Under the terms of the Armistice, the German High Seas Fleet went into internment at the Royal Navy's base at Scapa Flow – in Operation ZZ, 60 Allied battleships escorted 11 battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 8 cruisers and 48 destroyers of the High Seas Fleet into captivity. At 11:00 on 20 November 1918 King George V, Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales embarked in HMS Oak and, preceded by Verdun, steamed through the fleet.[citation needed]
The Unknown Warrior
Verdun was selected to carry the Unknown Warrior across the English Channel because her name would be a tribute to the French people and the endurance of their armies at Verdun in 1916. On 10 November 1920, Verdun berthed at the Quai Carnot at Boulogne-sur-Mer. The coffin of the Unknown Warrior arrived on a French military wagon in a procession of a thousand local schoolchildren and a whole division of French soldiers and marines. Marshal Foch made a speech on the dockside before the White Ensign was lowered to half mast while the coffin was carried up the gangplank and piped aboard with an admiral's salute. The coffin was laid on the quarterdeck and covered with wreaths of white flowers, some so large that it took four soldiers to lift one. Shortly before noon, Verdun moved away from the quay as sailors fired a rifle salute along with the big guns of the French forts.[2] An escort of six destroyers (HMS Witherington, HMS Wanderer, HMS Whitshed, HMS Wivern, HMS Wolverine, and HMS Veteran)[3] accompanied Verdun through the mist to Dover where a 19-gun salute was fired from Dover Castle.[4] She tied up at Admiralty Pier where General Sir John Longley supervised the six high-ranking officers from the three Armed Services who bore the coffin ashore. From Dover Marine Station the Unknown Warrior was taken by train to London for burial the following day at Westminster Abbey.[5]
Second World War
Verdun received a Le Cheminant deck watch from the Royal Observatory on 13 August 1927. She went into reserve at Rosyth as part of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla until September 1939, when she was selected for conversion into an anti-aircraft escort (WAIR) at Chatham Dockyard. She was rearmed and her pennant number changed from D93 to L93 on completion in May 1940. She operated as a convoy escort out of Rosyth and in the North Sea, being damaged by a bomb on 1 November 1940 that killed 11 men, including her captain. She was repaired at Harwich and spent the rest of the war escorting convoys along the east coast. In November 1941, she was in sustained action against an attack by German E-boats; three British merchant ships were sunk in the engagement. From February to April 1942 she formed part of the escort screen for heavy units of the Home Fleet that were supporting the Arctic convoys. After the Warship Week National Savings campaign in March 1942, Verdun was adopted by the seaside town of Hoylake in Cheshire.[6]
Fate
Verdun was placed in reserve after VE Day and then sold to be scrapped at Granton, Edinburgh, in April 1946.[6] Her ship's bell now hangs on a pillar in Westminster Abbey, close to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.[7]
Cocker, Maurice. Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981. Ian Allan. ISBN0-7110-1075-7.
Donald, William (1956). Stand by for Action: the Memoirs of a Small Ship Commander. London UK: William Kimber & Co. ltd. ISBN978-1-84832-016-1.
Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN978-1-59114-081-8.
Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN0-85177-245-5.
Lenton, H. T. (1998). British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN1-55750-048-7.
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. OCLC164893555.
Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1979). 'V' and 'W' Class Destroyers. Man o'War. Vol.2. London: Arms & Armour. ISBN0-85368-233-X.
Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Reviseded.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN1-59114-119-2.
HMS Kingston was a K-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s.
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.
HMS Brazen was a B-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy around 1930. Initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, she was transferred to Home Fleet in 1936. The ship escorted convoys and conducted anti-submarine patrols early in World War II before participating in the Norwegian Campaign in April–May 1940. Brazen later began escorting coastal convoys in the English Channel and was sunk in late July 1940 by German aircraft whilst doing so.
HMS Codrington was the flotilla leader for the A-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy (RN) during the 1920s. Completed in 1930, the ship spent most of the 1930s assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. She helped to enforce the arms embargo imposed on both sides in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. Codrington returned home in early 1937 and was refitted before serving as a training ship in 1938–1939.
HMS Westminster was a W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was the first ship to bear the name. Launched in 1918, she served through two World Wars, and survived both to be sold for scrap in 1947.
HMS Verity was an Admiralty modified W-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was the first ship to carry the name Verity. She was ordered in January 1918 from John Brown & Company of Clydebank with the 13th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1918–19.
HMS Vortigern was a V-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She served in both World Wars, and was sunk in 1942.
HMS Martin was an M-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, launched at the Tyneside yard of Vickers-Armstrongs on 12 December 1940. She had a busy but brief wartime career, being sunk by the German submarine U-431 on 10 November 1942 off Algiers.
HMS Witherington was an Admiralty modified W-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was one of four destroyers ordered in April 1918 from James Samuel White & Co Ltd. under the 14th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1917–18. She was the first Royal Navy ship to carry this name.
HMS Wren (D88/I88) was an Admiralty modified W class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was ordered in April 1918 from Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited under the 13th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1918–19. She was the third Royal Navy ship to carry the name, which was introduced in 1653.
HMS Whitley (L23), ex-Whitby, was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the British campaign in the Baltic Sea against Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War and in the early months of World War II.
HMS Vesper was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and World War II.
HMS Vivacious (D36) was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and World War II.
The second HMS Vega was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and World War II.
HMS Venetia (D53) was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and World War II.
HMS Versatile (D32) was an Admiralty V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I, the Russian Civil War, and World War II.
HMS Vivien (L33) was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War I and World War II.
The third HMS Windsor (D42) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and in World War II.
HMS Wolsey (D98) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I, in the Nanking incident of 1927, and in World War II.
The eighth HMS Worcester, was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II. She later served as an accommodation ship as the second HMS Yeoman.
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