Recognition Guide Warships of the Second World War

Royal Navy — Destroyer class

Hunt-class destroyer

The class in numbers

  • 86 Completed
  • 23 Lost

Design and service

Type
Destroyer
Navies
Royal Navy 20
Hellenic Navy 3
Polish Navy 1
Built
1939–1943
In commission
1940–1963
Operators
(72 ships), Royal Hellenic Navy (7), Polish Navy (3), (3), Free French Navy (1), After 1945:, Federal German Navy (3), India (3), (2), Egypt (2), (3), (1)
Builders
  • John Brown & Company
  • Cammell Laird
  • Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
  • Hawthorn Leslie and Company
  • Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
  • Alexander Stephen and Sons
  • Swan Hunter
  • John I. Thornycroft & Company
  • J. Samuel White
  • Vickers-Armstrongs
  • Yarrow Shipbuilders

Class specifications

Figures for the class as designed. Individual vessels varied, sometimes considerably — each vessel page carries its own configurations.

Type I
Displacement, standard
1,000 long tons (1,016 t)
Displacement, full load
1,340 long tons (1,362 t)
Length
85 m (278.9 ft) OA
Speed
27.5 knots (50.9 km/h, 31.6 mph)
Complement
146
Main gun
102 mm (4 in)
Armament
  • 4 × QF 4 in Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX
  • 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk. VIII AA guns on quad mount MK.VII
  • 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns on single mounts P Mk. III
  • 40 depth charges, 2 throwers, 1 rack
Type II
Displacement, standard
1,050 long tons (1,067 t)
Displacement, full load
1,430 long tons (1,453 t)
Length
85.3 m (279.9 ft) OA
Speed
27 knots (50 km/h, 31.1 mph)
Complement
164
Main gun
102 mm (4 in)
Armament
  • 6 × QF 4 in Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX
  • 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk. VIII on quad mount MK.VII
  • 2 × 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk. III
  • 110 depth charges, 2 throwers, 3 racks
Type III
Displacement, standard
1,050 long tons (1,067 t)
Displacement, full load
1,435 long tons (1,458 t)
Length
85.3 m (279.9 ft) OA
Speed
27 knots (50 km/h, 31.1 mph)
Complement
168
Main gun
102 mm (4 in)
Armament
  • 4 × QF 4 in Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX
  • 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk. VIII on quad mount MK.VII
  • 2 × 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk. III
  • 2 × 21 in torpedo tubes
  • 110 depth charges, 4 throwers, 3 racks
Type IV
Displacement, standard
1,175 long tons (1,194 t)
Displacement, full load
1,561 long tons (1,586 t)
Length
90.22 m (296 ft) OA
Speed
26 knots (48.2 km/h, 29.9 mph)
Complement
170
Main gun
102 mm (4 in)
Armament
  • 6 × QF 4 in Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX
  • 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk. VIII on quad mount MK.VII
  • 2 × 20 mm Oerlikons on single mounts P Mk. III
  • 4 × 0.5 in Vickers machine guns on twin mounts Mk. V, later replaced by 4 × 20 mm Oerlikons on twin mounts Mk. V
  • 3 × 21 in torpedo tubes
  • 40 depth charges, 2 throwers, 1 rack

Roster

Holding 24 of the 86 hulls recorded for this class. Vessels transferred to another navy are catalogued under the navy that sailed them and appear there instead.

Vessel Pennant Commissioned Fate
HMS Blankney 1941 Scrapped 1958
HMS Bleasdale L50 1941 Scrapped 1956
HMS Derwent (L83) L83 1942 Scrapped 1947
HMS Eridge (L68) L68 1941 Scrapped 1946
HMS Exmoor (L08) L08 1941 Scrapped 1966
HMS Exmoor (L61) L61 1940 Sunk 1941
HMS Goathland 1942 Scrapped 1946
HMS Hambledon (L37) L37 1940 Scrapped 1957
HMS Haydon 1942 Scrapped 1958
HMS Heythrop (L85) L85 1941 Sunk 1942
HMS Hursley L84 1942 Scrapped 1959
HMS Hurworth (L28) L28 1941 Sunk 1943
HMS Lauderdale L95 1942 Scrapped 1959
HMS Liddesdale L100 1941 Scrapped 1948
HMS Melbreak 1942 Scrapped 1956
HMS Penylan 1942 Sunk 1942
HMS Puckeridge 1941 Sunk 1943
HMS Quorn (L66) L66 1940 Sunk 1944
HMS Rockwood L39 1942 Scrapped 1946
HMS Stevenstone L16 1943 Scrapped 1959
HMS Tanatside L69 1942 Transferred 1962
HMS Tynedale 1940 Sunk 1943
HMS Wensleydale 1942 1944
ORP Ślązak (L26) L26 1942 Scrapped 1979

Sources