HMS ''Wild Goose'',

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 ...

U45, was a

sloop 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 ...

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 ...

. She was one of several ships of that class that took part in the famous "six in one trip" in 1943 (in which six

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 ...

s were sunk in one patrol).

Service history

She was built at

Yarrow shipyards Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also o ...

Scotstoun Scotstoun ( gd, Baile an Sgotaich) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, west of Glasgow City Centre. It is bounded by Garscadden and Yoker to the west, Victoria Park, Jordanhill and Whiteinch to the east, Jordanhill to the north and the River Clyde ...

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. She was launched on 14 October 1942. She was adopted by the civil community of

Worsley Worsley () is a village in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, which in 2014 had a population of 10,090. It lies along Worsley Brook, west of Manchester. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county ...

, Lancashire, as part of the Warship Week savings campaign in 1942. On 22 May 1943, she was deployed on her first mission along with fellow sloops , , , and on anti-submarine operations supporting the outward passage of Atlantic Convoy ONS 8. On 18 December 1943, she was taken in hand for repair in Liverpool, redeploying at the end of January 1944. On 31 January 1944, she sank with ''Starling'' and , and later joined ''Woodpecker'' and ''Kite'', taking part in the sinking of the German submarines (8 February 1944), & (9 February 1944), (11 February 1944) and (15 March 1944) At the end of May 1944, she returned to Liverpool for more repairs, whilst here she was selected to take part in

Operation Neptune Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

to prevent U-Boat attacks on the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

invasion convoys. On 1 July 1944, she was released from ''Neptune'' and dispatched to

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

for refit, completing in September 1944. During February and March 1945, she was deployed to the English Channel, taking part in the sinking of by the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

, and sinking herself. Following VE day, on 6 May 1945, she was nominated for transfer to the British Pacific Fleet following her second refit. By the time the refit had completed in September 1945 the Japanese had surrendered and ''Wild Goose'' was therefore surplus to requirements and was Paid off and reduced to reserve status. She was later recommissioned in 1946 and deployed to the Persian Gulf, spending the rest of her service career in the Middle East before finally decommissioning in 1955. ''Wild Goose'' was sold for breaking up in February 1956, and arrived at the breakers at Bo’ness on the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

on 26 February 1956.

Today

The ship's badge was saved from the breakers yard and donated to Liverpool National Maritime Museum.

References

Publications

* *

External links

Mike Kemble's Walker site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Goose Black Swan-class sloops World War II sloops of the United Kingdom Sloops of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Clyde 1942 ships