HMS ''Verity'' was an Admiralty modified W-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 ...

. She was the first ship to carry the name ''Verity''. She was ordered in January 1918 from

John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its heig ...

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

with the 13th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1918–19.

Construction

HMS ''Verity''s keel was laid on 17 May 1918 at the

Shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 19 March 1919. She was overall in length with a beam of . Her mean draught was , and reached under full load. She had a displacement of 1,140

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

s standard and up to 1,550 full load. She was propelled by three Yarrow type water tube boilers powering Brown-Curtis geared

steam turbines A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

developing 27,000 shp driving two screws for a maximum designed speed of 34

knot A knot is an intentional complication in Rope, cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including List of hitch knots, hitches, List of bend knots, bends, List of loop knots, loop knots, ...

s. She was oil-fired and had a fuel capacity of 320 to 350 tons. This gave a range of between 3500

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...

s at 15 knots to 900 nautical miles at 32 knots. She shipped four BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns, mount P Mk.I naval guns in four single centre-line turrets. The turrets were disposed as two forward and two aft in super imposed firing positions. She also carried two QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) mounted abeam between funnels. Abaft of the second funnel, she carried six 21-inch Torpedo Tubes mounted in pairs on the centre-line.

Inter-War period

Commissioned into the Royal Navy on 17 September 1919, she was assigned to the 1st Destroyer Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet with

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

D63. She spent the later part of the 20s and the early 30s in the Mediterranean. In 1938 the ship was assigned to the Local Flotilla based at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Second World War

Upon the outbreak of war in September 1939 she deployed for convoy defence in the South-West Approaches, escorting convoy GC1 from

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was ...

with , and on 5 September. October saw her transferred to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla at

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

for East Coast convoy defence until December. HMS ''Verity'' was assigned to assist in the Evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. She came under fire from shore batteries near

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

and suffered casualties. She remained in the area after the evacuation as a convoy escort, and was attacked on 14 August by six

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

trawlers Trawler may refer to: Boats * Fishing trawler, used for commercial fishing * Naval trawler Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the World War I, Fir ...

and three E-boats. Two of the German ships were sunk in the resulting engagement.

North Africa

Operation Torch Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa whil ...

, the invasion of

Axis An axis (: axes) may refer to: Mathematics *A specific line (often a directed line) that plays an important role in some contexts. In particular: ** Coordinate axis of a coordinate system *** ''x''-axis, ''y''-axis, ''z''-axis, common names ...

controlled

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, started in 1942. HMS ''Verity'' was assigned to escort military convoys in preparation of this attack. She supported the landings at

Oran Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...

, during which she helped rescue troops from the stricken

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable to land troops directly on shore, typic ...

''Strathallan'', which had torpedoed. Only 11 were killed in the attack, which was carrying more than 5,000 officers, men and crew. ''Strathallan'' sank nearly 22 hours after the torpedo hit.

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

uboat.net

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verity V and W-class destroyers of the Royal Navy Ships built on the River Clyde 1919 ships World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom