Some History behind the British Destroyer Line

[Jellicoe1916]

Thought I would compose a topic for those who are interested in the history of the destroyers of the British Destroyer Line. 

 

Tier II - HMS Medea, Medea class destroyer

The Medea class destroyers were a class of destroyers originally ordered by the Greek Navy. They were armed with 3 101.6mm guns and 2 twin 533mm torpedo tubes. They were capable of 32kts and weighed about 1,040 tonnes. The class was composed of 4 ships, All named after figures in Greek Mythology, namely HMS Medea, Medusa, Melampus and Melpomene (ex-Kriti, Lesbos, Chios and Samos respectively). HMS Melampus accidentally rammed and sank the submarine C16 on 16th April 1917. All but HMS Medusa were scrapped in 1921, HMS Medusa was rammed and sunk by HMS Laverock on 25th March 1916.

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Tier III - HMS Valkyrie, Admiralty V Flotilla Leader.

The Admiralty V Flotilla Leaders were originally designed to lead destroyers such as the R Class destroyers (Phra Ruang, Ex-HMS Radiant) into battle. This batch consisted of HMS Valentine, Valhalla, Valkyrie, Valorous and Vampire, of which Vampire is already in game, albeit in a different configuration. Valkyrie herself was commissioned on the 16th June 1917 and had 4 single 102mm guns as her primary gun armament with a torpedo armament of 2 twin 533mm torpedo tubes, as did 3 of the other leaders, only Vampire differed from this, having 2 triple 533mm torpedo tubes for a total of 6 tubes. They weighed 1,188 long tonnes and were capable of a top speed of 34kts. 3 survived the war to be broken up, HMS Valentine was badly damaged by German aircraft and beached and abandoned off Terneuzen on 15th May 1940 and was salvaged and scrapped in 1953. HMAS Vampire was sunk on 9th April 1942 by Japanese Aircraft who also sank her consort HMS Hermes off Sri Lanka, and is now believed to be resting in a deep water trench in over 1km of water.

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Tier IV - HMS Wakeful, Admiralty W class destroyer.

The Admiralty W class comprised 21 destroyers, and were a follow on to the Admiralty V class destroyers. Of the 21 vessels built, Wakeful was the first vessel. Their primary gun armament was 4 single 102mm guns and their torpedo armament consisted of two triple 533mm torpedo tubes. They weighed 1,100 tonnes and were capable of a top speed of 34kts. Of the class, 11 were wartime losses, Wakeful herself was sunk on 29th May 1940 by German E-Boats and is now designated as a War grave. From the Dev Blog, we can assume that this ship will have an armament upgrade module of 120mm guns, which would make her B hull model more similar to that of her Modified Admiralty W class sister Wolverine, who was completed in 1920 with 4 120mm guns and 2 triple 533mm torpedo tubes.

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Tier V - HMS Acasta, A class destroyer

The A class destroyers were a follow on to the HMS Ambuscade and Amazon. They were armed with 4 single 120mm guns and 2 quadruple 533mm torpedo tubes. They weighed between 1,350-1,360 tonnes at standard displacement and 1,778-1790 tonnes at full load, they were capable of a speed of 35kts. The class consisted of 20 ships, of which 10 were sunk. Acasta and sister Ardent were both sunk by the German Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau whilst escorting the Aircraft Carrier HMS Glorious. Whilst Acasta and Ardent were much smaller opposition, the destroyers fought fiercely against the Superior German Battleships, with Acasta scoring a torpedo hit and a few shell hits on Scharnhorst which forced the German Battleships to head to Trondheim after the engagement, the Battle flag was lowered on Gneisenau to honour the fight the Acasta put up before being sunk after roughly two hours of engagement. We have already seen one of their sisters in the game, HMS Anthony, which some of you will remember from Operation Dynamo in June-July last year.

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Tier VI - HMS Icarus, I class destroyer.

