:: HMS COSSACK (1937) ::

HMS Cossack destroyer (1937) High resolution picture

The HMS Cossack was a British destroyer launched in 1937, belonging to the Tribal class. In the mid 1930s the large superdestroyers built by the foreign nations created concern in the British Admiralty, which decided to build a class of large destroyers with increased artillery power. The result was the Tribal class which incorporated twin turrets instead of the single ones used in previous projects; however there was only one quadruple torpedo launcher. Apart from the rather unbalanced armament, in the end these ships resulted complex and expensive.

The illustration shows the HMS Cossack as she was in 1938, painted with the colors of the Neutral Patrol of Spain. The aft funnel was reduced to improve the firing arcs of the antiaircraft armament. During the Second World War the HMS Cossack took part in the Second Battle of Narvik and in the chase of the Bismarck. She would be sunk in October 1941 by a German submarine while scorting a convoy from Gibraltar to Great Britain, with the loss of 159 crewmen.

Class: Tribal (27 units - Royal Navy (Afridi, Ashanti, Bedouin, Cossack, Eskimo, Gurkha, Maori, Mashona, Matabele, Mohawk, Nubian, Punjabi, Sikh, Somali, Tartar, Zulu); Royal Canadian Navy (Athabaskan I (ex Iroquois), Athabaskan II, Cayuga, Huron, Haida, Iroquois (ex Athabaskan), Micmac, Nootka); Royal Australian Navy (Arunta, Bataan (ex Kurnai), Warramunga))

Type: Destroyer

Length: 115.1 meters

Beam: 11.1 meters

Draught: 4 meters

Displacement (normal): 1990 tonnes

Propulsion: 2 x shaft, 2 x steam turbine Parsons, 3 x boiler Admiralty, 46000 horsepower

Speed: 37.4 knots (69.2 kilometers/hour)

Range: 5700 nautical miles (10600 kilometers) at 15 knots

Fuel: 532 tonnes of petrol

Complement: 190

Armament (as built): 8 x 120-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 4 x 40-millimeter cannon, 8 x 12.7-millimeter machine gun, 4 x 533-millimeter torpedo tube, 20 x depth charge (one rack and two throwers)

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