E and F-class destroyer

Class overview
Encounter moving slowly, July 1938
Operators:	Royal Navy Royal Canadian Navy Royal Hellenic Navy Dominican Navy
Preceded by:	C and D class
Succeeded by:	G and H class
Subclasses:	E, F
Built:	1933–35
In commission:	1934–68
Completed:	18
Lost:	10
Scrapped:	8
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	1,405 long tons (1,428 t) (standard) 1,940 long tons (1,970 t) (deep load)
Length:	329 ft (100.3 m) o/a
Beam:	33 ft 3 in (10.13 m)
Draught:	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) (deep)
Installed power:	36,000 shp (26,800 kW) 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	2 × shafts; 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines
Speed:	35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph)
Range:	6,350 nmi (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	145
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC
Armament:	4 × single QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk IX guns 2 × quadruple 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) machine guns 2 × quadruple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 rack and 2 throwers
General characteristics (flotilla leaders, where different)
Displacement:	1,475–1,495 long tons (1,499–1,519 t) (standard) 2,010–2,050 long tons (2,040–2,080 t) (deep load)
Length:	343 ft (104.5 m) o/a
Beam:	33 ft 9 in (10.29 m)
Installed power:	38,000 shp (28,000 kW)
Speed:	36 kn (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Complement:	175
Armament:	5 × single QF 4.7-inch Mk IX guns

The E and F-class destroyers were a group of 18 destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. The ships were initially assigned to the Home Fleet, although they reinforced the Mediterranean Fleet during the Italian invasion of Abyssinia of 1935–36 and enforced the Non-Intervention Agreement during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. After the beginning of the Second World War in August 1939, the E-class ships were mostly assigned to escort duties under the Western Approaches Command, while the Fs were assigned to escort the ships of the Home Fleet. Between them they sank four German submarines through March 1940 while losing only one ship to a submarine.

Most of the sisters were committed to the Norwegian Campaign in April–June where they helped to sink one German destroyer and a submarine. The two E-class minelayer-destroyers helped to evacuate Allied troops from Dunkirk in May–June. Most of the Fs were sent to Gibraltar around the end of June and formed part of Force H where they participated in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir. Two months later they participated in the Battle of Dakar where they sank three Vichy French submarines. During the rest of 1940, they sank one Italian submarine while losing two ships to mines and torpedoes. Force H covered a number of convoys to Malta in 1941, during which they sank one German submarine and lost one destroyer to bombs. Three E-class ships began escorting convoys to Russia in late 1941 and three others were transferred to the Eastern Fleet.

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Wikipedia