HMS Leamington, ex-Twiggs
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History | |
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United States | |
Name: | USS Twiggs |
Namesake: | Levi Twiggs |
Builder: | New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey |
Laid down: | 23 January 1918 |
Launched: | 28 September 1918 |
Commissioned: | 28 July 1919 to |
Decommissioned: | 24 June 1922 |
Recommissioned: | 20 February 1930 |
Decommissioned: | 6 April 1937 |
Recommissioned: | 30 September 1939 |
Decommissioned: | 23 October 1940 |
Struck: | 8 January 1941 |
Identification: | DD-127 |
Fate: | Transferred to UK, 23 October 1940 |
United Kingdom | |
Name: | HMS Leamington |
Acquired: | 23 October 1940 |
Identification: | G19 |
Fate: | Transferred to USSR, 16 July 1944 |
Notes: | Transferred to Canada October 1942; returned to United Kingdom December 1943 or January 1944 |
Canada | |
Name: | Leamington |
Acquired: | October 1942 |
Honours and awards: |
Arctic 1942, Atlantic 1944-45 |
Fate: | Returned to United Kingdom, December 1943 or January 1944 |
Soviet Union | |
Name: | Zhguchi (Fiery) |
Acquired: | 16 July 1944 |
Fate: | Returned to UK, 1950 and scrapped, on 26 July 1951 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Wickes-class destroyer |
Displacement: | 1,306 long tons (1,327 t) |
Length: | 314 ft 4 in (95.81 m) |
Beam: | 30 ft 11 in (9.42 m) |
Draft: | 9 ft 9 in (2.97 m) |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 35 kn (40 mph; 65 km/h) |
Complement: | 122 officers and enlisted |
Armament: |
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The first USS Twiggs (DD–127) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for Major Levi Twiggs. She was later transferred to the Royal Navy, as HMS Leamington and to the Soviet Navy as Zhguchi, before returning to Britain to star in the film The Gift Horse, which depicts the St. Nazaire Raid.
Twiggs was laid down on 23 January 1918 at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. The ship was launched on 28 September 1918; sponsored by Miss Lillie S. Getchell, the granddaughter of Major Twiggs. Twiggs was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 28 July 1919, Commander Isaac C. Johnson, Jr., in command.
Following shakedown, the destroyer joined Destroyer Division 16 (DesDiv 16), Destroyer Squadron 4 (Desron 4), Pacific Fleet, late in October 1919 and operated out of San Diego, California, on training cruises through the spring of 1922. While performing this duty, Twiggs was classified DD-127 on 17 July 1920 during the Navy-wide assignment of alphanumeric hull numbers. A combination of factors—increased operating costs, manpower shortages, and the general anti-military climate which followed World War I—resulted in a reduction of the Navy's active Fleet. Accordingly, Twiggs was decommissioned at San Diego on 24 June 1922.