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Allied Warships

HMS Scimitar (H 21)

Destroyer of the Admiralty S class

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeDestroyer
ClassAdmiralty S 
PennantH 21 
Built byJohn Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. (Clydebank, Scotland) 
OrderedApr, 1917 
Laid down30 May, 1917 
Launched27 Feb, 1918 
Commissioned29 Apr, 1918 
End service 
Loss position
 
HistoryScrapped on 30 June 1947.

Commanding Officers:
Lt.Cdr. Mark Thornton, RN
7 June 1938 – 6 February 1940

Lt. Robert Denys Franks, RN
26 February 1940 – 20 June 1942
Promoted to Lt.Cdr. on 1 February 1942
OBE 8 March 1940

Lt.Cdr. Charles George Cuthbertson, DSC, RNR
20 June 1942 – July 1943

Lt. Gilbert Charles Potter, DSC, RN
July 1943 – 18 December 1943

Lt. Philip Archer-Shee, RNVR
18 December 1943 – October 1944

T/A/Lt.Cdr. Allan Arthur Gotelee, DSC, RNVR
October 1944 - January 1945

HMS Scimitar is not listed as active unit in the April 1945 Navy List 


Noteable events involving Scimitar include:

8 Jul, 1940
HMS Scimitar (Lt. R.D. Franks, OBE, RN) and HMS Vanquisher (Cdr. C.B. Alers-Hankey, RN) together pick up 43 survivors from the British merchant Humber Arm that was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-99 60 nautical miles south of Fastnet in position 50º36'N, 09º24'W.

29 Jun, 1941
The German submarine U-651 was sunk south of Iceland, in position 59º52'N, 18º36'W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Malcolm )(Cdr. C.D. Howard-Johnston, DSC, RN), HMS Scimitar (Lt. R.D. Franks, RN), the corvettes HMS Arabis (Lt.Cdr. J.P. Stewart, RNR) and HMS Violet (Lt.Cdr. K.M. Nicholson, RNR) and the minesweeper HMS Speedwell (Lt.Cdr. J.J. Youngs, OBE, RNR). (see map)


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