|
The Flower-class corvette 〔Gardiner and Chesneau 1980, p. 62.〕〔(reproduction with introduction by Antony Preston), ''Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II'', New Jersey: Random House, 1996, ISBN 0-517-67963-9, page 68.〕〔United States Navy ''Warship Identification Manual'' (NAVPERS 10796)〕 (also referred to as the ''Gladiolus'' class after the lead ship)〔Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons & Warfare'' (London: Phoebus, 1978), Volume 11, pp.1137–42.〕 was a British class of 267 corvettes used during World War II, specifically with the Allied navies as anti-submarine convoy escorts during the Battle of the Atlantic. Royal Navy ships of this class were named after flowers, hence the name of the class. The majority served during World War II with the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Several ships built largely in Canada were transferred from the RN to the United States Navy (USN) under the lend-lease program, seeing service in both navies. Some corvettes transferred to the USN were manned by the US Coast Guard.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Alacrity, USS; PG-87 )〕 The vessels serving with the US Navy were known as ''Temptress'' and ''Action''-class patrol gunboats. Other Flower-class corvettes served with the Free French Naval Forces, the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Hellenic Navy, the Royal New Zealand Navy and, immediately post-war, the South African Navy. After World War II many surplus Flower-class vessels saw worldwide use in other navies, as well as civilian use. is the only member of the class to be preserved as a museum ship. ==Class designation== The term "corvette" was originally a French name for a small sailing warship, intermediate between the frigate and the sloop-of-war. In the 1830s the term was adopted by the RN for sailing warships of roughly similar size, primarily operating in the shipping protection role. With the arrival of steam power, paddle- and later screw-driven corvettes were built for the same purpose, growing in power, size, and armament over the decades. In 1877 the RN abolished the "corvette" as a traditional category; corvettes and frigates were then combined into a new category, "cruiser". The months leading up to World War II saw the RN return to the concept of a small escort warship being used in the shipping protection role. The Flower class was based on the design of ''Southern Pride'', a whale-catcher, and were labelled "corvettes", thus restoring the title for the RN, although the Flower-class has no connection with pre-1877 cruising vessels. There are two distinct groups of vessels in this class: the ''original Flower-class'', 225 vessels ordered during the 1939 and 1940 building programmes; and the ''modified Flower-class'', which followed with a further 69 vessels ordered from 1940 onward. The modified Flowers were slightly larger and somewhat better armed. All Flower-class vessels, of original or modified design, that saw service with the USN are known as ''Action''-class gunboats, and carried the hull classification symbol PG ("patrol gunboat"). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Flower-class corvette」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|