HMS Atherstone (L05)

HMS Atherstone was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched in late 1939 as the first of her class but was found to be unstable, and had to undergo significant modifications before entering service in March 1940.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Atherstone.

HMS Atherstone in 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Atherstone
Ordered: 21 March 1939
Builder: Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Laid down: 8 June 1939
Launched: 12 December 1939
Commissioned: 23 March 1940
Fate: Sold for scrap 1957
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Type I Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement:
  • 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) standard,
  • 1,360 long tons (1,380 t) full load
Length:
  • 264 ft 3 in (80.54 m) pp,
  • 280 ft (85.34 m) oa
Beam: 29 ft (8.84 m)
Draught: 7 ft 9 in (2.36 m)
Propulsion:
  • 2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
  • 2 shaft Parsons geared turbines, 19,000 shp (14,000 kW)
Speed: 27.5 kn (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph)
Range: 2,500 nmi (4,600 km; 2,900 mi) at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement: 146
Armament:
  • 4 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX
  • 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk VIII AA guns (1 × quad mount)
  • 30 depth charges

Construction and design

Atherstone was ordered from Cammell Laird of Birkenhead on 21 March 1939, as one of the first batch of ten Hunt-class destroyers.[2] The Hunts were intended to make up for a shortage in destroyer-type vessels, particularly for escort duties. They were to combine the heavy anti-aircraft armament of the Bittern-class sloops (i.e. six 4 inch (102 mm) QF Mk XVI dual purpose (anti-ship and anti-aircraft) guns in three twin mounts) with a speed of 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph) (compared with 18 3⁄4 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) for the Bitterns) to allow them to work with the fleet when necessary.[3][4] This was supplemented by a close-in anti-aircraft armament of a quadruple 2-pounder "pom-pom", and an anti-submarine armament of 30 depth charges. No torpedo-tubes were to be carried.[5]

Atherstone was laid down on 8 June 1939 and launched on 12 December 1939.[2] An inclining test when the ship was fitting out showed that she, and by extension all the Hunts, was dangerously unstable owing to a design error.[lower-alpha 1] To restore stability to acceptable levels, one twin 4 inch mount was removed, the ship's superstructure and funnel was cut down and additional ballast was fitted.[7] Thus modified, Atherstone was completed and commissioned (with the pennant number L05[8]) on 23 March 1940.[2]

Service

Following commissioning and initial trials, Atherstone joined the First Destroyer Flotilla based at Portsmouth employed on convoy escort duties in the English Channel.[9] In June and July, she was detached to the Home Fleet, returning to Portsmouth in August.[10] On 11 September 1940, while escorting Convoy CW11 in the Channel, Atherstone was hit by two bombs and near missed by a third, sustaining serious damage and killing 5 men.[9][10][11] After repair at Chatham Dockyard, the ship rejoined the First Destroyer Flotilla in January 1941, resuming convoy escort duty in the Channel. In December 1941, after a refit at Southampton, Atherstone transferred to the 15th Destroyer Flotilla based at Devonport.[9][10]

On 26 March 1942 Atherstone sailed from Falmouth as part of Operation Chariot, the St Nazaire Raid. This was an amphibious assault on the port of St Nazaire in France with the objective of destroying the gates of the Normandie dock by ramming them with an explosive-packed destroyer, Campbeltown, and so prevent the dock's use by the German battleship Tirpitz. Atherstone and her sister ship Tynedale escorted Campbeltown and the remainder of the strike force, towing the Motor Gun Boat MGB 314 on the passage to St Nazaire.[12] Early on 27 March, Tynedale sighted the German submarine U-593, and the two escort destroyers attacked the U-boat. Although U-593 survived the attack, the destroyers forced the U-Boat to stay submerged for several hours, preventing it from interfering with the operation.[13]

In May 1942 Atherstone transferred to the 16th Destroyer Flotilla, escorting convoys off the East coast of Britain.[9] In March 1943 the ship transferred to the Mediterranean, joining the 18th Destroyer Flotilla.[10] In July 1943, Atherstone took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, forming part of the naval force supporting the landing of the British XXX Corps south-west of Syracuse.[10][14] On 26 November 1943 she rescued about 70 survivors from the troopship HMT Rohna, which had been sunk by a Henschel Hs 293 glide bomb off the coast of French Algeria.[15]

On 23 September 1945 Atherstone sailed from the Mediterranean to Portsmouth and was paid off into the reserve. In 1953 she was laid up at Cardiff. She was sold on 23 November 1957 for breaking up at Port Glasgow.[16]

Notes
  1. Overwork of the designers resulted in an error in calculating the ship's centre of gravity not to be spotted. This was accentuated by the ships being heavier than estimated, with an overall effect of reducing the ships' metacentric height by about 1 foot (0.30 m).[6]

Footnotes
  1. Lenton 1970, p. 87.
  2. English 1987, p. 17.
  3. English 1987, pp. 7–9.
  4. Lenton 1970, p. 83.
  5. Whitley 2000, pp. 143–144.
  6. English 1987, pp. 10–11.
  7. English 1987, p. 11.
  8. English 1987, p. 106.
  9. English 1987, p. 29.
  10. Mason, Geoffrey B. (2004). "HMS ATHERSTONE (L 05) - Type I, Hunt-class Escort Destroyer including Convoy Escort Movements". Service Histories Of Royal Navy Warships In World War 2. Naval-History.net. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  11. Kindall, Don (2009). "Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies, World War 2: 1st - 30th SEPTEMBER 1940 - in date, ship/unit & name order". Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  12. "No. 38086". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 September 1947. p. 4633.
  13. Blair 2000, pp. 559–560.
  14. Rohwer and Hümmelchen 1992, p. 222.
  15. Wills, J.E.; Frolich, Alexander. "Rohna, (British India Steam Navigation Co Ltd), 1926–1943". merchantnavyofficers.com. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  16. Critchley, Mike, "British Warships Since 1945: Part 3: Destroyers", Maritime Books: Liskeard, UK, 1982. ISBN 0-9506323-9-2, page 24

Publications
  • Blair, Clay (2000). Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters 1939–1942. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 0-304-35260-8.
  • 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.
  • English, John (1987). The Hunts: A history of the design, development and careers of the 86 destroyers of this class built for the Royal and Allied Navies during World War II. World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-44-4.
  • Lenton, H.T. (1970). Navies of the Second World War: British Fleet & Escort Destroyers: Volume Two. London: Macdonald & Co. ISBN 0-356-03122-5.
  • Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1992). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-117-7.
  • Whitley, M.J. (2000). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
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