
  • 2 × fire tube Scotch boilers
  • 1 × 4-cycle triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine
  • 2,750 ihp (2,050 kW)
Speed16 knots (29.6 km/h)
Range3,500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h)
Complement85
Sensors and
processing systems
  • 1 × SW1C or 2C radar
  • 1 × Type 123A or Type 127DV sonar
Armament
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Begonia.

HMS Begonia was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy during World War II. In 1942 she was lent to the United States Navy and commissioned as USS Impulse. Returned to the Royal Navy in 1945, Begonia was stricken and sold into merchant service. She was wrecked off the coast of Spain in 1970.

Discover more about HMS Begonia (K66) related topics

Flower-class corvette

Flower-class corvette

The Flower-class corvette was a British class of 294 corvettes used during World War II by the Allied navies particularly as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the Battle of the Atlantic. Royal Navy ships of this class were named after flowers.

Corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop-of-war.

Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service.

World War II

World War II

World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. Many participants threw their economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind this total war, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and the delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war.

United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of its active battle fleet alone exceeding the next 13 navies combined, including 11 allies or partner nations of the United States as of 2015. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, two new carriers under construction, and five other carriers planned. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the United States Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 2,623 operational aircraft as of June 2019.

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in active duty with its country's military forces. The ceremonies involved are often rooted in centuries-old naval tradition.

Service history

The ship was built at Cook, Welton & Gemmell, of Beverley, England, as part of the 1939 Programme for the Royal Navy. One of the earliest Flower-class corvettes, she was ordered on 25 July 1939, laid down 13 March 1940 and launched on 18 September 1940. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 3 March 1941.[1] She then served as a convoy escort.

Royal Navy

After working up, Begonia was assigned to the Western Approaches Escort Force for service as a convoy escort. In this role Begonia was engaged in all the duties performed by escort ships; protecting convoys, searching for and attacking U-boats which attacked ships in convoy, and rescuing survivors.

During this period she fought in several convoy battles. In July 1941 Begonia was part of the force escorting OG 69, which saw seven ships sunk and one U-boat damaged off the coast of Portugal. In September 1941 Begonia was with HG 73, which lost nine ships and an escort in a ten-day running battle. During her twelve months service in the Battle of the Atlantic Begonia escorted 15 Atlantic and 8 Gibraltar convoys, assisting in the safe passage of over 800 ships, though some were subsequently lost.[2] One of a group of corvettes transferred to the U.S. Navy under reverse Lend-Lease, she was commissioned as USS Impulse in March 1942.

US Navy

She was commissioned as USS Impulse at London on 16 March 1942.[3] Impulse departed from Lisahally Co. Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on 15 April 1942 as a convoy escort. Upon arrival at New York on 4 May, the ship steamed to Norfolk, Virginia, and began regular operations as a coastal escort ship from Norfolk to Key West. Impulse returned to New York on 25 August 1942 for duty protecting the important supply line between that port and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. For the next three years she made repeated escort voyages to and from Cuba, effectively helping to counter the German U-boat menace.[3]

Impulse arrived at Boston on 6 July 1945 for return to the Royal Navy. She departed on 1 August and arrived Harwich, England, on 15 August. Decommissioned on 22 August 1945, the corvette was returned to the Royal Navy.[3]

Discover more about Service history related topics

Cook, Welton & Gemmell

Cook, Welton & Gemmell

Cook, Welton & Gemmell was a shipbuilder based in Hull and Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. England. They built trawlers and other small ships.

Beverley

Beverley

Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located 27 miles (43 km) south-east of York's centre and 15 miles (24 km) north-west of City of Hull.

Keel laying

Keel laying

Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.

Ceremonial ship launching

Ceremonial ship launching

Ceremonial ship launching involves the performance of ceremonies associated with the process of transferring a vessel to the water. It is a nautical tradition in many cultures, dating back thousands of years, to accompany the physical process with ceremonies which have been observed as public celebration and a solemn blessing, usually but not always, in association with the launch itself.

Convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.

Battle of the Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943.

Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory and city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 (2.6 sq mi) and is bordered to the north by Spain. The landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, at the foot of which is a densely populated town area, home to over 32,000 people, primarily Gibraltarians.

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States, was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, China, and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. The aid was given for free on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.

Key West

Key West

Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it constitutes the City of Key West.

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, is a United States military base located on 45 square miles (117 km2) of land and water on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It has been permanently leased to the United States since 1903 as a coaling station and naval base, making it the oldest overseas U.S. naval base in the world. The lease was $2,000 in gold per year until 1934, when the payment was set to match the value in gold in dollars; in 1974, the yearly lease was set to $4,085.

Boston

Boston

Boston, officially the City of Boston, is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the Northeastern United States. The city boundaries encompass an area of about 48.4 sq mi (125 km2) and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States.

Harwich

Harwich

Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on-Sea to the south. It is the northernmost coastal town in Essex.

Fate

The vessel was sold into civilian service on 22 July 1946, becoming the mercantile Begonlock. Resold in 1949 and renamed Fundiciones Molinao, the ship was renamed Astiluzu in 1951 and Rio Mero in 1956.[4] She was wrecked off Punta de los Entinas, Spain, on 21 January 1970.[5]

Source: "HMS Begonia (K66)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, December 19th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Begonia_(K66).

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Further Reading

HMCS Snowberry

HMS Arbutus (K86)

HMCS Moose Jaw

HMS Lotus (K130)

USS Surprise (PG-63)

HMCS Rosthern

HMCS Fredericton (K245)

HMS Borage (K120)

HMS Rhododendron (K78)

HMS Alisma (K185)

HMS Dianella

HMS Hibiscus (K24)

HMS Periwinkle (K55)

HMS Larkspur (K82)
References

Notes

  1. ^ Elliott, p. 185
  2. ^ Hague, p
  3. ^ a b c "Impulse". www.history.navy.mil. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
  4. ^ "HMS Begonia (K 66)". uboat.net. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
  5. ^ Flower class corvettes at britainsnavy.co.uk Retrieved 7 May 2013

Books

Links

External links
  • Photo gallery of USS Impulse/HMS Begonia at NavSource Naval History
Categories

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