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ROYAL NAVY SOUTH ATLANTIC COMMAND - ROYAL NAVY N P Q R 16 SHIPS

11)QUEEN EMMA (LANDING SHIP)



Photo. www.7seasvessels.com        



Completed: 19 May 1939


Built as a civilian passenger liner in Netherlands


Requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport, 15 May 1940


Tonnage:4,135 GRT 2,100 NRT


Length:380 ft(120 m)o/a 351 ft (107 m) p/p


Beam: 47 ft (14 m


Draught: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)


Decks: 5


Propulsion: 2 × Sulzer diesel engines, 12,500 shp (9,321 kW)


Speed: 24.5 knots (45.4 km/h; 28.2 mph)


Capacity: 1,800 passengers


Crew: 58


Armament:AsHMS"QueenEmma" : 2×12-pounder(76mm)guns  2×2pounder(40mm)machineguns  4×20mmHotchkissmachineguns

4 × .303 calibre machine guns


In late 1941 she was selected to join the forces gathered at Freetown, Sierra Leone, for Operation Pilgrim, the planned occupation of the Canary Islands, if either the Spanish or the Germans captured Gibraltar. After maintenance at Glasgow Queen Emma sailed to Freetown, arriving on 5 October 1941. However, it soon became clear that Franco did not plan to join the Axis, nor was he prepared to allow the German troops free passage through Spain to attack Gibraltar, and the operation was cancelled.


On 4 November 1941 the British navy tanker RFA Olwen reported that she had been attacked by a German raider, between Natal, Brazil and Freetown. Queen Emma was one of the ships sent to search. No German raider was found and the Admiralty assumed that a German U-boat had shot at the tanker. However, on 22 November the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis was sunk by the British cruiser Devonshire in the southern Atlantic close to Ascension Island, and on 1 December the cruiser Dorsetshire sank the German supply ship Python in the same area.


Almost all the crews from both ships were taken aboard German and Italian submarines. The British feared that the Germans would try to land on Ascension and overwhelm the tiny garrison. Queen Emma was hurriedly loaded with troops and set sail. However, while en route it was learned that the German crewmen were on their way to Bordeaux and the ship was recalled


By Wikipedia.org


 

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