HMS Codrington was one of nine s built for the Royal Navy during the 1920s. She was the flotilla leader for the class. During the Second World War she served in Home waters and off the Norwegian coast, before being bombed and sunk on 27 July 1940 whilst in dock at Dover.
Construction and commissioning
HMS Codrington was ordered on 6 March 1928 from the yards of Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend, under the 1927 Naval Estimates. She was laid down on 20 June 1928 and was launched a year later on 8 August 1929. She was commissioned on 4 June 1930. She has so far been the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named HMS Codrington, after Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, commander of the allied fleet at the Battle of Navarino.
Codrington was a flotilla leader and therefore larger than the other A-class destroyers. Her bridge structure was larger to provide the additional accommodation required for the Flotilla Staff. She displaced with an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . She was fitted with turbine machinery giving a speed of on trials carried out in February 1930. Some smaller weapons were fitted for use against aircraft. The ship had two quadruple torpedo tube mountings and for attacks on submarines was fitted with four depth charge chutes and two throwers, and an additional gun fitted between the two funnels.
Pre-war operations
After working up, in July 1930 Codridgton joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla as part of the Mediterranean as leader. In June 1931, the destroyer returned to Devonport Naval Base for modifications to her turbines, returning to the Mediterranean at the end of the month after the completion of the modifications. Codrington was refitted again at Devonport in September–October 1932, again returning to the 3rd Flotilla. On 12 June 1934, Codrington and the destroyer collided. Both ships received minor damage, with no injuries occurring.
On 17 July 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, with Codrington carrying out patrols off the Spanish coast. On 23 August, Codrington went to the aid of the British steamer Gibel Jerom (operated by the Bland Line), which had been stopped by the Spanish Republican cruiser off Cape Tres Forcas while bound for Nationalist-held Melilla with a cargo of petrol. Codringtons commanding officer warned the Captain of Miguel de Cervantes that Britain would not tolerate any interference with British shipping outside the Three-mile limit. Codrington escorted Gibel Jerom back to Gibraltar. On 12 January 1937, Codrington and the depot ship were in Valencia harbour when the harbour was shelled by a Nationalist warship.
Codrington returned to Britain in March 1937, and was replaced as leader of the 3rd Flotilla by the newly built in June 1937. She then entered the reserve, but was refitted and then attached to the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham, Plymouth in October 1938. On 7 June 1939, Codrington took part in a tribute to the crew of the submarine , which had sunk on trials in Liverpool Bay, above where Thetis had sunk. After another refit she was recommissioned on completion of the refit in August 1939.
Wartime career
The English Channel and French coast
After being recommissioned after her refit, Codrington became part of the 19th Destroyer Flotilla, based at Dover as part of the Nore Command. During September and October 1939, Codrington escorted convoys carrying the British Expeditionary Force to France. She remained in the English Channel throughout October, before being transferred to Harwich to defend against a perceived threat of a German attack on the Low Countries. She was back in Dover in December, and on 4 December Codrington embarked King George VI and transported him to Boulogne for his visit to the British Expeditionary Force in France. Codrington re-embarked him on 10 December and brought him back to Dover. On 22 December, she joined the escort – consisting of , and – for the auxiliary minelayer Princess Victoria during a minelay in the Dover Barrage.
1940 saw Codrington continue to host VIPs, as on 4 January, she embarked Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) on a visit to France. In February, she was nominated as the flotilla leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla based at Harwich, replacing , which had been sunk by a mine on 19 January. On 5 February, she carried Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill and several high-ranking military leaders to Boulogne for a war council meeting in Paris. Codrington then put into Chatham Dockyard for a refit.