Hi Folks, While reeling through some footage on the Critical past site today, I came across this film, part of which shows a Royal Navy warship off Normandy. I take her to be a monitor, possibly HMS Erebus, part of Bombardment Force A under Rear Admiral M.L. Deyo, USN. Her assigned targets were the most northerly in the Utah sector, the batteries at La Pernelle and Barfleur. Below is a still from the footage: However, the photograph of her on this Uboat.net page appears to show her with an AA position forward of the main turret. As can be seen, this photograph is dated 1944, so is probably close to being current for Normandy. I cannot see this AA position on the CP still. Anyone able to say if we are seeing Erebus in the footage? Thanks, Pat
Hi Pat, All, Wiki says HMS Erebus was a WWI ship. In the article you can read HMS Erebus was still in service in 1944. If you compare the profiles of the ships in both photos there are good reasons to say Yes, both can show the same ships. Your ship seems to have the same hull typical for WWI ships. Hans
Hi Hans, Yes, they look very similar - it's the missing AA position which has me puzzled. Also, the upper structure of the mainmast seems to be different, but that might be just down to angle-of-view. I'll try the guys on the Royal Navy 'Rum Ration' Forum to see what they think. Thanks, Pat
Close. Personally I believe we're looking at HMS Abercrombie, a Roberts Class monitor. The pictures I found on the web resemble it more closely. http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-03Mon-Abercrombie.htm
Could be Francois, I have posted on 'Rum Ration' here. There are some highly knowledgeable naval guys over there who have helped me identify vessels on many occasions in the past. Regards, Pat
Hi Guys, The 'Rum Ration' consensus seems to be that Francois is correct with the monitor class being one of the two 'Roberts', HMS Roberts or HMS Abercrombie. As 'Abercrombie' was undergoing battle damage repairs at Taranto at the time of the Normandy Invasion, this vessel in the Critical Past footage can therefore only be 'Roberts'. HMS Roberts was part of Bombardment Force S for the Sword Beach landings and her assigned target for D-Day was 'Strong Point 32 (Houlgate Battery)' which this page on the atlantikwall.org site states she failed to silence. Below is a photograph of HMS Roberts at Devonport while she was in use as an accommodation vessel in the early 1960s: Well done Francois My thanks to 'onions' and 'RoundTower' from 'Rum Ration' for the additional clues. Regards, Pat
Hi Pat, Navman, can I confess my none-knoweledge here and get an education where to see the difference and of course the match? AA-Position: Is this a gun-turret? Hans
When I first looked at your pictures I noticed a difference in the stack (the Roberts' stack is higher and seems closer to the main wheel house). Also the main mast and aft mast are different, and the AA gun below and in front of the main gun is missing. AA-position is the Anti Aircraft gun position.
Hi Navman, thx. Here is a link to one of the sources mentioned in the article from dieselpunks.com website showing the HMS Roberts at D-Day in action from the webpage MaritimeQuest. Hans
Hi Guys, I managed to track down two line drawings of both vessels and combined them into one image for comparison purposes: HMS Roberts is the shorter of the two at 373ft, while HMS Erebus is 32ft longer at 405ft. Monitors were specifically designed for shore bombardment, having a wide beam and shallow draught. This allowed for close in fire support on very stable gun platforms. They were never designed for ship to ship engagements. Regards, Pat