HMS Dunkirk (D09) explained

HMS Dunkirk (D09) was a later or 1943 fleet destroyer of the British Royal Navy (RN). Though there were other ships of the Navy that had been named Dunkirk, as far back as the 1650s, it held added meaning after the evacuation from Dunkirk between late May and early June 1940, in which over 300,000 British, as well as French troops, were rescued by a ragtag fleet of ships.

Dunkirk was built by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Govan. She was launched on 27 August 1945 and commissioned on 27 November 1946.

Service

In the year of her commissioning, Dunkirk joined the 4th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet.^[1] In 1950, Dunkirk was placed in Reserve, as were many of her sister ships in the 1950s. She subsequently performed a variety of duties and in 1958, while in the Mediterranean, Dunkirk, in broad daylight, was hit by her sister ship during Officer of the Watch manoeuvres off Malta, causing minor damage.

In 1961, Dunkirk, along with the cruiser and the frigate, undertook a tour of the South American continent. Instead of returning home to the UK from the deployment's culmination Dunkirk deployed to the Mediterranean to take up the duties of, a of the 7th Destroyer Squadron, based in the Mediterranean, which had experienced some engine problems and therefore had to be replaced. Dunkirk finally returned home in 1963.

Decommissioning and disposal

In 1965 Dunkirk was listed as 'reserve' and later that year was scrapped at Faslane.

Publications

• • Book: Hodges, Peter. Battle Class Destroyers. Almark Publishing. London. 1971. 0-85524-012-1.

Notes and References

1. Critchley, Mike, "British Warships Since 1945: Part 3: Destroyers", Maritime Books: Liskeard, UK, 1982., page 115-16