HMS Duncan (D99)

Duncan in March 1943
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Duncan
Namesake:	Admiral Adam Duncan
Ordered:	2 February 1931
Builder:	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down:	3 September 1931
Launched:	7 July 1932
Commissioned:	5 April 1933
Decommissioned:	May 1945
Motto:	Secundis dubusque rectus ("Upright in prosperity and peril")
Honours and awards:	Spartivento (1940), Malta Convoys (1941), Mediterranean (1941), Atlantic (1941–45), Diego Suarez (1942)
Fate:	Sold for scrap in September 1945
Badge:	On a Field Red, a hunting horn Silver
General characteristics
Class and type:	D-class flotilla leader
Displacement:	1,400 long tons (1,400 t)
Length:	329 ft (100.3 m)
Beam:	33 ft (10.1 m)
Draught:	12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Installed power:	36,000 shp (27,000 kW) 3 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	2 × shafts 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range:	5,870 nmi (10,870 km; 6,760 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	175
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC
Armament:	4 × single QF 4.7-inch Mark IX guns 1 × 12-pounder (3 in (76.2 mm)) anti-aircraft (AA) gun 2 × single QF 2-pounder Mk II AA guns 2 × quadruple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 rail and 2 throwers

HMS Duncan was a D-class destroyer leader built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she was transferred to the China Station in early 1935 where she remained until mid-1939. Duncan returned to the Mediterranean Fleet just after World War II began in September 1939. She was transferred to the Home Fleet in December 1939, although she was badly damaged in a collision the following month, and required repairs that lasted until July 1940. The ship joined Force H at Gibraltar in October, escorting the larger ships and various convoys until March 1941 when she was transferred to West Africa for convoy escort duties for a few months. Duncan rejoined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla at Gibraltar in July and escorted several convoys to Malta during the rest of the year. After a refit, she briefly returned to the 13th Destroyer Flotilla before joining the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean to participate in Operation Ironclad in May 1942. The ship was recalled home to be converted into an escort destroyer in late 1942.

Duncan was assigned to Escort Group B-7 in the North Atlantic after her conversion was complete in May 1943. She escorted a number of convoys before she required a lengthy refit from November to May 1944. She helped to sink two German submarines in October 1943. The ship was assigned to anti-submarine duties in the Western Approaches after her refit was finished in May 1944, and Duncan remained there until April 1945. At that time she was transferred to coastal anti-submarine patrols to counter any last-gasp effort by the Kriegsmarine to interfere with the Allied supply lines to the Continent. Placed in reserve the following month, Duncan was in bad shape and was sold for scrap later that year. The demolition, however, was not completed until 1949.