HMS Haydon

HMS Haydon was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was a member of the third subgroup of the class, and saw service in the Second World War. Most of the ships of this class were named after British fox hunts. She was the first Royal Navy warship to bear this name, after the Haydon hunt in Northumberland.[1] In 1942 she was adopted by the civil community of Wallsend in Northumberland, as part of Warship Week.

Haydon underway, c. 1943
History
United Kingdom
Name: Haydon
Ordered: 23 August 1940
Builder: Vickers-Armstrongs, Newcastle
Laid down: 1 May 1941
Launched: 2 April 1942
Completed: 24 October 1942
Honours and
awards:
  • Sicily 1943
  • Salerno 1943
  • Aegean 1943
  • South France 1944
  • North Sea 1945
Fate: Scrapped in 1958
Badge: On a Field paly of eight, Gold and Red, a fox's mask White, holding in the mouth a bugle horn stringed also white.
General characteristics
Class and type: Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement:
  • 1,050 long tons (1,070 t) standard
  • 1,435 long tons (1,458 t) full load
Length: 85.3 m (279 ft 10 in) o/a
Beam: 10.16 m (33 ft 4 in)
Draught: 3.51 m (11 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:
Speed:
  • 27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h)
  • 25.5 kn (29.3 mph; 47.2 km/h) full
Range: 2,350 nmi (4,350 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h)
Complement: 168
Armament:

Service history

On commissioning Haydon was allocated to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, serving as an escort for Atlantic Convoys. In 1943 she transferred to the Mediterranean and was part of the Naval force in support of the allied landings in Sicily. In 1944 she served mostly in the Mediterranean and was part of the escort force nominated for the landings in Southern France, and then returned to Atlantic convoy escort work.

In 1945 she returned to service in the Mediterranean as part of the 3rd Escort Flotilla. She continued service in Malta until July 1947 when she was badly damaged by fire and after repair was withdrawn from service. She was then paid-off and placed in Reserve at Chatham in late 1947. She then entered the Reserve Fleet after further refit. She was the laid-up at Sheerness for a year and transferred to Hartlepool in 1948 and later her equipment was preserved. The ship was laid-up in the Reserve Fleet Division at Hartlepool until approval was given for her to be placed on the Disposal List in March 1958. Sold to BISCO on 17 May that year for demolition Clayton & Davie the ship arrived at Dunston-on-Tyne in tow on 18 May 1958.[2]

References
  1. Smith, Gordon (2011). "HMS Haydon, escort destroyer". naval-history.net. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  2. Critchley, Mike, "British Warships Since 1945: Part 3: Destroyers", Maritime Books: Liskeard, UK, 1982. ISBN 0-9506323-9-2, page 42

Sources
  • Colledge, J. J. & Warlow, Ben, Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present, Newbury, 2010
  • English, John, The Hunts – A history of the design, development and careers of the 86 destroyers of this class built for the Royal and Allied Navies during World War II, Cumbria, 1987 (World Ship Society)
  • Whitley, M. J., Destroyers of World War Two – an international encyclopedia, London, 1988
  • Gardiner, Robert (ed.), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946, London, 1987


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