HMS Faulknor was the flotilla leader for the F-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. The ship had a particularly active operational role during World War II, being awarded 11 battle honours, and was known as "The hardest worked destroyer in the Fleet". She was the first ship to sink a German U-boat, took part in the Norwegian Campaign, served with Force H in the Mediterranean on the Malta Convoys, escorted convoys to Russia and across the Atlantic, and saw action during the invasions of Sicily, Italy and Normandy, and was at the liberation of the Channel Islands. She was then decommissioned and sold for scrap in late 1945.
Design and description As the flotilla leader for the F-class destroyers, Faulknor was built to the same design as , flotilla leader for the preceding s, which marked a return to building flotilla leaders to an enlarged design, the most obvious difference being the additional 4.7-inch (120 mm) gun between the funnels. Overall, she was only slightly larger than the other F-class destroyers in terms of length, beam, and draught, although she displaced an additional tons, and had a complement of 175 officers and ratings, compared to the standard F-class complement of 145.Whitley, pp. 104–105
Faulknor displaced at standard load and at deep load. The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . She was powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of . Faulknor reached a speed of during her sea trials.March, p. 296 The ship carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave her a range of at .Lenton, p. 158 When inclined, she had a metacentric height of at deep load.Smith, p. 4
The ship mounted five 4.7-inch Mark IX guns in single mounts, one superfiring pair fore and aft of the superstructure and the fifth gun between the funnels. The mounts were designated 'A', 'B', 'Q', 'X', and 'Y' in sequence from front to rear. For anti-aircraft defence, Faulknor had two quadruple Mark I mounts on the bridge wings for the 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) Vickers Mark III machine gun. She was fitted with two above-water quintuple torpedo tube mounts for torpedoes.Whitley, p. 105 One depth charge rack and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began.English, p. 141
Wartime modifications While under repair in May–June 1940, her aft bank of torpedo tubes were replaced by a QF 20 cwt"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 20 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. AA gun. The ship was modified to prepare her for Arctic weather and her depth-charge stowage was increased to 38 during her late-1941 refit. In mid-1942, 'X' gun was removed, the three-inch gun repositioned there and the aft torpedo tubes were reinstalled. The quadruple Vickers machine gun mounts were replaced by shielded single mounts for Oerlikon AA guns; another pair of Oerlikon mounts were installed on the aft superstructure. Her original low-angle rangefinder above the bridge was replaced by a new high-angle gunnery director fitted with an analog Fuze Keeping Clock (mechanical computer) and a Type 285 gunnery radar was mounted on its roof. A Type 286PQ surface-search radar was installed on the foremast; it was replaced by a Type 291 radar in March–April 1943. The three-inch gun was replaced by a quadruple mount for 2-pounder () Mk II AA guns and the single mounts on the bridge wings were replaced by twin mounts for a total of six Oerlikons.Smith, pp. 57, 114, 280
Construction and career The ship was ordered on 17 March 1933 from Yarrow Shipbuilders under the 1932 Programme, although her hull was sub-contracted to Vickers Armstrongs. She was laid down at their Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne shipyard on 31 July, and launched on 12 June 1934English, pp. 75–76 by the wife of Rear-Admiral Reginald Henderson, Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy,Smith, p. 9 as the third ship of her name.Colledge, p. 123 Faulknor was completed on 24 May 1935 at a cost of £271,886, excluding items supplied by the Admiralty such as guns, ammunition and communications equipment. Captain Marshall Clarke was her first captain, and also commander of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla (DF) of the Home Fleet.Smith, pp. 11, 13 After working up in May–July, the ship to put into Portsmouth to remedy the defects revealed from 29 July to 21 September, before she could assume her proper place with her flotilla.English, p. 76
Faulknor, together with most of the ships of her flotilla, was sent to reinforce the Mediterranean Fleet during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War; during this time, Captain Victor Hilary Danckwerts relieved Clarke in March 1936.Smith, p. 282 The ship remained there until 20 July when she began a refit at Portsmouth that lasted until 3 October. She was detached to the Mediterranean to enforce the arms embargo imposed on both sides in the Spanish Civil War by the Non-Intervention Committee during January–March 1937 and then deployed off the Spanish ports on the Bay of Biscay for another three months before returning home. Faulknor collided with the freighter off Ushant on 4 August and was under repairs at Portsmouth until 28 December. She was assigned to work with the French Navy in the Mediterranean for the first three months of 1938 before returning home. Danckwerts was relieved in his turn by Captain C. S. Daniel in April. The 6th DF was renumbered the 8th Destroyer Flotilla in April 1939, five months before the start of World War II.
