HMS Wryneck (D21)

Wryneck with a tug on her starboard side and a hospital ship in the background. About 1940, probably at Sollum, Egypt.
History
Name:	HMS Wryneck
Namesake:	Wryneck
Ordered:	16 December 1916
Builder:	Palmers, Jarrow
Laid down:	April 1917
Launched:	13 May 1918
Completed:	11 November 1918
Motto:	Lay on
Honours and awards:	Libya 1941 Mefditerranean - Greece 1941
Fate:	Sunk by aircraft in the Aegean north of Crete, 27 April 1941
Badge:	On a Field Green a Wryneck on a branch all Proper
General characteristics
Class and type:	Admiralty W-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,100 long tons (1,118 t)
Length:	312 ft (95 m) o/a 300 ft (91 m) p/p
Beam:	26 ft 9 in (8.15 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m) standard 11 ft (3.4 m) deep
Propulsion:	3 × Yarrow-type water tube boilers Parsons steam turbines 27,000 shp (20,000 kW) 2 shafts
Speed:	34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Range:	320-370 tons oil 3,500 nmi (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) 900 nmi (1,700 km; 1,000 mi) at 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Complement:	110
Armament:	As built 4 × QF 4 in Mk.V (102mm L/45) guns, mount P Mk.I 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II "pom-pom" (40 mm L/39) anti-aircraft guns or 1 × QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun 6 (2×3) tubes for 21-inch (530 mm) torpedoes From April 1940 4 × QF 4 inch L/45 Mark XVI guns in two twin mounts HA/LA Mark XIX 2 × quadruple Mark III Vickers .50 machine guns 2 × racks and throwers for depth charges

HMS Wryneck was an Admiralty W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy, which was sunk during the Battle of Greece on 27 April 1941.

The ship was ordered on 16 December 1916 from Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company at Jarrow in the 10th Order of the 1916-17 Programme. She was laid down in April 1917, launched on 13 May 1918, and completed on the last day of the war, 11 November 1918.

After being accepted in service Wryneck took part in operations in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks. She was part of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla in the Atlantic Fleet in 1921, which was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1925 as the 1st Destroyer Flotilla.

Wryneck was put into Reserve during the economic crisis of the 1930s and laid up in Gibraltar. In 1938 she was selected for WAIR conversion to a fast escort ship at Gibraltar Dockyard. The work began in September 1939 and was not completed until March 1940. In April 1940, after sea trials, Wryneck was recommissioned for service with the new pennant number L04, and assigned to convoy defence duty based at Alexandria. In December she was detached to support military operations against the Italian army in Egypt.

In January 1941 she resumed convoy defence duties, and in March formed part of the escort of military convoys taking British and Commonwealth troops to Greece as part of "Operation Lustre". In April, with the fall of Greece, Wryneck returned to help the evacuation of Allied troops.