- HNoMS Hitra
The HNoMS "Hitra" (Norwegian prefix "KNM") is a
Royal Norwegian Navy submarine chaser that saw action duringWorld War II . She is named after the Norwegian island ofHitra .History
The "Hitra" was originally built as SC-718 for the
United States Navy , but was transferred to theShetland Bus organisation in August 1943, under the auspices of US Admiral Harold R. Stark. The "Hitra" and her sister vessels "Hessa" and "Vigra" supeseded the famous fleet of civilian fishing boats that ran naval operations betweenShetland and Norway.After the war the "Hitra" performed coast guard duties until 1953. All three submarine chasers were mothballed at
Marvika and formally decommissioned in 1959.She seemingly ended her days in
Karlskrona ,Sweden when she sank after someone had opened the bottom valves. It was not until 1981, when the Soviet submarineU 137 ("Whiskey on the rocks") ran aground, that S. Moen, the director of theRoyal Norwegian Navy Museum inHorten saw the abandoned "Hitra" in a newspaper image. Subsequently, she was raised and shipped back to Norway, where she was restored to her original condition in 1983-1987. [http://www.mil.no/sjo/start/aktuelt/article.jhtml?articleID=163163 Open ship on board HNoMS "Hitra"] , mil.no no icon]Today, the "Hitra" is a
museum ship homeported atHaakonsvern ,Bergen , touring the Norwegian coast in the summer months.Footnotes
Literature
* Abelsen, Frank: "Norwegian naval ships 1939-1945", Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo 1986 ISBN 82-7046-050-8
ee also
*
List of World War II ships of less than 1000 tons External links
* [http://www.mil.no/sjo/hos/start/hitra/ Norwegian Defence Force website on the vessel] no icon
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