HMS
FRANKLIN spent the war as a survey ship. She started her service in 1938
surveying the Goodwin Sands and The Downs. In 1939 she carried out
surveys in the Thames Estuary until, in June, she sailed for
Newfoundland, Canada to carry out
a survey of St. Lewis Inlet
to facilitate timber extraction. On 23rd August she hurried home
unescorted to her war station at Dover, where FRANKLIN
was required to
provide the control for the laying of the Channel Mine Barrage.
In
December 1939
FRANKLIN went to the east coast, and was employed there locating wrecks
of ships sunk, sounding diversionary channels, and assisting
minesweepers until February 1940. Following refit she sailed to Scapa
'with all possible despatch' and for the rest of the year she made
surveys in Scapa Flow to help blocking operations, at Dundee for the
submarine base there, and at Skaalefjord in the Faeroes for its use as a
fleet anchorage. She was also involved in the very large scale surveys
for positioning the Maunsell pre‑fabricated forts in the Thames Estuary
for the anti aircraft defence of London.
On 19th November 1940
off Gt Yarmouth she was straddled by
6 bombs from a Ju88, the nearest exploding 30 ft to port. She was
subsequently further damaged in a gale and sailed for repairs in London
which took three months, the crew doing firewatch duty during the
bombing of the docks from the roof of the Port Authority building.
In March
1941she again sailed for the east coast, receiving some damage from the
tug Zirda requiring another two weeks of repairs. On 14th May 1941 she
was attacked by aircraft (a regular occurrence on the east coast) and
was damaged by
four near misses and by two more on the 3rd June 1941 in the North Sea; repaired
on Humber 4th-13th June 1941.
Between her surveying tasks, or when moving from one to the next,
FRANKLIN was often called upon to act as a convoy escort. In July 1941
this was nearly her end when leading a convoy she met a southbound one
head one. She herself was first overrun by her own convoy commodore's
ship which scraped up her port side, and immediately afterwards had her
starboard side savaged by one of the opposing convoy.
The upper deck was damaged and was repaired at Aberdeen 14th July -
23rd August 1941. She spent most of the rest of 1941 in Scottish waters
before sailing to Harwich for boiler cleaning and repairs.
HMS
FRANKLIN spent 1942 on the east coast carrying out surveys (Thames
Estuary Maunsell fort sites; Dudgeon Channel; River Swale; East Coast
War Route wrecks - sounding alternative routes for convoys). Similarly
in 1943 she carried out surveys of the River Colne; The Wash, Docking
Channel. The River Tay; Dornoch Firth and Invergordon.
In
1944 she surveyed Scapa Flow (radar
triangulation) and the Firth of Forth before taking part in the Normandy
Landings.
Franklin, under Irving, was held in reserve at the Nore
during the assault, and would then support the detailed survey of the
site for the Arromanches Mulberry and follow up with port surveys to the
east, hopefully culminating in opening Le Havre. She relieved her sister survey ship, HMS Scott,
off Arromanches and was the
first large ship to (cautiously) enter Cherbourg harbour where she
located wrecks and supported smaller craft which were clearing mines.
FRANKLIN, after completing
a detailed survey of Cherbourg, moved east to Dieppe. While there Le
Havre fell, and a 16‑foot motor skiff was sent by road to start the
reconnaissance. This soon met a short hostile reception from a pocket of
German resistance on the South breakwater. FRANKLIN herself, with ML
1001, entered the port early in September despite some reservations on
the part of the minesweeping authorities A detailed survey occupied four
weeks, during which mining was a constant worry. The ship also acted as
British Senior Officer Afloat, and provided provisions, fuel and water
to many British auxiliary craft as well as helping put right their
mechanical defects.
In October
FRANKLIN had moved further
east, to Ostend. It was of the utmost importance that the port of
Antwerp be opened. Passage up the Schelde was blocked by enemy forces
still holding the east bank. FRANKLIN sent a motor boat and her crew by
tank transporter to Ghent, and they made their way by canal thence to
Terneuzen to start the survey of the upper Schelde and the port before
ships or craft could reach the higher reaches from the sea. The full
survey was completed by 14 December, but before that, on 28 November
1944, FRANKLIN's crew had the satisfaction of seeing the first laden
Liberty ship convoy proceed upriver to unload. General Montgomery
himself subsequently visited the ship to thank her and her company for
their work.
Just before
his tragic death in an air crash in January 1945 Admiral Ramsay, ANCXF,
wrote personally to Edgell to thank the Hydrographic Service for its
part in NEPTUNE and OVERLORD It is not too much
to say that without the work of the surveyors and the cartographers the
invasion could not have taken place, much less been the overwhelming
success that it was.
Following a refit at the beginning of 1945 FRANKLIN
sailed from Sheerness for Cuxhaven on 19 May 1945. She carried out wreck
clearance surveys there, and at Hamburg, Heligoland, Kiel, Lubeck and
Travemunde, as well as fixing navigational buoys in the Baltic. She
returned to Sheerness in October 1945. She spent the rest of her career
mainly surveying the east coast of England until Jan 1953
when she was paid off to
Reserve at Chatham. In
1956 she was broken up by Clayton
and Davie, Dunston on Tyne.
See also
www.naval-history.net
This unusual memento of Franklin's
service around Holland and Germany, typed onto
a German Navy
(Kriegsmarine) sports vest eagle, was sent by David Bloor who
would be interested to hear from anyone who knows of its origins (contact
via webmaster).
In December 2007 I received the
following message from Michael Shand:
My father William Shand was a RT on Franklin, he has one of these
eagles, they were sent ashore at Bremmerhaven to loot the E-boat
pens, and typed out on typewriters liberated from the same
source, they were then dished out as souvenirs. One of the
officers took a large yacht, which was then crewed by men from the
Franklin and sent back across the channel.
