HMS Vivien (L33)

HMS Vivien moored to a buoy during World War II.
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Vivien
Ordered	30 June 1916[3]
Builder	Yarrow Shipbuilders, Scotstoun, Glasgow[2]
Laid down	July 1916[2]
Launched	16 February 1918[1]
Completed	28 May 1918[2]
Commissioned	28 May 1918[3]
Decommissioned	1920s?[2]
Identification	Pennant number: G39 (June 1918)[1] L33 (interwar)[2]
Recommissioned	September 1939[2]
Decommissioned	1945[2]
Motto	Trust me in all[2]
Honours and awards	Battle honour for North Sea 1940–1945[2]
Fate	For disposal 1947[2] Sold for scrapping 18 February 1948[2]
Badge	A book with gold ornaments, encircled by a gold snake, on a black field[2]
General characteristics
Class and type	Admiralty V-class destroyer
Displacement	1,272-1,339 tons
Length	300 ft (91.4 m) o/a, 312 ft (95.1 m) p/p
Beam	26 ft 9 in (8.2 m)
Draught	9 ft (2.7 m) standard, 11 ft 3 in (3.4 m) deep
Propulsion	3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers Brown-Curtis steam turbines 2 shafts, 27,000 shp (20,000 kW)
Speed	34 kn (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Range	320-370 tons oil, 3,500 nmi (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	110
Armament	4 × QF 4 in (102 mm) L/45 Mk.V guns , mount P Mk.I 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) or; 1 × QF 12 pdr 20 cwt Mk.I (76 mm), mount HA Mk.II 2 × twin tubes for 21 inch (533 mm) torpedoes

HMS Vivien (L33) was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and World War II.

Construction and commissioning

Vivien, the first Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered on 30 June 1916

All V- and W-class destroyers, Vivien among them, were assigned to the Grand Fleet or Harwich Force.^[1] Vivien saw service in the last year of World War I and in 1919 served in the Baltic during the Russian Intervention.^[2]

Interwar years

As the result of a reorganization of Royal Navy destroyer flotillas in 1921, Vivien became part of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla along with the destroyer leaders Douglas, Valentine, and Valkyrie and the destroyers Vanessa, Venturous, Verdun, Vesper, and Whitley. The entire flotilla was transferred to the Reserve Fleet on 4 April 1922 and laid up at Rosyth, Scotland, with reduced crews, but it was recommissioned on 8 April 1925 and renumbered as the 7th Destroyer Flotilla.^[4]

In December 1938, Vivien entered

On 10 April 1940, Vivien was part of the escort of Convoy ON 25, which had departed Rosyth the previous evening bound for Norway, when she detected a possible submarine and depth-charged it; she also assisted that day in driving off attacks by German Heinkel He 111 bombers and investigated the wreckage of an He 111 shot down by Royal Air Force fighters which crashed 1.5 nautical miles (2.75 km) from her.^[5] She did not take part in any of the operations related to the evacuation of Allied personnel from the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in May and June 1940. On 10 June 1940 she was part of the escort for the first convoy along the east coast of Great Britain to come under attack by German motor torpedo boats (S-boats, known to the Allies as "E-boats").^[2] On 11 November 1940, her 4-inch (102-mm) guns shot down one German aircraft and damaged another that attacked a convoy she was escorting.^[6]

In December 1941, the civil community of

Vivien was decommissioned in May 1945 and placed in reserve. She was placed on the disposal list in 1947 and was sold to BISCO on 18 February 1948 for scrapping by Metal Industries. She arrived at the shipbreaker's yard at Charlestown, Fife, Scotland. She arrived under tow at the shipbreaker's yard in April 1948.^[2]

Notes

Bibliography

• Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 0-87021-459-4
  .
• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press.
  ISBN 0-85177-146-7
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• ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8
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• Cocker, Maurice. Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981. Ian Allan.
  ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
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• Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8
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• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 0-85177-245-5
  .
• ISBN 1-55750-048-7
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• 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.
  OCLC 164893555
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• Preston, Antony (1971). 'V & W' Class Destroyers 1917–1945. London: Macdonald.
  OCLC 464542895
  .
• Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1979). 'V' and 'W' Class Destroyers. Man o'War. Vol. 2. London: Arms & Armour.
  ISBN 0-85368-233-X
  .
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 1-59114-119-2
  .
• Whinney, Bob (2000). The U-boat Peril: A Fight for Survival. Cassell.
  ISBN 0-304-35132-6
  .
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 0-87021-326-1
  .
• Winser, John de D. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society.
  ISBN 0-905617-91-6
  .

• Naval History: SHIPS OF THE ROYAL NAVY, 1914–1919 – in ALPHABETICAL ORDER (Part 2 of 2)
• HMS VIVIEN (L 33) – V & W-class Destroyer
• uboat.net HMS Vivien (L 33)