Construction and design
The Hunt class was meant to fill the Royal Navy's need for a large number of small destroyer-type vessels capable of both convoy escort and operations with the fleet.
Rockwood was one of 27, Type III's and this third batch forfeited 'Y' gun turret for a pair of 21-inch torpedo tubes amidships, to increase their anti-shipping punch and the main searchlight was moved to the aft shelter deck. [3] [4] The Type may also be identified by a straight funnel with a sloping top and the foremast had no rake.
She was armed with four quick-firing 4-inch Mk XVI dual-purpose guns in two twin mounts, two 21 inch torpedo tubes in a single, twin mount, with a quadruple 2-pounder "pom-pom" and Oerlikon 20 mm cannons for defence against aircraft. Anti-submarine armament consisted of stern-mounted depth charge racks and four depth charge throwers with a total of 110 depth charges carried. Type 291 and Type 285 radars were fitted, as was Type 128 sonar.
Service history
Rockwood completed acceptance trials, calibrations and worked-up with her crew during November 1942, then embarked on escort duty from Clyde to Durban, with Convoy WS 25. [5] In February 1943 she was chosen for convoy defence and patrol duties in the Eastern Mediterranean, supporting the Eighth Army's advance into Cyrenaica. Between June and August, she escorted supply ships in support of Operations Corkscrew and Husky.
From September Rockwood was part of the Aegean Sea flotilla following the surrender of Italian forces. The patrol was tasked to intercept German troop movements around the Aegean Islands.
Loss
On 11 November 1943 in the company of destroyer HMS Petard and the Polish destroyer ORP Krakowia, Rockwood shelled Kalymnos harbour after Petard had spotted an enemy landing craft accompanied by two caïques crowded with troops. [6] Whilst withdrawing from this mission, Rockwood was damaged by a Henschel Hs 293 glider bomb (which failed to explode) at position 36°25′N26°52′E / 36.417°N 26.867°E / 36.417; 26.867 . During firefighting and basic repairs, it was discovered that the bomb had torn through thawing beef rations, creating a scene which the damage-control party initially mistook for a massacre: [7]
Rockwood was eventually towed to Alexandria [8] by her sister ship HMS Blencathra where she was declared a constructive loss, paid off in May 1944 and placed in reserve. She was scrapped at Gateshead by JJ King in August 1946.
ORP Orkan, formerly HMS Myrmidon, was an M-class destroyer of the Polish Navy during World War II. Orkan is Polish for "hurricane".
HMS Hursley was a Second World War Type II Hunt-class escort destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She is the only Royal Navy ship to have carried this name. Hursley is a village in Hampshire. Commissioned in 1942, she served in the Mediterranean, before being transferred to the Hellenic Navy in November 1943 and renamed Kriti. She took part in the landings in Sicily, Anzio, and southern France, and remained in Greek service until 1959.
HMS Paladin was a P-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War. She was built by John Brown and Co. Ltd., Clydebank. She saw action in the Mediterranean and Far East. After the war she was converted into a type 16 frigate and was eventually scrapped in 1962.
HMS Mallow was a Flower-class corvette commissioned into the Royal Navy that served as a convoy escort during World War II; with the Royal Navy in 1940–1944, and with the Royal Yugoslav Navy-in-exile in 1944–1945. In Yugoslav service she was renamed Nada. Her main armament was a single 4-inch (102 mm) Mk IX naval gun, although a significant number of secondary and anti-aircraft guns were added towards the end of the war. During the war she escorted a total of 80 convoys whilst in British service, sinking one German U-boat, and escorted another 18 convoys whilst in Yugoslav service. After the war she served in the fledgling Yugoslav Navy as Nada then Partizanka, before being returned to the Royal Navy in 1949. Later that year she was transferred to the Egyptian Navy in which she served as El Sudan until she was decommissioned in 1975.
HMS Beaufort was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down on 17 July 1940 at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead. She was launched on 9 June 1941 and commissioned on 3 November 1941. During the Second World War the ship served in the Mediterranean Sea, escorting convoys and covering landings. She was transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1952 and scrapped in 1965.
When the United States entered World War II at the end of 1941, the United States Navy found itself deficient in ocean escort-type vessels. A crash building program was instituted; but, to meet more immediate needs, the government contracted with shipbuilding firms in England and Canada to build Flower-class corvettes. Vim (PG-99) was one of those British-type escorts. She was launched on 1 April 1943 at the Collingwood Shipyard in Collingwood, Ontario. Nine days later, however, she was transferred to the Royal Navy under the terms of the lend-lease agreement in return for another Flower-class corvette then under construction in Canada. The British renamed her HMS Statice, and she served the Royal Navy under the name through World War II. On 21 June 1946, she was returned to the United States Navy. Though carried on the Navy list as PG-99, the corvette never saw active service with the United States Navy. She was sold on 7 May 1947. To whom she was sold and to what purpose she was put is unknown.
HMS Zetland was a Royal Navy Type II Hunt-class destroyer, named after the Zetland Hunt.
RHS Kanaris (L53) was a Type III Hunt-class destroyer that was originally built for the British Royal Navy as HMS Hatherleigh.
HMS Derwent was a Hunt-class Type III escort destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers-Armstrongs, in Barrow-in-Furness, and served during the Second World War. In March 1943, she was badly damaged while anchored in Tripoli harbour by aircraft and beached to prevent her from sinking. Temporarily repaired and towed to England, further repair work was halted in January 1945, and she was broken up for scrap in 1947.
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 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 Atherstone was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched in late 1939 as the first of her class but was found to be unstable, and had to undergo significant modifications before entering service in March 1940.
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 Oakley was a Type II Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was originally to have been named Tickham, however she was renamed after her sister ship Oakley was transferred to Poland and was renamed ORP Kujawiak (L72). She entered service in May 1943, carrying out convoy escort, patrol and anti-shipping attacks for most of the rest of the Second World War. She was adopted by the Civil community of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire as part of Warship Week in 1942. In 1957, she was sold to the West German Navy, serving as a training ship for the German Naval Gunnery school until scrapped in 1972.
HMS Talybont was a Type III Hunt-class escort destroyer who served in the Royal Navy. She was launched in February 1943 and completed in May that year, serving for the rest of the Second World War. She took part in the Normandy Landings in June 1944, supporting the landings at Omaha Beach and the Pointe du Hoc. Post war she served in the Mediterranean before being reduced to reserve at the end of 1947. She was sold for scrap in 1961, with disposal completed by 1962.
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 Cottesmore was a Hunt-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy. The ship was built by the Scottish shipbuilder Yarrow at their Scotstoun, Glasgow shipyard in 1939–1940, being launched on 5 September 1940 and commissioning on 29 December that year.
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 Easton was a Type III Hunt-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy. Easton was built by the shipbuilder J Samuel White in 1941–1942, being launched on 11 July 1942 and completed on 7 December 1942.
HNoMS Eskdale was an escort destroyer of the Type III Hunt class. The destroyer served with the Royal Norwegian Navy. It was sunk by enemy action in 1943.
United Kingdom
