Royal Navy Destroyers Collection
Getting through two world wars was probably the most difficult challenge the Royal Navy has faced in its long history. Ships under flags bearing St. George's Cross clashed with their enemy in vast expanses of the world's oceans, winning glorious victories and suffering bitter defeats. However, behind each bright chapter in this part of naval combat history lies hard, sometimes barely perceptible, day-to-day work.
In the 20th century, most of the labor was performed by destroyers. They kept watch without interruption for weeks and months, bravely confronted the elements of nature out on the high seas, and countered enemy surface ships, submarines, and aircraft. There existed hardly any other ships in naval history that could have undertaken such a varied range of combat tasks, and so numerous, as the Royal Navy and Commonwealth ships did during both world wars.
The overall collection comprised four sub-collections; each sub-collection granted a different reward, with a separate reward for obtaining all 16 items. Items may be bought for 5 duplicates.
Contents
Collections
Badges
Royal Navy Destroyers Collection - Badges
Named after the legendary warriors of Scandinavian mythology, HMS Valkyrie was laid down in the dockyards of the town of Dumbarton, Scotland, in May 1916. She was commissioned a little more than 12 months later, in June 1917. Valkyrie was the lead ship in a series of flotilla leaders of the V class (5 items). These ships represented a breakthrough for their time, and defined the general appearance of destroyers not only in the British Navy, but also across the other leading navies of the world for a long time to come. Their large dimensions resulted in sea-keeping characteristics and sea endurance good enough to operate conjointly with battle squadrons. Another progressive solution was the placement of artillery guns in super-firing turrets, which later became a standard scheme for subsequent generations of destroyers.
Following HMS Valkyrie and her sister ships, several further series of ships were built resembling her, in regard to arrangement and characteristics. From 1917 through 1924, a total of 67 ships were commissioned, collectively designated as V-class and W-class destroyers. Many of them remained in service until 1945, thus participating in World War I as well as being on active duty during the whole of World War II. Initially, HMS Valkyrie was a member of Harwich Force, whose main mission was carrying out escort operations in coastal waters. Later on, she would become a part of the Grand Fleet, the major British naval force. In 1936, the ship was scrapped for metal.
Commissioned in May 1937, HMS Icarus was the fourth ship in the history of the Royal Navy to be named after Icarus, a heroic figure from ancient Greek myths. This ship belonged to the I class—the last series of so-called "standard" destroyers. This designation was given to a large group of ships of this type that were built in the U.K. between 1924 and 1938. They shared a "standard" arrangement, mainly inherited from the V and W classes, with water displacement of around 1,300 tons, a speed of around 35–37 knots, and armament consisting of four 120 mm guns and two 533 mm torpedo tubes. Initially, in 1936, the British Navy ordered eight I-class destroyers that were supposed to form one flotilla. It's worth mentioning though that their flotilla leader was built as part of a separate project. Some time later, by the order of the Turkish Navy, four more ships carrying less powerful torpedo armament were built, two of which were inducted into the Royal Navy during World War II.
The operational record of HMS Icarus was extremely intense. In April 1940, the destroyer took part in the Norwegian Campaign, capturing a German transport ship and playing her role in the Second Battle of Narvik, a glorious event for the Royal Navy. Soon after, HMS Icarus was involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk. In May 1941, she made an appearance in the well-known Hunt for Bismarck. In the summer of 1944, the destroyer covered the landing operation in Normandy. Besides these roles, throughout the entire war, HMS Icarus participated in a range of convoy operations in the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Region, and Mediterranean during which time she added four sunk German submarines to her combat record. In 1946, the merited warship was decommissioned from the navy.
The first warship in the Royal Navy to be named after the Battle of Jutland was a Battle-class destroyer that began her active duty in 1947, and received a badge depicting a Sea Griffin. The new destroyers, built in several series and named after significant British victories on land and at sea, were the Admiralty's response to the threat of air attacks, which had drastically increased by that time. From 1942 through 1945, a total of 40 ships were laid down, with the construction of two more destroyers for the Royal Australian Navy starting in 1946. At the end of World War II, the Battle-class destroyers were no longer needed in such great numbers, resulting in the completion of only 26 ships of this class.
