until late 1941. During this time the ship helped to sink another German submarine.
In December, she was briefly transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she escorted several convoys to Malta from the Eastern Mediterranean. Foxhound was transferred to the
Eastern Fleet in early 1942 and was then assigned to convoy escort duties off South Africa and then in West Africa until mid-1943 when she was converted into an escort destroyer. When the conversion was completed in early 1944, the ship was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS Qu'Appelle. She was assigned escort duties in the Western Approaches for several months before the ship was transferred to the English Channel to protect convoys during the Normandy landings. Qu'Appelle engaged German surface ships several times before she was sent to Iceland for more convoy escort work in October. The ship received a lengthy refit in Canada at the end of the year that was not completed until mid-1945. Qu'Appelle then ferried Canadian troops back to Canada for several months before she became a training ship. She was placed in reserve in mid-1946 and was sold for scrap
at the end of 1947.
Description
The F-class ships were repeats of the preceding
Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of 36,000 shaft horsepower (27,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph). Foxhound barely exceeded her designed speed during her sea trials.[3] She carried a maximum of 470 long tons (480 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 6,350 nautical miles (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ships' complement was 145 officers and ratings.[2]
The ships mounted four
21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes.[4] One depth charge rack and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the Second World War began.[5]
Wartime modifications
By October 1940, Foxhound had her rear torpedo tube mount replaced by a
foremast. Her short-range AA armament was augmented by two 20 mm (0.8 in) Oerlikon guns on the wings of the ship's bridge, a pair on the enlarged searchlight platform and, probably, another pair were added on the quarterdeck.[6]
When she was converted into an escort destroyer in late 1943, 'B' gun was replaced by a
spigot mortar and stowage was increased for a total of 70 depth charges which meant that 'Y' gun and the 12-pounder AA gun had to be removed to compensate for the weight. A Type 271 target-indication radar replaced the director. It is likely that the Vickers guns were replaced by the Oerlikons from the quarterdeck at this time.[7]
Construction and career
Foxhound, the seventh ship of that name in the Royal Navy,
Non-Intervention Committee. Between November 1936 and 13 February 1937, the ship was based in Gibraltar except for a brief refit at Sheerness Dockyard in January. She patrolled the Spanish ports on the Bay of Biscay in May–June and August–October before returning home for a refit at Chatham Dockyard from 27 October to 30 December. During her service in northern Spanish waters, Foxhound was accidentally engaged and straddled by the Spanish nationalist minelayer Jupiter while on station off Gijon in August.[9] She then returned to the Mediterranean to patrol the area between Gibraltar and Oran, French Algeria from January to March 1938. On 22 September, the ship collided with the submarine Seahorse, damaging one of her propellers. She was repaired at Sheerness from 10 November to 12 December. Foxhound remained in home waters for the rest of 1938–39. The 6th DF was renumbered the 8th Destroyer Flotilla in April 1939, five months before the start of World War II.[10]
In September 1939, Foxhound was assigned to the Home Fleet and based at
During the Second Battle of Narvik, Foxhound and the destroyers
Rombaksfjorden (the easternmost branch of the Ofotfjord), east of Narvik, where the lack of ammunition had forced the German ships to retreat. During the battle, Foxhound rescued two officers and nine ratings from the destroyer Z12 Erich Giese.[13] During May, she escorted troop convoys to Iceland as they occupied the island.[11] In early June, the ship was escorting the battlecruiserRepulse and two cruisers as they searched for illusory German commerce raiders off Iceland; they were recalled to Norwegian waters on 9 June after the Germans launched Operation Juno, an attack on the Allied convoys evacuating Norway, but the Germans had already returned to base by the time the ships arrived.[14] Later, Foxhound escorted Ark Royal and the battlecruiser Hood, together with her sisters Faulknor and Fearless and the destroyer Escapade, from Scapa Flow to Gibraltar where they would form Force H.[15]
Force H, 1940–41
On the morning of 3 July, she ferried
