HMS ''Itchen'' (K227) was a of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

(RN). ''Itchen'' was built to the RN's specifications as a Group I River-class frigate. She served in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. As a River-class frigate, ''Itchen'' was one of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

convoy escorts, named after rivers in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The ships were designed by naval engineer William Reed, of

Smith's Dock Company Smith's Dock Company, Limited, often referred to simply as Smith's Dock, was a British shipbuilding company. History The company was originally established by Thomas Smith who bought William Rowe's shipyard at St. Peter's in Newcastle upon Tyne ...

of South Bank-on-Tees, to have the endurance and anti-submarine capabilities of the

sloops A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

, while being quick and cheap to build in civil dockyards using the machinery (e.g. reciprocating steam engines instead of turbines) and construction techniques pioneered in the building of the s. Its purpose was to improve on the convoy escort classes in service with the

at the time, including the Flower class. After commissioning in December 1942, ''Itchen'' participated in anti-submarine warfare exercises off

Tobermory, Mull Tobermory (; gd, Tobar Mhoire) is the capital of, and until 1973 the only burgh on, the Isle of Mull in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It is located on the east coast of Mishnish, the most northerly part of the island, near the northern entrance ...

and

Lough Foyle Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle ( or "loch of the lip"), is the estuary of the River Foyle, on the north coast of Ireland. It lies between County Londonderry in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. Sovereignty over ...

until mid September 1943 where she was assigned as convoy escort. On 19 September 1943, ''Itchen'' was involved in the

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

attack on Convoys ONS 18/ON 202. At 21:51 on 20 September, was hit and sunk, with 81 survivors being picked up by ''Itchen''. During this, at 22:53 on 20 September, the fired a torpedo at ''Itchen'' but missed and was sunk screening the rescue. At 02:01 on the morning of 23 September, fired a torpedo at ''Itchen'' which hit the ship after 70 seconds. The frigate blew up with loss of 230 lives and 3 survivors. These ships were some of the first victims of the newly developed GNAT torpedo. The survivors were picked up by .

References

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Itchen 1942 ships River-class frigates of the Royal Navy World War II frigates of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Naval magazine explosions