Anti-Submarine Trawlers in WW2: HMT Haarlem FY306

Haarlem was a trawler built by by Cochrane & Sons Shipbuilders Ltd. (Selby, U.K.) for a Dutch company.

With a displacement of 431 tons, she was 157 feet long (172 feet overall) 26 ft beam and 14 deep. She was launched on the 20th of November 1937and completed on March the 9th 1938. On the 8th of June 1940 she was taken over by the Admiralty and commissioned in July as HMT Haarlem, an ASW Trawler of no specific class, with Pennant FY 306.

In June and July 1941, the Haarlem, with skipper Temporary Lt L B Merrick RNR, was part of the the 7th Anti-Submarine Group at Gibraltar which included ASW Trawlers Erin (Actg Cdr J O Davies RNR), Kingston Chryolite (Sk G T Littey DSC RNR), Leyland (Lt Cdr A Wilkinson RNR), Lord Hotham (Sk J W Morris RNR, Actg Ty Sk F J Settesfield RNR from 20 Aug), and Arctic Ranger, (SO, Cdr J H Young Rtd) which was due to return from the Clyde.

The Haarlem's typical armament would have been a 4inch gun forward, a 40mm Bofors aft, with perhaps two 0.5 calibre machine guns and two Lewis 0.303 calibre machine guns, later upgraded to 20mm Oerlikons. She had two depth charge rails and depth charge projectors on both sides. More on depth charges can be found at the ASW weapons site here

Some of the crew

HMT Haarlem in harbour

Some incidents from the Haarlem's war:

At 03.00 hours on 19 Oct, 1941, the unescorted tanker, MS Inverlee (Master Thomas Edward Alexander), was torpedoed and sunk by U-204, 30 miles 240° from Cape Spartel. The master, 20 crew members and one gunner were lost. 17 crew members and four gunners were picked up by the British destroyer HMS Duncan (D 99) (LtCdr A.N. Rowell) and the British armed trawlers HMS Lady Hogarth (Lt S.G. Barnes) and HMT Haarlem (FY 306) (Lt L.B. Merrick) and landed at Gibraltar.

Immediately after this sinking, the 37th Escort Group started an U-boat hunt off Cape Spartel and sank U-204 the same day.

Another incident involving the Haarlem resulted in a bit of target practice. At night on 09.12.1943, U 617 was in the Mediterranean off the Spanish-Moroccan coast near Melilla (Position : 35 ° 38'N - 03 ° 27'W). It was night and the submarine was on the surface recharging its batteries when it was spotted using radar by RAF Wellington P of 179 Squadron, which then illuminated the target with its Leigh Light. The Wellington dropped six depth charges and this was followed by another 6 from Wellington J of 179. Although U617 returned fire it was heavily damaged. Its skipper, Lieutenant Albrecht Brandi, managed to ground the boat in shallow water on the North African coast and the crew took to the life rafts and made for shore. As day broke the submarine was lying on its side near the beach and was attacked by Hudsons of the British RAF Squadron 48 and 233 as well as Swordfish of FAA Squadron 833 and 886.

To ensure U617 could never return to action, the Haarlem, together with the corvette HMS Hyacinth (K.84) and the Australian minesweeper HMAS Woolongong (J.172) organized a target practice on the submarine until it was completely destroyed. The 49 crew of the U617 were interned by the Spaniards and later came back to Germany.

Some mentions of the Haarlem from Ships Nostalgia forum:

A post from a chap called Leigh said his Grandfather (William Henry Shelley) "was quite proud of this little trawler. He spent 2/3 years aboard her, so I guess he got quite attached (got him safely through the war at least)."

This post brought a reply from a Spanish researcher, who was interested in the U 617. He mentions that the Spanish official documents refer to it and to the actions of the British ships. In the documents the Haarlem is referred to as a cañonero - a gunship - and in photos of the incident he said the ship's pennant number FY306 can be clearly seen. He also mentioned searching in the National Archives at Kew, where he found the following memorandum:

Weekly Resume (No. 211) of the Naval, Military and Air Situation from 0700 9th September, to 0700 16th September, 1943. CAB 66/41/3 .........
Anti-Submarine Operations...
...13. Nineteen attacks on U-boats have been reported during the week; eleven by aircraft and eight by surface craft. A German U-boat, on the 12th, was beached after an attack by a Wellington aircraft east of Gibraltar and was then bombed and shelled and finally destroyed by the A / S trawler Haarlem.......
Former reference: WP (43) 403
Author: Chiefs of Staff
Date: 16/09/1943'

Haarlem in Gibraltar

Off Duty

Things weren't always about fights at sea between ships and U-boats. Ships also fought each other on the football pitch. The Haarlem had a football team, and it looks like they had a kit as well.

The ships football team, 1944-45

(my father centre front with the ball)

Among the ships also at Gibraltar when Haarlem was there were:the Kingston Amber (FY211), shown below. It would have had a football team.

HMT Kingston Amber

Also at Gibraltar during the war were the Erin, Honjo (FY661), Loch Oskaig (FY175) Imperialist (FY126) and Arctic Ranger. So, with those ASW ships and the others in Gibraltar, there were plenty opportunities for a game of football. There were probably matches between the regular Royal Navy ships and anyone else who could put a team together.

The Haarlem's duties mainly involved submarine patrols sometimes down to Casablanca and as far as the Azores. On one occasion in the Azores, while the ship was in harbour, there were some high seas. There were lorries re-supplying the ships of the group.

My father used to tell me there was a lorry at the very end of the quay in the photo below, which was swept away in the next photo.

In the Azores with and Arctic Ranger FY186 and Kingston Amber FY211

The ships pets
The Haarlem's additional crew members consisted of the ubiquitous ship's cat and a couple of hens. They probably were best treated members of the crew.

The Layout of an Armed Trawler

To give an idea of the layout of a typical fishing trawler, here is the original general arrangement drawing of the Kingston Cornelian, a similar sized trawler to the Haarlem.

The wartime alterations involved converting the fish hold to accommodate the extra crew as well as altering the superstructure to take the weaponry as in this model below of the Kingston Topaz, a sister ship to the Kingston Cornelian, and similar to the Haarlem

You can see detailed pictures of the above model by John R Haynes, here.

Haarlem was returned to her Dutch owner in November 1945, and was refitted out to resume her role as a fishing vessel, sailing out of Ijmuiden, in the Netherlands, with the registration IJM9. The paintings below are by Jan de Reus.