HMS Leith (U36)
Leith in July 1941
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Leith |
Ordered | 1 November 1932 |
Builder | Devonport Dockyard |
Laid down | 6 February 1933 |
Launched | 9 September 1933 |
Commissioned | 10 July 1934 |
Decommissioned | June 1945 |
Renamed |
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Identification | Pennant number: L36 (later U36) |
Motto | 'Persevere' |
Honours and awards |
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Fate |
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Badge | On a Field White an ancient ship Black with Red pennons on wavelets Gold and Blue. |
Denmark | |
Name | HDMS Galathea |
Acquired | 1949 |
Fate | Sold for scrap 1955 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Grimsby-class sloop |
Displacement |
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Length | 250 ft (76.2 m) p/p / 266 ft (81.1 m) o/a |
Beam | 36 ft (11.0 m) |
Draught | 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 16.5 knots (31 km/h; 19 mph) |
Range | 5,700 nautical miles (10,600 km; 6,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 100 |
Armament |
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HMS Leith was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War.
Building, commissioning and early service
Leith was ordered on 1 November 1932 under the 1931 Programme. She was laid down at
Wartime career
The Pacific and return to the UK
The outbreak of the
Covering the Western Approaches
After the completion of the refit in February she was nominated to serve with the
Convoy SC 7
In October she deployed with the sloop HMS Folkestone and the Flower-class corvettes Bluebell and Heartsease for the defence of the Atlantic convoys during the journey to the dispersal point of the outward convoys and for the final stage of the passage of the inward convoys. On 13 October she joined the outbound Convoy OB 228 from Liverpool to its dispersal point. On 16 October U-93 attacked Leith. She sighted the submarine on the surface and forced her to submerge. Leith then carried out an unsuccessful search for her attacker with HMS Heartsease.[1] The escorts were detached from the convoy on 17 October and sailed to join the inbound Convoy SC 7. On 18 October she rescued 19 survivors from the Estonian merchant Nora which had been torpedoed and sunk on 13 October by U-103.[2] Together with the sloops HMS Scarborough and Fowey and the corvettes Bluebell and Heartsease they attempted unsuccessfully to fight off the wolf pack attacks of a number of U-boats. Leith rescued survivors from three torpedoed merchant ships including Assyrian and Soesterberg before joining the inbound Convoy HX 79 which had also come under heavy U-boat attack. Leith gathered up three merchant ships and brought them into port.[1]
The Atlantic convoys
She made a full transatlantic crossing and return in November, escorting an outbound and inbound convoy, before returning to her usual pattern in December, covering the Freetown and Gibraltar convoys. On 9 December she was part of the escort for convoy OG 47 on its way to Gibraltar. The convoy came under attack on 20 December by the Italian submarine Mocenigo, which sank the merchant Manchester General.[1] Leith was detached from the convoy on its arrival on 25 December and sailed with an inbound convoy to Liverpool on 29 December. On her arrival she returned covering the convoys through the Western Approaches throughout January to April 1941. On 17 April she began a refit at Avonmouth which lasted until May, when she was nominated for convoy defence based in Newfoundland.[1]
Leith sailed to join the Newfoundland Escort Force based at St. John's on 6 June. She deployed with them throughout July and into August. She returned in August to redeploy with the Western Approaches Command. On 20 August she deployed with the destroyers HMS Gurkha and Lance, and the corvette HMS Zinnia and the other corvettes of the 5th Escort Group in the defence of the outward Convoy OG 71, consisting of 21 ships from Liverpool on passage to Gibraltar.[1] The Norwegian destroyer HNoMS Bath had been sunk the previous day, along with three merchants. The convoy continued to be attacked after the reinforcements arrived, despite constant anti-submarine operations. HMS Zinnia and four other merchants were sunk on 22 August. The rest of the convoy arrived at Gibraltar on 25 August.[1] Leith returned to Liverpool in September, escorting Convoy HG 72.
The African coast
In October Leith was at
Refits and the English Channel
Also in October Leith was nominated to escort the military convoys for the allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch). She escorted a stores convoy late in October and spent November and December escorting convoys through the western Mediterranean. She carried these duties out until March 1943 when she return with her group to the UK. 1943 and the first half of 1944 she spent on the Freetown route.[1] In August she returned to the Mediterranean, undergoing an extensive refit at Gibraltar in September owing to her deteriorated condition after an extended period in active service in the Atlantic. The refit lasted until December, and in January 1945 she returned to the UK and joined the 38th Escort Group based at Portsmouth. She escorted convoys through the English Channel in February and March, and in April escorted the Dutch minelayer Van der Zaan as she laid mines in the English Channel.[1] After VE Day in May Leith was nominated to be reduced to the reserve fleet. She sailed to Rosyth in June where she was paid off, and laid up the following month.[1]
Post war
Leith was placed on the disposal list and sold in 1946 into merchant service.[1] She was renamed Byron, and later Friendship in 1948.[2] She was then acquired by the Royal Danish Navy in 1949 and renamed HDMS Galathea.[3] She undertook the second Galathea expedition, which circumnavigated the world in 1950–52 while doing deep sea oceanographic research, and was sold to be scrapped at Odense in 1955.[2]
Notes
References
- Campbell, N. J. M. (1980). "Great Britain (including Empire Forces)". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 2–85. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben & Bush, Steve (2020). Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (5th revised and updated ed.). Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-9327-0.
- Hague, Arnold (1993). Sloops: A History of the 71 Sloops Built in Britain and Australia for the British, Australian and Indian Navies 1926–1946. Kendal, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-67-3.
- ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.