HMS Hesperus (H57)

HMS "Hesperus" (H57) was an H-class destroyer of the Royal Navy.

History

She was originally laid down as "Juruena" for the Brazilian Navy by John I. Thornycroft and Company at Woolston, Hampshire on 6 July 1938, launched on 1 August 1939, purchased in September 1939 and named "Hearty". Commissioned on 22 January 1940 under command of former Fleet Air Arm pilot Commander Donald Macintyre RN [Dickens (1972) p.180] "Hearty" was renamed "Hesperus" on 27 February, after the Hesperus of mythology.

The six "Havant" class destroyers initially formed the 9th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet assigned to anti-submarine protection of Scapa Flow. [Dickens (1972) p.180] Upon the German occupation of Denmark, "Hesperus" and "Havant" were assigned to cover British occupation of the Faroe Islands. "Hesperus" was damaged by Junkers Ju-87 dive-bombers off Norway in May 1940, and was under repair at Dundee during the evacuation of Dunkirk. [Dickens (1972) p.180]

In late 1940 the 9th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet was transferred to the Western Approaches Command and re-designated the 9th Escort Group. [Dickens (1972) p.181] In January, 1941, "Hesperus" and "Hurricane" were damaged by a storm at sea. [Dickens (1972) p.181] In the spring of 1941, "Hesperus" was attached to Force H at Gibraltar, under command of Lieutenant-Commander A.A. "Harry" Tait RN while Macintyre left "Hesperus" to form the 5th Escort Group. [Dickens (1972) p.183] "Hesperus" made a single trip escorting aircraft carriers ferrying fighter-planes to Malta with Force H before joining the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck in May, 1941. "Hesperus" was unable to keep up with the battleships pursuing Bismarck and was sent to Liverpool for a short refit.

In August, 1941, "Hesperus" escorted the battleship HMS "Prince of Wales" carrying Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Atlantic Charter meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. "Hesperus" was structurally damaged by heavy swells; and was repaired first by tender in Iceland and then at Immingham. [Dickens (1972) p.183]

On 25 October 1941, "Hesperus" and the destroyers HMS "Electra" and HMS "Express" escorted the HMS "Prince of Wales" for the first part of her journey to the Far East. The destroyers refuelled from the "Prince of Wales" south of Ireland. Two days later the destroyer, HMS "Legion" was detached from a convoy to cover the "Prince of Wales" with "Hesperus" while "Electra" and "Express" refuelled from a tanker in Ponta del Garda in the Azores. After "Electra" and "Express" returned the following day, "Hesperus" and "Legion" departed for Gibraltar. "Hesperus" returned to anti-submarine work from November, 1941.

"Hesperus" was one of the leading submarine hunters in the war. The ship attacked and sank the enemy German submarines "U-208" while in company with the destroyer HMS "Harvester" in the Atlantic west of Gibraltar on 7 December 1941, "U-93" in the North Atlantic on 15 January 1942 while reinforcing the escort of convoy HG-78, "U-357" while in company with the destroyer "Vanessa" while escorting convoy HX-219 in the Atlantic north-west of Ireland on 20 December 1942, "U-191" while escorting convoy ONS-4 in the North Atlantic south-east of Cape Farewell in Greenland on 23 April 1943 and "U-186" while escorting convoy SC-129 in the Atlantic north of the Azores on 12 May 1943.

In March, 1942, the remaining five "Havant" class destroyers were designated leaders of Escort Groups B-1 through B-5. Commander Tait was transferred to "Harvester"; and Commander A.F.St.G. Orpen assumed command of "Hesperus" and Escort Group B-2 when "Hesperus" completed repairs in April. Commander Macintyre returned to "Hesperus" when Orpen was promoted to captain in June. "Hesperus" lead the Escort Group B-2 team of V and W class destroyers "Vanessa" and "Whitehall" and Flower class corvettes "Campanula", "Clematis", "Gentian", "Heather", "Mignonette", and "Sweetbriar". [Dickens (1972) p.187]

Commander G.V. Legassick RNVR assumed command of "Hesperus" in March 1944. "Hesperus" had the honour of transporting the remains of Captain Frederic John Walker RN for burial at sea in July 1944. "Hesperus" was reassigned to the 19th Escort Group in the autumn of 1944. In January 1945, Commander R.A. Currie RN assumed command of "Hesperus" as leader of the all-destroyer 14th Escort Group. [Dickens (1972) p.192]

"Hesperus" last official act was escorting the exiled Norwegian government back to Oslo. The ship was sold for scrap on 26 November 1946 and broken up at Grangemouth. "Hesperus" ensign was preserved in Yeovil Parish Church. [Dickens (1972) p.194]

Equipment

Completed with "Y" gun position replaced by three depth charge traps, two depth-charge-throwers, and increased depth charge stowage. The number of depth charge throwers was increased to eight in 1940. Completed with no Director Control Tower (DCT) so the three remaining 4.7-inch (12-cm) low-angle guns (in "A", "B" and "X" positions) fired in local control. [Dickens (1972) p.180]

Completed with two four-barreled .50-caliber (12.7-mm) anti-aircraft machine-guns. One of the two quadruple torpedo tube mounts was replaced by a single high-angle 3-inch (76-mm) gun while under repair at Dundee in mid-1940. Two Oerlikon 20 mm cannon were added to the bridge wings during repair at Falmouth, Cornwall in early 1942, and two more were added during repair of ramming damage in early 1943. [Dickens (1972) pp.180&186]

Received High-Frequency-radio-Direction-Finding (HF/DF of Huff-Duff) antenna and early fixed-antenna RADAR during Liverpool refit in mid-1941. [Dickens (1972) p.183]

Received DCT at Immingham in September, 1941. [Dickens (1972) p.183] DCT was replaced by 10-cm band Resonant Cavity Magnetron SW RADAR with surface warning capability in early 1942, while "Hesperus" was under repair at Falmouth, Cornwall for damage received when ramming "U-93". [Dickens (1972) p.179]

Gun mount "A" was replace by a 24-spigot hedgehog in early 1943 while Hesperus was under repair from ramming "U-357". Additional depth charge stowage replaced the 3-inch (76-mm) high-angle gun and "Hesperus" received the one-ton Mark X depth charge and four Mark IV depth charge throwers during the same refit [Dickens (1972) p.177]

Notes

ources and references

*
* English, John. "Amazon to Ivanhoe - British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s".
* March, Edgar J. "British Destroyers, 1892-1953".
* Macintryre, Donald. "U-boat Killer".