HMS Jutland and her sister ships conceptually differed from the destroyers of the preceding class in that they were armed with up-to-date and fully-fledged dual-purpose main battery artillery, comprising four or five 113 mm guns. Thanks to the mass production of Bofors and Oerlikon mounts set up in Britain and the U.S., all small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery of Battle-class destroyers consisted of these mounts, which noticeably out-matched the British Pom-Pom's and 12.7 mm machine guns in terms of performance characteristics. However, these ships had just a few occasions to use their powerful AA defenses in practice. Only one destroyer from this series, HMS Barfleur, managed to see action during World War II as a member of the British Pacific Fleet. HMS Jutland did her military service in peacetime and finished it in 1965.
The Royal Navy giving the name Daring to its warships was a tradition dating back to the early 19th century. The sixth ship to bear this name was a destroyer. Laid down in September 1945, HMS Daring and her sister ships were the pinnacle of development of this ship type in Britain, being the largest and most powerful destroyers ever to serve in the navies of the British Commonwealth. Their characteristic feature, in addition to powerful anti-submarine armament, was anti-aircraft artillery whose gun fire control system, together with the main battery's automatic aiming system, which allowed them to simultaneously fire at two targets within the short- and long-range zones of the ship's AA defenses.
The superiority of the new ships over the other representatives of this ship type was so great that from 1953 to 1957 they were not officially classified as destroyers, but were instead referred to as "Darings"—taking the name of the lead ship of the series. Eight ships of this class were inducted into the Royal Navy in the period spanning 1952–1954. Later, four more of these ships were laid down for the Royal Australian Navy, but only three of them would be completed. HMS Daring, the lead ship of the class, served in the Royal Navy from 1952 to 1971.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
| Icon | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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Second flag | Second flag on all British destroyers |
Artillery
Royal Navy Destroyers Collection - Artillery
The Mark IX gun was designed in the late 1920s to replace outdated systems of the same caliber that had been in use since World War I. The new gun had twice the rate of fire and was capable of firing up to 12 shells per minute, with each projectile weighing 22 kg. The elevation angle of the first mounts was 30 degrees, which later was increased to 40, and then further to 55 degrees. The maximum range of fire at the elevation of 30 degrees was about 14.5 km.
Most destroyers built in Britain between 1930 and 1940 were armed with the Mark IX gun model for their main battery artillery. All so-called "standard" destroyers starting from the A class, up to the I class, as well as several series of ships of from the time of war, carried four single-mounts each. The J-, K-, N-, and Tribal-class destroyers were equipped with the same guns, but placed in twin-mounts. Fast-firing and quite powerful Mark IX guns were well-suited to hit-and-run battles at short- and mid-range, which is why British sailors valued them so much. The major drawback of this system, that prominently manifested itself in the very first months of World War II, was its inability to effectively fire at airborne targets. The poor ability of the Mark IX to repel the attacks of the Luftwaffe's dive bombers, the nemeses of British destroyers, forced the British Admiralty to focus on the development of dual-purpose guns.
The best-known British anti-aircraft gun appeared during World War I. It was designed by the Vickers company and went into service from 1915 under the designation "2-pounder Mark II gun". The gun was nicknamed the pom-pom because of the characteristic sound it produced when firing. Mark II guns were almost solely produced as single-mounts with manual aiming. Some of the initial pom-pom guns would also be used during World War II, mostly on mobilized civil vessels.
The early 1920s saw the start of development of a 40 mm multi-barreled AA gun with a power drive. Due to poor funding, typical of the British Admiralty in the 1920s, the process of accepting the new gun into service was a very long one. Only in the early 1930s did the navy start to receive the first 40 mm AA Mark VIII guns, initially placed in octuple mounts. The new gun had the same barrel as the Mark II, which is why it inherited the pom-pom nickname. In 1935, a quadruple mount was designed which would become the basis for the AA armament of British destroyers starting from the Tribal class. The 2-pounder's rate of fire was around 100 shots per minute with its effective vertical range of fire being just a little above 1 km and the shell weighing a little over 900 grams. The pom-pom gun was inferior in terms of almost all performance characteristics in comparison to Bofors AA automatic guns of the same caliber. The latter though were under-produced, which is why they never superseded the presence of pom-pom guns on British ships.
The Vickers company developed the 12.7 mm AA machine gun in the mid-1920s. However, it wasn't until 1932 that it entered into service in the Royal Navy. Since the navy did not have any other small caliber AA systems at that time, the Vickers guns became very widespread. In the 1930s and early 1940s, it was present on virtually all ships of the Royal Navy, from battleships to minesweepers.
