HMS Brocklesby was a Type I Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War, spending much of the time in the English Channel and Mediterranean, taking part in the Dieppe Raid in 1942, and the Allied landings in Sicily and at Salerno in 1943. After the war, she was used as a sonar trials ship until 1963, and was sold for scrap in 1968.
Construction and design
HMS Brocklesby was ordered from Cammell Laird on 4 September 1939, one of 17 Hunt-class destroyers ordered from various shipbuilders on that date, (including two from Lairds), which followed on from 20 ships ordered earlier in the year. The Hunts were meant to fill the Royal Navy's need for a large number of small destroyer-type vessels capable of both convoy escort and operations with the fleet, and were designed with a heavy anti-aircraft armament of six 4-inch anti-aircraft guns and a speed of . An error during design, which was only discovered once the first ship of the class was built, meant that the ships as designed were dangerously unstable. To restore stability, the first 23 Hunts, including Brocklesby, were modified by removing a twin 4-inch mount, cutting down the ships' superstructure and adding ballast. These ships were known as Type I Hunts. Later ships in the class had their beam increased, which allowed them to carry the originally intended armament, and were known as Type II Hunts.
Brocklesby was long between perpendiculars and overall. The ship's beam was and draught . Displacement was standard and under full load. Two Admiralty boilers raising steam at and fed Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines that drove two propeller shafts, generating at 380 rpm. This gave a speed of .
The ship's main gun armament was four 4 inch (102 mm) QF Mk XVI dual purpose (anti-ship and anti-aircraft) guns in two twin mounts, with one mount forward and one aft. Additional close-in anti-aircraft armament was provided by a quadruple 2-pounder "pom-pom" mount. The ship was later modified by adding two single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon on the bridge wings. Up to 40 depth charges could be carried. The ship had a complement of 146 officers and men.
Brocklesby was laid down at Cammell Laird's Birkenhead shipyard on 18 November 1939 and was launched on 30 September 1940. She was completed on 9 April 1941.
Service history
Second World War
After commissioning and workup, Brocklesby joined the 15th Destroyer Flotilla based at Portsmouth, escorting coastal convoys in the English Channel. On 20 March 1942 she was escorting a convoy off Trevose Head in Cornwall when the convoy came under attack by German aircraft, with Brocklesby claiming two German aircraft shot down. On 28 March she took part in the St Nazaire Raid. This was an amphibious assault on the port of St Nazaire in France with the objective of destroying the gates of the Normandie dock by ramming them with an explosive-packed destroyer, , and so prevent the dock's use by the . Brocklesby, along with sister ships , Atherstone and covered the return of the boats carrying the raiding force from St Nazaire, claiming a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber shot down. On 19 August 1942 she took part in the Dieppe Raid, providing fire support for the landings on Green Beach and was hit several times by shells from German shore batteries, which temporarily disabled Brocklesbys engines causing her to run aground. The damage received took six weeks to repair.
On the night of 13/14 October 1942, the German commerce raider Komet attempted to break out into the Atlantic through the Channel, escorted by torpedo boats and minesweepers. Brocklesby was part of one of two groups deployed to intercept Komet. After Komet was sunk by the motor torpedo boat MTB 326, part of the other group, Brocklesby engaged Komets escort, before breaking off the engagement after coming under fire from German coastal artillery. Brocklesby continued to carry out both convoy escort and offensive operations against German shipping and was involved in an inconclusive engagement with an enemy convoy on 1 November 1942. On the night of 11/12 December, Brocklesby, together with the destroyers , , , and , attacked a German convoy off Dieppe. Eskdale torpedoed and sank a German Sperrbrecher or auxiliary minesweeper, while all of the British ships were damaged, with Brocklesby receiving splinter damage from near misses which killed one of her crew.