- HMS Bryony (K192)
HMS "Bryony" (K192) was a Flower-class corvette that served in the
Royal Navy .
=Construction and daShe was launched from the yards of
Harland and Wolff ,Belfast ,Northern Ireland on16 November 1940 , having been laid down there on8 April of that year. During her construction, an air raid on Belfast had damaged Harland and Wolff's yards, and "Bryony" was sunk by a direct hit. Her upper deck and superstructure were wrecked, and most of her hull plates were blown off, whilst the remainder of the hull was flooded. She was inspected by officials from Harland and Wolff and theAdmiralty , and it was decided that it would be feasible to refloat and rebuild the ship.alvage and working up
These events would give her the longest build time for any of the Flower class. She was built as a short
forecastle (also spelled fo'c'sle) corvette, but after her salvage she was given a lengthened fo'c'sle and minesweeping gear. Although many Flowers eventually got the lengthened fo'c'sle, "Bryony"'s was much longer than normal and she could be discerned by such. She was finally commissioned into the Royal Navy on15 March 1941 , underLieutenant-Commander Stewart of theRoyal Naval Reserve . She left Belfast, crossing theIrish Sea to Tobermory in Scotland to undergo a two-week work and training exercise period, after which she sailed toGladstone Dock ,Liverpool , where she would be based until June 1943. Whilst in her trials period she was assigned to escortConvoy PQ-18 , the next attempt to deliver supplies to Russia after the heavy losses sustained amongstConvoy PQ-17 .With convoy PQ 18
The convoy had mostly assembled by
1 September 1942 inLoch Ewe , and departed the following day. By12 September a long-rangeFocke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft had detected and begun to shadow the convoy, directing GermanU-boat s to the scene. Eventually seven U-boats were shadowing the convoy; these were for the moment kept at bay by Avenger anti-submarine aircraft and the escorts. On14 September , U 457 penetrated the screen andtorpedo ed the tanker SS "Atheltemplar" in the engine room. Crippled, the ship was abandoned, as there were no spare ships available to tow her toSpitsbergen . The next large wave of attacks came on19 September as the convoy crossed the Dvina Bar. TwelveJunkers Ju 88 s attacked the convoy, one of them dive bombing HMS "Bryony". The bombs fell wide and "Bryony" was unscathed. The convoy finally reached Archangel without further incident. Thirteen merchant ships had been lost, whilst the Germans had lost three U-boats and twenty-two aircraft.Postwar
"Bryony" returned to home waters and continued to serve as an escort and patrol vessel off the coast and in the
North Sea . After the end of the war, she was sold to theRoyal Norwegian Navy in 1948. They renamed her HNoMS "Polarfront II", and used her as aweather ship . She was on their lists until 1979.References
*Colledge
External links
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4724.html HMS Bryony at Uboat.net]
* [http://www.north-cheshire-marine.org.uk/bry1.htm A History of HMS Bryony]
* [http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/search3.php?query=Bryony&Submit=Find+Vessel HMS "Bryony" on the Arnold Hague database at convoyweb.org.uk.]
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