The Vickers quadruple mount was the most popular of its kind in the navy. It had to be aimed manually, with a practicable rate of fire of around 150–200 shots per minute, and an effective vertical range of fire a bit higher than 700 m. By the mid-1930s, the 12.7 mm machine gun was considered to be ineffective against up-to-date combat aircraft of that time. However, the British Navy would have no alternative to this weapon until the massive shipments of 20 mm Oerlikon automatic guns commenced. In particular, the quadruple 12.7 mm Vickers machine guns formed the basis of the AA defenses of British "standard" destroyers, starting from the D class.
Designed at the end of World War II, the 4.5 inch Mark VI mount (113 mm) would become the most advanced British dual-purpose artillery system of its time. The elevation angle of its guns, placed in turrets, was 80 degrees, the range of fire at surface targets was 19 km, and the effective vertical range of fire exceeded 12 km. The 25 kg shell of the new 113 mm gun was heavier than the projectile of the "standard" 120 mm Mark IX gun. The essential advantages of the new mount were its ability to automatically aim at targets and its mechanized supply of ammunition, which enhanced its rate of fire to 24 shots per minute.
Two Battle-class destroyers of the Royal Australian Navy, commissioned between 1950 and 1951, were the first to carry these new dual-purpose turrets. The first British ship to receive Mark VI guns as their main battery artillery was HMS Daring, commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1952. The last ships of the British Navy armed with these guns were decommissioned in the 1980s. The navies of some countries still have these guns in their arsenal.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
| Icon | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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Second flag | Second flag on all British cruisers |
Combat Episodes
Royal Navy Destroyers Collection - Combat Episodes
After the seizure of the Norwegian port of Narvik on April 9, 1940, ten German destroyers were forced to linger in the waters of Ofotfjord due to a lack of fuel. The next morning, five British destroyers stormed Narvik harbor and, before the enemy knew what was happening, sank two German destroyers and damaged several others. While "ousting" the British, who eventually lost two of their ships, the German destroyers exhausted their supply of shells. In addition to their shortage of fuel, they stood no chance of breaking through.
Shortly after noon on April 13, an impressive sight could be seen from the snow-covered shores of Ofotfjord: battleship Warspite, accompanied by nine destroyers, including HMS Cossack and HMS Icarus, rumbling with her guns was surfing the mirror-like northern waters. Their opponents were doomed... Eventually, over the course of a few days, half of all available Kriegsmarine destroyers were sunk, hailing a great victory for the Royal Navy.
The success of a military operation is not always determined by the number of enemy ships sunk or enemy soldiers captured. The allied victory at Dunkirk from the end of May to the beginning of June, 1940, was defined by the 300,000 lives of British and French soldiers that were saved. This operation preserved the lives and freedom of trained military personnel, enabling them to continue their fight in the war. With the cost of the operation being a number of ships and small vessels sunk, the quick decisions made by the navy, improvising at every turn, and the incredible dedication shown by British sailors, soldiers, and civilians, worked miracles in those days.
Nearly forty of the Royal Navy destroyers that participated in Operation Dynamo accounted for around a third of all evacuees. Initially, the warships assembled for the operation only intended to cover the boarding of the evacuated soldiers onto civilian ships. However, it would have been nearly impossible to save as many if the original plan was stuck to. So, on the night of May 28, by the light of the fires raging in the city tormented by the Luftwaffe, HMS Wakeful and HMS Gallant were the first to enter Dunkirk's harbor and board soldiers directly from the embankments, while other destroyers joined the evacuation from nearby beaches. On the morning of May 29, during another round of evacuation, Wakeful, loaded with hundreds of soldiers, was sunk by a German submarine. On the same day, Gallant, having survived an air raid, hit a mine and could not continue her part in the operation.
One of the most difficult theaters of combat for the Royal Navy was the Mediterranean. The battle chronicles continuously reported both heavy defeats and impressive victories. One such victory which occurred off the Kerkennah Islands was the rout of an Italian-German convoy en route to North Africa, carrying reinforcements for General Rommel. This convoy would persevere in the history books under the name of Tarigo, after the Italian destroyer that was the escort's flagship.
On April 15, 1941, British aviation reconnaissance discovered several enemy transport ships heading southward, accompanied by three destroyers. The interception of the convoy from Malta was assigned to Force "K", which included two J-class and two Tribal-class destroyers. The Force was led by Captain (D) Philip Mack, holding his pennant on board HMS Jervis. In the early hours of April 16, British destroyers literally descended upon the unsuspecting convoy, quickly turning the fight into a battle at pistol-shot distance. Three Italian destroyers from the escort resisted the fierce attack, but they could do very little against the twenty-eight 120 mm British guns. At the cost of losing one ship, receiving a torpedo hit at close range, Force K sent the entire convoy—three destroyers and five transport ships—to the bottom of the sea, depriving General Rommel of 1,700 soldiers and several thousand tons of cargo that would have been incredibly valuable to him.
