HMS Wager (R98)

HMS Wager on completion, 1944 (IWM)
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Wager
Ordered:	December 1941
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Laid down:	20 November 1942
Launched:	1 November 1943
Commissioned:	14 April 1944
Out of service:	Sold to Yugoslavia in October 1956
Identification:	Pennant number: R98 later changed to D298
Motto:	Spensione provoco - I challenge with a wager
Honours and awards:	Okinawa 1945
Badge:	On a Field White, a cross Blue charged with five bessants within a horseshoe inverted Red.
History
Yugoslavia
Name:	Pula
Acquired:	October 1956
Fate:	Decommissioned in 1971 and sold for scrapping
Notes:	Pennant number: R22
General characteristics
Class and type:	W-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,710 tons (1,730 tonnes) 2,530 tons full (2,570 tonnes)
Length:	362.75 ft (110.57 m) o/a
Beam:	35.75 ft (10.90 m)
Draught:	10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion:	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp (30 MW), 2 shafts
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h) / 32 knots (59 km/h) full
Range:	4,675 nmi (8,658 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	225
Sensors and processing systems:	Radar Type 272 target indication Radar Type 291 air warning Radar Type 285 fire control on director Mk.III(W) Radar Type 282 fire control on 40 mm mount Mk.IV
Armament:	4 × QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk.IX guns on single mounts CP Mk.XXII 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk.VIII guns on quad mount Mk.VII 4 × A/A mountings; twin 20 mm Oerlikon Mk.V single Bofors 40-mm Mk.III guns single QF 2 pdr Mk.XVI 8 (4x2) tubes for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes Mk.IX 2 racks & 4 throwers for 70 depth charges

HMS Wager was a W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War. She was sold to the Yugoslav Navy in 1956, renamed Pula, and scrapped in 1971.

Wager was ordered in December 1941 and was laid down at the Clydebank yards of John Brown and Company. She was launched on 1 November 1943 and commissioned into service on 14 April 1944.

On commissioning and work up Wager was assigned to the 27th Destroyer Flotilla and was initially deployed for screening ships of the Home Fleet. She spent July 1944 under refit and sailed in August to join the Eastern Fleet at Ceylon. Her role was to screen major fleet units including the aircraft carrier Indomitable.

Wager took part in further screening operations in January, covering fleet units for Operation Meridian, before sailing for Fremantle at the end of the month with the ships of Force 63. They arrived on 4 February, before transferring to Sydney, where they carried out exercises with elements of the US Navy. They sailed on 28 February to join the British Pacific Fleet at its forward base at Manus, in the Admiralty Islands. The force, designated Task Force 113 carried out screening duties throughout March, before being assigned to the United States Fifth Fleet on 22 March. Wager remained on station throughout April, before sailing for the US Forward-base at Leyte, arriving there on 20 April.