Name: HMS VIDETTE; Builder: Alexander Stephens & Sons Limited, Glasgow; Laid down: 1 February 1917; Launched: 28 February 1918; Completed: 27 April 1918; Fate: Sold for scrapping, 1947
General characteristics:
Displacement 1100 t (dry)1490 t (max), Length (total length) 95.1 (m), Width 9.0 m, Draught 3,2 m, 27000 HP engine power, Speed of 34 knots, Crew 134, Armament 4 4 "(102 mm) QF Mk/L45 V P Mk I instillation, 1 3 cwt Mk I "20 anti-aircraft gun, 4 of 21 "(533 mm) torpedo tubes
Service record, Part of: 16th Destroyer Flotilla; 13th Destroyer Flotilla; Mid-Ocean Escort Force group B7
Operations: World War II
• Attack on Mers-el-Kébir; • Battle of the Atlantic
Victories: U 531; U 274; U 282; U 413; U 630
HMS VIDETTE (D48) was an Admiralty V class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Alexander Stephens & Sons Limited in Linthouse, Govan on 1 February 1917, was launched on 28 February 1918, and completed on 27 April 1918.
She served with the Fleet during WW1 and remained in use after the Armistice. In 1921 this destroyer was deployed in the 6th Destroyer Flotilla Atlantic Fleet and was one of the first to be fitted with submarine detection equipment in 1923. She was later placed in Reserve until 1939 when recommissioned for convoy defence duties. After a successful WARSHIP WEEK National Savings campaign in March 1942 this ship was adopted by the civil community of Todmorden, West Riding of Yorkshire.
She spent most of the 1920s and 1930s in reserve, but was brought back to active service in 1939 for World War II. In the picture, taken probably in 1939, she is wearing the funnel bands of the 16th Destroyer Flotilla based at Portsmouth; one red over one white. Early in the war she would have landed the after set of torpedo tubes and shipped a QF 12 pounder 12 cwt gun in lieu.
For the first three years of war she was based at Gibraltar, as part of the 13th Destroyer Flotilla. She took part in the attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940, but spent most of her time escorting Atlantic convoys into and out of Gibraltar.
She was converted to a long-range escort destroyer in September 1942 and served with Peter Gretton's 'B7' escort group in the crucial battles around convoys HX-231, ONS-5 and SC-130 in the Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945).
6 May 1943
German U-boat U-531 was sunk in the North Atlantic north-east of Newfoundland, in position 52.48'N, 45.18'W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS VIDETTE.
6 May 1943
German U-boat U-630 was sunk in the North Atlantic north-east of Newfoundland, in position 52.31'N, 44.50'W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS VIDETTE.
23 Oct 1943
German U-boat U-274 was sunk in the North Atlantic south-west of Iceland in position 57.14'N, 27.50'W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS DUNCAN and HMS VIDETTE and by depth charges from a British Liberator aircraft.
29 Oct 1943
German U-boat U-282 was sunk south-east of Greenland, in position 55.28'N, 31.57'W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS VIDETTE and HMS DUNCAN and the British corvette HMS Sunflower.
20 Aug 1944
German U-boat U-413 was sunk in the English Channel south of Brighton, in position 50°21'N, 00°01'W, by depth charges from the British escort destroyer HMS WENSLEYDALE and the British destroyers HMS Forester and HMS VIDETTE.
HMS VIDETTE was placed on the Disposal List 1947 and sold to BISCO on 3rd April 1947 for demolition by G W Brunton at Grangemouth where she arrived at the breaker’s yard in tow later that year.
Sources: Wilipedia. http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono ... idette.htm. http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4263.html. http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/v ... sp?id=3559. http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vidette_(D48).
Information Mr P Crichton.