HMS Verity (D63)
_IWM_HU_3118.jpg) HMS Verity circa. 1930 | |
| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Class and type: | Admiralty Modified W-class destroyer |
| Name: | HMS Verity |
| Ordered: | January 1918 |
| Builder: | John Brown & Company, Clydebank |
| Laid down: | 17 May 1918 |
| Launched: | 19 March 1919 |
| Commissioned: | 17 September 1919 |
| Refit: | Reconstructed to Long Range Escort finished in October 1943 |
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| Fate: | Sold to be broken up for scrap on 4 March 1947 |
| Badge: | On a Field Black, a Roman Lamp Gold |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Admiralty modified W class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 1,140 tons standard, 1,550 tons full |
| Length: | 300 ft o/a, 312 ft p/p |
| Beam: | 29.5 feet (9.0 m) |
| Draught: | 9 feet (2.7 m), 11.25 feet (3.43 m) under full load |
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| Complement: | 127 |
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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.
Construction
HMS Verity’s keel was laid on 17 May 1918 at the John Brown & Company Shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 19 March 1919. She was 312 feet overall in length with a beam of 29.5 feet. Her mean draught was 9 feet, and would reach 11.25 feet under full load. She had a displacement of 1,140 tons standard and up to 1,550 full load.[1]
She was propelled by three Yarrow type water tube boilers powering Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines developing 27,000 shp driving two screws for a maximum designed speed of 34 knots. She was oil-fired and had a bunkerage of 320 to 350 tons. This gave a range of between 3500 nautical miles at 15 knots to 900 nautical miles at 32 knots.[2]
She shipped four BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns, mount P Mk.I naval guns in four single centre-line turrets. The turrets were disposed as two forward and two aft in super imposed firing positions. She also carried two QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) mounted abeam between funnels. Abaft of the second funnel, she carried six 21-inch Torpedo Tubes mounted in pairs on the centre-line.[3]
Inter-War period
Commissioned into the Royal Navy on 17 September 1919, she was assigned to the 1st Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet with pennant number D63. She spent the later part of the 20s and the early 30s in the Mediterranean. In 1938 the ship was assigned to the Local Flotilla based at Portsmouth.
Second World War
Upon the outbreak of war in September 1939 she deployed for convoy defence in the South-West Approaches, escorting convoy GC1 from Milford Haven with HMS Witherington, HMS Wolverine and HMS Volunteer on 5 September. October saw her transferred to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla at Harwich for East Coast convoy defence until December.
HMS Verity was assigned to assist in the Evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. She came under fire from shore batteries near Calais and suffered casualties.
She remained in the area after the evacuation as a convoy escort, and was attacked on 14 August by six Kriegsmarine trawlers and three E-boats. Two of the German ships were sunk in the resulting engagement.
North Africa
Operation Torch, the invasion of Axis controlled Africa, started in 1942. HMS Verity was assigned to escort military convoys in preparation of this attack. She supported the landings at Oran, during which she helped rescue troops from a stricken SS Strathallan, which had been attacked by U-562. Only 11 were killed in the attack on the ship, which was carrying over 5,000 officers, men and crew. The Strathallan finally sank nearly 22 hours after the torpedo hit.
Notes
Bibliography
- Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4.
- Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
- Cocker, Maurice; Allan, Ian. Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981. ISBN 0-7110-1075-7.
- Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-081-8.
- Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1984). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
- Lenton, H. T. (1998). British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
- 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. OCLC 164893555.
- Preston, Antony (1971). 'V & W' Class Destroyers 1917-1945. London: Macdonald. OCLC 464542895.
- Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1979). 'V' and 'W' Class Destroyers. Man o'War 2. London: Arms & Armour. ISBN 0-85368-233-X.
- Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Whinney, Bob (2000). The U-boat Peril: A Fight for Survival. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-35132-6.
- Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.
- Winser, John de D. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-91-6.
External links
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