HMS ''Meteor'' was a M-class

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

built for the Royal Navy 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 ...

Construction

HMS ''Meteor'' was ordered on 7 July 1939, as one of eight destroyers of the M class, a near repeat of the previous L-class. The ship was laid down at the Alexander Stephen shipyard of

Linthouse Linthouse is a neighbourhood in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated directly south of the River Clyde and lies immediately west of Govan, with other adjacent areas including Shieldhall and the Southern General Hospital to the west, a ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

on 14 September 1940, launched on 3 November 1941 and commissioned on 12 August 1942.English 2001, p. 112.Whitley 2000, p. 121–122. ''Meteor'' completed with the originally specified main gun armament of six 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark XI guns in fully enclosed Mark XX mounts, but was only fitted with a single set of quadruple 21-inch torpedo tubes, with the planned aft set being sacrificed to accommodate a single 4-inch (102 mm) Mark V anti-aircraft gun. Close in weaponry consisted of a single quadruple 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" and 6 single 20 mm cannon.English, p. 113 ''Meteor'' was fitted with Type 291 air/surface search radar and Type 285 anti-aircraft ranging radar.

Second World War Service

On entering service, ''Meteor'' joined 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 ...

of the

Home Fleet The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet. Before the First ...

and in September 1942 was deployed as part of the escort for the Arctic Convoy

PQ 18 Convoy PQ 18 was an Arctic convoy of forty Allied freighters from Scotland and Iceland to Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany. The convoy departed Loch Ewe, Scotland on 2 September 1942, rendezvoused with more ships an ...

to the

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and the return

Convoy QP 14 QP 14 was an Arctic convoy of the QP series which ran during World War II. It was one of a series of convoys run to return Allied ships from Soviet northern ports to home ports in Britain. It sailed in September 1942 from Archangel in Russia to ...

.English 2001, p. 121. Following the return from the Arctic, in November 1942, ''Meteor'' acted as part of the destroyer screen for the Home Fleet during

Operation Torch Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 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 secu ...

, the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa. On 18 March 1945 ''Meteor'' participated in the

Battle of the Ligurian Sea The Battle of the Ligurian Sea was a naval surface action of the Second World War fought on 18 March 1945, in the Gulf of Genoa in the Mediterranean Sea. A ''Kriegsmarine'' flotilla of two torpedo boats and one destroyer was conducting an offensiv ...

, where she sank the German fleet torpedo boat (ex-Italian

Ariete-class torpedo boat The ''Ariete''-class torpedo boats were a group of destroyer escorts built for the Regia Marina, Italian Navy during World War II. They were enlarged versions of the s and designed to escort convoys to North Africa. Of the 42 units planned, sixteen ...

''Arturo'').

Postwar service

Following the Second World War ''Meteor'', along with three other ships of the same class, was transferred to the

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Navy as part of an agreement signed at Ankara on 16 August 1957. They underwent a refit which involved the removal of the after set of torpedo tubes and some secondary armament. They received a new deckhouse and Squid anti-submarine weapons system. On 29 June 1959 they were handed over at Portsmouth. ''Meteor'' was renamed ''Piyale Paşa''.Blackman, Raymond V B, Jane's Fighting Ships 1963-4, Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd, London, p. 248

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meteor (G74) 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