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Allied Warships

HMS Campbeltown (I 42)

Destroyer of the Town class

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeDestroyer
ClassTown 
PennantI 42 
Built byBath Iron Works (Bath, Maine, U.S.A.) 
Ordered 
Laid down29 Jun, 1918 
Launched2 Jan, 1919 
Commissioned9 Sep, 1940 
Lost28 Mar, 1942 
Loss position
 
HistoryUpon her arrival at Devonport, England, 29 September 1940, HMS Campbeltown was allocated to the 7th Escort Group, Liverpool, in the Western Approaches Comm and. In January 1941 she was provisionally allocated to the Royal Netherlands Navy, but reverted to the Royal Navy in September 1941. Between September 1941 and March 1942 she served with Atlantic convoys and was attacked on several occasions by enemy U-boats and aircraft, but escaped without damage. On 15 September 1941 she picked up the survivors of the Norwegian motor tanker Vinga, damaged by an enemy air attack

Destroyed as explosive vessel against the gate of the massive dry dock Normandie at St. Nazaire, France (to deny large German surface ships the use of it for repair). The commander of the destroyer, Lt. Cdr. Stephen Halden Beattie, RN, who was taken prisoner of war, was awarded the Victoria Cross for this raid.

Commanding Officers:
Lt. Isaac William Trant Beloe, RN
9 September 1940 – January 1941

HMS Campbeltown served with the Royal Netherlands Navy January – September 1941

Lt.Cdr. Lord Teynham, RN
29 October 1941 – 13 March 1942

Lt.Cdr. Stephen Halden Beattie, RN
13 March 1942 – 28 March 1942 

Former nameUSS Buchanan (DD 131)

Noteable events involving Campbeltown include:

29 Nov, 1940
HMS Campbeltown rammed and sank the British merchant ship Fiddown (319 GRT) in the Mersey estuary. The Fiddown was later raised.

28 Mar, 1942
HMS Campbeltown was used as an explosive vessel against the massive dry-dock / entrance lock dock at St. Nazaire, France (to deny large German surface ships the use of it for repair).


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