HMS Musketeer (G86)
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HMS ''Musketeer'' was a M-class
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
built for the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. She was ordered from Fairfield's, Govan, Glasgow on 7 September 1939 under the 1939 Build Programme and laid down on 7 December the same year. She was launched on 2 December 1941 and completed on 18 September 1942 at a cost of £462,543. ''Musketeer'' was adopted in December 1941 by the community of East Barnet, now part of Greater London. ''Musketeer'' was the second RN ship to carry this name; the first was a destroyer built in 1915 and sold in 1921.


World War 2 Service


Arctic Convoys

''Musketeer'' commissioned on 9 September 1942 and joined the Home Fleet as part of the
3rd Destroyer Flotilla The British 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, also styled as Third Destroyer Flotilla, was a naval formation of the Royal Navy from 1909 to 1939 and again from 1945 to 1951. History In 1907 the Channel Fleet had a large Channel Flotilla of destroyers in Fe ...
covering the North Sea and the North Western Approaches. In November 1942 she was switched to duty with the convoys to the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, protecting merchant shipping delivering vital supplies to Russia for her war against
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. This was a role that ''Musketeer'' was to perform for most of her wartime service, although from May to September 1943, following a refit, she once again served in the Home Fleet guarding the Western Approaches. On 27 September 1943 she took part in a mission in support of
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
(RAF) attempts to neutralise the German battleship , when she ferried RAF personnel from the
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
to
Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...
. Murmansk was the base for reconnaissance flights to ''Tripitz''s anchorage in the Altafjord in Norway. These flights were used in the planning of an eventual RAF bombing raid on the battleship. On 25 February 1944 ''Musketeer'' was involved in a collision with the Polish destroyer , breaking off from convoy duty to be taken in hand for repair by Brigham and Cowan shipyard in Hull. Repairs were completed by the end of March 1944 and in early April the ship was again back on Russian convoy duty.


Mediterranean

On 3 October 1944, ''Musketeer'' was assigned for service in the Eastern Mediterranean. She worked mainly in the Aegean supporting the re-capture of enemy-held islands and operating against the small Greek Communist ships of the ELAN. Following VE day in May 1945 ''Musketeer'' continued her service in the Mediterranean and helped in the support of the garrisons in
Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
and mainland Greece.


Proposed Post-War Conversion

In the early 1950s, it was proposed to convert the five remaining ships of the M class, together with seven
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. World War I emergency programmes The 323 destroyers ordered during the First World War belonged to several different cla ...
to Type 62 Air Direction Frigates. The conversion would have involved replacement of the ships' armament and sensors. The initial proposal would have armed the ships with a twin 4-inch gun mount, a twin 40 mm Bofors gun and a
Squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...
anti-submarine mortar. Type 982 and 983 air direction radars would be fitted, as would Type 162 and 166
sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...
s. In March 1952, the programme was reduced, as the War Emergency Destroyers were too small to accommodate the heavy radars. Later that year, it was decided to substitute a US twin
3"/50 caliber gun The 3-inch/50-caliber gun (spoken "three-inch fifty-caliber") in United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile in diameter, and the barrel was 50 Caliber (artillery), calibers long (barrel length is 3 in × 50 = ). ...
mount for the 4-inch guns. The project was finally abandoned in May 1954, partly owing to the condition of the ships and poor shock-resistance. Musketeer was subsequently sold for scrap and broken up in 1955, while the four remaining M class were sold to Turkey in 1958.English 2001, p. 115.Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 516.


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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musketeer (G86) L and M-class destroyers of the Royal Navy Ships built on the River Clyde 1941 ships World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom