HMS Activity (D94)

Last updated

HMS Activity.jpg
HMS Activity underway in the Firth of Forth, October 1942.
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Activity
Builder Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee
Laid down1 February 1940
Launched30 May 1942
Commissioned29 September 1942
Decommissioned20 October 1945
RenamedEmpire Activity February 1941
Honours and
awards
Atlantic 1944, Arctic 1944-45
FateSold into merchant service as Breconshire, 25 March 1946
General characteristics
Displacement14,250 long tons (14,479 t) fully loaded
Length512 ft 9 in (156.29 m)
Beam66 ft 6 in (20.27 m)
Draught25 ft (7.6 m)
Installed power12,000  hp (8,900 kW)
Propulsion
Speed18  kn (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Complement700
Armament
Aircraft carried10
Aviation facilities
  • 1 × lift, 42 ft × 20 ft (12.8 m × 6.1 m)
  • 1 × catapult
MV Breconshire 1958.jpg
MV Breconshire, 1958
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameBreconshire
Port of registry Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
In serviceSeptember 1946
Out of serviceApril 1967
FateSold for scrap, 24 April 1967
General characteristics
Tonnage9,061 grt
Length512 ft 8 in (156.26 m)
Beam66 ft 4 in (20.22 m)
DraughtShip power=12,000 hp (8,900 kW)
Propulsion
  • 2 × diesel engines
  • 2 × screws
Speed18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h)

HMS Activity was an escort carrier that served with the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. After the war, she was sold into merchant service as the MV Breconshire, serving for over 20 years until scrapped in 1967.

Contents

History

Royal Navy

HMS Activity was built at Caledon shipyards in Dundee. When construction started in 1940 she was intended to become the refrigerated cargo ship Telemachus for the Alfred Holt Line. [1] In February 1941, she was taken over by the Ministry of War Transport and renamed Empire Activity. In January 1942, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for conversion to an escort carrier, now named HMS Activity and carrying pennant number D94. Following her launch in May 1942 and completion in August of that year, Activity worked up at Lamlash before going to Rosyth for rectification of defects. Entering service on 1 January 1943, Activity operated as a deck landing training carrier until October 1943, when she was sent to Liverpool for a refit before entering active service. [2]

After her refit, Activity took part in convoy escort duties in the North Atlantic. Activity embarked 819 Naval Air Squadron on 12 January 1944, and began escort duties on 29 January as part of the Second Escort Group. Activity was involved in the escort of convoys OS 66, KMS 40, ON 222, NS 28, SL 147, MKS 38, HX 277, KMS 43 and MKF 29 in the period to March 1944. Following this, Activity moved to the Arctic, escorting convoy JW 58 to Murmansk. Her aircraft—together with those from Tracker—were responsible for the sinking of U-boat U-288, and U-355, as well as damaging U-362, U-673 and U-990. The return convoy—RA 58—reached its destination without loss. [2]

In May 1944, Activity spent some time at a shipyard on the Clyde for defect rectification before rejoining the Second Escort Group for escort duties. Activity escorted convoys OS 78, KMS 52, SL 158, MKS 49, OS 78, KMS 52, AL 159, MKS 50, SL 162, MK 53, KMF 33, MKF 33, OS 86, KMS 60, SL 167 and MKS 58. [2]

In August 1944, Activity was designated as a ferry carrier. She transported aircraft, personnel and supplies to Trincomalee, Ceylon, arriving on 23 October 1944 and returning via Gibraltar, where she joined convoy MKF 36 back to the United Kingdom. Activity spent some time in a Clyde shipyard in December 1944 for defect rectification, after which she was reallocated to the East Indies Fleet and given a new pennant number, R301. She sailed with convoy KM 39 on 29 January 1945, arriving in Colombo on 20 February. [2] Whilst en route to Sydney, Activity rescued the 92 survivors from SS Peter Silvester, an American liberty ship which had been sunk by U-862 on 6 February 1945, [3] the last Allied ship sunk by enemy action in the Indian Ocean. Survivors from Peter Silvester were landed at Fremantle and Activity then continued her journey to Sydney. [2]

Activity departed Sydney on 24 March, bound for Colombo for duty ferrying aircraft from Cochin to Colombo. After the end of the war, Activity was sent to Singapore to support the reoccupation of Singapore. She loaded ex-POWs and other passengers and sailed for Trincomalee on 15 September. Activity arrived home on the Clyde on 20 October 1945, and was then de-stored and placed in the Reserve Fleet. She was placed in the Category B Reserve on 30 January 1946, and sold to Glen Lines on 25 March 1946 for conversion to a merchant ship. [2]

Merchant Navy

Activity was converted to a Glenearn class merchant ship by Palmers of Hebburn-on-Tyne, and renamed Breconshire, entering service with Glen Line in September 1947. She was the second Glen Line ship to be named Breconshire. She measured 9,061  gross register tons. She remained in service until April 1967, sailing from Kobe to Mihara for scrapping, arriving there on 24 April 1967. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Battler</i> (D18) 1942 Attacker-class escort carrier of the Royal Navy

HMS Battler (D18) was an American-built escort carrier that served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

HMS <i>Attacker</i> (D02) 1942 Attacker-class escort carrier of the Royal Navy

HMS Attacker (D02) was an American-built escort carrier that served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

HMS <i>Chaser</i> (D32) 1943 Attacker-class escort carrier of the Royal Navy

HMS Chaser (D32/R306/A727) was an American-built Attacker-class escort carrier that served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

HMS <i>Shah</i> (D21) American escort carrier transferred to the Royal Navy

USS Jamaica (CVE-43), was an escort carrier of World War II that served in the British Royal Navy as HMS Shah (D21). Returned to the United States at war's end, she was converted into a merchant vessel and she was sold into civilian service in 1946 as Salta. She was ultimately scrapped in 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">811 Naval Air Squadron</span> Military unit

811 Naval Air Squadron was a unit of the British Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It was first founded in 1933, and served during World War II, seeing action in the battle of the Atlantic and on Russian convoys, and was eventually disbanded in 1956.