World War II In September 1939, Faulknor and her 8th DF was assigned to the Home Fleet and based at Scapa Flow. In the first month of hostilities she was part of an anti-submarine hunting group centred on the aircraft carrier . On 14 September, the carrier was attacked by the . Faulknor, in company with her sister ships and , sank U-39 north-west of Ireland, rescuing most of her crew. After a pair of fishing trawlers were sunk by a submarine off the Hebrides, the 6th and 8th DFs were ordered to sweep the area on 19 September. The following day, Faulknor rescued 20 crewmen from after several of her sisters sank the submarine and then resumed their normal escort duties. A month later, the ship was damaged during heavy seas while escorting the capital ships of the Home Fleet and was repaired at Scotstoun from 15 to 28 October. Two months later, she was escorting the battleship when the latter struck a magnetic mine as they were entering Loch Ewe on 4 December. Faulknor remained there for a time in case any further mining attempts were made. In February 1940, she was one of the escorts for Convoy TC 3 carrying troops from Canada to the UK. Later that month the ship rescued 10 survivors of the torpedoed freighter on 11 February. Captain Antony de Salis assumed command of the ship and the flotilla on 19 February.Smith, pp. 24–26, 30–31, 33, 35–36
Faulknor participated in the Norwegian Campaign of April–June, screening the ships of the Home Fleet early in the campaign. After the Second Battle of Narvik on 12 April, De Salis, Captain (D) of the 8th DF and commander of Faulknor, was appointed the Senior Destroyer Officer for the Narvik area with authority over the destroyers in the area and sent them to patrol the Ofotfjord to evaluate the German defences and prevent submarines from entering. A landing party from Faulknor went ashore on 16 April to inspect the wreck of the beached to search for useful documents and to assess her condition. They found nothing and one man was killed by a sniper. The following day, Faulknor and the destroyer bombarded the German ship and set her afire. During this time, the ship was attacked by German aircraft several times to little effect. On 25 April, she helped to land part of the 2nd Battalion, the South Wales Borderers to Bogen and Lenvik. Later she provided naval gunfire support in support of the Allied advance on Narvik. On 4 May, Faulknor rescued 52 survivors from the Polish destroyer , which had been sunk by German bombers and recovered the bodies of 60 more crewmen. The next day, the ship ran aground while bombarding German defences in the Rombaksfjord, but was only lightly damaged. On the voyage home for repairs, she escorted a convoy of empty troopships. Faulknor arrived at Scapa Flow on 9 May and sailed for Grimsby for repairs.Smith, pp. 42–56
Force H The repairs were completed on 12 June and a week later, she escorted the battlecruiser and Ark Royal, together with her sisters and Foxhound and the destroyer , from Scapa Flow to Gibraltar where they formed Force H.Smith, p. 56Rohwer, p. 29 In early July, Faulknor screened the larger British ships during the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, in French Algeria. During Operation MA 5, a planned carrier attack on Italian airfields in Sardinia, the destroyer was torpedoed by the on 11 July after the attack had been cancelled due to lack of surprise.Rohwer, pp. 31–32 The torpedo blew a large hole in the ship, but the British tried to salvage her. Despite their efforts, she foundered later that morning after the destroyers and Faulknor took off the survivors.Smith, p. 61 A month later the ship was one of the escorts for Force H during Operation Hurry, a mission to fly off fighter aircraft for Malta and conduct an airstrike on Cagliari on 2 August. On 13 September, Force H rendezvoused with a convoy that was carrying troops for the capture Dakar from the Vichy French. Ten days later, they attacked Dakar, but were driven off by the Vichy French defences. In early October, Faulknor escorted a troop convoy from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to French Cameroon. She then returned to Gibraltar and escorted the aircraft carriers and Ark Royal during Operation Coat and Operation White in November.Rohwer, pp. 34, 38, 42–43, 47, 49 On 21 November, Faulknor, together with the light cruiser and Forester, intercepted the Vichy French blockade runner and escorted her to Gibraltar. The ship escorted Force F to Malta during Operation Collar later in the month and participated in the inconclusive Battle of Cape Spartivento on 27 November. The following month Faulknor covered another convoy to Malta and went to the assistance of Convoy WS 5A after it had been attacked by the German heavy cruiser .Smith, pp. 69, 77–78
In early January, she screened Force H during Operation Excess.Rohwer, pp. Later that month, Faulknor and Forester temporarily relieved some of the escorts for Convoy WS 5B bound for Egypt via the Cape of Good Hope and stayed with the convoy to Freetown. Before arriving there on 26 January, they were detached from Force H to reinforce the Freetown Escort Force. Faulknor rescued four survivors from the oil tanker on 3 February after they had been at sea for 41 days. Their stay in Freetown did not last long as they were ordered to escort Convoy SL 67 and the battleship en route back to Gibraltar in late February. The slow convoy was attacked by two U-boats that sank five ships from the convoy on 8 March, with the destroyers rescuing some of the survivors. Later that day, the German battleships and spotted the convoy, but Admiral Günther Lütjens declined to attack when Malaya was spotted. Force H rendezvoused with the convoy three days later and Faulknor and Forester arrived back in Gibraltar on 16 March. Faulknor spent most of the rest of the month refitting.Rohwer, pp. 49–50, 54, 62; Smith, p. 79–85