Name: HMS ANTELOPE (H36). Operator: Royal Navy. Ordered: 6 March 1928.Builder: Hawthorne Leslie – Hebburn,Tyneside. Laid down: 11 July 1928. Launched: 27 July 1929. Commissioned: 20 March 1930. Fate: Scrapped 1946.
General characteristics:
Class and type: A class destroyer, Displacement: 1,350 long tons (1,370 t) standard, 1,773 long tons (1,801 t) full load, Length: 323 ft (98 m) oa, 320 ft (98 m) wl, 312 ft (95 m) pp, Beam: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m), Draught: 12 ft 3 in (3.73 m),Propulsion: 3× Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2× Parsons steam turbines, 2 shafts, 34,000 shp (25,000 kW), Speed: 35.25 kn (65.28 km/h; 40.56 mph), Range: 4,800 nmi (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph), Complement: 138, Armament: (As designed), 4 × 4.7 in (120 mm) QF Mark IX on mountings CP Mk.XIV, 2 × 2 pdr Mk.II anti-aircraft, 2 × 4 tubes for 21 in torpedoes.
HMS ANTELOPE was ordered on 6 March 1928, and was laid down at Hawthorn Leslie on Tyneside on 11 July 1928. The ship was launched on 27 July 1929 and commissioned on 20 March 1930.
She had a main gun armament of four 4.7 in (120 mm) guns on low angle (30 degree) mounts that were only suitable for anti-ship use, and an anti-aircraft armament of two 2 pounder (40 mm) "pom-poms". Eight 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes were carried on two quadruple mounts, with Mark V torpedoes carried. The initial anti-submarine equipment was limited, with no sonar carried and only six depth charges.
In 1941, one of the 4.7 in guns and the aft bank of torpedo tubes was removed, with a 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft gun being replacing the torpedo tubes and an enhanced anti-submarine armament, with 70 depth charges carried, and the ability to drop patterns of 10 charges. Radar was fitted, and the destroyer's close-in anti-aircraft outfit was supplemented by the addition of Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, with two added in 1941 and up to six eventually fitted. The 3 inch gun was removed by 1943, when High-frequency direction finding gear was fitted. A second 4.7 in gun was replaced in 1944 by two QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss guns.
Pre war operations
Following completion in 1930, ANTELOPE, along with the rest of the A-class and the destroyer leader HMS CODRINGTON joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea. HMS ANTELOPE took parts in patrols off the Spanish coast during the Spanish Civil War, but was damaged in a collision with the destroyers HMS ACTIVE and HMS WORCESTER. After repair ANTELOPE returned to the United Kingdom, where she was based at Portsmouth.
Second World War
On the outbreak of the Second World War, the destroyer was assigned to the 18th Destroyer Flotilla, Channel Force, based at Portsmouth. For the rest of 1939 and the early months of 1940, ANTELOPE carried out patrol and convoy escort duties in the English Channel and Western Approaches. On 5 February 1940, ANTELOPE was the sole escort of the outward bound convoy OA84 south of Ireland when the U-41 attacked the Convoy, sinking the freighter BEAVERBURN and damaging the tanker CERONIA. ANTELOPE retaliated, depth-charging and sinking the U-boat. It was the only U-boat at sea at the time in the area and was the first to be sunk underwater by a single destroyer. ANTELOPE's commanding officer, Lt. Cdr. R.T. White R.N. (later Captain R.T. White D.S.O.**, 2nd son of Sir Archibald White, Bt. of Wallingwells) was awarded the D.S.O. on 11 July 1940 for this feat. White was commander of ANTELOPE from 24 September 1938 until 26 February 1941.
Norway
In April 1940, ANTELOPE was attached to the Home Fleet for operations as part of the Norwegian Campaign, and when the French cruiser EMILE BERTIN, flagship of the French forces off Norway, was damaged by German bombers off Namsos, ANTELOPE escorted the French cruiser to Scapa Flow. ANTELOPE then returned to operations off Norway, but on 13 June 1940, ANTELOPE collided with HMS ELECTRA off Trondheim, Norway, and had to return to the Tyne for repair which continued until August that year, when she joined the 16th Destroyer Flotilla based at Harwich.
Atlantic operations
In August 1940, ANTELOPE sailed in convoy to take part in Operation Menace, the attack on Dakar, but after HMS FIJI was torpedoed on 1 September 1940, she escorted her back to the Clyde, Scotland. ANTELOPE then joined the 12th Destroyer Flotilla based at Greenock, Scotland.
