Allied Warships

HMS Northern Foam (4.76)

ASW Trawler

NavyThe Royal Navy
TypeASW Trawler
Class[No specific class] 
Pennant4.76 
Built byDeschimag (Bremerhaven, Germany) 
Ordered 
Laid down 
Launched 
CommissionedSep 1939 
End service 
History

Completed in September 1936.
Taken over by the Admiralty on 29 August 1939.
Displacement: 655 tons.
Armament: 1 4" gun.

Returned to her owner in November 1945.
Scrapped at Dunston in 1964.

 

Commands listed for HMS Northern Foam (4.76)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

CommanderFromTo
1Lt. George William Houchen, RNR5 Sep 1939Oct 1940
2T/Lt. Martin Todd, RNROct 1940early 1942
3T/Lt. Keir Francis Rasmussen, RNRearly 19429 Jul 1942
4T/Lt. Bryan Webster Harris, RNVR9 Jul 194218 Oct 1943
5T/Lt. John Alexander Crockett, RNR18 Oct 1943

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Notable events involving Northern Foam include:


12 Apr 1940
Around 1840A/12, HMS Suffolk (Capt. J.W. Durnford, RN), departed Greenock with about 250 Marines on board which were to be taken to the Faeroer Islands.

The destroyers HMS Havant (Lt.Cdr. A.F. Burnell-Nugent, RN) and HMS Hesperus (Lt.Cdr. D.G.F.W. MacIntyre, RN) had arrived at Thorshavn on this day to inform the Governor of the Faroes Islands that a garrison of Royal Marines would be garrisoned there to repel a possible German invasion. The destroyers then went out to sea to await the arrival of HMS Suffolk. They made rendezvous at 1450A/13 and arrived at Thorshavn around 1630A/13.

The armed boarding vessels HMS Northern Foam (Lt.Cdr. G.W. Houchen, RNR) and HMS Northern Sky (Lt. J.E. Bromley, RNR) which were already waiting there then went alongside HMS Suffolk to take over the Marines.

The operation was completed late in the evening of the 13th when HMS Suffolk departed for the Vestfjord area near Narvik, Norway. HMS Havant and HMS Hesperus departed for Scapa Flow arriving there around 1030A/14. HMS Northern Sky resumed duties with the Northern Patrol. HMS Northern Foam remained at Thorshavn for the moment. (1)

23 Sep 1943
HMS Northern Foam (Lt. H.G. Ross) picks up 30 survivors from the British merchant Fort Jemseg and 43 survivors from the Norwegian merchant Skjelbred that were torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-238 in the North Atlantic, south-southeast of Cape Farewell, in position 53°18'N, 40°24'W.

Sources

  1. ADM 53/113277 + ADM 199/361 + ADM 199/376

ADM numbers indicate documents at the British National Archives at Kew, London.


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