The Story of The HMS Whimbrel
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| Launch Day, 25th August 1942 (Courtesy BAe Systems) |
Designed for the anti-submarine and anti-aircraft defence of merchant convoys, they came to be regarded as the "Rolls Royce" of wartime escort vessels and, as such, were considered a prime command and allocated to many of the best officers.
The class’ achievement is best represented by HMS STARLING, commanded by the legendary anti-submarine "ace" Captain Johnnie Walker, which was involved in the destruction of no less than sixteen U-Boats during the last two years of the conflict.
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| Sea Trials, Januray 1943 (Crown Copyright) |
Another member of the class, HMS AMETHYST, came into the public eye after the war as a result of her involvement in the Yangtze River Incident.
Commissioned in January 1943, HMS WHIMBREL’s service was fairly typical of the class. It included;
- operations on the Atlantic and Russian convoy routes,
- a supporting role in the Sicily and Normandy landings and final
- transfer to the Pacific Fleet for the final months of the war against Japan in 1945.
- Alongside sister ship HMS CRANE, she was one of the vessels chosen to represent the Royal Navy at the September 1945 surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay that marked the end of the Second World War.
Sold to the Egyptian Navy in 1949, she subsequently gave her new owners nearly 50 years operational service, latterly as ENS TARIQ, until 1997 when she became an accommodation ship in Alexandria. In 2002, the Egyptian Navy put her up for disposal.
WHIMBREL’s long service with the Egyptian Navy accounts for her survival as one of less than a handful of remaining major Royal Navy warships from the Second World War and is the only one to remain in anything like original condition. With her original armament, as well as many fixtures and fittings still intact, she represents a virtual treasure trove of life at sea during the Second World War.
The ship is the only existing example of this country’s escorts in the Second World War, and she is remarkably close to her original wartime condition, so if we cannot acquire her we will have lost an unique opportunity to keep a Second World War escort.
