War Emergency Programme destroyers

The War Emergency Programme destroyers were destroyers built for the British Royal Navy during World War I and World War II.

War Programmes and Ship classes (World War I)

The 323 destroyers ordered during World War I belonged to several different classes and were the subject of 14 separate War Programmes between 1914 and 1918. 40 of these were cancelled at the end of the war. The total excludes destroyers building in UK for other navies which were purchased for the British Navy following the outbreak of war.

Programme	Date ordered	No of ships	Design	Notes
1st War Programme	10 September 1914	16	Admiralty M-class design	6 more had been built under pre-war 1913-14 Programme
		4	Yarrow M-class design	3 more had been built under pre-war 1913-14 Programme
2nd War Programme	early November 1914	9	Admiralty M-class design
		1	Yarrow M-class design	Nerissa
		2	Admiralty L-class design	Lochinvar and Lassoo
3rd War Programme	late November 1914	22	Admiralty M-class design
4th War Programme	February 1915	16	Admiralty M-class design	including 8 of "Repeat M-class" with raking stems
		2	Thornycroft M-class design	2 others had been built under pre-war 1913-14 Programme
5th War Programme	May 1915	16	Admiralty M-class design
		2	Thornycroft M-class design	Rapid and Ready
		2	Yarrow M-class design	Relentless and Rival
		2	Admiralty R-class design	Radstock and Raider
6th War Programme	July 1915	17	Admiralty R-class design
		3	Thornycroft R-class design	Rosalind, Radiant and Retriever
		4	Yarrow R-class design	Sabrina, Strongbow, Surprise and Sybille
7th War Programme	December 1915	8	Admiralty R-class design
		2	Thornycroft R-class design	Taurus and Teazer
8th War Programme	5 March 1916	12	Admiralty R-class design
		3	Yarrow R-class design	Truculent, Tyrant and Ulleswater
		11	Admiralty Modified R-class design	last 5 actually ordered on 19 April 1916
9th War Programme	July 1916	23	23 Admiralty V-class design	Vortigern and Vectis were ordered in August 1916
	August 1916	2	Thornycroft V-class design	Viceroy and Viscount
10th War Programme	9 December 1916	19	Admiralty W-class design
		2	Thornycroft W-class design	Wolsey and Woolston
11th War Programme	9 April 1917	24	Admiralty S-class design
		2	Thornycroft S-class design	Speedy and Tobago
		7	Yarrow S-class design
12th War Programme	June 1917	33	Admiralty S-class design	2 of which were cancelled in 1919
		3	Thornycroft S-class design	Torbay, Toreador and Tourmaline
13th War Programme	January 1918	14	Admiralty Modified W-class design	7 of which were cancelled in 1919
		2	Thornycroft Modified W-class design	Wishart and Witch
14th War Programme	April 1918	38	Admiralty Modified W-class design	31 of which were cancelled in late 1918 or 1919)

Ship classes (World War II)

The 112 destroyers built during World War II were based on the hull and machinery of the earlier J-, K- and N-class destroyers of the 1930s. Each of the fourteen flotillas below consisted of eight destroyers. Due to supply problems and the persistent failure by the Royal Navy to develop a suitable dual-purpose weapon for destroyers, they were fitted with whatever armament was available. Recent advances in radar and weaponry were incorporated as they came available. As a result, they were a relatively heterogeneous class incorporating many wartime advances, but ultimately based on a hull that was too small and with an armament too light to be true first-rate vessels equivalent of their contemporaries. As such they are often described as "utility" destroyers. It was not until the Battle-class destroyer of 1944 that the Royal Navy returned to building larger destroyers. Many vessels were transferred to friendly navies.

Class	Flotilla	Date ordered
O class	"1st Emergency Flotilla"	3 September 1939
P class	"2nd Emergency Flotilla"	2 October 1939
Q class	"3rd Emergency Flotilla"	end March 1940
R class	"4th Emergency Flotilla"	early April 1940
S class	"5th Emergency Flotilla"	9 January 1941
T class	"6th Emergency Flotilla"	in March 1941
U class	"7th Emergency Flotilla"	12 June 1941
V class	"8th Emergency Flotilla"	1 September 1941
W class	"9th Emergency Flotilla"	3 December 1941
Z class	"10th Emergency Flotilla"	12 February 1942
Ca- class	"11th Emergency Flotilla"	16 February 1942
Ch- class	"12th Emergency Flotilla"	24 July 1942
Co- class	"13th Emergency Flotilla"	24 July 1942
Cr- class	"14th Emergency Flotilla"	12 September 1942

Design changes (World War II)

The P, and 3 ships of the O, flotilla were fitted with 4-inch guns with a new design of tall gunshield. As a result, they carried only the Rangefinder-Director Mark II(W) for fire control.
From the Q and R class onwards a transom stern was incorporated.
From the S and T class onwards the bow was revised to a design based on that of the Tribal-class destroyer, to improve sea-keeping.
From the Q and R class the main gun calibre returned to 4.7 inches.
From the R flotilla onwards the officer's accommodation was forwards, instead of aft as was traditional Royal Navy practice
The S flotilla altered the position of the searchlight between the torpedo tubes with the medium anti-aircraft position abaft the funnel. This more logical arrangement gave the anti-aircraft gun improved arcs of fire in the forward field.
The S class introduced the new mounting CP Mark XXII for the 4.7-inch guns. This could readily be distinguished from the older mounting CP Mark XVIII of the O, Q and R by its sharply raked face, allowing increased elevation.
S-class Savage incorporated the new 4.5-inch gun Mark III, in a prototype twin dual-purpose turret BD Mark IV forward and 4.5-inch gun Mark IV in single mountings CP Mark V aft. The former would be introduced in the Battle-class destroyer.
The T flotilla introduced the lattice foremast, to support the ever-increasing weight of masthead electronics.
The W flotilla introduced the dual-purpose Director Mark III(W), replacing the low-angle Destroyer DCT and High-Angle Rangefinder-Director Mark II(W) in use since the Q and R class.
The Z flotilla introduced the new dual-purpose Director Mark I Type K and the 4.5-inch gun in single mountings CP Mark V as trialled in Savage. These mountings were based on the CP Mark XXII used in the later 4.7-inch gunned ships; there was no obvious difference.
The Ch- flotilla introduced the dual-purpose Director Mark VI with full remote-power control (RPC) for gunlaying. As a result, one set of torpedo tubes was removed to counter the increased topweight.
All ships used the Fuze Keeping Clock High Angle Fire Control Computer.[1]

Notes

Destroyer Weapons of WW2, Hodges/Friedman, ISBN 0-85177-137-8

Bibliography

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.
Cocker, Maurice (1983). Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981. London, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1075-7.
Dittmar, F.J. & Colledge, J.J. (1972). British Warships 1914–1919. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0380-7.
Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers. London, UK: Seeley Service & Co.
Raven, Alan; Roberts, John (1978). War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes. London: Bivouac Books. ISBN 0-85680-010-4.
Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.

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[1] Destroyer Weapons of WW2, Hodges/Friedman, ISBN 0-85177-137-8