British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, ordered the talks terminated to forestall the impending arrival of French reinforcements. The British opened fire a half-hour later,[16] including Foxhound. A month later the ship escorted Force H during Operation Hurry, a mission to fly off fighter aircraft for Malta and conduct an airstrike on Cagliari on 2 August.[17] Shortly afterwards, she escorted Hood back home and began a refit at Sheerness that lasted until October.[18]
Foxhound then returned to Gibraltar and escorted the aircraft carriers
Operations Coat and White in November.[19] In between sorties into the Mediterranean, the ship escorted convoys between Gibraltar and West Africa.[11] In early January 1941, she was involved in Operation Excess.[20] On 31 January, Force H, including Foxhound, departed Gibraltar to carry out Operation Picket, an unsuccessful night torpedo attack by eight of Ark Royal's Fairey Swordfish on the Tirso Dam in Sardinia. The British ships returned to Gibraltar on 4 February and began preparing for Operation Grog, a naval bombardment of Genoa, that was successfully carried out five days later.[21] On 7 April, Foxhound was escorting Convoy WS 7 off the coast of Sierra Leone, West Africa, when she rescued three seamen. They were survivors from the cargo linerUmona, which had been sunk a week earlier.[22] In mid-May, she participated in Operation Splice, another mission in which the carriers Ark Royal and Furious flew off fighters for Malta.[23]
Force H was ordered to join the escort of
tracked down and sunk. The destroyer screened another flying-off mission to Malta on 14 June; two days later, after German blockade runners reached France, Force H sortied into the Atlantic on a failed search for more blockade runners. Together with her sisters Faulknor, Fearless, Forester and Foresight, Foxhound helped to sink the German submarine U-138 on 18 June. Four days later, the 8th DF was tasked to intercept a German supply ship spotted heading towards the French coast. The next day they intercepted MV Alstertor which was scuttled by her crew upon the approach of the British ships. They rescued 78 British POWs taken from ships sunk by German raiders and the crew. In late June, Foxhound screened Ark Royal and Furious as they flew off more fighters for Malta in Operation Railway.[24]
During
Operation Style).[26]Foxhound returned to the UK in August for a refit that lasted until November. The ship was briefly assigned to Escort Group EG.3 in the North Atlantic for convoy escort duties later that month until she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in late December.[27]
1942–1946
Foxhound screened the light cruisers of Force B and the freighter Glengyle of Convoy MF 2 from Alexandria, Egypt, to Malta in early January 1942. A week later, she escorted the cruisers covering Convoy MF 3 to Malta and was detached to escort the freighter MV Thermopylae to Benghazi, Libya, after she developed engine trouble on 18 January. En route the freighter was sunk by German aircraft and Foxhound arrived back at Alexandria on 20 January. By 29 March, the ship had been transferred to the Eastern Fleet and was assigned to the fast ships of Force A as Somerville organised his forces in anticipation of the Japanese invasion of the Indian Ocean.[28] Shortly afterwards she was transferred to South Africa and the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla to escort convoys. Foxhound was then transferred to 4th Destroyer Flotilla at Freetown, Sierra Leone, in May–July 1943.[11]
The ship's forward 4.7-inch guns, Freetown, 1943
Foxhound was converted to an escort destroyer from August 1943 and she was transferred to Canada on completion on 8 February 1944. The ship was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy that same day as HMCS Qu'Appelle.
Halifax on 29 November to begin a refit at Pictou, Nova Scotia, that lasted from 5 December to 30 June 1945.[7][29]
Qu'Appelle made four trips to the UK to ferry Canadian troops back to Canada by 25 September. The ship then became a stationary training ship for the Torpedo School at Halifax. She was placed in reserve on 27 May 1946 and then sold to German and Milne for scrap in December 1947.[30][Note 1]
Notes
^Macpherson and Barrie differ significantly from English in their account of the late history of the ship. They say that the refit ended on 31 March 1945 and Qu'Appelle made her trooping voyages between August and October. By their account she became a training ship on 11 October and was removed from service in January 1946.[7]
Admiralty Historical Section (2002). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean. Whitehall histories., Naval Staff histories. Vol. 2, November 1940 – December 1941. London: Whitehall History in association with Frank Cass.
March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service.
Smith, Peter C. (2004). Destroyer Leader: The Story of HMS Faulknor 1935–46 (3rd revised and expanded ed.). Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Maritime.
United Kingdom
