HMS Rotherham
{{short description|Destroyer of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|INS Rajput}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= HMS Rotherham 1942 IWM FL 10240.jpg |Ship caption=Rotherham on completion, September 1942 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Ship name=HMS Rotherham |Ship namesake=Captain Edward Rotheram |Ship ordered=2 April 1940 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=John Brown & Company, Clydebank |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=10 April 1941 |Ship launched=21 March 1942 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed=27 August 1942 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=August 1942 |Ship decommissioned=1945 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=Pennant number: H09 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours=*Battle honours:
|Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sold to India, 1948; Scrapped, 1976 |Ship notes= |Ship badge=On a Field Blue, a stag trippant Gold between a wreath of oak also Gold }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=India |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|India|naval-1950}} |Ship name=INS Rajput |Ship namesake=Rajput |Ship acquired=1948 |Ship commissioned=27 July 1949 |Ship decommissioned= 1976 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=D141 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= Scrapped |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption={{cite book|last=Lenton|first=H.T|title=British and Empire Warships of the Second World War|publisher=Greenhill Books|isbn=1-85367-277-7}} |Ship class= R-class destroyer |Ship displacement=*{{convert|1705|LT|t|0|lk=in|abbr=on}} light
|Ship length= {{convert|358|ft|3|in|m|1|abbr=on}} o/a |Ship beam= {{convert|35|ft|9|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= {{convert|9|ft|6|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=*2 × Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers
|Ship speed={{convert|36|kn}} |Ship range={{convert|4675|nmi|km|abbr=on}} at {{convert|20|kn|abbr=on}} |Ship complement=237 |Ship sensors=*Type 290 air warning radar |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*4 × QF 4.7 inch (120 mm) Mk.IX guns, single mounts CP Mk.XVIII
|Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS Rotherham was an R-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy during the Second World War, named after Captain Edward Rotheram, who commanded {{HMS|Royal Sovereign|1786|6}} during at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Rotherham was completed in 1942 and equipped as a flotilla leader, having slightly reduced armament to allow for the increased complement and working space required. Decommissioned in 1945, the ship was sold to India in 1948, serving as INS Rajput (D141) until 1976, when she was scrapped.{{cite web| url=http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-52R-Rotherham.htm| title=HMS Rotherham, destroyer| author=Lt.Cdr. Geoffrey B. Mason RN | year=2003| work=Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War II| location=naval-history.net
| access-date=14 April 2010}}
Royal Navy service
=World War II=
Rotherham was commissioned for service, after completing her sea trials, in August 1942. After a period of training at Scapa Flow, she was assigned to serve in the South Atlantic, operating as convoy escort between Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Cape Town and Durban, South Africa for the rest of the year.
From February 1944 Rotherham was deployed in the Indian Ocean, and in April joined the Eastern Fleet to take part in series of offensive operations against the Japanese in Sumatra and Java, and the Indian nationalist Azad Hind in the Andaman Islands, acting as an escort to aircraft carriers and battleships. In October 1944 Rotherham sailed to Simon's Town to refit.
In early 1945 Rotherham was deployed intercepting Japanese ships supplying stores and carrying personnel to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as well as providing support for military operations in Burma. In February, along with her sister ships {{HMS|Rapid|H32|2}}, {{HMS|Rocket|H92|2}}, and {{HMS|Roebuck|H95|2}}, she carried out a bombardment of Great Coco Island, in which more than a thousand 4.7 inch shells were fired by the four ships. Further anti-shipping and shore bombardments followed, and in April she provided cover for Allied landings near Rangoon during "Operation Dracula". Escort duties continued until the Japanese surrender on 15 August.
=Post-war operations=
Rotherham was then deployed in "Operation Zipper", the British liberation of Penang, and in early September, as part of "Operation Tiderace", escorted a fleet led by the cruiser {{HMS|Sussex|96|2}} to Singapore to take the surrender of the 77,000 Japanese there. Rotherham{{'}}s commander personally accepted the surrender of 34,000 personnel of the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Singapore Naval Dockyard at Sembawang, and in commemoration the main entrance was renamed the "Rotherham Gate". The ship remained at Singapore until 27 September 1945, when she sailed to Trincomalee, leaving there on 2 October for Portsmouth, where she was decommissioned and put into the Reserve.
Indian Navy service
Rotherham was sold to India in 1948, and formally transferred to the Indian Navy on 27 July 1949 as INS Rajput (D141).Critchley, Mike, "British Warships Since 1945: Part 3: Destroyers", Maritime Books: Liskeard, UK, 1982. {{ISBN|0-9506323-9-2}}, page 50 She saw active service during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. India maintains that the Rajput was responsible for sinking the Pakistan Navy submarine {{Ship|PNS|Ghazi||2}}, though Pakistan contests this, contending that the submarine was sunk by the accidental detonation of one or more of the laid or about-to-be-laid mines the ship was carrying.
Rajput remained an active fleet unit until 1976 when she was placed on the Disposal List and then scrapped.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich, UK|year=1980|isbn=0-85177-146-7}}
- {{Cite Colledge2006}}
- {{cite book|last=English|first=John|title=Obdurate to Daring: British Fleet Destroyers 1941–45|publisher=World Ship Society|location=Windsor, UK|year=2001|isbn=978-0-9560769-0-8}}
- {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|date=2006|isbn=1-86176-137-6|author-link=Norman Friedman}}
- {{cite book|last=Lenton|first=H. T.|author-link=Henry Trevor Lenton|title=British & Empire Warships of the Second World War|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=1998|isbn=1-55750-048-7}}
- {{cite book|last=Raven|first=Alan|last2=Roberts|first2=John |title=War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes|publisher=Bivouac Books|location=London|year=1978|isbn=0-85680-010-4|name-list-style=amp}}
- {{cite book|last=Rohwer|first=Jürgen|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2005|edition=Third Revised|isbn=1-59114-119-2|author-link=Jürgen Rohwer}}
- {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War 2|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=1988|isbn=0-87021-326-1|location=Annapolis, Maryland|author-link=Michael J. Whitley}}
{{Q and R class destroyer}}
{{Destroyers_of_the_Indian_Navy}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotherham (H09)}}
Category:Q and R-class destroyers of the Royal Navy
Category:Ships built on the River Tyne