HMS Viscount (1917)

HMS ''Viscount'' was a V-class destroyer (Thornycroft V and W class) of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and in World War II.

Construction and commissioning

''Viscount'', the first Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered either on 30 June 1916 or in July 1916 (sources differ) as part of the 9th Order of the 1916–1917 Naval Programme and was laid down by John I. Thornycroft & Company at Woolston, Hampshire, England, on 20 December 1916. Although broadly similar, ''Viscount'' was one of only two V-Class destroyers built by Thornycrofts. HMS ''Viscount'' differed in a number of ways to other V-Class destroyers and was notably faster. Launched on 29 December 1917, she was completed on 4 March 1918 and commissioned the same day. Her original pennant number, F99, was changed first to G06 and then in April 1918 to G24; it was changed to D92 during the interwar period.

Service history

First World War

Upon completion, ''Viscount'' was assigned to the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, in which she served for the rest of World War I. Viscount rapidly gained a reputation as an exceptionally fast ship and successfully attacked and sank at least one German U-boat which was caught on the surface. HMS ''Viscount'' was signalled to attack at full speed. The U-boat spoilt the aim of ''Viscount''s forward battery by submerging full-speed astern. Viscount steamed over the U-boat and destroyed it by depth charges. HMS ''Viscount'' also participated in several cruises/escorts to Murmansk and Archangel during this period. Other actions included the interception and seizing of Bolshevik-controlled Russian warships in support of White Russian forces.

Interwar

After the conclusion of World War I, ''Viscount'' served in the Atlantic Fleet. In 1921 she joined the light cruisers , , , and and the destroyers , , , , , , and in a Baltic Sea cruise, departing the United Kingdom on 31 August 1921. The ships crossed the North Sea and transited the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to enter the Baltic, where they called at Danzig in the Free City of Danzig; Memel in the Klaipėda Region; Liepāja, Latvia; Riga, Latvia; Tallinn, Estonia; Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; Gothenburg, Sweden; and Kristiania, Norway, before crossing the North Sea and ending the voyage at Port Edgar, Scotland, on 15 October 1921.

''Viscount'' later served in the Mediterranean Fleet before being assigned to duties in home waters. She was attached to the 1st Submarine Flotilla in 1938.

Second World War

1939–1940

When the United Kingdom entered World War II on 3 September 1939, ''Viscount'' was deployed with the 19th Destroyer Flotilla, based at Plymouth, for convoy escort and patrol duty in the English Channel and Southwestern Approaches. In January 1940, she was reassigned to the Western Approaches Command but continued her escort and patrol operations from Plymouth. On 7 January 1940, she and the destroyer relieved two French warships as escort for Convoy HG 13 during the final leg of its voyage from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom; the destroyers and and the trawler joined the escort on 8 January 1940, and ''Viscount'' detached from it on 10 January. On 18 February 1940, ''Viscount'' and ''Vanquisher'' relieved a French warship as the escort for Convoy HG 18 during the final portion of its voyage from Gibraltar to Liverpool, detaching to return to Plymouth when it arrived at Liverpool on 19 February 1940. On 8 April 1940, ''Viscount'', the destroyers and , and the sloop relieved a French warship as the escort of Convoy HG 25F for the last leg of its voyage from Gibraltar to Liverpool; although ''Vimy'' and ''Witch'' detached the next day, ''Viscount'' and ''Rochester'' stayed with the convoy until arrived at Liverpool on 11 April 1940. In April, Western Approaches Command moved its headquarters to Liverpool, and as a result ''Viscount''s base was changed from Plymouth to Liverpool.

In May 1940, ''Viscount''s pennant number was changed to I92. That month, she was assigned to operations related to the Norwegian Campaign in the aftermath of the April 1940 German invasion of Norway and Denmark. On 17 May 1940, she joined the destroyers and in escorting the aircraft carrier from the River Clyde in Scotland to the Norwegian coast. On 7 June 1940, ''Viscount'', the destroyers , and , and the escort destroyer departed the United Kingdom to meet a convoy of troopships that had been delayed by fog. Later that day, the destroyers rendezvoused with the troopships – carrying Allied personnel evacuated from Norway as the campaign there ended in the German conquest of the country – and the repair ship and took them under escort to the Clyde. The convoy came under attack by German aircraft on 8 June 1940, but the escorts drove the German planes off.

''Viscount'' returned to her North Atlantic convoy escort duty in July 1940. In September 1940 she detached from it to join ''Witherington'' and the destroyers and in escorting the auxiliary minelayers , , , and
while they laid mines in the Northern Barrage in Operation SN42.

