HMS Wrestler (1918)
Encyclopedia
HMS Wrestler (D35) was a W class
V and W class destroyer
The V and W class was an amalgam of six similar classes of destroyer built for the Royal Navy under the War Emergency Programme of the First World War and generally treated as one class...
destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
launched by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in the latter stages of the First World War and active from 1939 to 1944 during the Second World War. She was the first Royal Navy ship to bear that name, and the only one to do so to date.
Construction
She was the tenth order in the 1916-1917 programme, ordered on 9 December 1916 from Swan HunterSwan Hunter
Swan Hunter, formerly known as "Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson", was one of the best known shipbuilding companies in the world. Based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, the company was responsible for some of the greatest ships of the early 20th century — most famously, the RMS Mauretania which...
. She was laid down at Wallsend
Wallsend
Wallsend is an area in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. Wallsend derives its name as the location of the end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 42,842.-Romans:...
during July 1917, launched on 25 February 1918 and commissioned on 15 May that year, too late to see active service in the war. In the month of Wrestlers commissioning the battleship collided with Wrestler and badly damaged her.
Service history
Her first deployment was in 1921, to the Atlantic Fleet's 5th Destroyer Flotilla, which also visited the Mediterranean in 1925. The Flotilla returned to the United Kingdom during the 1930s on the commissioning of new destroyers and Wrestler was placed in reserve. She then served as tenderShip's tender
A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship used to service a ship, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from shore or another ship...
to the torpedo school at from 1938 until the month before the outbreak of the Second World War, when she was put on station at Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
.
From there she joined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla to defend convoys in the early stages of the Battle of the Atlantic. During 1940 she escorted Convoy OG-22F alongside and through the Western Approaches
Western Approaches
The Western Approaches is a rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying on the western coast of Great Britain. The rectangle is higher than it is wide, the north and south boundaries defined by the north and south ends of the British Isles, the eastern boundary lying on the western coast, and the...
on its way to Gibraltar in March. In July 1940 she was present at the attack on Mers-el-Kébir (where she rescued crews from the British-sunk ) then joined the destroyers , , , , , , , , and as they screened the capital ships preparing for air attacks from on Italian targets on Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
in July 1940 - the operation was abandoned after the force came under heavy air attacks. Wrestler then sank the Adua class
600-Serie Adua class submarine
The Italian Adua-class submarine was the fourth subclass of the 600 Series of coastal submarines of the Regia Marina that served during World War II....
east of Gibraltar on 18 October 1940 alongside and two flying boats.
From July 1941 to April 1942 she was stationed at Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
and was then transferred to the Malta Convoys
Malta Convoys
The Malta Convoys were a series of Allied supply convoys that sustained the besieged island of Malta during the Mediterranean Theatre of the Second World War...
as part of Force H
Force H
Force H was a British naval formation during the Second World War. It was formed in 1940 to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean that had been removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany....
and "Operation Harpoon
Operation Harpoon (1942)
Not to be confused with Operation Harpoon Operation Harpoon was one of two simultaneous Allied convoys sent to supply Malta in the Axis-dominated Mediterranean Sea in mid-June 1942, during the Second World War. One convoy, Operation Vigorous, left Alexandria. The other, Operation Harpoon, travelled...
", before serving as one of the naval escorts for "Operation Torch
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....
". She was adopted by Hyde
Hyde, Greater Manchester
Hyde is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2001 census, the town had a population of 31,253. Historically part of Cheshire, it is northeast of Stockport, west of Glossop and east of Manchester....
in December 1941 after a successful "Warship Week
Warship Week
Warship Weeks were British National savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the adoption of a Royal Navy warship by a civil community. A level of savings would be set to raise enough money to provide the cost of building a particular naval ship...
" National Savings
National savings
In economics, a country's national savings is the sum of private and public savings. It is generally equal to a nation's income minus consumption and government purchases.- Economic model of national savings :...
campaign. She, a flying boat and sank the U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
east of Cartagena
Cartagena, Spain
Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...
on 2 May 1942, then on 15 November 1942 sank alone. In July 1942 Wrestler also boarded the Vichy French
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
merchantman Mitidja (intercepted off Cape Palos
Cape Palos
Cape Palos is a cape in the Spanish municipality of Cartagena, in the region of Murcia. It is part of a small range of volcanic mounts that form a small peninsula. The Mediterranean islands of Grosa and the group known as the Hormigas Islands are part of this range, as well as the islands in the...
, Spain by ) and escorted her into Gibraltar.
Wrestler underwent reconstruction as a Long Range Escort from January to May 1943 at HM Dockyard Sheerness
Sheerness
Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....
before taking part in "Operation Husky" off Sicily until July that year, when she returned to Atlantic and Russian convoy duties. On 6 June 1944, whilst participating in "Operation Neptune
Operation Neptune
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 , beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time...
" (the naval side of D-Day), she was mined off Juno Beach
Juno Beach
Juno or Juno Beach was one of five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. The sector spanned from Saint-Aubin, a village just east of the British Gold sector, to Courseulles, just west of the British Sword sector...
and declared a constructive total loss, being sold off on 20 July as scrap.
Battle honours
- Mediterranean 1940-42
- Atlantic 1940-43
- Malta Convoys 1942
- North Africa 1943
- Sicily 1943
- Arctic 1943-44
- Normandy 1944
- English Channel 1944
Commanders
- Lt.Cdr. Edmund Neville Vincent Currey - 21 August 1939 to 28 September 1940 (during which time he was awarded the DSCDistinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
) - Lt. Eric Lister Jones - 28 September 1940 to 7 December 1941 (during which time he was awarded the DSCDistinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
) - Lt. Reginald William Beecroft Lacon - 7 December 1941 to July 1944
See also
- Vice-Admiral Sir Gerard "Ged" MansfieldGerard MansfieldVice-Admiral Sir Edward Gerard "Ged" Napier Mansfield KCB CVO was Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, and after leaving the Royal Navy became a fund-raiser for the Queen's Silver Jubilee Trust.-Early life:...
who served on the ship during the Second World War.