Shoreham-class sloop

The Shoreham-class sloops were a class of eight warships of the Royal Navy built in the early 1930s.

Developed from the Bridgewater-class sloops, with a longer hull, the Shoreham-class sloops were laid down between 1929 and 1931 at Chatham and Devonport Naval Dockyards.

Ships

 * HMS Shoreham (L32) (originally L32, from May 1940 U32) was launched on 22 November 1930 at Devonport and sold for scrapping in 1946. From 1932, HMS Shoreham served in the Persian Gulf and, from the outbreak of war, in the Red Sea. She was active in the suppression of the Regia Marina in East Africa, participating in the sinking of the submarine Toricelli. Shoreham was also involved in the invasion of Iran in 1941, where she suppressed Iranian naval ships at Abadan. Apart from a spell in the Mediterranean - including the Allied invasion of Sicily - from February 1943 to September 1943, Shoreham's war was spent with the Eastern Fleet, with which she served up until VJ Day. Shoreham returned to the UK in 1946, sold off in November and broken up in 1950. Her battle honours were Sicily 1943, Mediterranean 1943, Burma 1944-45.


 * HMS Fowey (L15) was launched on 4 November 1930 and sold for merchant use in 1946. From 1940 to 1942, she was engaged in North Atlantic escort and anti-submarine duty. Fowey participated in the sinking of GERMAN SUBMARINE U-55 on 30 January 1940 and rescued survivors from various sinkings.


 * HMS Bideford (L43) was launched on 1 April 1931 and scrapped in 1949. After participating in the Dunkirk evacuation (May 1940), she was used in anti-submarine sweeps and as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic. She rescued 63 survivors of the torpedoed MV Edward Blyden on 3 September 1941 and 31 more from the MV Abosso on 31 October 1942. In August 1943, Bideford, with the 40th Escort Group in the Bay of Biscay, was damaged by a Henschel Hs 293 glider bomb.


 * HMS Rochester (L50) was launched on 16 July 1931, became a tender to the Navigation School. Scrapped in 1951. During the Battle of the Atlantic, Rochester participated in the sinking of four U-boats: GERMAN SUBMARINE U-204 on 19 October 1941, GERMAN SUBMARINE U-82 on 2 February 1942, GERMAN SUBMARINE U-213 on 30 July 1942, and GERMAN SUBMARINE U-135 on 15 July 1943.


 * HMS Falmouth (L34) was launched on 19 April 1932 and became the RNVR Calliope in 1952. Scrapped in 1968. Falmouth was assigned to the China Station (later merged into the Eastern Fleet) where she was used as the Commander-in-Chief's yacht. In 1936, her new skipper was Frederick "Johnny" Walker who later became a highly successful anti-submarine commander in the Battle of the Atlantic. In June 1940 Falmouth sank the Italian submarine Galvani off the Gulf of Oman. She participated in Operation Countenance, the invasion of Iran, in August 1941. Her role was to transport infantry to Khorramshahr and, with HMAS Yarra (U77), neutralise local Iranian land and sea forces. Her departure from the Shatt al-Arab near Basra was delayed when she ran aground and had to wait for the tide to refloat her.


 * HMS Milford (L51) was launched on 11 June 1932 and scrapped in 1949. On 28 March 1938, Milford claimed Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean for Britain. In the Second World War she sank the Vichy French submarine Poncelet off the coast of Gabon, on 8 October 1940. On 30 May 1943, she went to the assistance of the freighter Flora McDonald, torpedoed off the coast of West Africa.


 * HMS Weston (L72) was launched on 23 July 1932 and scrapped in 1947. She spent the war years in home waters and the North Atlantic. On several occasions, she rescued survivors of torpedoed ships and on 31 May 1940, Weston sank GERMAN SUBMARINE U-13 in the North Sea.


 * HMS Dundee (L84) was launched on 20 September 1932 at Chatham and sunk on 15 September 1940 by GERMAN SUBMARINE U-48, while escorting a convoy.