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Allied Warships

HMS Skate (H 39)

Destroyer of the Admiralty R class

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeDestroyer
ClassAdmiralty R 
PennantH 39 
Built byJohn Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. (Clydebank, Scotland) 
Ordered 
Laid down12 Jan, 1916 
Launched11 Jan, 1917 
Commissioned19 Feb, 1917 
End service 
Loss position
 
HistoryIn 1940 HMS Skate was fitted for minesweeping and had 8-.5" (2x4) machine guns added. Later she was converted to escort work and in that role she was armed as follows;
1 4" gun
1 12pdr AA gun
4 20mm AA (4x1)
She served mainly on Atlantic convoy duties and she also was part of the naval escort forces during the Normandy invasion.

Sold to be broken up for scrap on 4 March 1947.

Commanding Officers:
Lt.Cdr. Arthur Oswald Johnson, RN
9 January 1939 – 14 March 1940

Lt.Cdr. Robert Augustus Fell, RN
14 March 1940 – 14 June 1940

Lt. Frederick William Hayden, RN
14 June 1940 – 3 July 1940

Lt. Francis Peter Baker, RN
3 July 1940 – 9 February 1942
DSC awarded on 27 August 1940

Lt. John Smallwood, RN
9 February 1942 – ???

Lt.Cdr. Alan W. Preston, RN (retired)
12 May 1942 – 28 May 1943

Lt. John Charles Rushbrooke, DSC, RN
28 May 1943 – 19 January 1944

Lt. H.P. Flemming, RN
19 January 1944 – 1 June 1944

Lt. John Hart MacAllister, RNVR
1 June 1944 >

HMS Skate is not listed as active unit in the January 1945 Navy List 


Noteable events involving Skate include:

22 Sep, 1940
HMS Skate (Lt. F.P. Baker, DSC, RN) picks up 55 survivors from the British tanker Torinia that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-100 about 340 nautical miles west of Bloody Foreland in position 54º55'N, 18º17'W.

24 Sep, 1940
HMS Skate (Lt. F.P. Baker, DSC, RN) picks up 45 survivors from the British merchant Scholar, that was torpedoed and damaged on 22 September 1940 by the German submarine U-100 about 340 nautical miles west of Bloody Foreland in position 55º11'N, 17º58'W. On 23 September 1940 the Scholar was taken in tow by the British rescue tug HMRT Marauder (Lt. W.J. Hammond) in position 55º10'N, 17º49'W. On the 24th the tow was abandoned in position 54º38'N, 16º40'W and the wreck of the Scholar was scuttled by HMS Skate.

18 Jun, 1941
HMS Skate (Lt. F.P. Baker, DSC, RN) picks up 70 survivors from the Brisish merchant Norfolk that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-552about 150 nautical miles northwest of Malin Head in position 57º17'N, 11º14'W.

6 Jun, 1944
HMS Skate picked up the crew of a C-47 from the 435th Troop Carrier Group, the airplane was hit by German anti-aircraft fire over Normandy and ditched in the Channel.


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