HMS Wanderer (D74)

HMS ''Wanderer'' (D74/I74) was an Admiralty modified W class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was the seventh RN ship to carry the name ''Wanderer''. She was ordered in January 1918 to be built at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan in Glasgow, being launched in May 1919. She served through World War II where she was jointly credited with five kills on German U-boats, more than any other ship of her class.naval-history.net In December 1941 the community of Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire officially adopted her. In 1943 she was one of twenty one V&W class destroyers to be converted as Long Range Escorts. She was decommissioned after the war and sold for scrap in 1946.

Construction

HMS ''Wanderer'''s keel was laid down on 7 August 1918 at Fairfield's shipyard in Govan, Scotland.uboat.net, HMS Wanderer She was launched on 1 May 1919 and the build was completed on 18 August. The average cost for this class of ship was £262,478 which could be divided into hull cost of £104,726 (weighing 548 tons) and machinery cost of £109,308 (weighing 417 tons).Whinney 1986, p.79-81

She was 312 feet overall in length with a beam of 29.5 feet. Her mean draught was 9 feet, and would reach 11.7 feet under full load. She had a displacement of 1,112 tons as standard.Janes fighting ships

She was propelled by three Yarrow type 250 pound per square inch water tube boilers, powering Brown-Curtis geared independent oil fuelled steam turbines developing 27,120 SHP and driving two screws at 260 RPM for a maximum designed speed of 34 knots. She was oil-fired and had a bunkerage of 320 to 350 tons. This gave a range of between 3500 nautical miles at 15 knots to 900 nautical miles at 32 knots.

She shipped four BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns on CP VI mountings 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 pounder Mk.II (40 mm L/39) ("Pom poms") mounted abeam between funnels and five Light machine guns (4 were Lewis guns and 1 was a Maxim). Abaft of the 2nd funnel, she carried six 21-inch Torpedo Tubes in two triple mountings on the centre-line.

Inter war service

She was initially commissioned to the 3rd Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet on 18 September 1919National Maritime Museum, Warship Histories, vol.iv, vessel id.365719 and later moved to the Mediterranean Fleet. Then in 1931 she was deployed at Chatham Naval Base as a training vessel. Shortly before the war broke out she was deployed with the 15th Destroyer Flotilla at Rosyth.

Second World War service

1939

At the outbreak of WWII in September 1939 ''Wanderer'' was sent to Plymouth Navy Base to join the Western Approaches Command along with her flotilla ( ''Vanity'', ''Vansittart'', ''Volunteer'', ''Whitehall'', ''Witch'', ''Witherington'' and ''Wolverine'), then on the 13th she was sent with HMS ''Whirlwind'' to escort convoy OB4 on its initial outward journey.

1940

On 7 January 1940 she arrived at Gibraltar together with HMS Aberdeen as escorts to convoy OG-13F (23 ships).

Convoy duties continued until 27 April 1940 when she was transferred to the Home Fleet to support the evacuation of Allied troops from Norway in Operation Alphabet. On 29 April along with five other destroyers ( ''Somali'', ''Mashona'', ''Sikh'', ''Walker'' and ''Westcott'') and the light cruisers ''Sheffield'', ''Arethusa'' and ''Galatea'' she took passage to Åndalsnes. During the operation ''Wanderer'' rescued 150 troops but became grounded and had to be towed free by HMS ''Sikh''.

On 3 May her pendant number was changed to I74 as the Royal Navy were changing identities for all their ships in order to hopefully confuse the enemy.

Took part in Operation Cycle, the evacuation of Allied troops from Le Havre, France, on 6–7 June 1940.

In August with HMS ''Anthony'' rescued 55 survivors (between them) of the British merchantman ''Jamaica Pioneer''.

1941

Whilst escorting to convoy OB239 on 2 June 1941 along with the corvette HMS ''Periwinkle'' she attacked and sunk the first of her five confirmed U-boat kills, to the west of Skerryvore at .

She was involved in the initial stages of Operation Substance in July 1941, escorting the convoy WS9C through the North West Approaches and in August she was escorting SL81 when it was spotted by the who called for support. When on her maiden patrol arrived they attacked together but ''Wanderer'' along with HNoMS ''St Albans'' and HMS ''Hydrangea'' managed to destroy ''U-401'' at South-West of Ireland. SL81 was harried for the next two days by submarine and air attacks with the loss of five ships, until it reached safer waters with RAF support.

On the evening of 18 Aug ''Wanderer'' was signalled by the C-in-C Western Approaches "Proceed OG 71 and carry out sweep astern of convoy for two hours before returning. Convoy is being shadowed by U boats". OG 71 was an outbound convoy to Gibraltar that was destined to have a hard time and in fact by the time ''Wanderer'' arrived the Norwegian destroyer had already been sunk by torpedoes, so ''Wanderer'' joined ''Hydrangea'' in rescuing 42 survivors (although 2 later died aboard ''Hydrangea'').

1942

Escort duties continued in the Atlantic theatre and in September ''Wanderer'' entered the US Navy's Brooklyn shipyard for repairs or refit.

