HMS Whitehall (D94)

HMS Whitehall underway in coastal waters during the Second World War sometime after her pennant number was changed from D94 to I94 in May 1940.
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Whitehall
Namesake:	Whitehall
Ordered:	January 1918
Builder:	Swan Hunter, Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	June 1918
Launched:	11 September 1919
Completed:	July 1924
Commissioned:	9 July 1924
Decommissioned:	1920s/1930s
Recommissioned:	August 1939
Decommissioned:	May 1945
Motto:	Nisi Dominici frustra ("Without my Lords [of the Admiralty] in vain")
Honours and awards:	Battle honours for: Atlantic 1939-1943 Dunkirk 1940 Arctic 1943-1945 Normandy 1944 English Channel 1944
Fate:	Sold for scrapping October 1945
Badge:	A gold fouled anchor on an escutcheon held by a silver winged seahorse, all on a blue field
General characteristics
Class and type:	Admiralty Modified W-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,140 tons standard, 1,550 tons full
Length:	300 ft o/a, 312 ft p/p
Beam:	29.5 feet (9.0 m)
Draught:	9 feet (2.7 m), 11.25 feet (3.43 m) under full load
Propulsion:	Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, 2 shafts, 27,000 shp
Speed:	34 kt
Range:	320–370 tons oil 3,500 nmi at 15 kt 900 nmi at 32 kt
Complement:	127
Sensors and processing systems:	Type 286M Air Warning Radar fitted 1940 Type 271 Surface Warning Radar fitted 1940
Armament:	As built 1920: 4 × BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns, mount P Mk.I 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) 6 × 21-inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes 1940 SRE conversion: 3 × BL 4.7 in (120mm) Mk.I L/45 guns 1 × 3 in (76 mm) AA gun 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) 3 × 21-inch Torpedo Tubes (one triple mount) 2 × depth charge racks twin 6-pounder (57-mm) gun (1942 – replaced ‘A’ gun)

HMS Whitehall, pennant number D94, later I94, was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the Second World War.

Whitehall, the first Royal Navy ship of the name, was ordered in January 1918 as part of the 13th Order of the 1918-1919 Naval Programme. She was laid down in June 1918 by Swan Hunter at Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, and launched on 11 September 1919. Work was then suspended and she was towed to Chatham Dockyard, where her fitting-out finally was completed in July 1924. She was commissioned into service on 9 July 1924 with the pennant number D94.

After entering service with the fleet in 1924, Whitehall saw limited operational use before being decommissioned for economic reasons, transferred to the Reserve Fleet, and placed in reserve.

In August 1939, Whitehall was recommissioned with a reserve crew for the Royal Review of the Reserve Fleet in Weymouth Bay by King George VI. She then remained in commission as the fleet mobilised because of deteriorating diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany, and received orders to proceed to Rosyth, Scotland, in the event of war and report for duty there with the 15th Destroyer Flotilla.