HMS Whitshed (D77)
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History | |
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Name | HMS Whitshed |
Ordered | April 1918 |
Laid down | June 1918 |
Launched | 31 January 1919 |
Commissioned | 11 July 1919 |
Refit | Rebuilt as a short range escort (SRE) 1940 |
Stricken | Sold to BISCO for scrapping February 1947 |
Motto |
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Honours and awards |
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Fate | Scrapped April 1948 |
Badge | On a Field Red, a Demi-Lion rampant Gold, holding a trefoil Green. |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Admiralty modified W-class destroyer |
Displacement | 1,140 tons standard, 1,550 tons full |
Length | 300 ft o/a, 312 ft p/p |
Beam | 29.5 feet (9.0 m) |
Draught | 9 feet (2.7 m), 11.25 feet (3.43 m) under full load |
Propulsion | steam turbines , 2 shafts, 27,000 shp |
Speed | 34 kt |
Range |
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Complement | 127 |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Armament |
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Service record | |
Operations: | |
Victories: | U-55 |
HMS Whitshed (D77/I77) was an Admiralty modified W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was ordered from Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd under the 14th Order for Destroyers in the Emergency War Program of 1918–19. She was the first ship to carry the name.
Construction
HMS Whitshed's keel was laid on 3 June 1918 at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. at Wallsend on Tyne. She was launched on 31 January 1919.[1] She was 312 feet (95 m) overall in length with a beam of 29.5 feet (9.0 m). Her mean draught was 9 feet (2.7 m), and would reach 11.25 feet (3.43 m) under full load. She had a displacement of 1,140 tons standard and up to 1,550 full load.[2]
She was propelled by three
She shipped four
Inter-War period
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Destroyer_HMS_Whitshed%2C_pennant_number_D_77_-_IWM_Q_75520.jpg/220px-Destroyer_HMS_Whitshed%2C_pennant_number_D_77_-_IWM_Q_75520.jpg)
HMS Whitshed was commissioned on 11 July 1919 into the Royal Navy with pennant number FA7.
Later in the 1930s, Whitshed was placed in reserve as more modern destroyers came on line.
World War Two
In 1939, HMS Whitshed was reactivated and assigned to the 18th Destroyer Flotilla at Portland for convoy defence in the English Channel and South-West Approaches.[8][9] On 30 January 1940, in conjunction with the sloop Fowey and an RAF Sunderland flying boat from No. 228 Squadron, Whitshed sank U-55 in the South-West Approaches whilst escorting convoy OA30G.[9][10]
In April, she was transferred to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla at Dover to assist with support of operations off the Belgian and Dutch coasts. She took part in the demolition and evacuation of IJmuiden and Amsterdam (Operation XD(A)) in early May 1940. She then carried supplies to Dunkirk and embarked the Irish Guards before assisting in the evacuation of the Hook of Holland (Operation Ordnance) and Ostend in mid-May.
On 22 May, Whitshed escorted ships carrying troops of the
On 31 July she sustained serious structural damage after detonating a mine off Harwich. Wild Swan towed her back to Harwich. She was under repair until December.
The year 1941 was one of continuing convoy escort and patrolling of the North Sea and English Channel. In February she escorted Motor Torpedo Boats for mine laying in the North Sea. The operation came under air attack with no casualties or damage.
In February 1942, Whitshed joined the destroyers Mackay and Walpole of the 21st Flotilla and Campbell, Worcester and Vivacious of the 16th Flotilla. On the 12th, she carried out a torpedo attack on the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which had broken out of Brest and proceeded via the Dover Straits to Wilhelmshaven in the Channel Dash.
For the remainder of 1942 and most of 1943, Whitshed undertook convoy escort duties and patrolled the North Sea and English Channel. In 1942, her ‘A’ gun was replaced with a twin 6-pounder army gun for engaging E-Boats. In November 1943 she was in action with E-Boats while escorting convoy CW221 off Hastings with two motor gun boats and four motor launches of the Coastal Forces. On 18 April 1944 she was in action again with E-Boats on a mine laying operation in the English Channel.
In June 1944 she joined Escort Group 104 with Montrose, Borage and Loosestrife and escorted convoy EIL1 comprising 12 Landing Ship Tank (LST) and 24 Landing Craft Tank (LCT) from Southend to the assembly area of the Eastern Task Force. Then she returned to Southend to escort the build-up convoys.
In July she was released from Operation Neptune and resumed mercantile convoy escort and interception patrols engaging E-Boats and submersibles employed in mine laying operations in the North Sea and English Channel through April 1945. After VE-Day she was deployed in re-occupation operations. In June 1945 she was reduced to reserve status.
Disposition
HMS Whitshed was not deployed again operationally and after the end of hostilities she was paid off and reduced to reserve status. The ship was placed on the Disposal List in 1946. She was sold to BISCO in February 1947 for demolition by TJ King. The ship arrived at the breakers yard at Gateshead in April 1948.
Notes
- ^ Whitley 2000, p. 90.
- ^ a b c "HM Ships as extracted from Jane's Fighting Ships for 1919". Retrieved 8 October 2013.
- ^ Friedman 2009, p. 313.
- ^ Preston 1971, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Preston 1971, pp. 128, 135.
- ^ "Fulton III (AS-1)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. US Navy. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
- ^ "Yangtze River Patrol and Other US Navy Asiatic Fleet Activities in China, 1920-1942, as Described in the Annual Reports of the Navy Department". Navy Department Library. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
- ^ Preston 1971, p. 61.
- ^ Blair 2000, p. 137.
- ^ Sebag-Montefiore 2015, p. 192.
- ^ Winser 1999, pp. 11–12.
- ^ a b Winser 1999, p. 12.
- ^ Sebag-Montefiore 2015, pp. 206–208.
- ISBN 978-0-241-97226-7.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-394-58839-8.
- 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.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- Cocker, Maurice (24 May 1981). Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1075-7.
- Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8.
- 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.
- Haarr, Geirr H. (2013). The Gathering Storm: The Naval War in Northern Europe: September 1939–April 1940. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-140-3.
- ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
- 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.
- 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.
- Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh (2015). Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man (75th Anniversary ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-241-97226-7.
- Stitt, George (1943). HMS Wideawake: Destroyer and Preserver (Whitshed and all names disguised as wartime publication). London: George Allen and Unwin.
- Whinney, Bob (2000). The U-boat Peril: A Fight for Survival. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-35132-6.
- Whitley, M.J. (2000). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
- Winser, John de S. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-91-6.
External links
Media related to HMS Whitshed (ship, 1919) at Wikimedia Commons