The I class destroyers were a follow on to the G and H class of destroyer. The I class had 4 single 120mm guns and 2 quintuple torpedo tubes. They weighed 1,370 tonnes at standard displacement and 1,888 tonnes at full load, and had a top speed of 36kts. Of the 13 ships that were completed, 6 were sunk. Icarus was one of nine destroyers to accompany HMS Warspite in the Second Battle of Narvik in April 1940, Icarus then formed part of the escort for HMS Hood and Prince of Wales on their voyage to engage the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, but they were detached before the Battle to search to the north, Icarus returned to the site of Hood's sinking to help rescue survivors, but all 3 had already been rescued by Electra. She later took part in Operation Pedestal, throughout the war she also helped sink numerous U-Boats and was finally sold for scrap in 1946.

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Tier VII - HMS Jervis, J class destroyer.

The successors to the Tribal class, the Js were armed with 3 twin 120mm guns and 2 quintuple torpedo tubes. They weighed 1,690 tonnes at standard load and 2,330 at full load, they had a top speed of 36kts.
Being amongst the Royal Navy's most powerful destroyers at the beginning pf the war, they were committed extensively, due to this, many were lost during the war, with 6 of the 8 Js being lost during the war. HMS Jervis was dubbed 'Lucky Jervis' due to her ability to survive dire situations, an example of this luck might be in January 1944 her sister Janus was sunk and Jervis had her bow blown off by a Henschel Hs 293 bomb. Jervis had to be towed stern first to safety but incredibly, not one of Jervis's crew was harmed in this incident, and she even helped rescue 80 of Janus's crew. Jervis and her sister Javelin both survived the war and were broken up in 1949.

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Tier VIII - HMS Lightning, L class destroyer.

The Ls were the successors to the Js at tier 7. Whilst they all had the same torpedo armament of 2 quadruple torpedo tubes, the gun armament differed, four of the Ls had 4 twin 102mm guns (HMS Lively for example) whilst the other 4 had 3 twin 114mm guns (HMS Lightning). They weighed 1,920 tonnes and had a top speed of 36kts. During the Second World War, 6 were lost of the 8 Ls completed, 2 of the 114mm Ls and all 4 102mm Ls. Lightning herself took part in numerous operations including Operation Pedestal which aimed to resupply the beleaguered island of Malta before being sunk by German Schnellboots off Annaba on March 12th 1943, she was replaced in Force Q by non other than her Polish-named equivalent, ORP Blyskawica.

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Tier IX - HMS Jutland, Battle class Destroyer

The Battle class destroyers were the successors to the Weapon class destroyers. The 1942 Battles had 2 twin 114mm guns and 1 single 102mm whereas the 1943 Battles had 2 twin 114mm guns and 1 single 114mm gun. Both Variants had 2 quintuple torpedo tubes. The 1942 Battles had a top speed of 34kts and weighed 2,315 tonnes at standard and 3,290 at full load. The 1943 ones had a top speed of 35.5kts and weighed 2,480 tonnes at standard and 3,430 at full load. Non of the class were sunk and all were scrapped post-war. HMS Jutland was a 1943 Battle with the 5 114mm gun set up but she was not commissioned until 1947 and therefore saw no service in the Second World War. HMS Jutland in game appears to have her original hull with the 5 114mm guns for her A hull and the proposed design for Danae and Delight with 3 twin 114mm guns as her B hull. 

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Tier X - HMS Daring, Daring class destroyer.

The Daring class destroyers were essentially the Royal Navy's super destroyers that were built after the conclusion of World War Two, they were the pinnacle of British Destroyer Development in the Second World War. They were armed with 3 twin 114mm guns and 2 quintuple torpedo tubes. They weighed 2,830 tonnes at standard and 3,820 at full load with a top speed of 30kts. They were built between 1949-59 and in commission from 1952-2007. Of the 11 Darings that were completed, 3 served with the Royal Australian Navy and the remaining 8 with the Royal Navy. One of the Australian Darings, HMAS Voyager was rammed and sunk in 1964 by HMAS Melbourne. They saw use in the Indonesian Confrontation and the Vietnam War. 2 of the Darings (Diana and Decoy) were sold to the Peruvian Navy and renamed BAP Palacios and BAP Ferré respectively, Palacios was decommissioned in 1993 and Ferré in 2007. The remaining Darings except for HMAS Vampire were scrapped, Vampire, however, is preserved as a museum ship in Sydney in Australia.

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Sources:

Wikipedia 

Dev Blog