Hunt class destroyer

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[edit] History

The Royal Navy had identified the need for two types of destroyer; large vessels with heavy gun and torpedo armaments for fleet work and another for escort duties. Although old fleet destroyers could be allocated to escort work, as new construction replaced them, they were unsuitable for the task. Fleet destroyers were designed for speed and their machinery was inefficient at convoy speeds, exacerbating their range limitations. Furthermore, their shape made them poor sea boats at low speed, also exacerbated by additional equipment on the superstructure. Modifications were needed to ease these problems.

The escort vessels would forsake the heavy armament and some of the speed of the latter to reduce unit cost and better suit mass production and the conditions. This new "fast escort vessel" would later be classified as an "escort destroyer" when the imminence of war meant that any pretence could be dropped and the impolitic latter classification could be adopted.

Eighty-six Hunts were completed, of which 72 were commissioned into the Royal Navy and the remaining 14 were transferred to allied navies; Bolebrooke, Border, Catterick, Hatherleigh, Modbury, Bramham and Hursley to the Greek Royal Hellenic Navy, Bedale, Oakley (i) and Silverton to Free Polish Navy, Glaisdale, Eskdale and Badsworth to the Royal Norwegian Navy and Haldon to the Free French Navy.

[edit] Design

The Hunts were modelled on the 1938 escort sloop Bittern, a 262 foot ship of 1,190 tons with 3,300 shp on geared turbines for 18¾ knots and an armament of three twin Mark XIX mounts for the QF 4 inch gun Mark XVI. The Hunt class was to ship the same armament, plus a quadruple QF 2 pounder mount Mark VII on a hull of the same length but with 8 feet less beam and installed power raised to 19,000 shp to give 27 knots. They were constructed to Admiralty standards, like contemporary British destroyers, unlike the Frigates which conformed much more to mercantile practice.

Clearly the Hunts posed a major design challenge, and they would be too short and narrow and of insufficient range for open ocean work, resulting in their use in the North Sea and Mediterranean Sea. This sacrifice was accepted to give any chance of meeting the requirements. The demanding specifications in an overworked Admiralty design department resulted in a major design miscalculation leaving the Hunt class dangerously deficient in stability. By the time this was realised, 20 ships were so far advanced in construction that the only solution was to strike 'X' 4 inch mount and add permanent ballast. These ships became the Type I group, and had the multiple 2 pounder gun relocated from behind the funnel to the more advantageous 'X' position.

The design deficiency of the Type I was rectified by splitting the hulls lengthwise and adding a 2½ foot section, increasing the beam and the margin of stability sufficiently for the designed armament to be shipped. These ships became the Type II group, and also had a revised design of bridge with the compass platform extending forwards to the wheelhouse face. 36 ships were completed to this design. Depth charge stowage could also be increased from 40 in the Type I to 110.

The next 27 ships were completed to a revised design, the Type III group, and were intended specifically for Mediterranean work. They sacrificed 'Y' gun for a pair of torpedo tubes amidships, the searchlight being displaced to the aft shelter deck as a result. The Type III Hunts could be easily identified as they had a straight funnel with a sloping top and the foremast had no rake.

The last two Hunts came from an independent lineage and were built to a private design that had been prepared pre-war by John I. Thornycroft & Company. They were known as the Type IV. They had a novel hull design, with a U-shaped forward section with a distinctive double knuckle and a full centre section with a square turn at the bilge. This form was intended to increase low-speed efficiency and reduce rolling without the need for ballast or stabilisers to improve the ships as gun platforms; testing showed an 8% increase in steaming efficiency at 20 knots for a 2% loss full ahead. Other features included a long fo'c'sle stretching for most of the length of the ship, which increased internal accommodation space (the lack of which was a perennial problem in wartime ships with enlarged crews) and allowed the crew to fight the ship almost completely under cover. As a result, 'X' gun was now at the fo'c'sle deck level rather than on a raised shelter deck. The design was large enough to carry a triple set of torpedoes, but as they too were at fo'c'sle deck level the training apparatus had to be remotely mounted a deck below. Armament was completed by a pair of single 20 mm Oerlikon guns in the bridge wings and a pair of power operated twin 0.5 inch Vickers machine guns amidships, quickly discovered to be ineffective and replaced by the Mark V twin mounting for the Oerlikon gun. The level of protection afforded to the crews in these 2ships was found to be beneficial in wartime, where crews were often closed up at action stations for extended periods of time in appaling weather conditions, and the design - although it was something of a dead end - heavily influenced post-war escort designs.

