HMS Forester (H74)

History
Forester in 1942
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Forester
Builder:	J. Samuel White, Cowes
Cost:	£248,898
Laid down:	15 May 1933
Launched:	28 June 1934
Completed:	19 April 1935
Commissioned:	29 March 1935
Decommissioned:	September 1945
Identification:	Pennant number: H74
Fate:	Sold for scrap, January 1946
General characteristics
Class and type:	F-class 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

Service record
Part of	4th Destroyer Flotilla 8th Destroyer Flotilla 1st Canadian Escort Group 115th Escort Group
Operations	2nd Battle of Narvik Attack on Mers-el-Kébir Malta Convoys Battle of Cape Spartivento Normandy landings
Victories	U-27 (20 September 1939) U-138 (18 June 1941) U-845 (10 March 1944) U-413 (20 August 1944)

HMS Forester was one of nine F-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the early 1930s. Although assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion, the ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–36 during the Abyssinia Crisis. A few weeks after the start of World War II in September 1939, she helped to sink one German submarine and then participated in the Second Battle of Narvik during the Norwegian Campaign of 1940. Forester was sent to Gibraltar in mid-1940 and formed part of Force H where she participated in the attack on the Vichy French ships at Mers-el-Kébir and the Battle of Dakar between escorting the aircraft carriers of Force H as they flew off aircraft for Malta and covering convoys resupplying and reinforcing the island until late 1941. During this time the ship helped to sink another German submarine.

Converted into an escort destroyer midway through the war, Forester was assigned to escort convoys to Russia for the next year and a half and then in the North Atlantic until mid-1944. The ship helped to sink another German submarine before she was transferred to the English Channel to protect convoys during the Normandy landings. Forester assisted in sinking a German submarine before returning to the North Atlantic for a few months. The ship was under repair for the first half of 1945 and was then reduced to reserve in November before being scrapped in early 1946.

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Wikipedia