HNoMS Rauma (1939)
HNoMS Rauma just after launch in Oslo, 26 September 1939. Havnelageret in the background.
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| History | |
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 Norway
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| Name: | Rauma |
| Namesake: | The river Rauma |
| Builder: | Nylands Verksted, Oslo |
| Launched: | 26 September 1939 |
| Commissioned: | January 1940 |
| Captured: | by the German 9 April 1940 |
| Service record | |
| Operations: | Opposing the German invasion of Norway |
| Victories: | 1 warship (120 tons) damaged |
 Nazi Germany
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| Name: | Kamerun |
| Namesake: | German Kamerun |
| Acquired: | 9 April 1940 |
| Fate: | Handed over to the German Mine Sweeping Administration after VE Day |
| Service record | |
| Operations: | |
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Norway
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| Name: | Rauma |
| Acquired: | May 1945 |
| Commissioned: | 1947 |
| Decommissioned: | 21 August 1959 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1963 |
| General characteristics as built | |
| Class and type: | Otra class minesweeper |
| Displacement: | 355 tons |
| Length: | 51 m (167.32 ft) |
| Beam: | 7 m (22.97 ft) |
| Draft: | 1.8 m (5.91 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Two 900 hp Triple expansion steam engines, two shafts |
| Speed: | 15 knots (27.78 km/h) |
| Range: | 1,400 nautical miles (2,592.80 km) at 9 knots (16.67 km/h) |
| Complement: | 25 men |
| Armament: |
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| General characteristics after German rebuild | |
| Class and type: | Vorpostenboot and minelayer |
| Displacement: | 355 tons |
| Length: | 51 m (167.32 ft) |
| Beam: | 7 m (22.97 ft) |
| Draft: | 1.8 m (5.91 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Two 900 hp Triple expansion steam engines, two shafts |
| Speed: | 15 knots (27.78 km/h) |
| Range: | 1,400 nautical miles (2,592.80 km) at 9 knots (16.67 km/h) |
| Complement: | 25 men |
| Armament: |
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| General characteristics after 1949 Norwegian rebuild | |
| Class and type: | Otra class minelayer training ship |
| Displacement: | 355 tons |
| Length: | 51 m (167.32 ft) |
| Beam: | 7 m (22.97 ft) |
| Draft: | 1.8 m (5.91 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Two 900 hp Triple expansion steam engines, two shafts |
| Speed: | 15 knots (27.78 km/h) |
| Range: | 1,400 nautical miles (2,592.80 km) at 9 knots (16.67 km/h) |
| Complement: | 25 men |
| Armament: |
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HNoMS Rauma was an Otra-class minesweeper built in 1939 for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Captured by the Germans during the 1940 invasion of Norway and renamed Kamerun, she was returned to the Norwegians after the end of the Second World War and recommissioned in 1947. Rauma remained in service until being sold for scrapping in 1963.
As the threat of war in Europe became ever more clear the decision was made to improve the Royal Norwegian Navy's mine warfare capabilities. At first a number of 2. class gunboats were rebuilt into minelayers and minesweepers, but with war looming it soon became clear that more capable vessels were required. Thus, two new purpose-built minesweepers were constructed at Nylands Verksted in Oslo; Otra and Rauma. Both ships were completed and commissioned only a short time before the German invasion of Norway. Otra class vessels used the Oropesa system of minesweeping.
Shortly before the German invasion the UK announced that the Royal Navy had laid out a number of minefields along the coast of Norway to interfere with the German import of Swedish iron ore through the North Norwegian port of Narvik. The British government claimed to have mined three areas; off Stad, Hustadvika, and Landegode north of Bodø. In response to this report, the Norwegian government ordered the minesweepers Otra and Rauma to sail north from their base in Horten and sweep the minefields on 9 April 1940.
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Wikipedia