She belonged with her sister ship Abercrombie to the Roberts-class of monitors while she was named after Field Marshall Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts. Laid down by John Brown&Company, Clydebank, Scotland on 30 April 1940, launched on 1 April 1941, completed and commissioned on 27 October 1941, in 1945 sent to the Far East for perhaps assisting in bombarding Singapore was she lying at Port Said, Egypt when Japan surrendered, after her arrival at Devonport on 22 November 1945 she was used as a turret drill ship and later as accommodation ship at Devonport until she finally was sold in June 1965 and broken up after her arrival on 3 August at T.W. Ward, Inverkeithing.
With a displacement of 8.100 tons were her dimensions 113,77 (over all) x 27,36 x 3,4 metre or 373.3 x 89.9 x 11 feet. Her relatively small draught allowed her to operate in shallow waters like coastal waters. The machinery consisted of 2 Parsons steam turbines and 2 boilers supplying via 2 shaft the available 4.800shp/3.600kW allowing a speed of 12,5 knots. Her armament consisted of 1x2-38cm/1.2” cal 42 Mk1 naval guns (mounted in a turret of a predecessor the Marshal Soult), 4x2-10cm/4” anti aircraft guns, 1x8&2x4-2pd so-called pom-poms for anti-aircraft purposes and 20-2cm/0.8” anti aircraft cannons. One of main her guns is preserved and can nowadays be sighted at the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, South London, England. Funny enough it was a second hand gun just like her turret. The gun produced by Vickers, Son and Maxim was first mounted in the British battleship HMS Resolution of 1915.
Photos made at the Imperial War Museum,
Anneke, thanks for allowing us to use
During the Second World War saw the HMS Roberts quite what. She supported with her gun Operation Torch in North-Africa when she was hit by two bombs when German aircraft attacked during the battle of Béjaïa, Algeria on 11 November 1942. After being repaired she participated in Operation Husky when Sicily was invaded followed by Operation Avalanche when Allied force landed near Salerno, Italy. She was also present at the D-Day landings off Sword Beach. The next step was the island Walcheren, Netherlands. In May 1940 German forces invaded the Netherlands and after some days capitulated the Dutch forces. In the province Zeeland fights went on for a few days but also ended in retreat of the French troops back to France. For the next years the Netherland were occupied by the Germans. After the recapture of France and Belgium in summer 1944 was the way open to Germany if also the Netherland were liberated. Operation Market Garden (17-26 September 1944) was however a failure with high human losses. The intention was to get the Lower Rhine under Allied control making it possible to bypass the German Siegfried Line defences. Airborne troops were to capture the bridges over the Nederrijn, for instance at Arnhem. The result was that the major part of the Netherlands were not liberated and were to undergo another a year of war ending with the German forces in the Netherlands surrendering on 5 May 1945 at Wageningen. The Dutch population however -especially in the western provinces- suffered in the winter of 1944-1945 which was known as the Hongerwinter [famine, literally translated as hunger winter).
The south of the Netherland however were already liberated in 1944. This became necessary after the Allied forces captured the important Belgian harbour of Antwerp. The problem however was that German forces occupied the Dutch province Zealand and doing so controlled with defence works, artillery batteries and minefields the river Schelde and so making it so nearly possible to use the river for shipping from and towards Antwerp. So the German forces in Zeeland were to be put out of combat. On 3 and 17 October bombarded Allied aircraft de sea dike at Wetkapelle, followed on the 7th by dikes at Vlissingen and Ritthem and finally the one between Veere and Vrouwenpolder. The result was a large flooded area. The German defence works however were not annihilated in the next days by Allied aircraft attacks. Landings were necessary resulting in fierce fights for days. The HMS Roberts was present during the first days of the landings.
Allied field artillery started firing at the Vlissingen on 1 November 1944 followed by landing of troops. Two days later the town was captured. This was operation Infatuate I. At the same time was Operation Infatuate II executed, Westkapelle was attacked. And here we see HMS Roberts again. The ships which were to support the landings were gathered in the Downs departing from here at 23.00 o’clock on 31 October arriving the next week off Westkapelle, It were the monitors Erebus and Roberts and the famous battleship HMS Warspite. On 1 November 08.15 o’clock started the Warspite and Roberts with bombarding German defence works such like the heavy Domburg battery. The Erebus was due to mechanical problems first not able to assist. Around 17:30 o’clock was stopped with the bombardment when it became too dark. In the meantime were some German batteries like the Domburg battery captured by the Allied forces. The Warspite was forced to return to England with worn out gun barrel. The Roberts and Erebus started the next day again with the bombardment during the whole day. The next day both monitors left the war scene. In the next days went the fight in the province Zeeland on until all German forces surrendered.
