HMS Hambledon (L37)

HMS Hambledon during World War II.
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Hambledon
Namesake:	A fox hunt in Hampshire, England
Ordered:	21 March 1939
Builder:	Swan Hunter, Newcastle upon Tyne or Wallsend
Laid down:	8 or 9 June 1939
Launched:	12 December 1939
Completed:	8 June 1940
Commissioned:	8 June 1940
Decommissioned:	December 1945
Identification:	pennant number: L37
Honours and awards:	Battle honours for: North Sea 1941-1944 English Channel 1943 Sicily 1943 Salerno 1943 Aegean 1944 Mediterranean 1944 Normandy 1944
Fate:	Hulked for disposal 1955 Sold for scrapping August 1957 Scrapping began September 1957
Badge:	On a red field, a gold fox's mask and two gold brushes in saltire
General characteristics
Class and type:	Hunt-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,000 t standard 1,340 t full load
Length:	280 ft (85 m)
Beam:	29 ft (8.8 m)
Draught:	10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)
Propulsion:	Two x Admiralty 3 drum boilers Two shaft Parsons geared turbines 19,000 shp
Speed:	27½ kts (26 knots full)
Range:	3,500 nmi (6,480 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h) / 1,000 nmi (2,000 km) at 26 knots (48 km/h)
Complement:	146
Armament:	4 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mark XVI guns on twin mounts Mk. XIX 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk VIII AA guns on quad mount MK.VII 2 × 20-mm Oerlikon AA guns on single mounts P Mk. III 40 depth charges, 2 throwers, 1 rack

The second HMS Hambledon was a Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy in commission from 1940 to 1945. She was a member of the first subgroup of the class, and saw service through most of World War II.

Hambledon was ordered under the 1939 Naval Building Programme from Swan Hunter, Newcastle upon Tyne, on 21 March 1939. She was laid down on 8 or 9 June 1939 and launched on 12 December 1939. She was completed on 8 June 1940, and immediately commissioned, under the command of Commander Stephen Hope Carlill, RN with the pennant number L37.

Upon commissioning, Hambledon immediately began acceptance trials, which she completed successfully later in June 1940. She then proceeded to Portland for work-ups, during which she deployed with the British destroyers Atherstone, Fernie, Inglefield, and Imogen to escort the minelayers Menestheus, Port Napier, Port Quebec, and Southern Prince of the 1st Minelaying Squadron as they laid the first section of the Northern Barrage north of North Rona in Operation SN1. On 12 July 1940, increased German activity in the English Channel prompted the Royal Navy to transfer her work-ups north to Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, and she completed them there later in July 1940 and was assigned to a flotilla based at Sheerness, charged with patrol and convoy defence duties in the English Channel and along the east coast of Great Britain. On 31 August 1940 she and her sister ship Garth rendered assistance to Royal Navy ships that had struck mines in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands, rescuing the survivors of the sunken destroyer Esk and standing by the badly damaged destroyer Express, which had lost her bow in a mine explosion, until tugs arrived to tow her to safety.

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