HMS Wrestler (1918)

HMS Wrestler (D35) was a W class destroyer launched by the Royal Navy in the latter stages of the First World War and active from 1939 to 1944 during the Second World War. She was the first Royal Navy ship to bear that name, and the only one to do so to date.

Construction
She was the tenth order in the 1916-1917 programme, ordered on 9 December 1916 from Swan Hunter. She was laid down at Wallsend during July 1917, launched on 25 February 1918 and commissioned on 15 May that year, too late to see active service in the war. In the month of Wrestler's commissioning the battleship HMS Hindustan (1903) collided with Wrestler and badly damaged her.

Service history
Her first deployment was in 1921, to the Atlantic Fleet's 5th Destroyer Flotilla, which also visited the Mediterranean in 1925. The Flotilla returned to the United Kingdom during the 1930s on the commissioning of new destroyers and Wrestler was placed in reserve. She then served as tender to the torpedo school at HMS Vernon (shore establishment) from 1938 until the month before the outbreak of the Second World War, when she was put on station at Gibraltar.

From there she joined the 13th Destroyer Flotilla to defend convoys in the early stages of the Battle of the Atlantic. During 1940 she escorted Convoy OG-22F alongside HMS Bideford (L43) and HMS Fowey (L15) through the Western Approaches on its way to Gibraltar in March. In July 1940 she was present at the attack on Mers-el-Kébir (where she rescued crews from the British-sunk FRENCH BATTLESHIP Strasbourg) then joined the destroyers HMS Faulknor (H62), HMS Foxhound (H69), HMS Fearless (H67), HMS Forester (H74), HMS Escort (H66), HMS Douglas (D90), HMS Active (H14), HMS Velox (D34), and HMS Vortigern (D37) as they screened the capital ships preparing for air attacks from HMS Ark Royal (91) on Italian targets on Cagliari in July 1940 - the operation was abandoned after the force came under heavy air attacks. Wrestler then sank the Adua class ITALIAN SUBMARINE Durbo east of Gibraltar on 18 October 1940 alongside HMS Firedrake (H79) and two flying boats.

From July 1941 to April 1942 she was stationed at Freetown and was then transferred to the Malta Convoys as part of Force H and "Operation Harpoon", before serving as one of the naval escorts for "Operation Torch". She was adopted by Hyde in December 1941 after a successful "Warship Week" National Savings campaign. She, a flying boat and HMS Wishart (D67) sank the U-boat GS U-74 (1940) east of Cartagena on 2 May 1942, then on 15 November 1942 sank GS U-98 (1940) alone. In July 1942 Wrestler also boarded the Vichy French merchantman Mitidja (intercepted off Cape Palos, Spain by HMS P222) and escorted her into Gibraltar.

Wrestler underwent reconstruction as a Long Range Escort from January to May 1943 at HM Dockyard Sheerness before taking part in "Operation Husky" off Sicily until July that year, when she returned to Atlantic and Russian convoy duties. On 6 June 1944, whilst participating in "Operation Neptune" (the naval side of D-Day), she was mined off Juno Beach and declared a constructive total loss, being sold off on 20 July as scrap.

Battle honours

 * Mediterranean 1940-42
 * Atlantic 1940-43
 * Malta Convoys 1942
 * North Africa 1943
 * Sicily 1943
 * Arctic 1943-44
 * Normandy 1944
 * English Channel 1944

Commanders

 * Lt.Cdr. Edmund Neville Vincent Currey - 21 August 1939 to 28 September 1940 (during which time he was awarded the DSC)
 * Lt. Eric Lister Jones - 28 September 1940 to 7 December 1941 (during which time he was awarded the DSC)
 * Lt. Reginald William Beecroft Lacon - 7 December 1941 to July 1944