USCGC <i>Itasca</i> (1929)

USCGC Itasca was a Lake-class cutter of the United States Coast Guard launched on 16 November 1929 and commissioned 12 July 1930. It acted as "picket ship" supporting Amelia Earhart's 1937 world flight attempt, and was the last vessel in radio contact with her as she was supposed to be reaching Howland island in the Pacific. In 1941, it was transferred to the United Kingdom and served as a convoy escort in World War II as HMS Gorleston.

MS <i>Dunnottar Castle</i>

MS Dunnottar Castle was a British-built passenger ship with a career of more than six decades that included periods as an ocean liner, an armed merchant cruiser (AMC), a troop ship and several decades as a cruise ship. As a cruise ship she was renamed Victoria, then The Victoria and finally Princesa Victoria.

<i>Shoreham</i>-class sloop Class of warships of the Royal Navy built in the 1930s

The Shoreham-class sloops were a class of eight warships of the Royal Navy built in the early 1930s.

HMS <i>Nairana</i> (D05) 1943 Nairana-class escort carrier of the Royal Navy

HMS Nairana was the lead ship of the Royal Navy's Nairana-class escort carriers that saw service in the Second World War. She was built at John Brown & Company shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland. When construction started in 1941 she was intended as a merchant ship, but was completed and launched as an escort carrier, entering service at the end of 1943.

<i>Nairana</i>-class escort carrier British-built class of escort carrier

The Nairana-class escort carrier was a British-built class of three escort carriers. They were constructed one each in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to the same basic design during the Second World War for service with the Royal Navy.

<i>Banff</i>-class sloop 1928 class of American sloops-of-war

The Banff-class sloop was a group of ten warships of the Royal Navy. Built as United States Coast Guard Lake-class cutters, in 1941 these ships were loaned to the Royal Navy as antisubmarine warfare escort ships. The transfers took place at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; the sloops were manned for transport to Britain by personnel from the damaged battleship Malaya which was under repair there.

SS <i>Empire Darwin</i> British ship built in 1941

Empire Darwin was a British 6,765 GRT CAM ship built in 1941 by William Gray & Co. Ltd., West Hartlepool, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Her Hawker Sea Hurricane was involved in the last action by an aircraft flown off a CAM ship, shooting down a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor on 28 July 1943.

HMS <i>Essington</i> (K353) Frigate of the Royal Navy

The second HMS Essington (K353), and the first ship of the name to see service, was a British Captain-class frigate of the Royal Navy in commission during World War II. Originally constructed as a United States Navy Buckley-class destroyer escort, she served in the Royal Navy from 1943 to 1945.

HMS <i>Watchman</i> (D26) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Watchman was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I, in the Russian Civil War, and in World War II.

HMS <i>Whitehall</i> Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Whitehall, pennant number D94, later I94, was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the Second World War.

SS <i>Fort Stikine</i> British Fort ship

Fort Stikine was a British Fort ship which was built in Canada in 1942. Owned by the American War Shipping Administration, she was leased under charter to the Ministry of War Transport under the Lend-Lease scheme and operated under the management of the Port Line. Fort Stikine only had a short career, and was destroyed in an explosion at Bombay, India, in April 1944 that caused the loss of a further thirteen ships.

USS <i>LST-21</i>

USS LST-21 was a United States Navy LST-1-class tank landing ship used primarily in the Europe–Africa–Middle East Theater during World War II, but also transported British forces from Calcutta and landed them at Regu Beach, Burma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SL convoys</span>

SL convoys were a numbered series of North Atlantic trade convoys during the Second World War. Merchant ships carrying commodities bound to the British Isles from South America, Africa, and the Indian Ocean traveled independently to Freetown, Sierra Leone to be convoyed for the last leg of their voyage to Liverpool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gibraltar convoys of World War II</span>

The Gibraltar convoys of World War II were oceangoing trade convoys of merchant ships sailing between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom. Gibraltar convoy routes crossed U-boat transit routes from French Atlantic ports and were within range of Axis maritime patrol aircraft making these convoys vulnerable to observation and interception by bombers, submarines, and surface warships during the Battle of the Atlantic. OG convoys brought supplies from the United Kingdom to Gibraltar from September 1939 until September 1942. Beginning with Operation Torch, OG convoys were replaced by KM convoys transporting military personnel and supplies from the United Kingdom to and past Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. HG convoys brought food, raw materials, and later empty ships from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom from September 1939 until September 1942. After Operation Torch, HG convoys were replaced by MK convoys returning mostly empty ships from the Mediterranean to the United Kingdom. KM and MK convoys ended in 1945.

HMS <i>Dart</i> (K21) 1943 River-class frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Dart (K21) was a River-class frigate of the Royal Navy. Dart was built to the RN's specifications as a Group I River-class frigate.

References

  1. "HMS Activity". Fleet Air Arm Archive. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "A History of HMS Activity". Royal Navy Research Archive. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  3. "HMS Activity (D 94)". U-boat.net. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  4. "GLEN LINE FLEET". Red Duster. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2008.