''Viscount'' then went back to convoy operations, and she was part of the escort of Convoy HG 47 – bound from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom – along with the sloop and in November 1940. Detaching from HG 47, she rendezvoused with Convoy HX 90 – 41 ships bound from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Liverpool – as its escort on 1 December 1940. Later that day, HX 90 came under attack by the first of six German submarines, which sank 10 of its ships on 1 and 2 December. The sinkings stopped only after ''Viscount'' and the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer conducted 13 depth-charge attacks on asdic contacts over the course of four hours on 2 December, keeping the submarines submerged and unable to attack until HX 90 had left the area. On 2 December, ''Viscount'' rescued survivors from some of HX 90s lost ships, picking up some of the 21 survivors from the armed merchant cruiser , which the had torpedoed and sunk west of Ireland at with the loss of 172 lives; 16 survivors of the British merchant ship ''Kavak'', which the had torpedoed and sunk during the night of 1–2 December about west of Bloody Foreland at ; 36 survivors of the British merchant ship ''Goodleigh'', which the had torpedoed and sunk on 2 December west of Bloody Foreland at ; and 27 survivors of the Ellerman Lines cargo ship , which ''U-52'' had torpedoed and sunk on 2 December about west of Bloody Foreland at . ''Viscount'' then escorted HX 90 the rest of the way to Liverpool, where it arrived on 5 December 1940.

1941–1942

''Viscount'' continued on convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic until June 1941, when she began conversion to a Long-Range Escort at Liverpool. With the conversion complete, she underwent post-conversion acceptance trials and, having passed them, performed work-ups in December 1941 to prepare for her return to convoy duty, which she did later that month.

In March 1942, ''Viscount'' was "adopted" by the civilian community of Chislehurst and Sidcup in Kent in a Warship Week national savings campaign. In April 1942, she was reassigned to the 6th Escort Group, joining the corvettes and and the Royal Norwegian Navy corvettes and . In May 1942, she escorted Convoy SC 83 with the group. By June–July 1942, she had had Type 271 surface warning radar and a Hedgehog antisubmarine mortar installed.

On 13 August 1942, ''Viscount'' was part of the escort of Convoy ONS 122 when it came under a series of sustained attacks by German submarines of the " Lohs" group. On 23 August, she intercepted communications from one of the submarines, got a fix on its location, detected it with asdic after it submerged, and attacked it. By the time attacks on ONS 122 ended, it had lost four ships and its escorts had damaged two German submarines.

In October 1942, ''Viscount'' was part of the escort of Convoy SC 1 CW, which came under attack by 10 German submarines of the "''Wotan''" (Wōden) group. On 15 October, while defending the convoy, ''Viscount'' detected the submarine ''U-607'' on radar and attacked her unsuccessfully. ''Viscount'' then rammed and thereafter sank the submarine by gun fire and a heavy depth charge. ''U-661'' at , which went down with the loss of her entire crew of 44. ''Viscount'' suffered significant damage in the ramming and had to detach from the convoy and proceed to the United Kingdom for repairs.

1943–1945

''Viscount''s repairs were completed in February 1943, and she rejoined the 6th Escort Group that month in time to join the escort of Convoy ONS 165, which came under attack from German submarines of the "''Taifun''" ("Typhoon") group. In defence of the convoy, she depth charged and rammed the submarine in the North Atlantic at . ''U-201'' sank with the loss of her entire crew of 49, and ''Viscount'' again suffered significant damage, requiring repairs that lasted through April 1943.

In May 1943, ''Viscount'' returned to North Atlantic convoy duty. While escorting Convoy ONS 6 with the 6th Escort Group on 8 May 1943, she got a radio direction-finding fix on a German submarine and closed with it, sighting it at a range of . The submarine submerged, and ''Viscount'' attacked it with depth charges, but without success.

Over the course of the summer of 1943, ''Viscount'' was detached for Operation Derange, consisting of offensive antisubmarine operations in the Bay of Biscay in which aircraft and ships cooperated in attacks on German submarines transiting the bay between their bases in German-occupied France and the Atlantic shipping routes. In September 1943, she took part in Operation Alacrity, joining the escort aircraft carrier , the destroyers , , and , and the Polish Navy destroyers and in forming the 8th Support Group to escort military convoys to the Azores as the Allies set up air bases there. She continued operations in support of Alacrity into October 1943.

''Viscount'' returned to Atlantic convoy duty in October 1943, continuing it without further major incident into the early weeks of 1945, when she also began convoy escort operations in British coastal waters. In order to free up her crew members to man newer, more modern escort ships, she was withdrawn from operations in February 1945 and decommissioned in March 1945.

Decommissioning and disposal

''Viscount'' was sold on 20 March 1945 to BISCO for scrapping by Clayton and Davie at Dunston. She arrived at the shipbreakers yard on 27 May 1947.

Notes

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External links

Blueprints of HMS ''Viscount''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viscount (D92)
V and W-class destroyers of the Royal Navy
1917 ships
World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom
World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom
Ships built by John I. Thornycroft & Company