On 31 October 1940, ANTELOPE was part of the escort convoy OB237 when it encountered U-31 off northwestern Ireland. Depth charges from ANTELOPE and HMS ACHATES drove U-31 to the surface, where here crew abandoned ship. ANTELOPE attempted to board U-31, but collided with the unmanned submarine, damaging the destroyer and sinking U-31. ANTELOPE rescued 44 of the crew of U-31, one of whom died on board and returned them to the Clyde. Lt. Cdr. White was awarded his first bar to his D.S.O. following this sinking.
ANTELOPE joined the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, with the job of escorting the Capital ships of the Home Fleet. In May 1941, ANTELOPE formed part of the destroyer escort for HMS HOOD and HMS PRINCE OF WALES in the chase for the German battleship BISMARCK. Separated from the battleships during the battle of the Denmark Strait, ANTELOPE searched for survivors from the sinking of HMS HOOD, and later was escort to HMS VICTORIOUS.
In August 1941, ANTELOPE took part in Operation Gauntlet, an operation that succeeded in destroying the coaling facilities on Spitsbergen, thus denying the coal to the enemy. In October, ANTELOPE formed part of the escort for the Artic Convoy PQ-1 to the Soviet Union.
Malta
ANTELOPE sailed to Gibraltar in April 1942, escorting the carrier USS WASP during Operation Calendar, an attempt to deliver badly needed Spitfire fighter aircraft to Malta, and acted as an escort during the follow-up Operation Bowery, when USS WASP and HMS EAGLE delivered 61 Spitfires and Operation LB when EAGLE delivered a further 17 during May, and Operations Style and Salient in June 1942, when EAGLE delivered 55 more Spitfires
On 11 June, only a day after returning to Gibraltar following Operation Salient, ANTELOPE formed part of the escort for Operation Harpoon, a heavily escorted attempt to resupply Malta. After the cruiser LIVERPOOL was damaged by Italian torpedo bombers, ANTELOPE was dispatched from the convoy to tow LIVERPOOL back to Gibraltar, with the destroyer HMS WESTCOTT as escort. In July, ANTELOPE took part in two further Spitfire resupply runs with EAGLE, Operations Pinpoint and Insect. In August 1942 ANTELOPE formed part of the main escort force for Operation Pedestal, another Malta convoy.
War History – August 1942
August 10th Deployed with HM Destroyers VANSITTART, WISHART, LAFOREY, LIGHTNING, ITHURIEL and LOOKOUT as screen for HM Aircraft Carriers VICTORIOUS, INDOMITABLE, EAGLE, HM Cruisers CHARYBDIS, PHOEBE, SIRIUS in Force Z to provide Cover for passage of Convoy WS12 to Sicilian Narrows. (Operation PEDESTAL). 13th Deployed with HM Destroyers AMAZON, WISHART, WITCH and ZETLAND as escort for HMS NELSON, HMS INDOMITABLE and HMS ITHURIEL during passage to Gibraltar after damage during air attacks on PEDESTAL CONVOY. 14th Released from Force H duty and resumed Local Flotilla convoy defence at Gibraltar. 24th Transferred to 18th Destroyer Flotilla at Freetown.
Passage from Gibraltar to Join Flotilla.
30thArrived at Bathurst, Gambia for convoy escort duty.
After a period based off West Africa, ANTELOPE escorted troop convoys taking part in Operation Torch, the allied invasion of French West Africa. On 30 January 1943, ANTELOPE, together with the Canadian Corvette HCMS Port Arthur sank the Italian submarine Italian submarine TRITONE. In March 1943, she escorted the EMPRESS OF CANADA,[citation needed] but the liner was sunk on 13 March by the Italian submarine LEONARDO DA VINCI. In July 1943, ANTELOPE took place in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.
Disposal
In August 1944, ANTELOPE returned to the United Kingdom. By this time she was in poor physical condition, and was laid off into reserve on the Tyne in October to free her crew to help ease a manpower shortage in the Royal Navy.
In 1946, she was sold and broken up by Hughes Bolckow shipbreakers at Blyth, Northumberland.
Sources: Wikipedia. http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono ... telope.htm
Details from Mr P Crichton
Malta 2012 SG? Gibraltar SG567