The ‘Town’-Class Destroyers, Part II
By Kristin Ann High
March 2021

Having vindicated the reputation of the Town-class destroyers in Part I of this short series, I now offer a full rundown of the names, dates of service and significant actions of these vital ships. I also include ship data sheets for players who wish to keep track of their flush-deckers individually.

Town-Class Names

In Second World War at Sea, the Royal Navy’s 44 (or 45 to use the "original" number) flush-deckers use the U.S. Navy ship class name Wickes (DE-52 Wickes-1 through DE-59 Wickes-7), while the six Royal Canadian Navy ships use the name of one of the original Canadian ships, HMCS Annapolis (DE-10 Annapolis-1 through DE-12 Annapolis-4).

Both designations are, like these troubled ships themselves, accurate and incorrect at once. All Royal Navy Wickes DEs in SWWAS should be designated as Town DEs (DE-52 Town-1 through DE-59 Town-7), while all Royal Canadian Navy Annapolis DEs should be designated as Rivers DEs (DE-10 Rivers-1 through DE-12 Rivers-4).

Table I gives the Royal Navy name and pennant number, the date of the turnover, and the U.S.N. name, hull number and class of the Town-class destroyers.

Table I: Royal Navy Town-Class
Destroyers, by Commissioning Group

In addition to HMS Hamilton (‘I.24’), one other R.N. Town-class ship was commissioned into the R.C.N. — HMS Buxton (‘H.96’) — but she was employed as a static training ship at Digby, Nova Scotia, and not used on operations. Both Hamilton and Buxton were scrapped in Canada like the other R.C.N. ships.

Rivers-Class Names

In SWWAS, the six R.C.N. ships use the name of one of the original Canadian ships, HMCS Annapolis (DE-10 Annapolis-1 through DE-12 Annapolis-4). All Royal Canadian Navy Annapolis DEs should be designated as Rivers DEs (DE-10 Rivers-1 through DE-12 Rivers-4).

Table II gives the Royal Canadian Navy name and pennant number, the date of the turnover, and the U.S.N. name, hull number and class for the River-class destroyers.

Table II: Royal Canadian Navy Rivers-Class
DDs, by Commissioning Group

Twelve Town-class ships were ordered to Canadian waters, operating with the Newfoundland Escort Force or with the reorganized Western Local Escort Force, under the local command of the R.C.N. from 1941 through 1943, with the bulk of the ships operating in Canadian waters between September 1942 and December 1943, as given in Table III.

Table III: Town-Class DDs Operating in
Canadian Waters, by Transfer Date

R.K.K.F. Town-Class Destroyers

The Royal Navy lent nine Town-class destroyers to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1944 under the terms of Lend-Lease (the ships had been paid for “in kind”, and so were the property of Great Britain, not the United States). These were one Clemson-class and eight Wickes-class destroyers, being the best of the ships still available in Great Britain.

They had been intended for the Murmansk Convoys in any event, but by summer 1944 Great Britain quite simply couldn’t afford the refits. The Soviets indicated they were willing to pay the costs of the refits, and to operate the ships in the White Sea, out of Murmansk and Archangel. Great Britain thereupon lent them to the Raboche-Krest'yansky Krasny Flot (R.K.K.F., roughly Anglicized as “Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet”).

Table IV gives the anglicized R.K.K.F. name (and for some a rough meaning in English), the date of the turnover, and the date the ship was returned to the United Kingdom or lost. The fates use these abbreviations: “L” for “Lost to/by enemy action”, and “R” for “Returned by Soviet Union”.

Table IV: R.K.K.F. Town-Class DDs

HMS Churchill (I.45) was the first Town-class destroyer lent to the Soviet Union and the only Clemson-class ship lent of the nine. She was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-956 on 16 January 1945 while in the White Sea. She was the last war loss of the Town class, and the only one of the class transferred to the Soviet Union to be lost. HMS Leamington (G.19) was hired for the film The Gifthorse, and was the last Town-class destroyer at sea under her own power.

Allied-Crewed Town-Class Destroyers

Several R.N. Town-class destroyers were crewed by Allied sailors, with a mixture of Allied and R.N. officers — the Norwegians, in particular, were highly thought-of by R.N. serving officers, and Norwegian ships usually had a higher proportion of Norwegian officers.

Allied sailors that crewed R.N. ships were given the honour of having their ships designated after their home country; in the case of the Town-class destroyers, these were Norwegians and Danes. In Royal Navy service, ships crewed by Norwegian sailors were HMNoS, for “His Majesty's Norwegian Ships”; HMNS was the designation for Dutch-crewed ships in His Majesty's service, these being “His Majesty's Netherlands Ships”. Whatever their crew, the ships remained a part of the Royal Navy.

Table V gives the ships names and pennant number, the date the ship was assigned to the Allied crew, the nationality of the Allied crew, and either the periods of that crews' service, or the fate of the ship. An entry of “00” indicates “exact day or month not known”.

Table V: Royal Navy Town-Class DEs
Crewed by Allied Sailors

After her return to an all-R.N. crew, HMS Campbeltown (‘I.42’) participated in the most famous exploit of the four-pipers, Operation Chariot. Campbeltown was expended against the Forme Ecluse Louis Joubert drydock at St. Nazaire, France — usually called the Normandie dock for the huge French liner it was built to accommodate.

The drydock was the only one able to accommodate the battleship Tirpitz on the French Atlantic seaboard, and damaging it would force her to return to Germany for any repairs requiring drydocking. Although costly, Operation Chariot damaged the drydock, which was not repaired until 1947. Many of the survivors believed that Campbeltown's explosive charge was set off manually by stranded commandos (many had to be left behind because of the loss of small craft intended to take them off) who worked their way aboard after the ship failed to explode on time; she did not explode until 1030 hours.

Up next: Town-class counters and hit records!

See the Town class in action — order Second World War at Sea: Bismarck now!