Built as a destroyer by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson (Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co.), Wallsend U.K. for the Royal Navy.
22 March 1929 ordered, 10 August 1929 laid down.
06 December 1930 launched under the name HMS BULLDOG (H 91) one of the B Class of which 9 were built.
Displacement 1.330 ton standard. Dim. 323 x 32¼ x 8½ft. (draught)
Powered by turbines geared to two shafts, 34.000 shp., speed 31.5 knots by full load condition.
Armament 4 – 4.7 inch QF, 2 – 2pdr. AA pom-pom, 4 MG. 8 – 21 inch torpedo tubes. 15 Depth charges with two throwers and 1 rail.
Crew 138.
08 April 1931 completed.
After commissioned placed in the 4th Destroyer Squadron in the Mediterranean till August 1936.
She returned together with the 4th Destroyer Squadron to the U.K. and placed in the Home Fleet.
28 August till 14 October 1936 under repair at Chatham, then she was refitted from 18 Nov. till 09 Jan. 1937.
After her refit used mostly in Spanish waters till she was based on 01 March 1938 in Gibraltar.
31 March till 04 June 1938 refitted at Sheerness, then used as escort for the battleship HMS RESOLUTION to Scapa Flow in September 1938.
Thereafter she was placed in the Gibraltar Local Flotilla until March 1939. Used for plane-guard duties for the aircraft carrier HMS GLORIOUS in the Mediterranean, and after outbreak of World War II in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean till December 1939.
She then got a refit in Malta from 18 Jan. till 22 Feb. 1940, and when the Norwegian Campaign started ordered back to the U.K.
09 May 1940 towed the seriously damaged HMS KELLY from the Skagerak to the Tyne; during the tow she was damaged on her stern, and repaired by Swan Hunter from 13 till 21 May 1940.
Took part in the early Dunkirk evacuation, but she damaged her propellers on 27 May and was repaired at Chatham until 04 June.
Then placed in the 1st Destroyer Flotilla, was attacked on 10 June by 6 enemy aircraft and received severe bomb damage off the French coast. She was hit by 3 bombs, and her steering gear was put out of action, she got a heavy list to starboard side.
After damage control, she could make steam again and with a speed of 15 knots she proceeded to Portsmouth were she arrived on 11 June. During the bombing there were not any casualties under the crew.
During her docking there she got damage by air raids on that port, and the repair was not completed before 24 August.
After her repair used again together with other destroyers off the French coast to try to intercept German convoys.
13/14 September 1940 during the night she bombard Cherbourg, France with other ships in her flotilla.
After a refit early 1941 by Cammell Lairds she joined the 3rd Escort Group, and used to escort the convoys to Iceland the next 8 months.
07 May she damaged the U-94 west of the Faeroes together with the ROCHESTER and AMAZON.
09 May together with the HMS BROADWAY and the corvette HMS AUBRETIA when escorting convoy OB 318 she made the most important contribution to the war effort when these three vessels drove the U 110 under command of Kapitan Leutnant Julius Lemp to the surface. The U 110 was abandoned by the crew, after they thought that the submarine would sink. The crew was picked up by AUBRETIA only Lemp was killed when in the water. The submarine did not sink and a party of the BULLDOG stripped the submarine of her Enigma coding machine and the day’s setting, the Enigma machine was a great gain for the Allies. The U 100 sank under tow a few days later, most probably to preserve the secret capture of the Enigma machine.
Then used for the protection of the convoys to north Russia and was damaged in convoy QP 11 wich was underway from Murmansk, she was under repair at the Clyde from 02 June till 14 August 1942, after her repair joined the Greenock Special Escort Division and took part in the North African landings (Operation Torch).
She returned home and was further repaired at Greenock; she joined convoy JW51B as escort at Loch Ewe to Murmansk, but got heavy weather damage and returned to the Clyde for repair till 16 Jan. 1943.
Again used to escort convoys to Iceland the next two months.
After repair at Greenock she joined the West Africa Command, escorting convoys between Gibraltar, Freetown and Lagos the next 5 months.
Then she returned to the UK and was refitted and rearmed at Portsmouth before taken part in Operation Neptune, the D-Day landings.
Thereafter used for escort duties between the Clyde and the Faeroe Islands.
26 June 1944 she sank the German submarine U 719 in position 55 33N 11 02W by depth charges.
20 August 1944 in collision with the frigate LOCH DUNVEGAN in Gourock Bay, she got a cut in the hull of 4 feet above water till 3 feet below the waterline. Repaired at Ardrossan till 04 Sept. 1944.
After her repairs again used as escort between the Clyde, Scapa Flow and the Faeroes till November 1944.
Then major engine repairs at Eldersslie, Clyde till 30 Jan. 1945.
Then used for escort duties between Plymouth and Irish Sea ports.
13 May 1945 (other source gives 09 May) the surrender of the German forces on the Channel Islands was signed on board of the BULLDOG. At 07.15 Wednesday 09 May 1945 the destroyer HMS BULLDOG and HMS BEAGLE dropped anchor off the harbour and, on the deck of the former ship, the surrender of the German forces was accepted. The 26p value shows the scene when the first British Army Landrover, carrying four members of the advance party of Force 135 (codenamed “Omelette), was driven up the slipway into town. On the horizon are the islands of Herm and Jethou and in the middle distance, HMS BULLDOG and Castle Cornet.
27 May 1945 reserve at Dartmouth.
27 Nov. 1945 she sailed from Dartmouth for Rosyth.
06 December 1945 approved for scrap.
17 January 1946 delivered to Metal Industries (Salvage) Ltd, at Rosyth for scrapping.
Guernsey 2005 26p sg?, scott?
Source http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4359.html Amazon to Ivanhoe by John English.