Tromp

Design and Construction

HNLMS Tromp was the lead ship of her class of two ships for the Royal Netherlands Navy. They were designed as flotilla leaders for a new squadron of destroyers, which were planned as part of Dutch military build up in the face of Japanese expansion in South East Asia. Dutch planning envisaged a force of cruisers and destroyers to act as a fleet-in-being, and to support the large submarine force, which was seen as a key element of the Dutch strategy to defend their colonies.

Officially designated as “destroyer leaders”, they were considerably larger than contemporary destroyers. Their size and large armament often led them to be regarded as light cruisers. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Tromp was sent to the Dutch East Indies. She would spend most of her wartime service in the Far East. Her sister, Jacob van Heemskerck was still under construction when Germany invaded the Netherlands, but she was able to escape to Britain, where she was completed with British weapons as an anti-aircraft ship.

‘’Tromp’’ had a displacement of 3,450 tons and carried a heavy armament for her size, with six 150mm guns in three twin turrets, and three torpedo tubes on each side. Emphasising her intended role as the leader of a destroyer flotilla, she was designed to carry a Fokker C.XIV floatplane for scouting duties, mounted on a catapult. Her designed top speed of 32.5 knots was intended to allow her to keep up with her assigned destroyer flotilla. It was reported that during her trials she was able to reach a maximum speed of 35 knots. In order to achieve the designed speed and mount the large weapons, armor protection was limited in comparison to a true cruiser.

Tromp was ordered in 1935 and laid down on 17 January 1936 at Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij (‘Netherlands Shipbuilding Company’), in Amsterdam. She was launched on 24 May 1937, and commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy on 18 August 1938. She was the sixth ship to be named after the father and son Admirals Maarten Tromp and Cornelis Tromp of the 17th Century.

HNLMS Tromp being launched

Service History

Pre-WW2

After completing her acceptance trials and undergoing exercises and training until January 1939, she underwent a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea. She collided with a German passenger ship in Lisbon, Portugal, where she was slightly damaged. She returned to the Netherlands for a fleet review in April, and underwent a short cruise to Norway. In July 1939, she departed the Netherlands to head to her permanent base in the East Indies. En route, she visited Dutch possessions in the West Indies, and passed through the Panama Canal. Shortly before she arrived in the East Indies, the Second World War broke out, although the Dutch remained neutral during the first months of the war.

1940-41

In May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Tromp was involved in several patrols searching for German merchant ships, as well as providing convoy escort for merchant ships around the Dutch East Indies; these duties continued under the Dutch government-in-exile after the Dutch surrender in Europe. In late 1941, she took part in the unsuccessful search for HMAS Sydney, which had been sunk by the German raider Kormoran. By late 1941, tensions were high, with some Vichy French merchant ships having been detained, and the Japanese looking to take advantage of the weak defences of the European colonial forces in South East Asia.

1942

After the outbreak of fighting against the Japanese, Tromp was assigned to the combined American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command for the defence of the East Indies. On February 4, a squadron consisting of HNLMS De Ruyter' , Tromp , USS Houston , Marblehead, and 7 destroyers set out to intercept a Japanese convoy, which was reported to be at Balikpapan. The Allied force was discovered by Japanese aircraft and attacked. The attacks damaged USS Houston, and damaged USS Marblehead so severely that she was sent away from the battle area for repairs. ABDA command would spend most of February engaged in unsuccessful searches for further Japanese shipping.

On February 18, the ABDA fleet entered into a night battle with the Japanese Navy in the Badung Strait. In this battle, Tromp was leading a squadron of four American destroyers. The Japanese destroyers Asashio and Oshio almost collided with the column, dividing it into two parts. In this battle, the USN destroyers managed to heavily damage the Japanese destroyer Michishio. Tromp managed to damage both Asashio and Oshio, while receiving 11 hits from five-inch shells. Two officers and eight sailors were killed, with another 30 wounded, and her damage was severe enough that she was forced to head to Australia for repairs. As a fortunate result, she survived the almost total destruction of other Allied naval forces following the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea, although the Japanese claimed to have sunk her.

During the repairs her cranes, seaplane, and aft command and rangefinder post were dismantled, and her anti-aircraft defences were improved. She returned to service in May 1942, when she was assigned to ASW patrol duties along the Australian coast. On 18 May, she was part of the escort for a convoy transporting Australian troops to Port Moresby. She continued escorting other ships from Sydney and Fremantle until October 1942, when she visited Sydney to receive her first modern radar.

HNLMS Tromp, 1943 in US Navy measure 22 camouflage, Sydney Harbour 1943

1943-45

In early 1943, Tromp was assigned to the US Navy 7th Fleet, engaged in convoy duties around the Australian coast and the Indian Ocean. In January 1944, she was assigned to the Royal Navy Eastern Fleet, based at Trincomalee, Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka). She then participated in carrier raids on Surabaya in April, and again in May 1944, undertaking escort duty in between. In an attack on Sabang on 25 July, she was hit four times by shore batteries while bombarding the harbour with three Australian destroyers. In September 1944, she was sent to Sydney for another refit, where her torpedo tubes were replaced with British weapons. Her refit lasted until February 1945, and on completion she returned to Trincomalee to take part in amphibious operations along the Burmese coast. Following the capture of Rangoon (Operation Dracula), Tromp was again assigned to the US Navy 7th Fleet, where she provided naval support to Australian infantry invading Balikpapan, part of the Borneo campaign during the closing months of the war.

HNLMS Tromp

Post War

Following VJ-Day, ‘’Tromp’’ was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet, and in September she deployed to Jakarta, Java, where she landed a force of marines to reoccupy the island and disarm surviving Japanese forces. She then ferried liberated Dutch prisoners-of-war between Singapore, Bangkok, and Sydney during the final months of the year. She remained in Sydney until February 1946, when she sailed for the Netherlands to return over 150 former prisoners-of-war home.

On her return to the Netherlands in May 1946, the ship underwent a significant refit which lasted until mid-1948. However, the ship was deemed to be worn out by her wartime service and was used mainly as a training ship or accommodation. She was removed from active service in December 1955 and used as a barrack ship at Den Helder. She was finally sold to Simons Handels Mij, Rotterdam for scrap in 1969 and broken up in Spain.

In-game historical inaccuracies

See here for links to Update notes.

• Available for testing by supertesters in the game starting from Update 0.11.8.

• Update 0.11.10:
  • Available for purchase in the Armory starting on 25 November 2022, for 100 Admiral Tokens. The tokens could be purchased with doubloons (38,450 doubloons total) or discounted with free xp (up to a 50% discount for 1,000,000 FXP).
• Update 0.11.11:
  • Available for purchase in the Armory for 238,000 Coal.
• Update 12.2:
  • Torpedo speed increased from 64 to 71 knots.
  • Maximum torpedo damage increased from 13,700 to 15,000.
  • Chances of causing flooding with torpedoes increased from 227% to 249%.
  • Improved the geometry and textures of the ship.