All Hunt class except three Type II and the Type IV Brissenden had fin stabilisers forward to reduce rolling to make for a steadier gun platform. These were subsequently removed from the majority of the Type III ships to allow for an increase in bunkerage of 63 tons.

[edit] Modifications

The Hunt class was a very satisfactory design, but had limited surplus displacement to allow any major modifications. All ships had a pair of single Oerlikon guns added in the bridge wings as they became available, and Radar Type 285 added to the Rangefinder-Directror Mark I carried on the bridge for the main armament. The air warning Radar Type 286 was added at the masthead, later replaced by Type 291, and Cotswold, Silverton, Bleasdale and Wensleydale had their searclight replaced by Radar Type 272, a centimetric target indication set.

Those vessels employed on East Coast convoy work, all the Type Is, the Type IIs Avon Vale, Blencathra and Liddesdale and the Type IIIs Bleasdale and Glaisdale were fitted with a single QF 2 pounder "bow chaser" gun for anti-E-boat work. Most Type IIIs later had their single Oerlikon guns replaced with twin powered mountings Mark V, and some had two single 40 mm Bofors guns added, one each forward of the wheelhouse and on the quarterdeck.

[edit] Type I

• Atherstone - built by Cammell Laird, BU 1957
• Berkeley - Cammell Laird - bombed during the Dieppe Raid 19 August 1942
• Cattistock - Yarrow - BU 1957
• Cleveland - Yarrow - wrecked in 1957
• Cotswold - Yarrow - BU 1957
• Cottesmore - Yarrow sold to Egypt in 1950 as Ibrahim el Awal, renamed Mohamed Ali el Kebir in 1951, scrapped.
• Eglinton - Vickers-Armstrong, Tyne, BU 1956
• Exmoor - Vickers-Armstrong, Tyne, sunk by E Boat S-30, off Lowestoft, 25 Feb 1941
• Fernie- John Brown & Company, Clydebank, BU 1956
• Garth - John Brown, Clydebank, BU 1956
• Hambledon - Swan Hunter, BU 1957
• Holderness- Swan Hunter, BU 1956
• Mendip - Swan Hunter - Sold to Nationalist China 1948, sold to Egypt as Mohamed Ali el Kebir, renamed Ibrahim el Awal in 1951, captured by Israel in 1956 an commissioned as INS Haifa (K-38), scrapped.
• Meynell - Swan Hunter - sold to Ecuador 1954
• Pytchley- built by Scotts, Glasgow, To Ecuador 1954
• Quantock- built by Scotts, Glasgow, BU 1956
• Quorn - built by J. Samuel White, sunk by a Linsen explosive motor boat off the Normandy beaches during the D-Day invasion, 2 August 1944
• Southdown, built by J Samuel White, BU 1956
• Tynedale, built by Stephen, sunk 12 December 1943
• Whaddon, built by Stephen, BU 1959

