British Destroyer Losses in WW II

Author

Hill, Roger, DSq DSC, Lieut Cdr, RN (Ret.)

Subjects

Ship histories and stories, WWII operations, History - WW2

Tags

Royal Navy, Ship losses

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

March 1990 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

In addition to these 132 ships a further 14 British destroyers were sunk while on loan to Commonwealth or Foreign Navies. These were (with their foreign names in brackets):

• Crescent (Fraser, RCN),
• Diana (Margaree, RCN),
• Waterhen (RAN),
• Bath (Norwegian),
• Vampire (RAN),
• Nestor (RAN),
• Oakley (Kujawiak, Polish),
• Crusader (Ottawa, RCN),
• Voyager (RAN)
• Eskdale (Norwegian),
• Myrmidon (Orkan, Polish),
• Shark (Svenner, Norwegian),
• Churchill (Deiatelnyi, Russian),
• Haldon (La Combattante, Free French).

The Canadians also lost their own Skeena and Athabaskan.

It should be remembered that for every destroyer sunk two or three more were badly damaged in action, and moreover that losses almost equalled the entire strength of the destroyer service on outbreak of the war.