HMS Rawalpindi

1939

Iceland Strait, a liner against two battleships Location: North Atlantic, between Iceland and the Faroes · Coordinates: 63.25°N 11.50°W · Casualties: 275 · Survivors: 38 · Depth: abyssal · not located · Cause: naval gunfire — An armed merchant cruiser, a P&O passenger liner converted to a patrol ship, intercepted by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Iceland Strait on the evening of 23 November 1939. Her 6-inch guns were outranged and outgunned by an order of magnitude. Destroyed in 40 minutes. · Fate: abyssal North Atlantic · Type: armed merchant cruiser · ex-liner · Tonnage: 16,697 tons · Crew: 313 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1925 Armed merchant cruiser of the Northern Patrol, a P&O liner requisitioned and fitted with eight 6-inch guns of Great War vintage. Intercepted in the Iceland-Faroes Gap on the evening of 23 November 1939 by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Captain Kennedy's response was to open fire and broadcast the enemy's position on W/T before his ship was destroyed. 275 dead in forty minutes; 38 men were taken off by the Germans before a British cruiser squadron closed the range. The disparity of force made her loss one of the iconic 'last stands' of the Royal Navy. The Vessel HMS Rawalpindi was an armed merchant cruiser of the Royal Navy, converted at the outbreak of the Second World War from the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's liner of the same name. She was 168 metres long, 16,697 gross tons, built at Harland and Wolff in 1925 for the P&O's London-to-Bombay mail service. Her peacetime role, for fourteen years between 1925 and 1939, had been the principal British imperial liner on the India run, carrying mail, passengers, and bullion between the British capital and the largest component of the British Empire. At the outbreak of the war in September 1939 she was requisitioned by the British Admiralty and converted to an armed merchant cruiser at Liverpool over four weeks: eight obsolete 6-inch guns of 1890s vintage were mounted on her upper decks, two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns added, her public rooms converted to crew accommodation, and her cargo spaces converted to ammunition magazines. Her conversion was typical of the Royal Navy's AMC programme of late 1939: it was cheap, fast, and produced vessels of minimal military capability. The AMC class was intended for distant-station patrol work against a specific and (in the event) largely absent threat: German merchant raiders operating on the world trade routes. The eight 6-inch guns gave her nominal capability against an unarmed merchant vessel and essentially no capability against any German warship of battleship, battlecruiser, or pocket battleship class. Her crew was a mix of The Disaster Scharnhorst opened fire on Rawalpindi at 16:03 on 23 November 1939 at a range of 10,000 metres. Kennedy returned fire with his forward 6-inch guns as he turned to bring his broadside to bear. The range was at the extreme limit of Rawalpindi's gunnery; her shells either fell short or were deflected by Scharnhorst's armour. Scharnhorst's 11-inch shells were not deflected. The engagement lasted 14 minutes. Scharnhorst fired approximately 42 rounds of 11-inch ammunition; Gneisenau, which had closed to engage from a different bearing, fired approximately 15 rounds of her own. Rawalpindi was struck repeatedly. Captain Kennedy was killed on his bridge by a German shell at approximately 16:08. Her wireless was destroyed almost immediately; the senior officers in the forward compartments were killed in succession; her 6-inch guns were put out of action one by one. Rawalpindi sank at 20:05 on 23 November 1939 at approximately 63°40′N 11°30′W. Of her 313 crew, 275 died. 27 were rescued by the Germans (prisoners of war) and transferred to the German battleships for the remainder of Marschall's sortie; another 11 survived in lifeboats and were eventually picked up by HMS Chitral, a sister AMC, two days later. The British Home Fleet, alerted by Rawalpindi's signal, deployed HMS Repulse, HMS Hood, HMS Newcastle, HMS Delhi, and seven destroyers to intercept the German raiders. Marschall, having confirmed by the engagement with Rawalpindi that the Royal Navy was fully alerted, decided to abor