Destroyer Kriti was built in the U.K. as part of a special project, close to the Admiralty M-class, and joined the Greek Navy in her early days of service. With the outbreak of World War I, the ship would be repurchased by the U.K. and, with a truly elegant British sense of humor, named Medea, in honor of the character from Greek mythology closely associated with Crete. Medea and her sister ships differed from the other destroyers of the Royal Navy by their original silhouettes with high fore-funnels.
Having come into operation in May 1915, HMS Medea joined the famous Harwich Striking Force, operating in the waters south of the British Isles. On April 24, 1916, the destroyer took part in an operation to block the German Navy's Flanders U-boat flotilla. In the heat of battle and in an attempt to cover her damaged sister ship, Medea, under fire from the enemy's coastal batteries, lanced at three German destroyers and routed them out.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
| Icon | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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Second flag | Second flag on all British battleships |
Camouflage Patterns
Royal Navy Destroyers Collection - Camouflage Patterns
During the initial months of World War II, most of the British Navy continued to operate with peacetime colors: dark gray or light gray, depending on the theater of action. However, solid coloring did not suit close inshore operations, and soon some of the ships of the Home Fleet came to boast a variety of two- or three-color disruptive camouflage patterns.
The first camouflage schemes that were used by the Royal Navy during the war were unofficial. The camouflage was applied to the ship's hull by order of her Commander or by the order of the Captain's immediate superiors—Commanders of small units, of destroyer flotillas, etc. The crews used only colors that were immediately available. Clearly, the one most readily available was protective ("khaki") or black paint that was applied in spots on top of the standard gray. Such was the pattern of, for example, G-class destroyer HMS Grenade, that was involved in the Dunkirk evacuation. The extended, official palette of colors that had a special encoding and was designed for the concealment of ships, appeared only in 1941.
The ships of the Home Fleet, often operating in coastal waters, carried mainly disparate concealing camouflages of three or more colors in the initial months of World War II. At the same time, a simpler, two-color pattern became widespread across the Mediterranean fleet. The goal was not to conceal the ship, which would be quite challenging in regular clashes with the Italians in the open sea, but to disorient the enemy in respect of the perceived distance to target.
This camouflage pattern, characteristic for destroyers of the Mediterranean fleet in particular, was obtained by applying large broken stripes and black or dark gray spots (MS1, then G5) on the light gray hull of the ship (507c or MS4a, in accordance with the coding of shades adopted by the Admiralty). The black-and-gray camouflage was most prevalent between 1940 and 1941, but it was used later also.
Between 1941 and 1942, British destroyers operating in the Atlantic and Northern waters obtained the so-called Admiralty Light Disruptive type camouflage. This scheme had round-shaped spots of different colors, usually combining shades of gray, green, and blue, in particular MS2 and MS3, applied to the light gray hull and superstructures (official shade code—MS4a). Some areas of the hull were painted dark gray (MS1).
The silhouette of a ship using such a light disruptive scheme, under certain visibility conditions, was completely indistinguishable. However, it was not easy to preserve the multicolor paintwork with an individual pattern on the ship. As a result, camouflage patterns in the British Navy were developed along the path of further unification and simplification of colors and patterns used.
At the end of 1942, a single camouflage scheme was adopted for destroyers entering service under wartime emergency shipbuilding programs. In accordance with the pattern, the main part of the hull and superstructure of the ship was painted white or a similar color. In certain places, wedges of darker shades with more or less the same outlines were applied. Besides this, about two-thirds of the hull's length, starting from the stern, had a strip, usually of a darker color.
This camouflage scheme used standardized colors of several shades of gray, blue, or green. Gradually, in 1943–1944, other destroyers of the Home Fleet, including those that were part of the Royal Canadian Fleet, received the same coloring pattern. A distinctive feature of HMCS Haida and HMCS Huron, painted in accordance with this scheme, was the presence of three oblique white stripes on their sides.
Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
| Icon | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| |
Second flag | Second flag on all Commonwealth ships |
Overall Reward
Completing the entire collection provides the following rewards:
| Icon | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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Royal Navy - Lightning | Camouflage features:
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British Commonwealth - Haida | Camouflage features:
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| Icon | Name | Notes |
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British Collection | Commemorative flag granted for completing the 'Royal Navy Destroyers' Collection |
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