HMS Dulverton (L63)

Last updated

History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Dulverton
Ordered4 September 1939
Builder Alexander Stephen and Sons, Govan
Laid down16 July 1940
Launched1 April 1941
Honours and
awards
FateDamaged and scuttled on 13 November 1943
BadgeOn a Field barry wavy of six White and Blue within an annulet per fess Red and Green, a Griffin's claw erased Red grasping a riding whip and an axe in saltire Gold.
General characteristics
Class and type Type II Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement
  • 1,050 tons standard;
  • 1,490 tons full load
Length85.34 m
Beam9.62 m
Draught2.51 m (8 ft 3 in)
Propulsion2 shaft Parsons geared turbines; 19,000 shp
Speed25.5 knots (25½ kn full)
Range3,600 nmi (6,670 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h)
Complement164
Armament

HMS Dulverton was a Type II Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1941, she saw service during the Second World War until being damaged by German aircraft in 1943 during the Battle of Leros, and was scuttled.

Contents

Dulverton was ordered from Alexander Stephen and Sons of Govan on the outbreak of war in 1939. She was laid down on 16 July 1940, and launched 1 April 1941. She was completed by September 1941.

Service history

Dulverton participated in many operations, including escorting troop convoys bound for Suez Canal and the convoys to Malta including the first one to lift the siege there, supporting the British Eighth Army in North Africa, the Tobruk Raid, and the destruction of the German submarine U-559 with other destroyers and the Royal Air Force.

In October 1943 Dulverton was involved in the Dodecanese Campaign, as part of a force that was trying to capture the Greek islands of Kos and Leros on 20 October and again on 4 November. On 12 November, Dulverton returned to support the garrison on Leros which had just been invaded by the Germans. On 13 November, whilst five miles off the coast of Kos, she was attacked by German Do 217 E-5 aircraft from KG 100 using Hs 293 glider bombs, one of which struck Dulverton abreast of the bridge. [1] Six officers and 114 ratings were evacuated from the ship before she was scuttled by HMS Belvoir, but three officers including the Captain of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla and 75 ratings were lost. [2]

Related Research Articles

Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Dulverton after the Dulverton hunt:

HMS <i>Foresight</i> (H68) British F-class destroyer

HMS Foresight was one of nine F-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. She was assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion. Unlike her sister ships, she does not appear to have been attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–36 during the Abyssinia Crisis, nor did she enforce the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. The ship escorted the larger ships of the fleet during the early stages of World War II and played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign of 1940. Foresight was sent to Gibraltar in mid-1940 and formed part of Force H where she participated in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir and the Battle of Dakar. The ship escorted numerous convoys to Malta in 1941 and Arctic convoys during 1942. Later that year, Foresight participated in Operation Pedestal, another convoy to Malta. She was torpedoed by an Italian aircraft on 12 August and had to be scuttled the next day.

ORP <i>Krakowiak</i> (L115)

ORP Krakowiak was a British Type II Hunt-class destroyer escort, used by the Polish Navy during World War II. Initially built for the Royal Navy, it bore the name of HMS Silverton during British use.

HMS <i>Charybdis</i> (88)

HMS Charybdis was a Dido-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War and was sunk with heavy loss of life by German torpedo boats in an action in the English Channel in October 1943.

Greek destroyer <i>Vasilissa Olga</i> Greek G and H-class destroyer

Vasilissa Olga was the second and last destroyer of her class built for the Royal Hellenic Navy in Great Britain before the Second World War. She participated in the Greco-Italian War in 1940–1941, escorting convoys and unsuccessfully attacking Italian shipping in the Adriatic Sea. After the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, the ship escorted convoys between Egypt and Greece until she evacuated part of the government to Crete later that month and then to Egypt in May. After the Greek surrender on 1 June, Vasilissa Olga served with British forces for the rest of her career.

Dodecanese campaign

The Dodecanese campaign of World War II was an attempt by Allied forces to capture the Italian Dodecanese islands in the Aegean Sea following the Armistice with Italy in September 1943, and use them as bases against the German-controlled Balkans. Operating without air cover, the Allied effort was a costly failure, the whole of the Dodecanese falling to the Germans within two months. The Dodecanese campaign, lasting from 8 September to 22 November 1943, resulted in one of the last major German victories in the war.

