HMS Loch Eck (K422)

Loch Eck in October 1944
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Loch Eck
Namesake:	Loch Eck
Ordered:	25 January 1943
Builder:	Smiths Dock Company, Middlesbrough
Yard number:	1129
Laid down:	25 October 1943
Launched:	25 April 1943
Commissioned:	7 November 1944
Decommissioned:	13 August 1946
Honours and awards:	Atlantic 1945 North Sea 1945
Fate:	Sold to New Zealand, 1948
New Zealand
Name:	HMNZS Hawea
Namesake:	Lake Hawea
Acquired:	7 September 1948
Commissioned:	1 October 1948
Decommissioned:	15 February 1957
Reclassified:	Training ship in 1961
Motto:	Kia Toa ("Be brave")
Honours and awards:	Korea 1951-53
Fate:	Sold for breaking up, September 1965
General characteristics
Class and type:	Loch-class frigate
Displacement:	1,435 tons standard 2,250 tons full load
Length:	87.2 m (286 ft) p/p 93.7 m (307 ft) o/a
Beam:	11.8 m (39 ft)
Draught:	4.3 m (14 ft) full load
Propulsion:	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shafts 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion reciprocating engines 5,500 ihp (4,100 kW)
Speed:	19.5 knots (36.1 km/h)
Range:	730 tons oil fuel, 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement:	114
Armament:	1 × QF 4 inch Mark V on one single mounting HA MkIII** 4 × QF 2-pounder MkVII on 1 quad mount MkVII 2 × 40 mm Bofors A/A on 2 single mounts Mk.III Up to 8 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on single mounts MkIII 2 × Squid triple barreled A/S mortars 1 rail and 2 throwers for depth charges

HMNZS Hawea (F422), formerly HMS Loch Eck (K422), was one of six Loch-class frigates that served in both the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). The ship was laid down by Smiths Dock on 25 October 1943, launched on 25 April 1943 and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Loch Eck on 7 November 1944.

Loch Eck joined the 10th Escort Group in the Western Approaches in December 1944 for anti-submarine patrols and support for convoy escorts. In January 1945 the Group was transferred to Scapa Flow for anti-submarine operations in the Faeroes–Iceland Gap. On 3 February she sank the German submarine U-1279 north-west of Shetland with her Squid (mortar) after Hedgehog (mortar) attacks by the frigates Bayntun and Braithwaite. On 14 February she took part in the sinking of U-989, and on the 17 February of U-1278 in the same area.

In March the Group was redeployed in the English Channel and South-Western Approaches as "Force 38". In April Loch Eck carried out trials of new sonobuoy submarine detection equipment. On 23 May the ship was attached to Rosyth Command to support "Operation Doomsday", the reoccupation of Norway. On 1 June she escorted U-2529 from Kristiansund to Loch Eriboll as part of "Operation Deadlight", returning to Norway on the 6 June as part of the escort for Convoy RN1 taking King Haakon VII of Norway to Oslo.