HMS Foxhound (H69)

Foxhound at sea, December 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Foxhound
Laid down:	21 August 1933
Launched:	12 October 1934
Commissioned:	6 June 1935
Decommissioned:	8 February 1944
Identification:	Pennant number: H69
Fate:	Transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy, 8 February 1944
Canada
Class and type:	Canadian River-class destroyer
Name:	Qu'Appelle
Namesake:	Qu'Appelle River
Acquired:	8 February 1944
Commissioned:	8 February 1944
Decommissioned:	26 May 1946
Fate:	Sold for scrap, December 1947
General characteristics
Class and type:	E and 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

HMS Foxhound was one of nine F-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1930s. Although she was assigned to the Home Fleet, the ship was detached as part of the Mediterranean Fleet to enforce the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. Several weeks after the start of the Second World War in September 1939, Foxhound helped to sink a German submarine and participated in the Second Battle of Narvik during the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940. The ship was sent to Gibraltar in mid-1940 and formed part of Force H where she participated in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir. Foxhound escorted the aircraft carriers of Force H as they flew off aircraft for Malta and covered convoys resupplying and reinforcing the island until late 1941. During this time the ship helped to sink another German submarine.

In December, she was briefly transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she escorted several convoys to Malta from the Eastern Mediterranean. Foxhound was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in early 1942 and was then assigned to convoy escort duties off South Africa and then in West Africa until mid-1943 when she was converted into an escort destroyer. When the conversion was completed in early 1944, the ship was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS Qu'Appelle. She was assigned escort duties in the Western Approaches for several months before the ship was transferred to the English Channel to protect convoys during the Normandy landings. Qu'Appelle engaged German surface ships several times before she was sent to Iceland for more convoy escort work in October. The ship received a lengthy refit in Canada at the end of the year that was not completed until mid-1945. Qu'Appelle then ferried Canadian troops back to Canada for several months before she became a training ship. She was placed in reserve in mid-1946 and was sold for scrap at the end of 1947.