Construction and career
Wolfhound, the first ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, [5] was ordered on 9 December 1916 as part of the Tenth War Programme from Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company. [6] The ship was laid down at the company's Govan shipyard in April 1917, [7] launched on 14 March 1918 and commissioned on 27 April. [8]
First World War and inter-war period
Wolfhound was commissioned too late to see much active service in the First World War. She was assigned to the 13th Destroyer Flotilla with the Grand Fleet in May, and was assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla in March 1919. [9] Whilst serving with the Sixth Destroyer Flotillas of the Atlantic Fleet [10] in January 1930, Wolfhound was one of seven V- and W-class destroyers damaged in a storm. [11]
Second World War
After the Second World War began in September 1939 she was one of the old V and W class ships to be selected to be converted to an anti-aircraft ("Wair") escort destroyer, [12] As the Allied forces retreated, Wolfhound was one of the ships detached to support the evacuation of troops from France, and on 25 May she and her sister HMS Wolsey bombarded advancing German units near Calais. The following day Wolfhound ferried a shore party to Dunkirk to coordinate the evacuation; on her return voyage to Dover she loaded 142 troops. [13] On 29 May she was badly damaged at Dunkirk by German bombers, having her back broken. [14] After lengthy repairs she returned to service. After VE Day she was detached to support the re-occupation of Norway. On 14 May she and Wolsey were deployed with Norwegian corvettes to cover minesweeping operations prior to the re-occupation of Bergen. [15]
Wolfhound was transferred to BISCO on 18 February 1948 and was towed to the River Forth later that year to be broken up by Granton Shipbreakers. [8]
HMS Ivanhoe was an I-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1930s. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, the ship enforced the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides as part of the Mediterranean Fleet. Before the start of World War II, the ship was modified so that she could be used to lay mines by removing some of her armament. Ivanhoe was transferred to Western Approaches Command shortly after the war began and helped to sink one German submarine in October 1939. She was converted to a minelayer while undergoing a refit in November–December and laid minefields in German coastal waters as well as anti-submarine minefields off the British coast until she was reconverted back to her destroyer configuration in February 1940. Ivanhoe reverted to her minelaying role during the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940 and then laid a number of minefields off the Dutch coast during the Battle of the Netherlands in May. The ship participated in the Dunkirk evacuation until she was badly damaged by German aircraft on 1 June. On her first minelaying mission after her repairs were completed, she struck a German mine and had to be scuttled on 1 September 1940 during the Texel Disaster.
HMS Jaguar was a J-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Commissioned in September 1939, she was present at the Dunkirk evacuation the following year, during which Jaguar was damaged by dive bombers. She later served in the Mediterranean and was involved in several actions there. She was torpedoed off the coast of Egypt on 26 March 1942 and sunk.
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 Keith was a B-class destroyer flotilla leader built for the Royal Navy around 1930. Initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, she was placed in reserve in 1937, after repairs from a collision were completed. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, the ship was reactivated and spent some time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Keith escorted convoys and conducted anti-submarine patrols early in World War II before being sunk at Dunkirk by German aircraft.
HMS Kingfisher (L70) was a Royal Navy patrol vessel and the lead ship of the Kingfisher-class sloops, laid down in 1934 and commissioned in 1935. She took part in the Dunkirk evacuation, and spent much of the Second World War as an experimental trials ship. She was sold for scrap in 1947.
HMS Vansittart was an Admiralty modified W-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was ordered in January 1918 from William Beardmore & Company with the 13th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1918–19. She was the second Royal Navy ship to carry the name which was first used in 1821 for a hired packet.
HMS Active, the tenth Active, launched in 1929, was an A-class destroyer. She served in the Second World War, taking part in the sinking of four submarines. She was broken up in 1947.
HMS Velox (D34) was a V-class destroyer built in 1918. She served in the last year of the First World War and was engaged in the Second Ostend Raid. During the interwar period she underwent a refit and continued serving during the Second World War as a long range convoy escort in the battle of the Atlantic. Post-war Velox was broken up in the reduction of the fleet. Sailors of the ship took part in the Royal Navy mutiny of 1919.
HMS Winchelsea (D46) was an Admiralty W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, ordered 9 December 1916 from J. Samuel White at Cowes during the 1916–17 Build Programme.
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 Wrestler (D35) was a V and W-class destroyer built by the Royal Navy during the First World War and active from 1939 to 1944 during the Second World War. She was the first Royal Navy ship to bear that name, and the only one to do so to date.
HMS Vimiera was a V-class destroyer ordered as part of the 1917–18 programme.
The first HMS Whirlwind was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War I and World War II.
HMS Walpole (D41) was a W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy.
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.
The first HMS Walrus (D24) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I.
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 first HMS Wessex (D43) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and the early months of World War II.
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