1943

LRE conversion

January to May 1943 was spent at HMNB Devonport under refit and conversion as a long range escort; the No.1 boiler (and her forward funnel) was removed to provide space for more fuel tanks and crew quarters; two of her main guns (A and Y) were landed and replaced with a Hedgehog ahead-throwing weapon forward and depth charge stowage and launchers aft; the torpedo tubes were replaced with depth charge stowage and a pair of Oerlikon 20 mm cannon amidships, with a further pair in the bridge wings; the 2-pounders were removed; her gunnery director tower and torpedo control were removed from the bridge to be replaced by an ASDICS control cabinet; she was fitted with Type 144 ASDICS (Sonar), Type 271 target indication radar and Type 291 air warning radar; the latest Wireless telegraphy (W/T), Radio transmitter (R/T) and High-frequency direction finding (H/F D/F) equipment was installed; and Carley rafts were fitted throughout.

The effect of removing the boiler was to reduce maximum speed to 27.5 knots, but the increase in fuel increased her range, and her crew complement was raised to 193.

Back in service

In July she began by escorting a convoy of troop ships for the Allied invasion of Sicily, known as Operation Husky.Whinney 1986, p.90-91 On 25 August, during a convoy from Britain to Gibraltar she came into radar contact with a surfaced at about 4.30am.Whinney 1986, p.95-102 When they closed to within 2,800 yards the U-boat submerged and they had to pick her up on sonar. They lost contact temporarily as the submarine headed underneath the convoy ships but the eventually picked her up again and with corvette HMS ''Wallflower'' began Hedgehog and depth charge runs. ''U-523'' was forced to surface and the Allied ships turned their main armaments on them, forcing the Germans to abandon the submarine; 17 were lost but the other 37 were rescued uboat.net, U-523 and ''U-523'' sank at . The following day ''Wanderer'' landed an advance Royal Air Force party in Portugal as part of Operation Alacrity, the occupation of leased air bases in the Azores.Whinney 1986, p.104-105

''Wanderer'' was deployed to the close escort group for Convoy JW 55B which was a part of the Russian convoys, sailing from Loch Ewe on 20 December when she had to rescue a young seaman that fell overboard; although they had him inboard with the doctor within seven minutes the cold killed him. The close escort group remained with the convoy well up into the Arctic Circle before they turned for home to refuel.Whinney 1986, p.114-116 A few days afterwards warships from JW 55B were involved in the Battle of the North Cape.

1944

On 17 January ''Wanderer'' was searching for a German blockade runner along with frigate and the corvette when they detected a weak sonar contact to the south west of Cape Clear which turned out to be a U-boat. Together they carried out several Hedgehog attacks, with little effect, before ''Wanderer'' made a fast depth-charge barrage attack which sank the U-boat at .Whinney 1986, p.12-18 The U-boat was identified as but recent research suggests she may have been .Niestle
The Loss of ''U-305'', ''U-377'' and ''U-641''
, ''ubootwaffe.net''

During 22 to 27 February ''Wanderer'' accompanied aircraft carrier on the Russian Convoy JW 57 which was attacked by U-boats with the loss of one destroyer. ''Wanderer'' then took passage with the rest of her Escort Group to the Faroe Islands to refuel but they were caught in a gale which three ships in the group registered as Force 12 on the Beaufort scale; as fuel was running low they were forced to continue and returned safely but with heavy weather damage.Whinney 1986, p.116-124

Further modifications came in late March as she was fitted rather mysteriously with a single mounted 2 pounder gun on the Forecastle and another Oerlikon 20 mm cannon on the Quarterdeck.Whinney 1986, p.127-128

In April she was transferred to the English Channel with Escort Group 105 in support of Operation Neptune, the landing operations in Normandy. On 28 May she escorted Motor Launch 10 on a mine laying operation off Brittany. Also that May she attacked a German E-boat in the channel, setting it on fire.Whinney 1986, p.129

Between 4 and 6 June Escort Group 105 (''Wanderer'', HMS ''Tavy'', HMS ''Dianella'' and HMS ''Geranium'') and the Royal Canadian Navy corvettes ''Summerside'', ''Woodstock'' and ''Regina'' escorted Convoy EBM2, composed of 30 motor transport ships and five others, from the Bristol Channel to the Western Task Force unloading area off Omaha Beach, arriving on D-day plus one.Whinney 1986, p.131-135

On 5 July whilst escorting a convoy north off Pointe de Barfleur ''Wanderer'' detected and along with HMS ''Tavy'' began a Hedgehog attack which would lead to her fifth and final U-boat kill at . They rescued only one survivor, U-390's Engineer Officer, and were directed to land the prisoner at Portland.Whinney 1986, p.138-140

Fate

Whilst at Portland ''Wanderer's'' Engineering officer reported that the ship had "one hundred leaks from the sea and two hundred and fifty internal" and that due to steam the engineers couldn't see their way around the engine room while at sea.Whinney 1986, p.140-141 The ship's captain, Lt.Cdr. Reginald Whinney having questioned the engineer further then signaled the flag officer at Portland that he would not take the ship to sea again except for action against the enemy.

Whinney was then reassigned and his First Lieutenant was given command to sail ''Wanderer'' to Chatham Dockyard for assessment where it was confirmed that the twenty-five-year-old vessel was no longer seaworthy or even repairable.Whinney 1986, p.145

In September 1945 ''Wanderer'' was put on the disposal list and was sold by 3 January 1946 to be demolished by ship breakers Hughes Bolckow.

Battle honours

During her service ''Wanderer'' was awarded six battle honours
* Atlantic 1939-44
* Norway 1940
* Sicily 1943
* Normandy 1944
* Arctic 1944
* English Channel 1944

Successes

During her service ''Wanderer'' was credited with the destruction of five U-boats

Notes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wanderer
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