[edit] Type II

• Avon Vale John Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd, Clydebank
• Badsworth - To the Royal Norwegian Navy as Arendal
• Beaufort
• Bedale - To the Polish Navy as Slazak
• Bicester
• Blackmore
• Blankney
• Blencathra Cammell Laird Shipyard, Birkenhead
• Bramham - To the Royal Hellenic Navy as Themistocles
• Calpe
• Chiddingfold
• Cowdray
• Croome
• Dulverton - lost 13 Nov, 1943
• Eridge
• Exmoor
• Farndale
• Grove - lost 12 Jun, 1942
• Heythrop - lost 20 Mar, 1942
• Hursley - To the Royal Hellenic Navy as Kriti
• Hurworth - lost 22 Oct, 1943
• Lamerton
• Lauderdale
• Ledbury
• Liddesdale Vickers-Armstrong, Tyne, BU 1948
• Middleton
• Oakley (L72) - To the Polish Navy as Kujawiak
• Oakley (L98)
• Puckeridge(lost 6 Sep, 1943)
• Silverton - To the Polish Navy as Krakowiak
• Southwold - lost 24 Mar, 1942
• Tetcott
• Wheatland
• Wilton Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Scotstoun
• Zetland

[edit] Type III

• Airedale, built J. Brown, lost June 1942 after aerial atatck.
• Albrighton, built J. Brown. to Federal German Navy in 1959 as Raule.
• Aldenham, built Cammell Laird. Mined December 1944.
• Belvoir, built Cammell Laird
• Blean, built Hawthorn Leslie, lost December 1942 torpedoed by U 443
• Bleasdale, built Vickers-Armstrong
• Bolebroke, built Swan-Hunter. Transferred to Greece as Pindos
• Border, built Swan-Hunter. Transferred to Greece as Adrias. Written off after mined October 1943.
• Catterick, built Vickers-Armstrong. bought by Greece in 1946 as Hastings
• Derwent, built Vickers-Armstrong. Written off after torpedoed by aircraft March 1943.
• Easton, built White
• Eggesford, built White. Sold to Federal German Navy in 1959 as Brommy
• Eskdale, built Cammell Laird. Transferred to Norwegian Navy. Torpedoed by E boat April 1943.
• Glaisdale, built Cammell Laird. Transferred to Norwegian Navy. Bought by Norway 1946 as Narvik
• Goathland, built Fairfield. Written off after mined July 1944
• Haldon, built Fairfield. Transferred to Free French as La Combattante. Mined Feb. 1945
• Hatherleigh, built Vickers-Armstrong. Transferred to Greece as Kanaris
• Haydon, built Vickers-Armstrong
• Holcombe, built Stephen. Torpedoed by U 593 December 1943.
• Limbourne, built Stephen. Torpedoed by T 22 Oct. 1943
• Melbreak, built Swan-Hunter
• Modbury, built Swan-Hunter. Transferred to Greece as Miaoulis
• Penylan, built Vickers-Armstrong. Torpedoed by E-boat Dec. 1942
• Rockwood, built Vickers-Armstrong. Written off after hit by glider bomb November 1943
• Stevenstone, built White
• Talybont, built White
• Tanatside, built Yarrow. Bought by Greece 1946 as Adrias
• Wensleydale, built Yarrow. Written off after collision November 1943

[edit] Type IV

• Brecon - broken up 1962
• Brissenden - broken up 1965

[edit] Bibliography

• Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981, Maurice Cocker, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
• Royal Navy Destroyers since 1945, Leo Marriot, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-1817-0
• Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946, Ed. Robert Gardiner, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0-87021-913-8
• Destroyers of World War II, An International Encyclopedia, M. J. Whiteley, Arms and Armour Press, 1988, ISBN 1-84509-521-8
• Nelson to Vanguard, D. K. Brown, Chatham Publishing, 2000, ISBN 1-86176-136-8
• British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, H T Lenton, Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-277-7
• Ireland, Bernard (2003). Battle of the Atlantic. Barnsley, UK: Arms and Armour. ISBN 0-8441-5001-1.

[edit] External links

• Image:Commons-logo.svg

Categories: Destroyer classes | Frigate classes | Hunt class destroyers | Royal Navy destroyers