HMS <i>Holcombe</i> British destroyer

HMS Holcombe was a Type III Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was named after the Holcombe Hunt in Lancashire. She was the first and thus far only ship of the Royal Navy named HMS Holcombe.

HMS <i>Vetch</i> (K132)

HMS Vetch (K132) was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. After helping to escort many convoys and sinking two U-boats, she was decommissioned and sold in 1945.

HMS <i>Hambledon</i> (L37)

The second HMS Hambledon was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy in commission from 1940 to 1945. She was a member of the first subgroup of the class, and saw service throughout World War II.

HMS Blencathra (L24) was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy in commission from 1940 to 1948. She was a member of the first subgroup of the class, and saw service through most of World War II.

HMS <i>Exmoor</i> (L08)

The second HMS Exmoor (L08), ex-HMS Burton, was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy in commission from 1941 to 1945. She was a member of the second subgroup of the class, and saw service during much of World War II. She later served in the Royal Danish Navy as HDMS Valdemar Sejr.

HMS <i>Wishart</i> (D67)

HMS Wishart (D67) was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II. She spent most of her wartime career based at Gibraltar, engaged in convoy defence, but also served in various naval and military operations in the Mediterranean Sea.

HMS <i>Hurworth</i> (L28)

HMS Hurworth was a Second World War Type II Hunt-class escort destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She spent most of her career in the Mediterranean. She was lost to a mine in the Aegean Sea in 1943.

HMS <i>Albrighton</i> Hunt-class destroyer operated by the United Kingdom and West Germany

HMS Albrighton was a Type III Hunt-class destroyer built for the British Royal Navy. She entered service in February 1942, first carrying out an attack on German ships in the English Channel then taking part in the Dieppe Raid, rescuing survivors from the sinking destroyer HMS Broke. Albrighton was next assigned to search for and destroy the German auxiliary cruiser Komet, then escorted a convoy to Gibraltar in prevision of the Allied landings in North Africa. Between December 1942 and April 1943, she participated in the sinking of three more Axis ships with the First Destroyer Flotilla. During the Normandy Landings in June 1944, Albrighton served as a headquarters ship, then sank two German trawlers in the weeks after the invasion. After being converted to a destroyer in early 1945, she was damaged in a collision with a Landing Ship, then was assigned to the British Eastern Fleet. However, the war ended before she was deployed and Albrighton went into reserve.

HMS Southwold was a Type II British Hunt-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She served in the Mediterranean for a few months until she was sunk off Malta in March 1942.

HMS <i>Brocklesby</i> (L42)

HMS Brocklesby was a Type I Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War, spending much of the time in the English Channel and Mediterranean, taking part in the Dieppe Raid in 1942, and the Allied landings in Sicily and at Salerno in 1943. After the war, she was used as a sonar trials ship until 1963, and was sold for scrap in 1968.

HMS <i>Berkeley</i> (L17) destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Berkeley was a Type I Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was a member of the first subgroup of the Hunt class and saw service in World War II before being bombed at Dieppe and then scuttled by HMS Albrighton.

HMS <i>Airedale</i> British naval ship

HMS Airedale was a Hunt-class destroyer built for use by the British Royal Navy during the Second World War. She entered service in early 1942 as a convoy escort, being assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet in May. Airedale was sunk while escorting a convoy from Alexandria to Malta on 15 June 1942 by Sturzkampfgeschwader 3.

HMS Limbourne (L57) was a Hunt-class escort destroyer, operated by the Royal Navy. She was sunk in action, off German-occupied Guernsey, on 23 October 1943.

HMS <i>Puckeridge</i> (L108)

HMS Puckeridge was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy and first and so far only warship to bear the Name. The vessel was ordered on 4 September 1939 as part of the 1939 wartime emergency program. She was laid down on 1 January 1940 at the J. Samuel White yard, East Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, launched on 6 March 1941 and commissioned on 30 July 1941.

References

  1. Ford, Roger (2013). Germany's Secret Weapons of World War II. London, United Kingdom: Amber Books. p. 224. ISBN   978-1-909160-56-9.
  2. HMS Dulverton (L 63) Escort destroyer of the Hunt (Type II) class

Publications

Coordinates: 36°50′N27°30′E / 36.833°N 27.500°E / 36.833; 27.500