HMS Wolsey (D98) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I, in the Nanking incident of 1927, and in World War II.
Construction and commissioning
Wolsey, the first Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered on 9 December 1916 as part of the 10th Order of the 1916–1917 Naval Programme and was laid down by John I. Thornycroft & Company at Woolston, Hampshire, England, on 28 March 1917. Launched on 16 March 1918, she was completed on 14 May 1918 and commissioned the same day. Her original pennant number became G40 in June 1918; it was changed to D98 during the interwar period.
Service history
World War I
Upon completion, Wolsey was assigned to the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, in which she served for the rest of World War I.
Interwar
After the conclusion of World War I, Wolsey served in the Atlantic Fleet. In the late 1920s, she operated on the China Station. After the British river steamer SS Kutwo collided with and sank a Chinese troop-carrying launch on the Yangtze River and Chinese authorities threatened to seize her at Nanking in early March 1927, Wolsey arrived on the scene and came alongside Kutwo to repel by force any Chinese attempt to board her, and Wolseys sailors also boarded a British hulk nearby and forced off Chinese students who had boarded it to stage a demonstration; the light cruiser soon joined Wolsey at Nanking as a reinforcement. During the Nanking Incident, Wolsey steamed at full speed from Wuhu to Nanking on 24 March 1927 to reinforce Emerald and the United States Navy destroyers and and patrol yacht as they confronted Chinese troops threatening foreigners ashore; she arrived as the other ships opened fire on Chinese positions and, without a target designation for her larger guns, used her machine guns against Chinese snipers which had harassed the other ships and their boats all day. She remained at Nanking, prepared for further action, until all foreign refugees were safely aboard the ships on the evening of 25 March 1927.
By the early 1930s, Wolsey was part of the Mediterranean Fleet. She later was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Malta.
In 1938, the Royal Navy selected her for conversion into an antiaircraft escort destroyer at the Royal Navy Dockyard at Valletta, Malta.
World War II
January – June 1940
Wolsey still was undergoing her conversion and a refit at Malta when the United Kingdom entered World War II on 3 September 1939. In January 1940 she began post-conversion acceptance trials and pre-deployment work-ups at Malta. With all work completed on 21 January 1940, her pennant number was changed to L02, and she was selected for service in home waters. She proceeded from Malta to Gibraltar, where on 29 January 1940, she and the sloop began a voyage to Liverpool as the escort of Convoy HG 17F. Reinforced during the voyage by the sloop on 31 January and by the destroyers and from 4 to 5 February, Wolsey and Lowestoft escorted the convoy until its arrival at Liverpool on 7 February 1940.
After her arrival at Liverpool, Wolsey was assigned to Western Approaches Command and began convoy escort and patrol duty in the Western Approaches. On 10 May 1940, she was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief, Dover to support Allied military operations during the German offensive into France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands that began that month. On 13 May, she and the destroyers , , and escorted a convoy bringing reinforcements from the United Kingdom for French antiaircraft defenses in ports along the English Channel, and later the same day embarked demolition parties and carried them to Le Havre, France, to destroy port facilities there before advancing German Army forces captured them. On 16 May, she and the destroyer bombarded German ground forces at Escault in Offrethun, France, and Wolsey again bombarded Escault on 17 May. On 22 May she and the destroyer escorted the cargo ship City of Christchurch as City of Christchurch carried heavy motor vehicles and tanks from Southampton to Calais, France. On 23 May, Wolsey embarked a demolition party for Le Havre and then steamed to Calais to assist in the evacuation of British citizens before returning to Dover. On 25 May, she and the destroyer engaged German 150-mm (5.9-inch) howitzers in defence of the evacuation of Calais.