HMS Dunkirk (D09)
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| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Dunkirk |
| Ordered: | 1943 |
| Builder: | Alexander Stephen and Sons |
| Laid down: | 19 July 1944 |
| Launched: | 27 August 1945 |
| Commissioned: | 27 November 1946 |
| Decommissioned: | 1963 |
| Fate: | Broken up 1965 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Battle class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 2,480 tons standard |
| Length: | 379 feet (116 m) |
| Beam: | 40 feet 6 inches (12.3 m) |
| Draught: | 12 feet 8 inches (3.9 m) mean 17 feet 6 inches (5.3 m) maximum |
| Propulsion: | Oil fired, two three-drum boilers, Parsons geared turbines, twin screws, 50,000 hp (37 MW) |
| Speed: | 35.75 knots (66.21 km/h) |
| Complement: | 268 |
| Armament: | 5 × 4.5-inch (114 mm) gun 8 × Bofors 40 mm guns 10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 2 × Squid mortar |
| Service record | |
| Part of | 4th Destroyer Flotilla 7th Destroyer Squadron |
HMS Dunkirk (D09) was a later or 1943 Battle-class fleet destroyer of the British Royal Navy (RN). Though there were other ships of the Navy that had been named Dunkirk, as far back as the 1650s, it held added meaning after the dramatic, and at times, tragic and heroic evacuation from Dunkirk between late May and early June 1940, in which over 300,000 British, as well as French troops, were rescued by a ragtag fleet of ships.
Dunkirk was built by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Govan. She was launched on 27 August 1945 and commissioned on 27 November 1946.
In the year of her commissioning, Dunkirk joined the 4th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet. In 1950, Dunkirk was placed in Reserve, just many of her sister-ships in the 1950s. She subsequently performed a variety of duties and in 1958, while in the Mediterranean, Dunkirk, in broad daylight, collided with her sister-ship HMS Jutland during naval manoeuvres off Malta, causing minor damage.
In 1961, Dunkirk, along with the cruiser HMS Lion and the frigate HMS Leopard, undertook a tour of the South American continent. Instead of returning home to the UK from the deployment's culmination Dunkirk deployed to the Mediterranean where HMS Broadsword, a Weapon-class destroyer, and of the 7th Destroyer Squadron, which was based in the Mediterranean, had experienced some engine problems and therefore had to be replaced. Dunkirk finally returned home in 1963. Just two years later, Dunkirk was scrapped at Faslane.
[edit] References
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
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