User:Rgdem999/HMS Whitehall (1919)

HMS Whitehall was an Admiralty modified W class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was one of six ships (three were subsequently cancelled ) ordered in January 1918 from Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. under the 13th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1918-19. She was the first Royal Navy ship to carry the name Whitehall.

Warship Week National Savings campaign in 1942 she was adopted by the civil community of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Construction
HMS Whitehall’s keel was laid on the 1st of June, 1918 at the Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. Shipyard in Wallsend-on-Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England and was launched on the 11th of August, 1919 after a 539 day build period. She was projected for cancellation in September 1919 and work was suspended after launch. However, she was subsequently towed to HM Dockyard at Chatham for completion.

She was 312 ft Length overall (300 ft Length between perpendiculars) with a beam of 29 ft feet. Her mean draught was 9 ft feet, and would reach 11 ft feet under full load. The main visual identification feature is that the proportion of the funnels is reversed when compared with other V and W Class destroyers. This boat has a thick fore funnel and thin after funnel. There is no 3 inch A.A. abaft 2nd funnel. The 2 pdr. pom-poms are situated abeam between funnels. .

She was propelled by three Yarrow type water tube boilers powering Parsons 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 370 tons. This gave a range of between 3500 nautical miles at 15 knots and 900 nautical miles at 32 knots.

She shipped four BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns, mount P Mk.I naval guns in four single center-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 2nd funnel, she carried six 21-inch Torpedo Tubes in two triple mounts on the center-line.

Inter-War years
HMS Whitehall was commissioned into the Royal Navy on the 9th of July, 1924 with the pennant number D94. She spent most of the inter-war period in reserve. In 1939 she was reactivated manned by Reservists for a Royal Review at Weymouth. With war looming she was retained in service and brought to war readiness.

Early Operations
In September 1939 after war preparation and storing she was assigned to the 15th Destroyer Flotilla at Rosyth for convoy defence and anti-submarine patrols in the North Sea area under the command of LtCdr Archibald Boyd Russell, RN. October saw her transferred to the Western Approaches Command tasked in the South West Approaches and Channel areas.

Operation Dynamo
The month of May 1940 she was transferred to Dover Command for support of military operations. She was tasked on the 26th to Operation Dynamo – the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk. She evacuated 2,762 troops from Dunkirk. At the end of May her pennant number was changed to I94 for visual signalling purposes.

After release from Operation Dynamo she was employed at Harwich for convoy defence and anti-invasion patrols until the threat of invasion of the British Iles passed with victory in the Battle of Britain.

8th Escort Group
In September she was transferred to the Western Approaches Command attached to the 8th Escort Group based at Liverpool for Atlantic convoy defence in the North-West Approaches.

She was part of the escort force for Halifax Inbound (HX) 79 from the 19th to the 21st of October. The convoy was attacked by 5 U-Boats on the night of 19/20 October and claimed 17 ships sunk (113,100 tons). The 5 U-Boats had actually inflicted losses of 12 ships for 75,063 tons with no U-Boats sunk.

She remained in this employment until February 1942 when she was detached to the Mediterranean for convoy defence based out of Gibraltar. While in the Mediterranean in early 1942 she escorted three aircraft resupply missions to Malta (Operations Spotter II, Picket I and II). In April she rejoined the 8th Escort Group at Liverpool.

1942 LRE Conversion
In May she was in dockyard hands for conversion to a long range escort (LRE) at HM Dockyard, Shearness. She had her small, single-unit boiler room removed along with the forward funnel. This lowered her maximum speed to around 24.5 kn (45.4 km/h; 28.2 mph). 'A' turret was replaced with a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar and 'Y' turret was landed to increase depth charge stowage and launchers, respectively. The aft torpedo tube mount was replaced with a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun. She retained her 2pdr gun platforms. She was fitted with a Type 271 Target Indication Radar on the bridge and Type 286P Air Warning Radar was added at the masthead.

2nd Escort Group
Now under the command of LtCdr Charles Leigh de Hauteville Bell she was transferred to the 2nd British Escort Group (B2), commanded by Cdr David MacIntyre, in October 1942. She was part of the escort for convoy Outbound North (ON)138 from the 13th to the 28th of October. ON138 avoided U-boat attack through the aggressive use of High Frequency – Direction Finding (Huff-Duff) equipment on board HMS Hesperus and the rescue vessel Accrington. Whenever the U-boats would send a spotting message the escorts would run down the bearing of the signal and the convoy would change course.

From the 6th to the 21st of May 1943 she was part of the escort for Slow Convoy (SC)129. This convoy only lost 2 ships and sank one U-Boat (”U-186” by HMS Hesperus) again by the aggressive use of Huff-Duff and dispatching escorts down the bearing of the signals to drive off the attacking U-Boats.

From 30 Oct to 1 Nov 1943 she was tasked with escorting joint convoy Mediterranean to British Isles Slow (MKS)28/Sierra Leon (SL)138. On 31 Oct 1943 HMS Whitehall and corvette HMS Geranium sank by depth charges and hedgehog attack, the ”U-306” east of the Azores in position 46o19'N, 20o44'W.

With a new commander, Lieutenant Commander P. James Cowell, she was assigned to the Arctic convoy defence on the Murmansk run in Nov 1943. From the 22nd of Jan to the 1st of February 1944 she was assigned to escort convoy British Isles to Murmansk (JW) 56B. On 30 Jan 1944 together with destroyer HMS Meteor, she sank by depth charges and hedgehog attack, the ”U-314” in the Barents Sea southeast of Bear Island, Norway at position 73o41'N, 24o30'E.

Operation Neptune
In June 1944 she joined with corvette HMS Rhododendron, and trawlers HMS Skoma and HMS Ulva to form Escort Group 139 for Operation Neptune. The group escorted convoys for the invasion of Normandy and follow on convoys until the end of July. She then returned to the 2nd Escort Group on the British Isles to Murmansk run.

2nd Escort Group
28th of August through the 4th September she was assigned to escort Murmansk to the British Isles (RA)59A. On 2 September 1944 in concert with a Swordfish aircraft from HMS Vindex, sloops HMS Mermaid and HMS Peacock, and destroyer HMS Keppel, she sank the ”U-394” southeast of Jan Mayen Island, Norway at position 69o47'N, 04o10'E.

Suffering from mechanical problems with her boilers she underwent repairs at the end of February 1945. Upon completion she resumed convoy defence duties in Home waters and was reduced to reserve status following VE-Day.

Wartime Commanders
A List of her wartime Commanding Officers can be found at U-Boat.net

Disposition
HMS Whitehall was placed on the Disposal List after VJ Day and sold to BISCO for demolition by T W Ward. She arrived in tow at the breakers; yard in Barrow on 27th October 1945.