HMS Loch Fada (K390)

Loch Fada after modernisation - note twin main gun and F390 pennant
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Loch Fada
Namesake:	Loch Fada, Colonsay
Ordered:	19 January 1943
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland
Yard number:	6147
Laid down:	8 June 1943
Launched:	14 December 1943
Completed:	10 April 1944
Commissioned:	April 1944
Decommissioned:	April 1952
Recommissioned:	June 1955
Decommissioned:	October 1967
Identification:	pennant number K390/F390
Honours and awards:	Normandy 1944 English Channel 1945 Atlantic 1945
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 1970
General characteristics
Class and type:	Loch-class frigate
Displacement:	1,435 long tons (1,458 t)
Length:	307 ft 9 in (93.80 m)
Beam:	38 ft 9 in (11.81 m)
Draught:	8 ft 9 in (2.67 m)
Propulsion:	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shafts 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion reciprocating engines, 5,500 hp (4,100 kW)
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Range:	9,500 nmi (17,600 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	114
Armament:	1 × QF 4 inch Mark V on 1 single mounting HA Mk.III** 4 × QF 2-pounder Mk.VII on 1 quad mount Mk.VII 4 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on 2 twin mounts Mk.V (or 2 × 40 mm Bofors A/A on 2 single mounts Mk.III) Up to 8 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on single mounts Mk.III 2 × Squid triple barreled A/S mortars 1 rail and 2 throwers for depth charges

HMS Loch Fada was the lead ship of the Loch-class frigates of the British Royal Navy, built by John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Scotland, and named after Loch Fada in the Inner Hebrides.

The ship was laid down on 8 June 1943, launched on 14 December, and commissioned in April 1944. She was attached to Captain Johnny Walker's 2nd Escort Group which was detailed to guard the Western Approaches of the British Isles. After the war she was attached to the Londonderry Flotilla until 1952.

Recommissioned in 1955, she operated in the Persian Gulf. After a period of fishery protection after the first "Cod War" between Great Britain and Iceland she served in the Far East from 1962, and supported operations during the Indonesian Confrontation. After decommissioning in 1969 she was used as a testbed in the development of Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles, and was finally scrapped in 1970.

Commissioned in April 1944 Loch Fada joined the 2nd Escort Group at Plymouth in June after sea trials, and was deployed with the Group in anti-submarine operations during the Normandy Landings ("Operation Neptune"). She took part in the sinking of the German submarine U-333 on 31 July, and also of U-736 and U-385 in early August. The Group was then released from anti-submarine operations and transferred to Derry to support of convoy defence in the North-West Approaches for the rest of the year.